Spectrum News 1's Marisa Jacques spent some time with her father, Richard Jacques, who is 100% Spanish, to learn more about her Hispanic culture and heritage.

"[Jaquez] remains a very old name in Spain,” Richard Jacques said. “In New Spain, a certain Gil Jaquez had a hacienda.”

“The very first Spanish expedition of Juan Onate in 1595 when his Spanish expedition went into an area of New Mexico, what would now be near Taos, New Mexico,” he said. “Our earliest ancestors were in that expedition. In fact, one of our ancestors was the second in command in the Onate expedition."

Richard's family arrived from Spain, in what today is New Mexico nearly 500 years ago. Originally known as New Spain, the territory briefly became part of Mexico before being a U.S. territory. His known family tree can be traced back to the 1700s.

“You are the 9th generation of Rosa Maria Villapando and Juan Jose Jaquez,” he said. “There are some missing links from the Spanish expedition in 1595 until you get to Villapando and Jaquez and I think it was filled in when I did the DNA testing.”

Richard was asked if there was anything in his DNA results that surprised him.

“Sixty-six percent of my heritage is European, Spanish and Portugese, but what surprised me when it came back ingenious Americans,” he said. “Twenty-six percent. And I thought ‘Wow, no one ever talked about Native heritage.’ So I went back and researched and what happened were these earliest settlers. Many were just men. Many began taking up Indian brides and changed their names to Spanish names. Oh my Gosh, that’s where we have Native Americans.”

The family is actually very influential in American history, including relatives who were senators from New Mexico. And remember Rosa Maria Villapondo? She’s actually a national figure in both New Mexico and Missouri. After her husband was killed in a Comanche raid, Villaponda was captured and sold to a French trader. They are one of the founding families of St. Louis.

And about the name, her first husband was Juan Jose Jaquez.

“Our ancestral name is Jaquez,” my father said. “And then sometime within the last two or three generations, it was changed. Some of them kept the original names. Some of them changed it to Jacquez and still pronounced it Jaquez. And others anglicized it and changed into Jacques and pronounced it Jax”

It’s fascinating to see old family pictures and paintings and to see how strong the genes are.

“I see resemblances to many people in our immediate family today,” my father said when looking at photos of our ancestors. “Speaking of strength, big families, culture and religion are prevalent parts of Hispanic families. We’ve carried on.”