Mr. Sena is Interned under the floor in front of the Altar.

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Bernardino was the adopted son of ("hijo expuesto") of Don José del Valle and Ana de Rivera. Valle was a native of Sevilla, Spain, who became a resident of México City around 1689 and was a single man until June 29, 1693 when he married Ana de Rivera, a native of Tezcuco. Presumably, Bernardino was orphaned and Valle and Rivera took him as their ward, but it is uncertain whether Sena came into the Valle household before or after the marriage of this couple. given that Ana de Rivera was a native of Tezcuco, perhaps she knew Bernardino's family.

Bernardino accompanied his adopted parents to New Mexico where they settled in Santa Fé in June 1694. Three years later, Bernardino was listed in the Valle household as a huerfano, an orphan, in the May 1697 record of settlers who received livestock from Governor Vargas. According to this record, the Valle family maintained their residency in Santa Fé and did not join the other México City colonists who founded the villa of Santa Cruz.

At the age of 19-21, Bernardino was married at Santa Fé on 8 February 1705 to his first wife, Tomása Martín González, daughter of Hernán Martín Serrano and Joséfa de la Ascensión González, using the name Bernardino de Sena y Valle, and stated that he was born in Tezcuco of unknown parents, and was 18 years old. Yet when he made his last will at the age of fifty-three, he gave his parent's names as Agustín de Sena and María Ynez de Amparano of Mexico City.

This particular marriage secured his social status among the elite of Santa Fé, using this to his advantage and success. On June 2, 1710, Sena bought farm land belonging to Andrés Montoya and his wife Antonia Lucero de Godoy for the sum of thirty pesos which was located in Santa Fé on the other side of the river. In this same year, his wife's grandmother, Doña Sebastiána de Mondragón, gave Sena a house in Santa Fé with a lot and an orchard as a dowry for his marriage to Tomása; it was the same house which she occupied. There is also a record of Sena buying additional Santa Fé land in 1723.

Bernardino was a blacksmith, rancher, and land owner. He operated a blacksmith shop in Santa Fé that he left to his son upon his death. Sena also owned two houses, both located in Santa Fé. The first house was that which had belonged to Sebastiána de Mondragón, the grandmother of Tomása Martín González. The second house consisted of two stories with nine rooms and a porch on the lower level and seven rooms and a hall on the upper level. To the south of this house was a fenced field in which Sena grew corn. Also, next to the house was a small orchard with apricot and peach trees. This property had corrals and stables for the horses on the east side. It was likely that Sena's blacksmith shop was also on his property that was located south of the Santa Fé River, the river being the northern boundary of his land.

Bernardino de Sena was a prosperous individual and a prominent member of the local church community of Santa Fé. He and his wives were godparents to numerous children, including orphans. Specifically, he and Doña Manuela Roybal raised four orphan children who were acknowledged in Sena's will as: Santiago; Baltazar; José (el Coyote); and Marìa de los Dolores. Sena was also an active member of several religious societies. He was the mayordomo of the Society of the Blessed Sacrament and treasurer of the Holy Places of Jerusalem, as well as a member of the Third Order of San Francisco.

When he died on 11 Nov 1765, he was buried in the San Miguel Mission Chapel and vested in a Franciscan habit. His first wife, Tomása , was buried in the Conquistadora chapel on 10 Feb 1727. His second wife was also buried there in 1 May 1778.

Bernardino de Sena was buried in San Miguel Mission underneath the altar. In 2002 while installing heating pipes under the floor of the church, construction workers happened across his body. Although Bernardino had long since become a skeleton, the habit in which he was clothed was in excellent condition! Bernardino was reinterred after the construction was completed.