Juan Bravo de Medrano, I Count of Santa Rosa
[2] Juan Bravo de Medrano became the first Zacatecan to purchase a noble title,[1] becoming the first Count of Santa Rosa on February 8, 1691, thanks to his mining success and due to his pacification of Colotlán and the Sierra del Nayarit [es].
[5] This lineage of counts bestowed significant nobility upon Zacatecas, engaging in a competition of honor and wealth throughout the Enlightenment century and the so-called Bourbon reforms.
[21] Prominent Zacatecan miners maintained a private army, often consisting of two or three hundred men, whether to defend their own territories or the interests of the Crown.
[22] Juan and his mother Catalina de Medrano y Oñate built a temple with a beautiful façade in honor of Saint Rose of Lima.
The first Count of Santa Rosa, Juan Bravo de Medrano, continued acquiring lands, ranging from medium-value estates to large domains and mines mostly in Vetagrande.
[23] Juan Bravo de Medrano owned large mining and agricultural estates, including the haciendas of Real de Pánuco, Vetagrande, Malpaso, Palomas, San Nicolás in Pinos, Santa Rosa in Juchipila, and Santa Rosa in Tlaltenango.
[24] Estimated in 1777 after an owner's death, Joseph Martinez de Bustamante, the hacienda had a total value of 57,736 pesos 2 reales.
[23] Adding tools, seeds, and livestock (247 mules, 248 oxen, 161 donkeys, and nearly 2,500 horses), its value reached 69,851 pesos 5 reales.
[5] Despite Pánuco's thriving economy in the mid-17th century, the descendants of its discoverers, among the wealthiest individuals in Spanish America, inherited illustrious names but faced more debts.
His son Don Felipe Bartolome Bravo de Medrano y Acuña Altamirano, II Count of Santa Rosa, inherited flooded mines and debts, leading to the inability to sustain the family business.
When the II Count of Santa Rosa died, notorial records indicate his properties which included the Pánuco smelters and the amalgamation facilities.
In the war against the Chichimeca Natives, he was named lieutenant captain general of Nueva Galicia in 1572 by Viceroy Enriquez.
[12] Juan Bravo de Medrano's maternal uncle Capitan General Don Diego de Medrano y Bañuelos, born in Madrid on May 14, 1636, baptized in the parish of San Nicolas, served as Chief Constable of the Holy Inquisition in Zacatecas and Provincial Alcalde of the Holy Brotherhood of Nueva Galicia.
[33] In 1666, the Royal Treasury requested 500 liters of salt from Captain Don Diego de Medrano.
[38][37] Juan Bravo de Medrano married Doña Juana Altamirano Castilla y Aguayo.
His wife was the daughter of José Altamirano y Castilla[39] and Juana de Soto Agredano y Carbajal Aguayo.
