MARICHAL MÉNDEZ FAMILY
Dr. Eduardo Méndez Asín married Dr. María Ungár de Ómorovicza, a descendant of a noble Hungarian family. They are the parents of five children.
Dr. Eduardo Méndez Asín’s parents are don Manuel Méndez Fernández, a native of Hermigua, La Gomera, and a Law Graduate in Santa Cruz de Tenerife (1926-2004) and doña María Pilar Asín Cabrera, a graduate in Chemical Sciences and a retired high school professor (1938- ).
His grandparents on his father’s side are don Domingo Méndez Suárez (1899-1954), landowner, and doña Camila Fernández Pérez (1896-1971) both originally from Hermigua, La Gomera, and settled in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, and on his mother’s side they are Dr. José Asín Gavin, a gynecologist in Santa Cruz de Tenerife (1909-1979), and doña Manuela Cabrera Revilla (1916-2004).
Dr. Méndez Asín inherited two historic properties in Hermigua:
A family garden of one acre at El Cedro Street in Hermigua (La Vereda).
About 30 hectares of forest and pastures in the heights of Juel, Hermigua.
The lands of Juel were acquired by the ancestors of Dr. Méndez Asín from the Municipal Council of Hermigua during the confiscation process of the nineteenth century, which affected both the assets of the Dominican Convent of San Pedro Apóstol de Hermigua (1820) and the rights to pastures and mountains of the House of the Count of La Gomera (1855).
Both lands are for sale through the Club Inmobiliario de Canarias, +34 922 29 00 02.
By the acquisition of these properties, one becomes part of the history of La Gomera.
Don Domingo Méndez Suárez’s grandfather, don Domingo Méndez Mora (1850-1925) moved from Vallehermoso to Hermigua where he married in 1869 doña Dolores Armas Trujillo and they settled in the family home that is now known as the Hotel Rural Ibo Alfaro.
Their son don Domingo Méndez Armas (1863–1933), married in 1898 doña Luisa Suárez Darias (1865–1951), and the family went on to live in their home of Ibo Alfaro.
Don Domingo Méndez Mora is a direct descendant on his father’s side of Captain don Juan Marichal, who was granted land in Alojera, Vallehermoso and Valle Gran Rey (1549) by the Count of La Gomera don Guillén Peraza de Ayala (1). A grandson of Capitán don Juan Marichal, Capitán don Sebastián Marichal, married in 1621 doña Beatriz Méndez in San Sebastián de La Gomera, introducing the Méndez family name (2, 3, 4).
The Marichal family served for generations as Captains of the Canary Islands Militias, protecting La Gomera from piratical attacks, until 1792 when the Canary Islands Infantry Battalion was created, which integrated and professionalized the old island´s militias.
Maciot de Bethencourt arrived La Gomera in 1404. The Franciscans evangelized the Canary Islands from the Convent of San Buenaventura in Betancuria in Fuerteventura and they promoted the foundation of the Chapel of Santa Lucía in Alojera-Tazo, La Gomera (1420). The first Norman settlers (1402-1418) coexisted with the Canarian aborigines (Guanches), then with the Portuguese (1423), and finally with the Castilians led by Hernán Peraza the Elder (1450), Lord of the Canary Islands.
The Marichal family in the Canary Islands has its origins in Normandy (France). Alfonso Marichal appears as an informant in the Pesquisa de Cabitos (1477). Pierre Le Mareschal is named in the French Chronicle Le Canarien (1410). The same name, Pierre Le Mareschal, is in the National Archives of France, as a Fellow of the University of Paris (1400).
Bibliography:
- Dávila-García, J (2007). Compendio histórico de las Islas Canarias. Gran Canaria: InfoNorte Digital. Retrieved from Canarias Memoria Digital (cmD): https://mdc.ulpgc.es/files/original/a3d6567183e2c2bf7155cd73b1141b4f3e569c09.pdf
- Díaz Frías, Nelson (2015). Matrimonios de la Parroquia de Nuestra Señora de la Asunción de la Villa de San Sebastián de La Gomera (1599 – 1900). Tomo I. Santa Cruz de Tenerife: Ediciones Idea.
- Díaz Padilla, G. (1996). Colección Documental de La Gomera del Fondo Luis Fernández Pérez (1536 – 1646). Estudio Paleográfico, Dilpomático e Histórico. Tomos I & II. Güímar: Litografía Romero.
- Díaz Padilla, G. & Rodríguez Yánez, J.M. (1990). El Señorío de las Canarias Occidentales: La Gomera y El Hierro. La Laguna: Litografía Romero.