Gaspar Pérez de Villagrá

Gaspar Pérez de Villagrá (1555–1620) was a captain and legal officer in the Juan de Oñate expedition that first colonized Santa Fe de Nuevo México in 1598. Between 1601 and 1603, he served as the Alcalde mayor of the Guanacevi mines in what is now the Mexican state of Durango. He is better known for his authorship of Historia de la Nueva México, published in 1610.

He was born in Puebla de Los Angeles, New Spain. His father, Hernan Peréz de Villagrá was a Spaniard while his mother's identity remains unknown. He received the opportunity to study in Europe and received a bachelor of letters degree from the University of Salamanca in the early 1570s, where he studied Greek and Roman historians and rhetoricians after which he returned to New Spain.

Known not only as one of the early chroniclers of the conquest of the Americas but as one of the forerunners of Latino literature in the United States for his epic poem Historia de la Nueva México, Gaspar Pérez de Villagrá was born in Puebla de Los Ángeles (near México city) in 1555. His father, Hernan Pérez de Villagrá, was a Spaniard from Campos de Villagrán. Although Gaspar Pérez de Villagrá was creole by birth, his generation of Spaniards born in the New World did not feel any less Spanish than those born in Spain. Little is known about his youth or his early adulthood. He was, however, part of the small group of privileged creoles who studied in Spain, obtaining his degree from the University of Salamanca. It is not known when Pérez de Villagrá returned to New Spain, but it must have been prior to his association with Don Juan de Oñate, in 1596. He was made captain and legal officer of Juan de Oñate’s expedition into New Mexico.

In 1579 an Indian captive, held in Santa Bárbara, spoke of big cities beyond the Chihuahua desert. The news reached the Franciscan Friar Agustín Rodríguez, who conveyed the news to the viceroy. This was the beginning of a series of expeditions that would lead to Oñate’s request to conquer and govern New México in 1595. His request for the expedition was approved in 1598 by the viceroy.

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