Codex

Villarreal Codex

A spine of later clocks: San Miguel and the Salinas mines, Monterrey, Houston. The 1274 carta pobla stays on Act II.

Also Atlas · Act II, 1274

1. 01 · Compiled arrival

   1608

   Diego from the mining zone

   San Miguel el Grande → Nuevo Reino de León

   Family compilations (Villadan and related notices) write that Captain Diego de Villarreal was born about 1601 in San Miguel el Grande, Guanajuato, and that he came from that mining country in 1608. Other notices put his entry into the Nuevo Reino de León around 1625. This folio keeps both dates. 1608 is an arrival claim, not a mine patent in this journal’s hand.

   This folio keeps the arrival: 1608 from San Miguel, and the other notice of about 1625.

2. 02 · Silver hacienda

   1626–1653

   Mines as a marriage clock

   Valle de las Salinas (Eguia / Magdalena)

   Diego married Beatriz de las Casas Navarro. Her father, Bernabé de las Casas, is written as giving the Mining Hacienda de Eguia (later Abasolo, Nuevo León) as a marriage gift about 1626. Diego purchased further silver workings from kin and is credited in local notices with a beneficio de metales in the Valle de las Salinas — silver for the king and for the house. He is later vecino and minero there (mid-century). Sons later sit at Boca de Leones (Villaldama) and neighboring reales. The silver is this clock. It is not 1608 by itself, and it is not 1274.

   This folio keeps the silver: the Eguia gift about 1626 and the beneficio in the Valle de las Salinas.

3. 03 · City and surname density

   1596 / later

   Through Monterrey

   Monterrey, Nuevo León

   The city of Monterrey is a 1596 foundation. Diego’s mining sits in its kingdom, not in its first cabildo. Later public-name files put Villarreal dense in the municipality. Parents of the living author are from Monterrey. That is a family-memory clock. The atlas already holds Los Villarreales (Salinas Victoria) as a later toponym — same name-shape, not the 1274 town.

   This folio keeps Monterrey: a 1596 city, parents from that city, and a surname dense there.

4. 04 · War

   21–24 September 1846

   Battle of Monterrey

   Monterrey

   In the Mexican–American War, U.S. forces under Zachary Taylor fought Mexican forces under Pedro de Ampudia for the city. The assault that histories pin to 21 September 1846 is the hard first day of urban fighting; the city was given up on the 24th. That is a military clock. It is not a Villarreal mine, and it is not a birth.

   This folio keeps the battle: 21 September 1846, the first hard day, the city given up on the 24th.

5. 05 · Living date

   21 September 1999

   A quiet note from ninety-nine

   Houston, Texas

   Roberto Villarreal Martinez is dated 21 September 1999, Houston, Texas. Parents from Monterrey. Fidencio Villarreal told him his real name was Mateo. He did not know what that meant until the day itself — St. Matthew’s Day in the Western church — made the name readable. The house writes this folio as that witness. Chi-Chi / 921 in Taiwan (Mw ~7.7) shares the civil day. This folio’s date is Houston.

   This folio keeps the birth: 21 September 1999, Houston, and Fidencio’s witness that the name was Mateo.