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Diego Zapata Y Lujan Ponce De Leon De Vargas was born about 1650 in Madrid, Spain. He was the son of the maestro de campo, Alonso de Vargas Zapata y Lujan, chevalier of the order of Santiago, and Maria Margarita de Contreras, both of whom were natives of Madrid. De Vargas belonged to the Spanish-born governing class of New Spain.
The events of his life prior to his appointment as governor and captain-general of New Mexico (June 18, 1688) are not known. At that time he was holding the office of chief magistrate of the Real de Minas de Talpugajua in Mexico; he had reached his early forties and had had some military training and experience.
On August 14, 1690, a power of attorney was executed in Madrid which gave his wife, Juana de Vargas Ponce de Leon, control over extensive property rights in Spain and Mexico.
In 1692 he made a military reconquest of the upper Rio Grande Valley, out of which the Spanish settlers had been driven in 1680 by the Pueblo Indians. In the following summer (1693) he led the settlers northward to their former homes. He quelled several uprisings of the Pueblos between 1693 and 1697. Having succeeded where others had failed, namely, in the reconquest of New Mexico, he was reappointed to his office by the viceroy of New Spain, February 22, 1696, but the king had already selected his successor, Pedro Rodriguez Cubero, who arrived at the capital, Santa Fé, July 2, 1697. De Vargas was thrown into prison on charges brought against him by the cabildo (town council) of Santa Fé. He and his friends made a concerted effort to obtain what they deemed to be justice, and their activities bore fruit. A short time before the close of Cubero’s governorship De Vargas was appointed by the king for a second term as governor and captain-general of New Mexico.
In recognition of his services to the Crown of Spain in bringing about the reconquest of New Mexico he was made Marqués de la Nava de Brazinas.
His second administration was cut short by his death. He assumed office on November 10, 1703, and died April 4, 1704, while conducting a campaign in the Sandia mountains against the Faraon Apache who had been making attacks upon the Indian pueblos and the Spanish haciendas in the Rio Grande Valley between Bernalillo and Belen.
De Vargas was a man of courage, military skill, and administrative ability. His will leads one to believe that he liked fine articles of clothing, silverware, and jewelry; and that he was considerate of his family, servants, and debtors.
