Luis de Carvajal y de la Cueva

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Luis de Carvajal y de la Cueva , (* around 1540 in Mogadouro , Portugal , † 1591 in Mexico City ) was a Spanish conquistador of Portuguese origin who led the settlement of Nuevo León and was the first governor of this province.

Life

Origin and youth

Carvajal came from a family of Portuguese Jews . His parents Gaspar de Carvajal and Francisca de León had converted to the Christian faith . His parents took him to neighboring Spain, where he learned the Spanish language.

In Europe

For the Portuguese crown he went to the Cape Verde Islands for three years , where he worked for the financial administration and as an accountant in the local slave trade . He then settled in Seville, Spain, as a wine and grain trader and established contacts with business people who were active in the American trade. In 1565 he married Guiomar de Ribera, the daughter of a Portuguese slave trader.

First stay in Mexico

A loss-making grain business prompted him to travel to the New World himself in 1567 to make up for his losses. He sailed in the rank of admiral on his own ship in the Spanish fleet.

He was appointed Alcalde (Mayor) of Tampico . He built a hacienda for raising cattle in Pánuco .

In autumn 1568 he arrested a group of English castaways who had landed on the coast of Tamaulipas off Veracruz after a sea battle with the Spaniards . Thereupon Viceroy Martín Enríquez de Almansa sent him a troop of Spanish soldiers and instructed him to establish and secure a road between Pánuco and the mines of Mazapil . The area was made unsafe at that time by Indians who had their retreat north of the Río Grande ; In the course of punitive expeditions, Carvajal and his soldiers were probably the first Spaniards to set foot in what is now Texas .

In 1578 the Viceroy Carvajal called to Mexico City. He was accused of systematically capturing and enslaved Indians. Witnesses testified in his favor, but Carvajal traveled quickly back to Europe.

Plans to develop northern Mexico

As early as March 1579, he proposed a plan to the Council of India to expand the coast along the Gulf of Mexico northwards from Tampico and to develop the hinterland with its assumed rich silver deposits. He succeeded in convincing the council and King Philip II , so that he - without prior consultation with the viceroy - received the mandate to develop the "New Kingdom of León" (Spanish: Nuevo Reino de León ) as governor and captain general and pacify.

Carvajal bought a ship and won around a hundred families who wanted to go to the New World as settlers. Most of them came from his relatives or his wife. In June 1580 he sailed to Mexico with the same fleet that brought the new Viceroy Lorenzo Suárez de Mendoza to America.

Development of Nuevo León

From 1581 Carvajal moved northwest from Tampico. The settlers founded Ciudad de León , today's Ciudad Cerralvo and San Luis on the spot where Monterrey is today and Almadén (now Monclova ). As a lieutenant served in his team Diego de Montemayor , who should follow him in the office of governor.

The problem was that the geographical description of Carvajal's territory was imprecise and inconsistent with local conditions. Therefore, areas to which he claimed overlapped with those of other provinces, most notably Nueva Vizcaya . Their representatives filed a lawsuit with the Real Audiencia of Mexico ; there he was also accused of continued slave trade in captured Indians.

Indictment and death

The allegation of the slave trade could not be proven, but far more serious were the allegations that Carvajal's settlers were still secretly practicing Jewish rite ( Judaizantes ). The entire family was turned over to the Inquisition . While Luis de Carvajal revoked all mistakes and was sentenced to six years in exile, his sister Francisca Nuñez de Carvajal and his nephew Luis de Carvajal (el Mozo) died at the stake.

Luis de Carvajal y de la Cueva died in Mexico City prison in 1591 while awaiting his exile.

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personal data
SURNAME Carvajal y de la Cueva, Luis de
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Carbajal y de la Cueva, Luis de (alternative spelling)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Founder and Governor of Nuevo León
DATE OF BIRTH uncertain: around 1540
PLACE OF BIRTH Mogadouro , Portugal
DATE OF DEATH 1591
Place of death Mexico city