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Bernardo de Miera y Pacheco
Bernardo de Miera y Pacheco
Born	Bernardo de Miera y Pacheco; 4 August 1713; Valle de Carriedo of Cantabria, Spain
Died	April 1785 (aged 71); Santa Fe, New Mexico
Nationality	Spanish
Occupation	cartographer
Children	2 sons
Signature

Bernardo de Miera y Pacheco (4 August 1713 – 4^[1] or 11^[2] April 1785) was "perhaps the most prolific and important cartographer of New Spain"^[3] as well as an artist, particularly as a Santero (wood-carver of religious images).^[4] He has been called a polymath, being "proficient in astronomy, cartography, mathematics, geography, geology, geometry, military tactics, commerce, husbandry, oenology, metallurgy, languages, iconology, iconography, liturgy, painting, sculpture and drawing."^[5]

Biography

Miera was born in the Valle de Carriedo of Cantabria,^[2] Spain. The son of a captain of the Cantabrian Cavalry, he was trained as a military engineer.^[2]

Like many others, he emigrated to New Spain (in North and Central America). On 20 May 1741, he married Maria Estefania Domínguez de Mendoza in Chihuahua.^[2] They had two sons, Anacléto (Cléto) and Manuel.^[2] In 1743, the family settled in El Paso.^[6]

A man of many talents, he was variously a merchant, a debt collector, a rancher and a military officer.^[4] In the latter capacity, he served in five military campaigns.^[3] In 1747, Captain Miera led a military detachment accompanying Padre Juan Menchero on the latter's attempt to convert the Navajo and resettle them around Mount Taylor^[3] (formerly Ceboletta^[2]).

Though Menchero was unsuccessful, Miera produced the first map of the territory they traversed.^[2] In 1749, he mapped the Rio Grande from El Paso downstream to its junction with the Rio Conchos.^[2]^[4]

He was also a painter and carver. Some of his works survive in churches and museums; the Church of Cristo Rey in Santa Fe has "his masterpiece, the Castrense altar screen".^[4]

In 1754^[4] or 1756,^[6] he moved his family to Santa Fe. He was appointed alcalde of the pueblos of Pecos and Galisteo^[2]^[3] and participated in three campaigns against the Comanches.^[6]

Map of New Mexico, 1760, drawn by Miera y Pacheco and dedicated to Marín del Valle

When the Viceroy of New Spain ordered his northern governors to produce maps of their territories,^[6] Francisco Antonio Marín del Valle, Governor and Captain General of New Mexico, turned to Miera.^[2]^[3]^[6] They went out into the field on this endeavor from late June to 1 December 1757.^[6] The influential map was completed by April 1758.^[3]^[6] Miera went on to make at least two other maps for Marín.^[6]

Miera was granted a league of land (about 4428 acres or 1792 hectares) around Ceboletta, which was subsequently reduced to 4107 acres or 1662 hectares.^[2]

He also served as cartographer for the 1776 Domínguez–Escalante expedition. Miera was often at odds with the other leaders of the group, and was also frequently ill.^[1] The expedition failed in its goal of finding a route north to Monterey, but Miera produced maps that were invaluable to subsequent explorers.^[2]

In 1779, Miera accompanied Governor of New Mexico Juan Bautista de Anza on a punitive expedition against the Comanches, who had been raiding Taos.^[2] As a result, he drew perhaps his last map, covering an area centered on the Rio Grande from Santa Fe up to the Arkansas River.^[2]

On 4 or 11 April 1785, Bernardo de Miera y Pacheco died in Santa Fe.^[2] His wife, Estefania, had died less than a year and a half earlier, also in Santa Fe.^[1]

Legacy

His maps were examined by Alexander von Humboldt in 1803 to help prepare his own maps.^[2] Humboldt in turn shared the information with American President Thomas Jefferson a year later, and Miera's work was copied by American mapmakers.^[2] The original of his 1758 map disappeared some time after 1930 in Mexico City, but a copy was made in the 1970s from photographs of it.^[1]

References

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d "Bernardo de Miera y Pacheco". New Mexico Office of the State Historian. Retrieved 16 November 2013.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j ^k ^l ^m ⁿ ^o ^p ^q Fred Roeder. "Bernardo de Miera y Pacheco". The American Surveyor. Archived from the original on 19 April 2015. Retrieved 3 November 2013.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f "Map which Don Francisco Antonio Marín del Valle, Governor and Captain General of this kingdom of New Mexico, ordered drawn : 1758, Atlas of Historic New Mexico Maps". New Mexico Humanities Council. Archived from the original on 6 August 2013. Retrieved 3 November 2013.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e "Museum of Spanish Colonial Arts Showcases 18th Century Santero and Cartographer". SantaFe.com. Archived from the original on 3 September 2013. Retrieved 3 November 2013.
^ "Defining the Colonial World: Don Bernardo de Miera y Pacheco Explorer, Scientist, Santero and More". New Mexico Museum of Art. Retrieved November 16, 2013.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h "Miera's 1758 Map of New Mexico". National Park Service. Archived from the original on July 15, 2012. Retrieved November 16, 2013.

Bibliography

Diaz, Josef, ed. (2013). The Art & Legacy of Bernardo Miera y Pacheco: New Spain's Explorer, Cartographer, and Artist. Museum of New Mexico Press. ISBN 9780890135853.
Kessell, John L. (2013). Miera y Pacheco: A Renaissance Spaniard in Eighteenth-Century New Mexico. University of Oklahoma Press. ISBN 9780806143774.