This volume concerns the men who accompanied Sebastián de Belalcázar from Popayán on his expedition to the North Sea, but who remained in New Granada to colonize the lands of the Muiscas. In the historiographical tradition of Mario Góngora, James Lockhart, and Carmen Gómez, Avellaneda aims to identify the conquistador colonists, analyze them prosopographically, and then assess their social, economic, and political contributions. To complete his mission, he worked the archives of Spain and Colombia and consulted the abundant published documentation, making special use of the accounts left by the several chroniclers.
Out of a possible 70 to 90 conquistadores, Avellaneda has managed to identify 62, along with 8 Indian or mestizo companions, including 5 women. The individual biographies of these people take up more than two-thirds of the text. The prosopographic analysis produces no real surprises, except perhaps that 86 percent could at least sign their names, although Belalcázar apparently could not. The average age of 29 was high but, as one might expect for this group, the participants were experienced, averaging six years’ residence in America. Nearly all were natives of Andalucía, Extremadura, or the two Castiles. None of the Spanish could claim nobility, although a small number had assumed the status of hijodalgo notorio by reputation.
Avellaneda analyzes various dimensions of the colonization process. He assesses Belalcázar’s contribution to the founding of Santa Fe de Bogotá and identifies the cities established by his followers, including Vélez, Tunja, Neiva, Tocaima, and Pamplona. The author lists consorts of the conquistadores, both wives and mistresses, and those who acquired encomiendas or eventually held offices in the municipalities and the royal administration. He also briefly discusses other occupations.
Avellaneda has meticulously assembled an impressive amount of biographical data on one of the groups that undertook the subjugation and exploitation of inland New Granada. In so doing, he has added to our growing understanding of the process of Spanish conquest and colonization in America.
