Pedro de Alvarado
Pedro de Alvarado y Contreras was born in Badajoz, Spain at around 1495, he was a Spanish conquistador.
Pedro de Alvarado travelled to Hispaniola in 1510 and took part in the expedition sent from Cuba to Yucatán in 1518, and returned full of stories of the wealth and splendour of Moctezuma II's empire.
In 1519 he travelled as the chief lieutenant and second in command to Hernán Cortés who was in charge of the expedition aiming for the conquest of Mexico. Alvarado acted as Cortés's principal officer on the first occupation of the Aztec capital city of Tenochtitlán and was left in command of the forces at Tenochtitlan when Cortés had to defend himself against attackers. As a result, Alvarado was in charge during one of the worst massacres in the history of the conquest of the New World. This took place in the Main Temple of Tenochtitlán, Mexico in1520. Moctezuma II asked permission to celebrate Toxcatl, but once the festivities started, Alvarado interrupted the celebration, killing the most prominent people of the Aztec upper classes.
The Spaniards have always claimed they interrupted a human sacrifice, the Aztec version has it that it was a deliberate attempt to weaken the ruling elite to make conquest easier and that the Spanish soldiers were inflamed by the sight of so much gold in the temple décor and the ornaments worn to celebrate the festival.
When the Spaniards had to retire before the Mexican uprising, Alvarado led the rear-guard and the ‘Salto de Alvarado’ - a long leap with the use of his spear, by which he saved his life, like a pole vault - became famous, although this now appears to be a legend, rather than a true fact of the battle.
Sent out by Hernán Cortés with 120 horsemen, 300 footsoldiers and several hundred Cholula and Tlascala auxiliaries, he was engaged in the conquest of the highlands of Guatemala from 1523 to 1527. During this period he met the brave Tecan Uman, a warrior chief whose first sight of mounted men so confused him that he struck at Alvarado’s horse, rather than the man, believing them to be one huge creature, and was killed before he could strike again.
Pedro de Alvarado led the first effort by Spanish forces to extend their dominion to the future El Salvador in 1424 but Spanish efforts were resisted by the indigenous people known as the Pipil and their Mayan speaking neighbours. Led by a war leader calls Atlacatl, who has some of the attributes of our own Robin Hood, the indigenous people defeated the Spaniards and forced them to withdraw to Guatemala, which meant further expeditions were needed to bring the Pipil under Spanish control.
In 1534 Alvarado heard tales of the riches of Peru, headed south to the Andes and attempted to bring the province of Quito under his rule. When he arrived he found the land already held by Francisco Pizarro's lieutenant Sebastian de Belalcazar. The two forces of Conquistadors almost came to blows, but Pizarro paid Alvarado to leave.
Alvarado’s cruelty made his governorships harder than they needed to be. He was constantly having to defend himself against rebellions. It’s ironic that during the battle to suppress a major revolt by the Mixtón natives of the Nueva Galicia region of Mexico in 1541, he took the injury that led to his death. After an unsuccessful assault on a mountain fortress, Alvarado was leading a retreat when he was crushed by a horse that lost its footing, meaning that his life was saved by one horse and lost to another. He died a few days later, on July 4, 1541, and was buried in the church at Tiripetio.
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