The Career of Félix Martínez de Torrelaguna: Soldier, Presidio Commander, and Governor of New Mexico 1693-1726

This dissertation will describe the career of Don Felix Martinez de Torrelaguna, an important figure in New Mexico history for some thirty years following the reconquest of this region in by Don Diego de Vargas in the 1690\u27s. During the period from 1693 to 1717 Martinez served at intervals as soldier and officer in the Santa Fe and El Paso presidios, as agent in Mexico for the Santa Fe garrison, as commander of this presidio, and as governor of the province. After his removal as governor in 1717, he spent eight years in the viceregal capital seeking to be exonerated on charges of maladministration and to be reinstated as governor of New Mexico. In 1726 he returned to New Mexico, where he made an elaborate defense of his administration of presidio and provincial affairs before Don Pedro de Ribera, visitador by viceregal appointment of the presidial garrisons on the northern frontiers of New Spain. The study of Martinez\u27 career end at this point, for the writer has found no record of his life in subsequent years