Capitán Juan López Olguin

In March 1599 don Juan de Onate wrote the viceroy of Neuva Espana and requested additional soldier and families to help strengthen the colony that had been established.

With approval, the recruitment began in late summer of 1599. 65 Spaniards and 25 servants were recruited at Mexico City. By October 1599, recruits, including women, children, and servants, were at the outpost of Santa Barbara in the Valle de San Bartolome in Nueva Vizcaya. After some delay, these settlers began their journey to New Mexico in late September 1600 on the route of El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro, the route that Onate had taken in the original expedition of 1598 and which by now had stopping places about every ten miles. The group arrived at Onate’s colony on December 24, 1600. Many of these settlers became discouraged and disappointed and left in late October 1601. The families that remained from the second wave of colonization are common ancestors for people with Hispano roots in colonial New Mexico.

Juan Lopez Holguin/Olguin y Villasana, native of Fuente de Ovejuna, Extremadura, Spain, came to New Mexico with his wife, Catalina de Villanueva, and 2 daughters. Through at least one son born in New Mexico, this family was the progenitor of the Olguin family of New Mexico.

As of good stature, black bearded, a scar over his left eye, 40 years old in the Muster Rolls of Oñate.

Listed along with his father, Juan López Villasaña, as an officer in a group of soldiers and civilians that went to New Mexico in 1600, on Captain Villagra's list. Juan Lopez Holguin was an Ensign. He was 40 yrs in 1600. A native of Fuente Obejuna, Extremadura Spain.

Juan López Holguín was an Alférez when he came to New México in 1600. His wife, who came with him, was Catalina de Villanueva. In 1626, he gave his age as sixty-four, saying that he was a "founder of the Kingdom," of New México.

His children were: Cristóbal, who married Melchora de Carvajal, Isabel, wife of Juan de Vitoria Carvajal, and Simón de Abendaño, who married María Ortize Baca.

~The Origins of New México Families, pg. 81