Juan Ortiz de Matienzo
Juan Ortiz de Matienzo was a Spanish colonial judge and a member of the first Real Audiencia in the New World, that of Santo Domingo, in 1512. From December 9, 1528 until January 9, 1531, he was a member of the First Audiencia of Mexico City, which was the governing body of New Spain during that period.
The first Real Audiencia dates from 1371 in Valladolid, Castile. It served as a court of appeals. In the 1490s several other audiencias were set up in metropolitan Spain. The first such court in the Spanish Empire outside of Spain was established October 15, 1511 in Santo Domingo, in what is now the Dominican Republic.
The first oidores (judges) of the Audiencia of Santo Domingo were Marcelo de Villalobos, Ortiz de Matienzo and Lucas Vázquez de Ayllón. Ortiz was related to two other high-ranking officials in Santo Domingo. His uncle Sancho de Matienzo was treasurer of the Casa de Contratación, and his cousin Domingo de Ochandiano was in charge of the accounting office and served as temporary treasurer.[1]
The Audiencia's initial, geographically restricted jurisdiction was extended in 1528 to other Spanish possessions in the New World, including New Spain.[2]
The Audiencia of Santo Domingo was very corrupt. Ayllón, Villalobos and Ortiz were apparently the objects of a juicio de residencia (grievance) proceeding in 1516, which exposed extraordinary corruption within the oligarchy that ruled the island.[3]
After the conquest of New Spain by Hernán Cortés, the colony had been governed by a , often violent, arbitrary and exploitative of the Indigenous. Hoping to establish a more orderly and just government (and perhaps also to reduce the authority of Cortés), on December 13, 1527 the metropolitan government of Charles V in Burgos named a Real Audiencia to take over the government of New Spain. This consisted of a president and four oidores (judges). The president was Nuño Beltrán de Guzmán and the oidores were Ortiz de Matienzo, Diego Delgadillo, Diego Maldonado and Alonso de Parada.
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