Chaves / Chavis / Chavez Genealogy

I have done extensive genealogy research and it is evident that you
have done some also. You
mentioned in the Chavez Family website that you come from the Don Pedro
Gomez Duran y Chaves
lineage. I too, am from this very same ancestry; in fact conjoined
through multiple family lines. My
ancestry is Chaves and Sanches on my fathers side and Romero and Duran
on my mothers side.
This Duran y Chaves family was originally Rico and not Chaves; his
father was Hernan Sanches
Rico. The family Rico were Jewish traders and merchants that would
travel from Spain to France,
Italy, Greece and other parts of the Mediterranean Sea selling their
wares.

Some of my Chaves family ancestry takes a different twist and actually
comes from Chaves, Portugal
also.

Chaves; This family name is an ancient name from Portugal. Originally
called Flavis (Latin) by
Romans in Lusitania (Portugal). Original meaning was "healing waters".
Roman legions and even
Hadrian, Caesar, and other Roman personalities would go to the healing
waters of Flavis. The name
was a location not a person or family. Later, during the time when the
Portuguese language came into
its own, the spelling and pronunciation changed. All words with
Fl_____, were changed to Ch_____
but pronounced as if Sh____. So, Flavis became Chavis, same meaning
also. Some people still have
this spelling, particularly in Louisiana. After, the Roman occupation
the Portuguese language evolved
again. The name now took on a similar spelling, Chaves; but a new
meaning was tied to it. This
meaning you know, is, keys like Llaves in Spanish. The name was still
connected to a place not to
people. In about the 1200's the Moors, Catholics and Jews all occupied
Iberia and the Moors were
in a big uproar for control. In the region of Chaves, Portugal; the
Moors were ransacking and
causing general unrest. King Enriques of Portugal was very concerned
and was eventually driven into
war. He called upon the families of the region and found himself
compelled to request help from all
sources. He had cousins, the Lopes family. He called upon them for
help. The family responded
without hesitation. This Lopes family, four brothers and one sister
lead the battle and successfully
defeated and drove the Moors from the local of Chaves, Portugal. King
Enriques in all his
benevolence and generosity created the position of "Chaves" (similar to
the Order of Santiago of
Spain). The family were all knighted and made "Chaves", meaning "the
keys to the victory over the
Moors". The Chaves family is recognized all over the world as having
come from warrior clans. The
name, Chaves, symbolizes courage, royalty, honor, dedication to duty
and is easily recognized as
one of the most known Hispanic names in the world. The word Chaves is
pronounced with a distinct
sh, as in shoot or shout. Not the heavy ch that spanish words are
pronounced. The coat of arms is
displayed as five keys on the face with other ornate depictions, these
keys are symbolic of the five
original Chaves. Two of the brothers names are known; one brother was
named Rui(z) Lopes and
the other brother was Garci(a) Lopes. All these Chaves (Lopes) were
Jewish. Check out the
Judaica Encyclopedia at any synagogue.

Another view on the Chavez name. Some Chavez' ancestry is linked to a
person named Chavo. So,
people with the surname Chavez literally means "Son of Chavo". The ez,
is similar to other cultures,
sort of like Mc; Mac-Scottish/Irish or Ben-Hebrew or Bar- Arabic. Other
names with same
connotation: Sanchez, son of Sancho; Martinez, son of Martin; etc.

I have traced my ancestry interestingly enough to the Bentacurt and
Perdoma/o connection you
mentioned in the website as well. Both these people were in the Canary
Islands for very basic
reasons; they were Portuguese Jews hiding from the Spanish and
Portugese Inquisitions.

As much as the good Catholics of New Mexico would like to hide or
forget the past, the colonists
and others who came here were not originally Catholic, nearly all were
Jews; they came here seeking
freedom of religion after they were driven out of Spain and Portugal by
the "Edict of Expulsion".
They in fact paid Portugal and Spain many millions of cruzados (gold
coins) for their freedom. The
church ignored this and came after them anyway. The church demoralized,
broke down and crushed
the spirit of most of my ancestors, the church also held back food and
often times "bad" priests
would rape Jewish women in the process of cleansing them, and in many
instances would burn them
alive at the stake.

Check out author Seymour Leibman and Cecil Roth or others like them on
the history of Mexico
and the discovery of the new world; check out inquisitional records
from Mexico City and Lima,
Peru. People with names like Trevino, Caravajal, Rodrigues, etc. were
brutally tortured, imprisoned
and eventually burned alive at the stake. I am an ancestor of many such
people and their progeny.

The Sanches family I am from is linked to Rodrigo Sanches; he was an
explorer and 100% full Jew.
He was on Christopher Columbus ships when they discovered the New
World. Sanches cousin was
the treasurer to King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella; his name was
Gabriel Sanches a full Jew.
Gabriels' uncle was a man named Alazar Ussuf another full Jew.

The Duran family I am from is linked to Rabbi Moises HaLevy Duran; he
was a Jewish Talmudic
scholar.

If, you dig deep enough you may or may not like what you find.

I believe a truthful history should depict the facts, not a sugar
coated Catholic Church rendition
painted by Fray Angelico Chavez. He knew the truth but didn't want
problems with the church. In
his book, "Origins of New Mexico Families"; he neglected to edit out
one very important clue to the
past. In the listings of the family name Romero; he depicts the death
of a Romero man; this Romero
dies a strange death and has been accused of a minor crime (heresy and
witchcraft); the person
recording all accountings of the incident was none other than an
inquisitional scribe. The inquisition
was here to stop people from being Jews. The Spanish Inquisition
reached well into New Mexico; a
father Perea located at Quari Mission near Mountainair, NM was the head
of the Inquisition in NM
in the historical past.

My research has gone as far back in history as you wish it to go. Some
depictions are as long ago as
AD 70 in Spain and others reach back into biblical times in Jerusalem.
All of the people I have
discussed in this letter ancestrally came from Israel.

In the old testament; in the book of Obadiah it is written as a
prophecy that "the Jerusalemites shall
inherit Sepharad". I will explain; the Jerusalemites occupied Jerusalem
at the time of the Roman
conquest of Palestine (Israel/Judaea) AD 67-70 time frame. The
destruction of the second temple
took place at this time also. Odabiah prophesied that a group of people
would conquer Jerusalem;
those people of Jerusalem would inherit Sepharad. Sepharad is the
hebrew word for Spain. All of
the Jews from Jerusalem went to Spain for relief from the Romans as
prophesied by Obadiah.

Jews from Spain and Portugal are called Sephardic Jews.

Further back in time is a reference in the Book of Ruth on the
genealogy of Judah. A son of Judah
was named Perez; through him and his wife the people were called;
Perezites. Perez was the
grandfather of King David of Israel. Today, many Sephardic Jews still
bear the name of Perez.
Many Spanish and Portuguese names ending with es or ez can trace
ancestry back to King David
and Perez/Judah lineage.

My feelings on the history of New Mexico and the New World is that the
history was not and is not
still portrayed or written accurately at all and must be corrected.


Thanks, Keith Alejandro Chaves
Albuquerque, New Mexico