El Obispo no es Ancestro

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Jose has always wanted to come to Trujillo and finally, we’ve made it. The reason for Jose’s interest is that Trujillo is the place that the immigrant ancestor Juan Madalengoytia Sagastiechea first arrived from Vizcaya in the mid 1700s and the last few clues to his family tree are hidden here. It is known that Juan had three sons Jose Higinio (bishop of Trujillo), Pablo, and Pedro (another priest), so we have to come from one of them or were there other sons? This past November sitting at the bar at one of our favorite restaurants the conversation goes like this:
Chris: What do you want for your birthday?
Jose: Two days of genealogical research in Trujillo.
Chris: OK, but do I have to go? Can't I just go to the spa while you do research?
We flew in from Lima on StarPeru in the evening avoiding the gringo tax of Lan. It’s actually a double gringo tax since if you try to buy a ticket on Lan online from the US you get quoted a different price than if you were online in Peru (Jose actually tried the experiment with his cousin Rafo in Lima, they both tried to purchase a ticket to Trujillo at the same time, for the same dates and times and the US quote was higher). We tried the same experiment with StarPeru and both prices matched. Jose’s cousin Carlos and his son Gerardo picked us up at the airport and brought us to the Hotel Libertador which is located on the Plaza de Armas. First impressions of the Plaza de Armas were fantastic. The colonial houses with their bright colors are really picturesque. The dramatic lighting of the buildings in the plaza also did not hurt (too bad we didn’t bring a tripod to take some evening pictures). We dropped off our bags in our room and met Carlos and Gerardo in the hotel’s restaurant where we got caught up and had some coffee before going to bed.
Carlos met us in the morning and we walked the half block to the Archbishop’s palace. A couple of weeks ago, Carlos had submitted a letter from me asking to do research in the Archive that of course has the parish registers and was told that no one was allowed access to the Archive, but that they would do the search that I wanted. Well, we asked if we could see the priest in charge and after waiting for 40 minutes, we got in. I offered the priest a photograph of a painting of the bishop that has been in the family as well the bishop’s genealogy in Vizcaya (going back to ~1560). He was quite polite, and assured us that the search would be done and it would be done thoroughly, but no, we could not have access to the parish registers. We next walked to the regional archive (that has the legal documents) and again presented a letter asking to do research along with the photo of the bishop and his genealogy in Vizacaya. The director of the archive brought us into his office and said that the family was an important family in Trujillo and that he would let us do research and to come back the next day and that they opened at 8:30 AM. Hewww, we were in!
After that we went to Huanchaco where we were going to meet Carlos’ wife Eva for lunch. Carlos drove us around Huanchaco showing us the narrow streets in the older part of town and then took us up to the church on top of the hill for the nice panoramic view. For lunch we went to Big Ben where we met Eva. We had a table on the top floor that is open, but shaded with has ocean views. For starters, Chris had the causa de cangrejo, crab layered in between mashed potatoes with aji amarillo, lime juice and red onions. To say that it was ethereal would be an understatement. Jose had coctel de camarones which was really tasty. For our main dishes, Chris had the camarones al ajillo, really, really nice; and Jose had a fantastic cebiche. We returned to Trujillo took a stroll down Avenida Pizarro and stopped off at a couple of the casonas (large houses). The first was the Casa de la Emancipacion; so named because this is where the more radical of Trujillo’s citizen’s declared independence from Spain. It used to be called the Casa Madalengoytia because the bishop Jose Higino and his brother Pedro rented part of the house from the Urquiaga owners, but it did not belong to the Madalengoytias. OK, can you say money? The owners of this house must have been seriously wealthy. The second house was the Palacio Iturregui, designed in the neoclassical style it was also quite grand (there is a small fortune in the iron works that cover the windows alone). From there we walked down to the Plazuela el Recreo. At the far end of this Plazuela you can still see one of the ancient city gates when Trujillo was walled as added security from pirates. In this little Plaza you also find a fountain that had originally been in the main Plaza. As it turns out, the fountain was donated to the city of Trujillo by Pedro Madalengoytia. On the way back to the hotel it started to rain and we got thoroughly soaked which Chris did not enjoy in the least.
It was still raining in the morning and the streets had massive amounts of water. Since Trujillo is in the desert and it usually does not rain, the city doesn’t have a way do deal with rain such that the streets just get flooded. Nevertheless, we literally crossed the street to the regional archive and… it was closed. We checked several times throughout the morning and finally they opened around noon. Since Carlos was scheduled to pick us up at 1:00 to go have lunch at his house in Huanchaco, we didn’t have much time, but we could see why the archive was closed… Well, all the stacks were covered with plastic, there was water on the floor and you could see stains on the walls where the water had just run down from the roof. I guess the old building has a really leaky roof, not the best place to store a treasure of old documents. We looked in a catalog of last wills from the 1800s and saw wills listed for Jose Higinio, Pedro, and Pablo Madalengoytia (the three sons of the immigrant ancestor). Unfortunately, there was no will listed for Jose’s great great grandfather Rudecindo Madalengoytia. Some years ago Rafael Flores, a distant cousin, of Jose’s had passed him copies of the last wills of Jose Higinio and Pedro and there was nothing in there about his great great grandfather so the last hope of finding anything was in the will of Pablo. As old documents go, it was pretty easy to read. In it, Pablo said that he had two legitimate heirs, his children Juan and Francisca. Well, in page 8 he finally declares that prior to being married he had a son Rudecindo Madalengoytia and that since he had fed him and raised him according to his values, he had no right to any of his possessions. OK, bittersweet victory if there ever was one. This was the last piece of Jose’s family tree (in total there are 12 generations going back to ~1560), but the fact that Jose’s gg grandfather was essentially cast aside left him sad to say the least. At last, we also learned that although the painting of the bishop Jose Higinio had been in the family for generations we were not descended from him. No disrespect is meant towards him, but since we didn't know exactly how we were related to him, some relatives had suggested that we were descended from him when we are clearly not. We left the archive and met Carlos who was as surprised as we were that in less than an hour’s worth of research we had gotten the last missing piece.
Eva fixed a fantastic lunch with fried yuca with a huacatay dipping sauce. She also fixed a fantastic sesina shilpida (she is Cajamarquina after all). Her parents were there and it was great to meet them. After all, it was a nice relaxed afternoon. Late in the afternoon we swung by the Panteon de Trujillo (i.e. the cemetery) to see what we could find. Well, there weren’t that many relatives buried in the old part. We found Pedro Madalengoytia, but we didn’t find his brothers Jose Higinio and Pablo although both their last wills stated that they wanted to be buried there, but then again a lot of tombstones were missing. We also found a Paula Madalengoytia, but didn’t know who she was (Pedro mentions his niece Paula in his will, but whose daugher is she? She isn’t Pablo’s).
The following morning Jose went back to the archive and was able to find the last will of the immigrant ancestor Juan Madalengoytia Sagastiechea dated 1782. It was really amazing to examine the original document and feel the connection with the ancestor who came from Vizcaya. It was also sad as the immigrant ancestor was 42 years old and from the way the last will is written, it was clear that he knew he was going to die while his wife was pregnant with the last of his children, whom we now new was Jose’s ggg grandfather Pablo. I doubt as he lay dying that he’d imagine that in the future he would have hundreds of descendants. It’s a shame only a handful of people are aware of him. The rest of the morning we went to see a couple more of the nearby casonas. La casa Calonge Urquiaga is on the Plaza de Armas and is not easy to miss due to its vivid blue color (not to be confused with the archbishop’s palace that is the same color). This is the house that Simon Bolivar (the George Washington of South America) used as is his headquarters during the fight for Peruvian independence. We also saw the casa Orbegoso that was per se less sumptuous and a little bit more rustic, but still an interesting insight into colonial architecture.
We met Carlos at the hotel and we went to the Huaca de la Luna. This is an amazing structure made of mud bricks by the Moche people and built up over centuries. One of the most fascinating aspects of the Huaca de la Luna is that some of the murals that covered the outside are still visible. The architecture is definitely awe-inspiring and you can tell it was meant to be ceremonial. As the guide told the story, an archaeologist from the University of Trujillo was having a picnic with some of his students on the site and he climbed to the top of the Huaca. He brushed away some sand and found a part of a wall with some paint still visible and this started the whole current excavation and restoration. It’s funny that Peru has always had these Huacas; essentially mounds that are obviously man-made and it never occurred to anyone to excavate them. For example, the Huaca Pucllana in Miraflores was just a mound sitting there while Lima got built up around it and kids would play on it (Jose’s cousins would fly kites from the top) and finally they start digging and find this amazing mud-brick structure. From the Huaca de la Luna, you can also see the much larger Huaca del Sol that is as of yet also unexcavated and between the two structures nearly completely buried in the sand is the residential area. There is so much work yet to be done on this site. After this we went to eat at the picanteria (rustic restaurant) El Camote in the town Moche where we had another fantastic meal. This is certainly not where the tourists go.
For our last day in Trujillo, we finally made it to Chan Chan. It was funny that flying down to Peru Chan Chan was on the cover of the Continental Airlines Magazine with the caption “What to do in Peru now that Machu Picchu is closed”. We had actually planned on going earlier, but it had been closed because of the rain. Chan Chan is an amazingly large city made of adobe by the Chimu people (who came after the Moche). Most of it has not been excavated or restored, but the small part that has is truly amazing. We had no idea that walls that high could be constructed out of adobe. The ceremonial plazas had a great sense of space.
Before going to lunch, Carlos and Jose went to visit their uncle and aunt Lucho and Margoth. We had actually never met them before and it was really nice to get to talk with them spend some time. Uncle Lucho offered to take us out for cuy. Yes, guinea pig, our families are from the mountains after all. To bad we were leaving. For lunch we went pack to Big Ben in Huanchaco since we had liked it so much the first time and had another fantastic meal. We had been told prior to coming here that the food in northern Peru is really good and we were not disappointed in the least. We are forever indebted to Carlos who was a fantastic host during our visit. I hope he an Eva come to visit so we can show him the same hospitality. We would certainly come back to Trujillo as there is much more to see and do.

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Photos

Carlos y Eva
Great view, cebiche, pisco sours and family. Doesn't get much better than this.

Huanchaco
Ubiquitous caballitos de totora.

Plazuela el Recreo
Fountain originally in the Plaza de Armas donated to the city of Trujillo by Pedro Madalengoytia.

Comments

[rafael flores jimeno]

Buena Jose
saludos y felicitaciones por el escrito de tu visita. Me alegro que le gustara a tu esposa. Como va la bebe y heredera. Rafael flores Jimeno