The Last Conquistador : Juan De Oänate and the Settling of the Far Southwest

This book chronicles the life and frontier career of Don Juan de Oñate, the first colonizer of the old Spanish Borderlands. Born in Zacatecas, Mexico, in the mid-sixteenth century, Don Juan was the prominent son of an aristocratic silver-mining family. In 1598, in his late forties, Oñate led a formidable expedition of settlers, with wagons and livestock, on an epic march northward to the upper Rio Grade Valley of New Mexico. There he established the first European settlement west of the Mississippi, launching a significant chapter in early American history. In his activities he displayed qualities typical of Spain’s sixteenth-century men of action; in his career we find a summation of the motives, aspirations, intentions, strengths, and weaknesses of the Hispanic pioneers who settled the Borderlands. Juan de Oñate (1552-1626) was born in Zacatecas, Mexico to Cristóbal and Doña Catalina de Salazar y de la Cadena de Oñate. Both of his parents were originally from Spain. Cristóbal was of Basque ancestry and Doña was from southern Spain. The de Önates were a wealthy and powerful family in Zacatecas and Juan used the family's prominence to his advantage. In 1598 Juan led a large expedition of settlers into the upper Rio Grande Valley of New Mexico. He became the first governor of New Mexico, an administration that was filled with successes and failures and ultimately brought disgrace to Juan. In his final years he traveled to Spain and was able to retrieve some of the prestige he had known. He died in Spain while acting as mining inspector for all of Spain Chronicles the life and frontier career of Don Juan de Onate, a colonizer of the old Spanish borderlands. Born in Zacatecas, Mexico, in the mid-16th century, Don Juan, as a young man, led campaigns against the Chichimeca Indians, discovered mines and founded new towns. ON the morning of September 21, 1595, Don Juan de Onate y Salazar hurried through the streets of Mexico City, headed for the viceregal palace and the most important meeting he had ever faced.