Vasco de Quiroga

Vasco de Quiroga (1470-78 – March 14, 1565) was the first bishop of Michoacán, Mexico and one of the judges (oidores) in the second Audiencia that governed New Spain from January 10, 1531 to April 16, 1535.

Coming from a background as a lawyer and a judge he was appointed to be a judge in the second Audiencia after the first Audiencias failure. As an oídor he took a strong interest in restoring order to the Michoacán area which had been ravaged by rebellions and unrest. He employed a strategy of congregating indigenous populations into congregated Hospital-towns called Republicas de Indios, organized after principles derived from Thomas More's Utopia. The purpose of this policy was to make the dispersed indigenous populations easier to control and instruct in Christian values and lifestyles. He established two such hospitals: Santa Fé de México close to the town of Tacuba in the Valley of Mexico, and Santa Fé de la Laguna close to Pátzcuaro, Michoacán.

Because of his reputation as a protector of the Indians, Vasco de Quiroga is venerated as a saint in some communities in Michoacan to this day.

Vasco de Quiroga was born into a noble family in Madrigal de las Altas Torres, Castile. His family was of Galician origin. His brother Álvaro became the father of Gaspar de Quiroga y Vela, later Cardenal of Toledo. Traditionally his birth year has been given as 1470, because of a tradition that he was 95 at his year of death. Recent biographers prefer the later date around 1478, because of evidence from Quiroga's own hand that he was 60 in 1538.

De Quiroga studied law and later theology. He studied canon law, probably in Valladolid. He worked as a letrado - a royal jurist in southern Spain and as a judge in Oran in Algeria from ca. 1520 - 1526. In North Africa he oversaw cases of corruption and disputes between the locals and the Spanish conquistadors. Returning from Africa he stayed a while with the royal court, where documents have him in 1528. He certainly had powerful connections such as a friendship with Juan Bernal Díaz de Luco who was a member of the Council of the Indies, and with the Cardinal of Toledo Juan Tavera. This was probably the reason that he was offered a position as oídor (judge) in the second Audiencia of New Spain when the Council of Indies had to dismiss the first in 1530. The president of this second Audiencia was Bishop Sebastián Ramírez de Fuenleal, and the other members were Quiroga, Juan de Salmerón, Alonso de Maldonado and Francisco Ceinos. They began governing in Mexico City in 1531.

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