Francisco Cuervo y Valdés

Francisco Cuervo y Valdés (16 June 1651 – 1714) was a Spanish politician who governed Nuevo León (1687-1688), Nueva Extremadura (1698–1703), New Philippines (1698–1702), and Santa Fe de Nuevo México (1704–1707).

Early years Cuervo y Valdés was born on June 16, 1651, in Santa María de Grado (in Asturias, Spain). His family was of noble background. Cuervo y Valdes was a Knight of Santiago and a Treasury official in Guadalajara. In 1678, he emigrated to New Spain, in what is now Mexico.

Under his administration, a series of missions were founded: San Antonio Galindo Moctezuma (founded by Cuervo y Valdés and Friar Francisco Portoles on October 26, 1698), Mission San Felipe Valladares (November, 1698), the mission of Valle de San Bartolome de Jesus later renamed "Santísimo Nombre de Jesus de los Peyotes" (founded by Sergeant Mayor Diego Ramón on December 18, 1698), the mission of San Juan Bautista and the Valle of Santo Domingo (1699), the Mission of San Francisco de Solano (by Antonio de Olivares in 1700), Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe and Santo Cristo (1701), and the mission of San Bernardo (1703). (now Albuquerque), naming the town in honour of the Viceroy of New Spain, Francisco Fernández de la Cueva Enríquez, Duke of Alburquerque. Cuervo y Valdés ordered that a Spanish garrison be stationed in the town. At the time, Albuquerque was inhabited by thirty to thirty-five families who had settled along the banks of the Rio Grande.

Cuervo y Valdés refounded several other towns in New Mexico, including Santa Maria de Galisteo (formerly known as Santa Cruz), which was populated by about eighteen families from Tanos. He left office in 1707.

Cuervo y Valdés eventually returned to Mexico City and died in 1714.

Personal life Valdés married María Francisca and they had two children: Francisco Antonio Cuervo and Ana María Cuervo.