Juan de Oñate
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Don Juan de Oñate y Salazar (1552 – 1626) was a Spanish explorer, colonial governor of the New Spanish (present day Mexico) province of New Mexico, and founder of various settlements in the present day Southwest of the United States.
Oñate was born in the New Spanish city of Zacatecas to Spanish colonists, he began his career as an Indian fighter in the northern frontier region of New Spain. He married Isabel de Tolosa Cortés Moctezuma, granddaughter of Hernán Cortés, the conqueror of the Aztec Triple Alliance, and great granddaughter of the Aztec Emperor Moctezuma Xocoyotzin.
In 1595 he was ordered by Philip II to colonize the upper Rio Grande (Río Bravo del Norte) valley (explored in 1540 by Francisco Vásquez de Coronado). His stated objective was to spread Roman Catholicism and establish new missions. He began the expedition in 1598, fording the Rio Grande at the present-day Ciudad Juárez–El Paso crossing in late April. That summer his party continued up the Rio Grande to present-day northern New Mexico, where he encamped among the Pueblo Indians. He founded the province of Santa Fe de Nuevo México and became the province's first governor. Gaspar Pérez de Villagrá, a captain of the expedition, chronicled Oñate’s conquest of New Mexico’s indigenous peoples in his epic Historia de la Nueva México (1610).
Oñate soon gained a reputation as a stern ruler of both the Spanish colonists and the indigenous people. He defeated Ácoma Pueblo after twelve of his soldiers looking for provisions who had been invited to enter the Pueblo were ambushed and slain. In the court trial that followed, the sentence imposed on the pueblo was the amputation of one foot of each male over 25 years of age.
In 1606, Oñate was recalled to Mexico City for a hearing into his conduct. After finishing plans for the founding of the town of Santa Fe, he resigned his post and was tried and convicted of cruelty to both Indians and colonists. He was banished from the "kingdom" of New Mexico but on appeal was cleared of all charges. Eventually Oñate went to Spain, where the king appointed him head of mining inspectors for all of Spain. He died in Spain in 1626. He is sometimes referred to as "the Last Conquistador."
Oñate is honored by most Anglo-Americans and Spanish Americans for his exploratory ventures, but is vilified by many others for his cruelty to the Indians of Acoma Pueblo. In the Oñate Monument Visitors Center northeast of Española on New Mexico highway 68 is the 1991 bronze statute dedicated to the man. In 1998 New Mexico celebrated the 400th anniversary of his arrival, but that same year individuals opposed to the statue cut off the statue's right foot and left a note saying, "Fair is fair." The sculptor, Reynaldo Rivera, recast the foot but the seam is still visible. Some commentators suggested leaving the statue maimed as a symbolic reminder of the foot-mutilating incident.
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