Gertrudis Barceló

Mexican-born entrepreneur

• Born: c. 1800
• Birthplace: Sonora, Mexico
• Died: January 17, 1852
• Place of death: Santa Fe, New Mexico Territory (now New Mexico)

Barceló was one of the best-known women involved in the Santa Fe trade starting in 1821, after Mexico declared itself independent from Spain. Her interactions with American traders and soldiers are credited with giving birth to the myth that women in the borderlands were money-hungry and sexually liberated.

Early Life

María Gertrudis Barceló (bahr-seh-LOH) was born to Juan Ignacio Barceló and Dolores Herrero y Barceló de Pino in Sonora, Mexico, around 1800. She had an older brother, Jose Trinidad, and a younger sister, Maria de la Luz. In 1815, Juan moved his family north from Sonora to what is now the state of New Mexico. They settled in the village of Valencia, south of Albuquerque, where they were in position to benefit from the emerging business and trade associated with the Santa Fe Trail.

In June, 1823, Barceló married Don Manuel Antonio Sisneros. After their marriage, Barceló moved with Sisneros to a mining camp near Santa Fe, New Mexico. Within the first two years of marriage, Barceló lost two sons in infancy; despite these losses, Barceló reached out to individuals throughout her life and was considered a mother to many. In 1826, Barceló and her husband adopted a daughter, Maria del Refugio. In 1825 and 1826, Barceló embarked on her career as a professional gambler. She settled in Oso Springs, which would eventually become Oro Springs in the Ortiz Mountains, about twenty-six miles from Santa Fe.

Life’s Work

Within five years of Barceló’s move to Oro Springs, the settlement was renamed El Real de Dolores. With the emergence of gold mining and influx of miners to the settlement, Barceló’s career as an expert dealer of monte, a simple gambling card game, flourished. By June, 1833, Barceló’s skills at dealing cards had brought her enough money to move her mother, adopted daughter, and husband to Santa Fe. Santa Fe traders such as Josiah Gregg felt that Barceló—who smoked, drank, and gambled—reflected Mexican women’s bad behavior. Despite such Anglo opinions, however, Barceló often was asked to be a godmother to children. She adopted a second daughter, Petra Gutierres; both adopted daughters married men heavily involved in the Santa Fe trade.

Through her success as a monte dealer and an entrepreneur, Barceló was able to purchase a saloon and gambling hall by 1846. At this time, American soldiers started entering New Mexico during the Mexican-American War, and Barceló adapted to a new clientele. American soldiers saw Barceló as one of the elite in Santa Fe. Their general, Stephen Kearny, soon realized that the U.S. government had not provided him with enough funds to pay all of his soldiers, and he found himself turning to Barceló for financial support.

When Barceló died on January 17, 1852, she included in her will monies for those whom she had adopted or taken responsibility, as well as funds for the Catholic Church. She request an elaborate funeral presided over by Jean-Baptiste Lamy, an incoming French bishop, who arrived in Santa Fe just in time to perform the rites. He received a great deal of criticism from the Catholic community, who felt that Barceló’s lifestyle should have precluded her from the attentions of a bishop. At the time of her death, her wealth was valued at more than ten thousand dollars, more than twice what the most wealthy men of her area had acquired in their lifetimes.

Significance

Barceló was notable for her remarkable success in business and her philanthropy. Owning a saloon and gambling hall brought her into contact with American businessmen and soldiers at a time when Mexican-American relations were in their infancy. While she provided her Anglo clients with entertainment and loans, they returned home believing that all Mexican American women gambled, drank, smoked, and were shrewd in their business dealings. These accounts of Barceló shaped early perceptions of Mexican women as clever and capable but less feminine or pious than American women.

Bibliography

Cook, Mary Straw. Doña Tules: Santa Fe’s Courtesan and Gambler. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 2007. This biography focuses on the life of Barceló and emphasizes how the Santa Fe Trade and the Mexican-American War expanded her wealth. It references historical sources to show Barceló as more than just the myth of La Tules but a hard working individual who took advantage of the growing New Mexican economy.

Gonzalez, Deena. Refusing the Favor: The Spanish Mexican Women of Santa Fe. New York: Oxford University Press, 2001. This text address the changing roles of women in New Mexico as they encountered the complexities of living under Spanish, Mexican, and U.S. authority. Gonzalez uses Barceló as one of her case studies and reveals the complicated nature of what it meant to be a businesswoman living in New Mexico in the 1800’s.

Winter, Jonah. “Doña María Gertrudis `La Tules’ Barceló.” In Wild Women of the Wild West. New York: Holiday House, 2011. Succinct, illustrated biography of Barceló for young readers.