¿Sangre contaminada?
If your family goes back multiple generations in New Mexico,
you may have inherited a gene mutation that causes strokes, seizures, or worse.
It’s known as the Common Hispanic Mutation (CHM)
About the artwork.
Carrying on the tradition of map-making from his 7th great-grandfather Bernardo de Miera y Pacheco, ¿Sangre contaminada?, by Drew Trujillo, is an abstract map of Central and Northern New Mexico that visualizes the migration of Maria Romero and her husband, Juan Antonio Baca's descendants. According to the Angioma Alliance, they were the earliest confirmed carriers of the Common Hispanic Mutation (CHM), aka Cerebral Cavernous Malformations (CCM1).
Trujillo, a father, and grandfather is a descendant of Romero and Baca. Concerned that he might have CHM and passed it on to his daughter and grandson, he took a DNA test and determined he did not have CHM with the help of the Angioma Alliance.
The artist hopes that viewers with New Mexican ancestry will research whether they are related to Maria Romero and Juan Antonio Baca and, if so, whether they have CHM.
Early comp / sketch
New Mexican towns north of I-40 with three generations of the migration paths of CHM, originating in Peña Blanca.
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What is CHM/CCM1?
The Common Hispanic Mutation has a 50% chance of being passed down from an affected parent to their children and occurs at higher rates in Northern New Mexico. Estimations by the Angioma Alliance are that tens of thousands of living descendants, thousands of which reside in New Mexico, unwittingly carry the CHM gene.
For more information about CHM/CCM1, please check out the Angioma Alliance website here.
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Surnames possibly affected by CHM/CCCM1?
New Mexican surnames possibly affected by CHM (to date) include the following. Note the list is sorted based on the highest-to-lowest number of descendants of each surname: Baca, Gonzales, Cabeza de Baca, C' de Baca, Armijo, Mares, Montoya, Romero, Leyba, Ortiz, Silva, Sandoval, Lucero, Rael, Garcia de Noriega, Gurule, Lopez, Aragon, Gutierrez, Martin, Garcia, Rivera, Jaramillo, Padilla, Herrera, Maes/Maez (Maese), Vigil, Paiz, Gallegos, Pacheco, Torres, Trujillo, Quintana, Pino, Valdez, Garduno, Hurtado, and Martinez.
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Most common New Mexican towns where CHM/CCCM1 existed?
Following is a list of New Mexican towns where descendants of Romero and Baca were born, lived, or died. The list is sorted based on the highest-to-lowest number of descendants in a town: Peña Blanca, Santa Fe, La Cuesta, Albuquerque, Las Vegas, Bernalillo, La Cienega, Gonzales Ranch, La Bajada, Agua Fria, Sile, Puertecito, Anton Chico, Cochiti Pueblo, Santa Cruz, Colonias, Cañada, Wallace, Cubero, Cañon, and Cuba.
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How to find out if you have CHM/CCM1
First, you will need to confirm you are a descendant of Maria Romero, Juan Antonio Baca, or their descendants. Trujillo has created an ancestry tree* of Romero and Baca that includes their descendants, available here on Ancestry.com. If you find one or more of your ancestors in the family tree the next step is to take a DNA test. The Angioma Alliance provides instructions on how to get tested in the link provided here.
*Please note that this is a work-in-progress and that Trujillo is an artist and not a genealogist.