Hello, 

Hope everyone is well.

Recently, I came across a baptismal record and wanted to make sure I am reading it correctly:

“... Margarita hija de Sebastian indio, y de sumujer Sebastiana criados de Alonso de Alva fueron sus padrinos Marcos de Vargas hijo de Santiago de Pedrosa y Casilda mulata del dicho Als.o de Alva ...”

Usually, I see padrinos who are married couples or who have some known kinship to one another (father/daughter, siblings, mother/son, etc.). I have only encountered unrelated padrinos a handful of times.

So, my reading is that Marcos de Vargas—possibly the same person as Marcos de Pedrosa, and identified here as the son of Santiago de Pedrosa—was the padrino, while Casilda, who apparently lived on the same estancia as Sebastian and Sebastiana (belonging to Alonso de Alba), was the madrina.

Should I be reading more into this arrangement?

One possibility I have considered is that Casilda was an illegitimate daughter of Alonso de Alba (and the word "hija" was accidentally omitted), which would make her Marcos's half-aunt through his mother, if Marcos de Vargas is the same person as Marcos de Pedrosa.

Alternatively, could the pairing of Marcos and Casilda hint at some kind of relationship between the two?

This is particularly interesting to me because Marcos de Pedrosa has two known illegitimate children predating his marriage to María de Nava. One of those children, Isidro, is identified as “castizo” in at least one record.

Another less likely reading (since "padrinos" is plural) could be: padrino Marcos de Vargas, son of Santiago de Pedrosa and Casilda.

I would be interested in hearing how others would interpret the wording and, especially, whether there are any clues here that might suggest a familial or other relationship between Marcos and Casilda, or between Santiago and Casilda.

(Can you tell I'm grasping at straws to determine the identity of the unknown mother of Isidro de Pedrosa?)