Recognition by father of illegitimate son?
Hello!
I don't read Spanish, but it looks like this record is a recognition by Evaristo Arevalo i Fierro, age twenty-seven and single, of his illegitimate son Juan de la Cruz Arevalo.
What does the "de la Cruz" before the father's surname signify, please? Is that the mother's surname? Does this record list the mother's name? And, lastly, would there be another birth record for Juan reflecting his birth to his mother?
Thank you!
Answers
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Hi!
When I took Spanish and worked with the Spanish people, it was my understanding that they took the mother's name as their last name, and their father's name became the middle name or next-to-last name. So de la Cruz would be Juan's father's name and Arevalo would be his mother's name.
Based on seeing that Evaristo's middle name is Arevalo (referring to his father), I am wondering if they broke custom here, and de la Cruz is his mother, and Arevalo is his father. It will be interesting what the in-the-know people have to say. PaulaAnn
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Thank you for your response, PaulaAnn! Yes - the positioning of the names confuses me. I'm expecting Juan's mother to be Matea Fierro i Reyes - but that's not certain.
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Yes from what I read it says that Evaristo Arevalos i Fierro brought a baby to declare it being born and it is his illegitimate son named Juan de la Cruz Arevalo. There is no mention I can see of the mother. If I had to take a guess I would say "del la cruz" is just part of his first name and possibly used for his baptism name (it just means Of the Cross) and sometimes children are baptized with more elaborate names before of after their real given for the baptism. For example someone called Ignacia may be baptized Maria Ignacia de la luz and then go by Ignacia later in documents. It looks as though even though the son was illegitimate the father gave him his last name Arevalos. From this document I do not believe we can see what the mother's name is.
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Thank you so much, LauraVilla107, for your translation and interpretation of what the document means - I appreciate your input!
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