Mark,
Thank you for your always kind and generous comments. This genre of swords and weapons of Spain's colonies is one of the most fascinating and exciting fields of collecting in my thinking. In my younger years in California I was intrigued by the Spanish influences and perhaps too many Zorro movies
but never forgot an incredible sword I had once. Years later after it was gone I found it was an espada ancha, and never stopped trying to replace it.
The history of Mexico, and these obviously powerful Spanish influences reflect the rugged frontier charm of so many of these weapons. These were largely from remote and distant outposts in New Spain known as presidios which evolved into towns and cities just as many did from the missions.
In these places throughout Mexico, and in similar cases elsewhere in Spains colonies, the profound desire to keep Spanish tradition alive in status and officialdom hierarchy often led to creative weapon forms recalling the forms of others. These are these often odd and redundant types which are comprised of features such as crossguards under cup guards etc.
I had one amalgamation like this which had the hilt of a briquette, three bar guard, and cut down dragoon blade of 18th c While an ungainly and odd looking piece, this may well have been fabricated by a blacksmith in one of these frontier places creating a repurposed sword of old components.
I have seen numbers of swords with the strange crossguard under a cup hilt and the multiple bars, workmanlike construction with heavy bolt type fixtures in such creative mixes. It has seemed these odd swords are often labelled 'old pirate' swords in equally creative descriptions.
As Mark has well noted, piracy far exceeded the boundaries of Hollywood and literature in their wonderfully romanticized tales, and the vast networks of the Spanish Main carried influences in weapons far and wide. That to me is the fascinating allure and intrigue of these often rugged and odd arms.