Alberto del Canto

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Alberto del Canto (born as: Alberto do Canto e Dias de Vieira ), (* 1547 in Terceira (island) in the Azores ; † 1611 in Saltillo , Mexico ) was a Portuguese conquistador in Spanish service. He is considered the founder of Saltillo.

Life

Alberto do Canto was born in the Azores. His ancestors on his father's side were originally from England and were called Kent . A Lord John of Kent had come to Spain with the English army and had taken a Portuguese Jewess as his wife. The children called themselves Canto, a Portuguese variant of the name . His parents were Sebastião Martins do Canto and Maria Dias Vieira.

Alberto do Canto went to America in 1562 and joined the conquistador Francisco de Ibarra on his conquest of Zacatecas . He got his name in the Hispanic version del Canto . As part of the development of Nueva Vizcaya (Mexico) , he founded several settlements in 1577, including San Gregorio (Cerralvo), Santa Lucía (on the site of today's Monterrey ) and also Saltillo in today's state of Coahuila , where he worked as Alcalde (German: Mayor) officiated.

Canto persecuted the local Chichimec Indians and made them work as slave labor in the region's mines. In 1579 the Inquisition charged him with this (and with other less serious charges); but he was not accused of crypto-judaism . Apparently his close connection with Ibarra helped him. At the same time, the inquisitors persecuted other descendants of Portuguese Jews (such as the family of Luis de Carvajal y de la Cueva ) very severely.

In 1586 Canto married Estefania de Montemayor, the daughter of Diego de Montemayor and Juana Porcalla. The two had five children: Alberto, Elvira, Miguel, Diego and María.

In 1607 he took part in an expedition against rebellious Indians.

In 1610, Diego Montemayor discovered that Canto had a love affair with his wife Juana Porcalla (Canto's own mother-in-law). Montemayor killed his wife in anger and swore to kill Canto too. But that didn't happen, instead Diego de Montemayor fled to the undeveloped north of the country.

Canto died a little later, in 1611, in Saltillo.

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personal data
SURNAME Canto, Alberto del
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Canto e Dias de Vieira, Alberto
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Portuguese conquistador in New Spain
DATE OF BIRTH 1547
PLACE OF BIRTH Terceira (island) , Azores
DATE OF DEATH 1611
Place of death Saltillo , Mexico