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Greatshield17
Velociraptor
Velociraptor

Joined: 14 Sep 2012
Gender: Male
Posts: 431
Location: Columbia-Kootenay Region, British Columbia

13 Dec 2017, 4:19 pm

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I'm of Latin American heritage, my dad is from Chile and from him, I get the last name, Lizama. I knew a bit about my extended, that they were an upper-middle class family in Chile, and that their coat of arms was as pictured above, but I didn't know to much else. Then last month, I was bored and decide to do a google search of Lizama, and see what I could learn about my family history. The first thing I found on was this blog entry on the history of the Lizama family in Guam: Familia: Lizama From this blog entry I found out that the word "Lizama" comes from "Lezama" the name of a Basque village. I also found out that our family is a mestizo family and is more than willing intermarry with indigenous people. (Granted, interracial marriages weren't that uncommon in New Spain, the Spaniards often encouraged intermarrying as away to spread the Catholic Faith to the indigenous inhabitants.) After searching around, I was finally able to find the origins story of the Lizama Family, it started out with unnamed man moving into Lezama and building the Church of Santa Maria there. That man, later had a son named Pedro Roys de Lezama, our oldest named ancestor. Pedro Roys then built the Torre de Lezama, a major landmark in Lezama that still stands to this day. Pedro Roys later married a Dona Elvira and later joined the Knights of Calatrava. Later on many Lezamas/Lizamas moved to New Spain, and today they can be found all over Latin America and the Pacific. Here's an image of the Torre de Lezama:

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The black wolf seems to be the main symbol of the Lizama/Lezama family, it appears on both the original coat of arms (A Green tree on a golden background) and the current one pictured above. In Medieval heraldry, a wolf can symbolize perseverance in industry and determination during a siege, thus the black wolf could be meant to symbolize the torre de Lezama as a defensive structure, or the hard work that was put into building it. (As well as perhaps, Pedro Roys' father's work in building the Santa Maria Church.)

So that's what I have on the my family, the Lizama/Lezama family, any Lizamas/Lezamas here? Anyone who knows any Lizamas/Lezamas, or has anything interesting on the Lizama/Lezamas?