Juan Bautista de Anza

• Son of Juan Bautista de Anza (presidial captain) and Maria Rosa Bezerra Nieto of Fronteras, Sonora, Mexico
• Grandson of Antonio de Anza (pharmacist) and Lucia de Sassoeta of Hernani, Guipuzcoa, Spain
• Grandson of Antonio Bezerra Nieto (presidial captain) and Gregoria Gómez de Silva of Janos, Chihuahua, Mexico
• Born July 1736, possibly at Fronteras but more likely at Cuquiarachi, Sonora, Mexico
• Juan Bautista de Anza, senior, killed by Apaches on May 9, 1740, when the younger Juan Bautista was not quite three years of age
• Joined Spanish militia in December 1751 at San Ignacio, Sonora, Mexico
• Became a "cadete" in presidial cavalry in 1754 under the tutelage of his brother-in-law, Gabriel de Vildosola, at Fronteras, Sonora, Mexico
• Advanced to cavalry lieutenant at Fronteras in 1756
• Made captain of the Tubac, Sonora, Mexico (now Arizona) Presidio in December 1759
• Married Ana María Pérez Serrano on June 24, 1761 at Arizpe
• Became known for his abilities as a soldier fighting Apaches in the north (today Arizona) and Seris in the south (near present-day Hermosillo, Sonora) 1766-1773
• July 25, 1767 - Ordered to arrest Jesuits on the Sonora River
• Requested permission from the viceroy to discover a route to Alta California in 1772, something his father had done in 1737 but was killed by Apaches before he could make the journey
• Led an expedition to discover a route to Alta California, leaving Tubac in January 1774 and arriving back there in May after having successfully found the route and traveling to the newly established Presidio of Monterey
• Advanced to lieutenant colonel by the King after completing the successful expedition of discovery
• Began organizing a second expedition in Mexico City in January 1775 to colonize the San Francisco Bay
• Began recruiting colonizers in Culiacan, Province of Sinaloa, Mexico in March 1775
• Continued recruiting in the villages of Sinaloa and El Fuerte in the Province of Sinaloa, and Alamos, in Sonora in March, April, and May
• Spent the summer in Horcasitas, the capital of Sonora at that time, training his new recruits for the difficult crossing of the Apache country that lay ahead of them
• Arrived in Tubac from Horcasitas in mid-October, 1775, and continued preparations there
• Left Tubac October 23, 1775 with 300 people and 1000 head of livestock (no wagons or carts - all supplies were loaded on pack mules every morning and unloaded every night)
• Manuela Pinuelas died that evening from childbirth complications. The child lived to see California. In all, only three other people died in the year-long journey, and they died from a plague that struck the town of Horcasitas when they were there that summer
• In total there were nine live births and one miscarriage among the women of the expedition between Culiacan, Sonora, and San Gabriel, Alta California
• The expedition arrived in Monterey, California in March, 1776
• Chief Palma and three other Yuma Indians were taken to Mexico City by Anza where they received catechism and were baptized on February 13, 1777.  They received confirmation at the cathedral in Durango on the return trip to Sonora on April 3, 1777.
• Upon his return to Mexico City, Anza was made commander of all the troops in Sonora in the fall of 1776
• Made Governor of New Mexico in 1777
• In 1779, with 800 men and 2500 horses, he led an expedition across New Mexico and Colorado, across the Arkansas River to engage the Comanches under the command of Chief Cuerno Verde
• Cornering the said chief near Rye, Colorado, the campaign killed him and several other head men and precipitated the longest lasting peace treaty ever signed by the Comanches and any of the governments of Spain, Mexico, or the United States
• Anza led an expedition to the Hopi country that same fall to try to help save that people, who were dying from a long-lasting drought
• Led an expedition in 1780 to discover a route between Santa Fe, New Mexico, and Arizpe, Sonora, which was the capital of the Provincias Internas - an expedition that was successfully completed
• Asked to be released as Governor in in 1786 and his request was granted in 1787
• Made commander of the Buenaventura Presidio (previously Fronteras Presidio) in 1787
• Made commander of all the troops in Sonora shortly thereafter
• Made commander of the Tucson (now Arizona) Presidio in the fall of 1788
• Conducted a review of the troops at Tucson, returned to his home in Arizpe, and died there suddenly on December 19, 1788
• Buried in the side chapel of Nuestra Señora de Loreto in the cathedral at Arizpe

Never, in Anza's day did he or any of his contemporaries ever call him "de Anza" when referring to him by surname. I have seen over 150 of his signatures in which he signed only his surname (leaving the Juan Bautista off). Every time he signed it "Anza". I have a list in my computer of over 400 times in which his contemporaries referred to him as Anza, but I have never found an instance of anyone calling him "de Anza" in his own era.

Most of my information comes from archives in Mexico and Spain, although there is a fair amount of information about him in secondary literature, albeit much of it is erroneous as previously stated. Bancroft Library in Berkeley and Documentary Relations of the Southwest in Tucson are excellent sources for microfilm of much of the documentation in Mexico and in Sevilla, Spain.