Cristóbal de la Cerda y Sotomayor

Cristóbal de la Cerda y Sotomayor (* around 1585 in Mexico City , Mexico ; † after 1638 ) was a Spanish lawyer who temporarily served as governor of Chile in 1620/1621 .

Life

Origin and career in Europe

Cerda was born in New Spain , now Mexico. His family was among the first conquistadors in the New World. However Cristobal de la Cerda came at an early age back to Europe and studied in Seville and at the prestigious University of Salamanca Law . After completing his studies, he stayed at the university for ten years and was its rector three times .

At the Real Audiencia of Seville he worked as treasurer and general commissioner for the expulsion of the Moors from Andalusia . The Council of India had proposed him several times for overseas offices and in 1604 he was offered the office of Oidor in Santo Domingo , which he then swapped for the same position at the Real Audiencia of Chile .

Cerda's journey to Chile was accompanied by serious obstacles: On the crossing to America, Cerda fell into the hands of English corsairs and was only released again on payment of a ransom of 24,000 ducats raised by his wife, Sebastiana de Avendaño. In South America he fell very seriously ill in Lima , and it was questionable whether he would ever get to Santiago de Chile alive . His illness lasted for a year and it made him numb.

Term of office in Chile

He reached Santiago on March 27, 1619 and found the administration and administration of justice there at the Real Audiencia of Chile due to the death of all Oidores . With the help of other officials who had come with him, he resumed office operations. When the governor Lope de Ulloa y Lemos died in Concepción in December 1620 , he appointed Cerda as his interim successor.

During his brief tenure, the Mapuche under Chief Lientur rose against the Spanish occupiers. Another milestone was the abolition of the servicios personales , the compulsory labor that the native Indians had to do. The viceroy had decided to convert this duty to work, which often resulted in exploitation and abuse, into a payment of money. In contrast to his predecessor in office, Cerda set about implementing this decree quickly.

He remained in office as governor until the viceroy's successor Pedro Osores de Ulloa from Peru arrived in Chile in November 1621 . After that he acted again as an oidor.

After the end of his tenure, Cristóbal de la Cerda traveled back to Lima, where he wrote a detailed report on his tenure to the Spanish court in December 1638.

literature

• José Toribio Medina : Diccionario Biográfico Colonial de Chile . Imprenta Elziviriana, Santiago, Chile 1906, p. 197–203 (Spanish, memoriachilena.cl [PDF; accessed June 15, 2010]).
• Diego Barros Arana : Historia General de Chile . tape 4 . Editorial Universitaria, Santiago de Chile 2001, p. 112–125 (Spanish, memoriachilena.cl [accessed June 10, 2010] First edition: 1886).