He defended the Pueblo Indians who wanted to continue their earlier religious practices even after converting, clashed with the Franciscan missionaries, and was tried and found guilty of heresy by the Mexican Inquisition.
When Aguilar was 18 he left home to live near the northern Mexican city of Parral, Chihuahua where he worked as a miner and soldier.
The Salinas Pueblos were exposed to Apache raids, but earned a precarious livelihood by trading salt and agricultural products for buffalo meat and skins.
He established the policy that Aguilar was to use his powers to enforce civil law and not permit the Franciscans to punish religious infractions by Indians.
Aguilar enforced a prohibition against Indians working for the Franciscans without pay, including as members of the choir in the churches or as volunteers.
The issue, however, that truly infuriated the missionaries was Governor López’s permission to the Pueblos to practice their traditional dances and ceremonies, believed by the Franciscans to be idolatrous.
He was described as a 36-year-old man of “large body, coarse, and somewhat brown.” He dressed in crudely woven and well-worn flannel trousers and a wool shirt.
His total worldly belongings fit into a small box containing an extra set of clothing, several religious books, and a few good luck charms and medicinal herbs.
He was sentenced to undergo an auto de fe and banned from residing in New Mexico for ten years and holding government office for life.
Aguilar is described by most historians in terms such as an “unscrupulous lackey” with a “devilish fury.”[2] Recent scholars, however, have shown a grudging admiration for his brave and uncompromising stand against the Franciscans.
As a mestizo, ranking low on the social ladder of Spanish society, he may have had a sincere sympathy with the plight of the Indians and resentment of the rule over them by the Catholic priests.
The defeat of Aguilar and Governor López by the Franciscans probably was the last opportunity of the Spanish regime in New Mexico to reduce the animosity of the Indians under its control.