Alonso de Alvarado

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Alonso de Alvarado was a conquistador and knight of the Order of Santiago. He fought against the hosts of Quizo Yupanqui that were besieging Lima in 1536, against Diego de Almagro in 1537 and at the Battle of Las Salinas in 1538. He later fought at Chupas and Jaquijahuana.

Alonso de Alvarado was a Spanish conqueror of Extremadurian origin, he was born at the beginning of the XVIth century. After a period in Mexico under the orders of Hernán Cortés, he then joined the campaign of Francisco Pizarro. In a little time he turned into a man others had confidence in and they entrusted him with various campaigns of exploration, conquest and the foundation of cities.

Alonso de Alvarado was the precursor of the expeditions that penetrated Amazonía: he departed from Trujillo, Peru and, crossing the Andes, came in 1535 to the land of the Chachapoyas, where a few years later the city that today is the capital of the department of the Amazon was founded.

There counts the chronicler Pedro Cieza of León on the first foundation of the city of Chachapoyas:

" In five days of September, year of the birth of our thousand five hundred thirty eight-year-old mister Ihsu Christo, next to sixty espamoles under the control of captain Alonso de Alvarado they met in [...] " Xalca " and realizxaron the first funbdación of Chachapoyas ".-Pedro Cieza of León

In the above mentioned foundation there was present captain Luis Valera, father of the jesuíta chachapoyano Blas Valera, of whose chronicles the Inca Garcilaso de la Vega nourished for the description of the Tawantinsuyo in his " Real Comments of the Incas ".

In Chachapoyas, Alvarado had knowledge of the fabulous treasures that a legendary city was keeping in the thickness of the forest, the mythical "El Dorado" and from there he organized new expeditions that mended the High Cashew and that came up to grounds of the lay-brothers, next to Moyobamba.

[edit] Civil Wars in Peru

Alvarado also took part in the civil wars that faced Diego de Almagro and Francisco Pizarro. He was made a prisoner by Almagro in 1537 but he managed to escape. Later with the followers of Pizarro and in support of his allegiance to the king, Alvarado defeated the followers of Almagro in the Battle of Las Salinas in 1538.

For order of Francisco Pizarro, he looked in 1539, the ideal place for the foundation of a situated city on the halfway between Lima and the Cusco. This way, along with Francisco de Cárdenas, it took part in the foundation of Huamanga.

Avenging the death of his father, Diego de Almagro II, "El Mozo" (The Lad), killed Francisco Pizarro in 1541. In the following year, the governor Cristóbal Vaca de Castro, allied to the Alonso de Alvarado, defeated "El Mozo" in the battle of Chupas. The loyalty and the merits of Alvarado were honored by Carlos I of Spain who he named a member of the Order of Santiago and Marshall of Peru.

In April, 1548, Alvarado had to prove again the allegiance to the Crown fighting against the rebellious younger brother of Pizarro, Gonzalo. Under the control of Pedro de la Gasca, he won the Battle of Jaquijaguana, but this victory did not calm the many discontented Spanish settlers opposed to the increasing control of the envoys of the Spanish court, and some years later a group of them, led by Francisco Hernández Girón, revolted. Sent to fight them, Alvarado was defeated in the Battle of Chuquinga and he fled to Lima, where he died in 1556.

Chachapoyas was, from his foundation, a city - port of that numerous expeditions that left for the forest. The legend of "El Dorado" inspired the thirst for wealth of the first Spanish explorers. Although the enthusiasm for the tasty reward was commanding his sleep, his companies met frustadas for unsuspected enemies: the famine, the illnesses, the Indians and the forest itself.

"El Dorado" described from the imaginary one of the conqueror, is a city which streets and temples are covered of gold and he keeps, in his constructions and squares, made pieces of massive gold. Sometimes he was looked to the north, from Chachapoyas; others, from Quillabamba; in other occasions, some more recent explorers located his track (that later they "lost") in the central forest and inclusive in Colombia. Nevertheless, this golden legend opened the doors for the initial colonization and evangelización of some of the most extensive and remote regions of South America.