Reddit mentions of Defying the Inquisition in Colonial New Mexico: Miguel de Quintana's Life and Writings (Pasó por Aquí Series on the Nuevomexicano Literary Heritage)

TL;DR: found out my great-uncle has a secret son with a terminal illness, and he still won’t acknowledge him. My grandparents (and everyone else in New Mexico) are related to each other.

I’ll share 2 stories related to 23andMe testing I had done. I tested my father, my mother’s father, and my mother’s mother’s brother (because my grandma has already passed on). So from this point I pretty much equate my maternal great-uncle with my grandma.

My father had a 1st cousin listed in his relatives who we didn’t recognize. Eventually the cousin reached out to me and asked me if I knew [name] which he had heard from his mother, and I said yes, that is my dad’s uncle. So this guy had been searching for his biological father because he had a type of end-stage disease which was genetic, and no one on his mother or supposed father’s side had it. This confirmed it, because my great-uncle and great-grandfather suffered from the same disease. I wanted to help him, so I secretly found out as much as I could and told him everything. The cousin tried contacting my great-uncle, but he didn’t want a relationship with him at all- the responses were not straight-up denials of being his father, it was like “good luck with your disease! Laters.” But I now have a long-lost cousin and we’re friends on Facebook.

Whew. Story 2. In New Mexico there’s a strong Hispanic culture that goes back hundreds of years. The DNA testing showed that my mom’s father and maternal uncle were distantly related- they share 0.92% of their DNA. 0.92% should be third-ish cousins, which I was sure they were not that closely related. My tree was already pretty far along at this point, but I HAD to find out how my grandma and grandpa were related, they weren’t even from the same part of the state. Eventually I was able to make so many connections, like 8th cousins, 7th cousins once removed, etc. I guess all those cross-relations added up, they shared so much DNA it looked like they were 3rd cousins. My coolest tree I made though, starts with one guy Miguel Quintana (1675-1748). It shows that my mom’s FOUR grandparents all lead back to this one guy. So all four of my great-grandparents are related to each other. So I have a very strong hunch that ALL Hispanic New Mexicans are related if you dig hard enough.