Juan de Garay
Juan de Garay (1528-1583) was a Spanish nobleman, explorer, conquistador, and colonial ruler who played an important role in organizing the Atlantic part of South America. He stood out for his performance in the governorate of the Río de la Plata and Paraguay for having been the founder of the city of Santa Fe in 1573 in its first location, for which he was assigned the following year as its lieutenant governor, to become in 1577 in lieutenant governor general of Asunción. Already being governor of the territory since 1578, he founded the city of Buenos Aires in 1580 under the name City of the Trinity, in the place where in 1536 Pedro de Mendoza had installed —without any formality corresponding to a "foundation" for the Spanish criteria—a fort, of ephemeral life, with the name of Real de Nuestra Señora Santa María del Buen Ayre.
Biography until the trip to the Peruvian viceroyalty
Family origin and early years
Juan de Garay would have been born in 1528 in a place to be determined in the northeast of the already unified Crown of Spain. His exact place of birth is controversial: while some sources point to the Biscayan city of Orduña, others point to the municipality of Burgos of Junta de Villalba de Losa. Although both towns are neighbors and both belonged to the crown of Castilla, Orduña was included within the Señorío de Vizcaya. In 1379 King Juan I of Castilla by maternal inheritance also became Lord of Vizcaya and so on from his descendants. Juan de Garay defined himself as "Vizcaíno" and this is how his descendants would express it.No evidence of Garay's baptism has been found in Losa or Orduña.
There are hardly any references to Juan de Garay's childhood. If as to the place of birth there are doubts, there are also as to the year. It is not known for sure when he was really born and it could be between December 1527 and January 1529, and many times the year 1528 appears, more accepted because it is the average of both dates and because it contains that of his anthroponymy, which would be the June 24, since his name was not inherited from his father or from his stepfather, nor from his paternal or maternal grandparents, as was customary within noble lineages.
His mother was Lucía de Mendieta y Zárate (b. Orduña, ca. 1512) and his father was the nobleman Clemente López de Ochandiano y Hunciano (b. Orduña, ca. 1491), a son of noblemen Diego López de Ochandiano and María de Hunciano, but would be raised by his maternal uncle, the lawyer Pedro Ortiz de Zárate y Mendieta (Orduña, ca. 1500 - Lima, 1547), until his mother married Martín de Garay who recognized him as his son, giving him his last name, although Juan de Garay would bear the Ochandiano coat of arms of his true father: "griffin with a border loaded with eight blades".
The version that supports Orduña as the birthplace of Garay says that on October 7, 1535, due to a strong fire in this town, the Garay family had to move to the neighboring town of Villalba de Losa, where his uncle Pedro and his wife Catalina Uribe y Salazar owned other houses, since their palace in that city had burned down.
In the year 1543, when Garay was about 15 or 16 years old, he accompanied his maternal family to the great Viceroyalty of Peru, since his uncle Pedro Ortiz de Zárate had been appointed judge of the Royal Audience of Lima with the new viceroy Blasco Núñez Vela who carried the famous ordinances of Emperor Carlos V, known as New Laws, which he had sanctioned in Barcelona on November 20, 1542 with the aim of improving the treatment and quality of life of the aborigines subjected in America and In addition, he ordered the removal of the parcels from those who had participated in the Pizarrista side during the Peruvian civil war.
Arrival to the Viceroyalty of Peru
Juan de Garay and his maternal family: his uncles Pedro and Catalina, as well as his cousins —the eldest son Pedro Ortiz de Zárate, Ana de Salazar and the youngest Francisco de Uribe— set sail for America on November 3, 1543 from the port of Sanlúcar de Barrameda.
They made a stopover in the Canary Islands, crossed the Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea to arrive on January 10 of the following year at the Indian port of Nombre de Dios in Central America, and later by land they passed to Panama City. For different reasons, the Ortiz de Zárate family delayed their arrival in South America, which they would do through the Pacific Ocean, and they entered Lima on September 10, 1544.
In addition to his uncle who would hold the position of oidor, the newly founded Royal Audience would be made up of: Diego Vásquez de Cépeda, Juan Álvarez and Juan Lissón de Tejada. The future rigidity in the government of Viceroy Núñez Vela due to imperial disposition generated confrontations, which led to a new civil war with the supporters of Gonzalo Pizarro. The young Garay was faithful to his uncle who was on the side of the viceroy and later would actively participate against Pizarro.
In March 1547, his maternal uncle Ortiz de Zárate died, after receiving a visit from his son-in-law Blas de Soto —a uterine brother of Gonzalo Pizarro— who had married his only daughter, Ana de Salazar.
In those civil confrontations Juan de Garay had met the Basque Martín de Robles in his home who, upon the death of his uncle, stayed for a few days in the house of the deceased since the helpless Garay, only nineteen years old, would not know what to do, for which he convinced him to take up arms against the insurgents, and later would become an excellent soldier.
Juan de Garay carried out the La Gasca campaign, in which Captain Robles participated, until the battle of Jaquijahuana or the Sacsahuana valley on April 9, 1548, 25 km from Cuzco.
Campaigns to colonize Tucumán and eastern Charcas
Co-founder and transfers of the city of El Barco
In 1549, Juan de Garay was part of the expedition of Juan Núñez de Prado who had been appointed governor of Tucumán —in present-day Argentina— sent by Pedro de la Gasca who was the president of the Royal Audience of Lima, being the Peruvian viceroy and Marquis of Cañete, Antonio de Mendoza.
Núñez de Prado, who before being governor was the mayor of Potosí, founded in the year 1550 the city of "El Barco I" —the first settlement of the current Argentine city of Santiago del Estero, and where ten years later Zurita founded the city of Cañete—but at the end of May or June 1551 he had it moved to the northwest, in the valleys of the Calchaquí River and it would be known as "El Barco II"—later on the nearby area, towns of ephemeral duration would be founded, for being destroyed by the Calchaquí faction of the Diaguita aborigines, such as "Córdoba del Calchaquí" by Zurita in 1559, "San Clemente de la Nueva Sevilla" by Gonzalo de Abreu y Figueroa in 1577, "Our Lady of Guadalupe" by Felipe de Albornoz in 1630 and the mission of San Carlos around 1638 until around 1660 by the Jesuits and which was reestablished in 1667—this transfer occurred due to jurisdictional problems with the Chilean governor Pedro de Valdivia, who had sent his deputy Francisco de Villag to resolve the situation.
In June 1552, the oidores of the Lima Audience again ordered its transfer to the Juríes region, for which it was settled on the banks of the Río Dulce —now the Argentine province of Santiago del Estero— and thus became known as "El Barco III", although in 1553, Núñez de Prado and some of his men were arrested by Francisco de Aguirre, in the aforementioned population, since it continued to present jurisdiction problems, then the latter would resolve to transfer it to its current location. location, renaming it with the name of "Santiago del Estero del Nuevo Maestrazgo".
Army supplier in the Chilean government
Juan de Garay was not arrested by Aguirre, although he also became governor of Chile, but as a supplier to the army. Núñez de Prado, while imprisoned in those lands, appealed to the viceroy of Peru and by order of the oidores of the Audiencia he was sent to Lima, where he was tried.
After agreeing with Núñez de Prado, the Audiencia in Lima released him and confirmed him as governor of Tucumán by means of a royal provision of February 13, 1555, from which Aguirre had removed him, but in a new expedition in which Juan de Garay accompanied him again, he continued to participate in it even after he disappeared from the political scene and from history.
Trip to Charcas and construction of the port of Arica
In 1556 Garay moved to Potosí, four years before the First Calchaquí War, and again became closely related to his relatives who resided there, especially his other maternal uncle Juan Ortiz de Zárate.
Since this last date, Garay focused his activities in the province of Charcas —present-day Bolivia— where the son of the viceroy and future governor of Chile, García Hurtado de Mendoza, commissioned him to trace a road to the coast of the Pacific Ocean that would allow a more active trade of the "Imperial Villa", and for this purpose, he established the port of Arica, a town that had been officially founded on April 25, 1541 by Lucas Martínez Vegaso, and again served as provider of the army.
Co-founder of Santo Domingo de la Nueva Rioja
In 1557, after the death of Captain Martín Robles, Garay joined with the rank of captain the conquest expedition of Andrés Manso to populate the territories beyond the "Villa de La Plata", and in this way He would assist in the founding of the town of Santo Domingo de la Nueva Rioja, on the left bank of the Condorillos or Parapetí river and near the Bañados del Izozog, which would last about seven years before being destroyed by the Chiriguano aborigines. In This opportunity was that Garay would meet Ñuflo de Chaves who, due to jurisdictional problems with Manso, would delay his work of conquest.
Around 1558, he had returned to marry in the city of Asunción, Paraguay, after confessing to having a three-year-old son of the same name with an aboriginal girl, and where his first daughter was born: María de Garay, in the year 1559.
As for Chaves, he with his 158 soldiers went to the region of the small aborigines, to found on August 1, 1559 a new city that would be called Nueva Asunción or «La Barranca», on the right bank of the river Guapay River that would only last about five years before being destroyed by the Chiriguanos, and its inhabitants moved to a new village 170 km to the east, in what is now known as Santa Cruz la Vieja.
After the confrontation with Manso's men where Garay was located, he and Chaves had marched towards Lima at the end of that year, to claim their respective rights before Viceroy Andrés Hurtado de Mendoza who in 1560 named his son García Hurtado de Mendoza as administrator of the new incorporated region that he would call the Moxos governorate —which included the future Santa Cruz de la Sierra and Chiquitos governorates— at the same time that he appointed Ñuflo de Chávez as his lieutenant who would become the interim governor since he was residing in the government of Chile.
Andrés Manso was not satisfied with the viceregal ruling, so he resisted said orders, being arrested and sent to the town of La Plata, although for a short time since he would escape helped by the mayor and prepare a rebellion with twenty companions, but Garay did not adhere to his cause because he remained loyal to Viceroy Mendoza's disposition.
Co-founder of Santa Cruz de la Sierra in Chiquitania
On February 26, 1561, Garay participated together with Ñuflo de Chaves in the founding of the first Santa Cruz de la Sierra —it was located 14 leagues or about 56 km west-southwest of present-day San José— originally located in the Llanos de Chiquitos, where he was councilor of his town council and was assigned an Indian encomienda.
In this new city mentioned above, he had at least two children from Santa Cruz with his wife: Jerónima and the homonymous Juan de Garay "the Legitimate". In the middle of 1568 he left again for Asunción, taking With him his wife and his three legitimate children, in addition to his natural son of about 13 years of age, for which they had to cross the Chaco Boreal and the warlike territory of the Guaycurúes.
Rioplatense-Paraguayan sheriff and founder of Santa Fe
Appointment as bailiff of the governorate
In 1567 Juan de Garay's maternal uncle, Captain Juan Ortiz de Zárate, was appointed interim adelantado by the viceroy of Peru —since since October 19, 1564 he had been assigned the position of sixth governor of the River de la Plata and Paraguay after dismissing Francisco Ortiz de Vergara— and for which Zárate made Felipe de Cáceres occupy the position of lieutenant from Asuncion who, in turn, appointed Juan de Garay captain, asking him to "bring people to the province of Paraguay".
Juan de Garay had left for Asunción with his family and arrived after about four months, on December 11, 1568, and during the trip he was appointed on December 8 as Alguacil Mayor of the Río de la Plata.
Order to Melgarejo to found Villa Rica in Guairá
Under this position, at the end of the year 1569, he gave the order to Captain Ruy Díaz de Melgarejo to found a city that would be called Villa Rica del Espíritu Santo with the aim of consolidating the Spanish possessions in the areas demarcated by the Treaty de Tordesillas, in addition to suspecting the existence of an important gold mine.
The said captain left on that date from Asunción to Guayrá and once in Ciudad Real he left with 40 men to erect it, and on May 14, 1570, 60 leagues from it, he founded it in its first provisional location, which would be between the sources of the Piquiri and Ivaí rivers and where he ordered the construction of a church and a fortress to later trace the town, and although the gold mines were not found, they did discover an iron mine.
Garay's expedition along the Paraná River
On April 3, 1573, Martín Suárez de Toledo, as interim governor of the Río de la Plata and Paraguay, entrusted Garay with an expedition up the Paraná river whose purpose was to found a city that would facilitate the city of Asunción the exit to the sea and communication with the metropolis. In this way, an expedition made up of 80 young men from the land was organized, in a brig, small boats and horses, with 75 Guaraní natives and 9 Spaniards. It was made up of two groups, one by the Paraná led by Juan de Garay himself and the other by land led by Francisco de Sierra who would travel the left bank of the river, thus avoiding the Chaco forests and taking the carts, cattle, horses and other necessary elements for the foundation.
Garay left Asunción on April 14, 1573, although the one who was going by land did so months before. In addition, Governor Suárez de Toledo had entrusted him with the escort of the caravel San Cristóbal de la Buenaventura captained by Ruy Díaz de Melgarejo and his deputy, Captain Espinosa, where he would take Felipe de Cáceres prisoner to Spain. he had been deposed by Bishop Pedro Fernández de la Torre who was also traveling to officially present the accusation before the Court.
As indicated by the power of Suárez de Toledo, Juan de Garay wore:
[...] many weapons and ammunition and a lot of horses, batons, cattle, plants, seeds, service people, fragua and all other necessary equipment.
The two groups met in a place called «La Punta del Yeso», just in front of present-day Cayastá, advancing together along the San Javier river, then called the Quiloazas river.
Garay decided to disembark very early and chose the southwest bank of the river (where today the ruins of Santa Fe la Vieja are located, 5 km from Cayastá) building a small settlement there. From that place a small exploration expedition set out to find a more suitable place. During these search explorations he coincided with Jerónimo Luis de Cabrera who was also exploring the Paraná and trying to erect a city to support the newly founded Córdoba. As a result of this meeting, Juan de Garay decided to give the category of city to the small settlement, to which he returned on September 30.
Her signature expression: "open doors to the land"
The expression “to open doors to the land”, which Juan de Garay endorsed, was the maxim of the entire Spanish administration in that part of America. With it they wanted to indicate the need to found cities to break the isolation of Asunción on both sides, one downriver opening it to the sea and connecting it with the metropolis, and towards Upper Peru, the political and economic center of the time.
Founder of the city of Santa Fe at its first location
On November 15, 1573, Juan de Garay officially founded the city of Santa Fe in its first location. According to the notary public Pedro E. Espinosa: "Juan de Garay, standing, next to to the “palo rollo”, a symbol of justice and royal power", and made the foundation with the following words:
"I Juan de Garay, Captain of Justice Major in this conquest and population of Paraná and Rio de la Plata... I say that... I melt and seat and name this city of Santa Fe, in this province of Calchines and Mocoretás, it seems to me that in it there are things that are suitable for the perpetuation of that city: water, woods and pastures, fisheries and houses and lands and stays for the neighbors and dwellers of it and distribute them as their majesty sends [...] "Extract from the Act of the Foundation of Santa Fe
The members of the council of the new city were appointed by Garay himself. Among Suárez de Toledo's options for the location of the city was, even, making it in Banda Oriental, either on the banks of the rivers San Juan or San Salvador, or otherwise on San Gabriel Island.
On June 23, 1576, the city would be renamed "Santa Fe de Luyando" by order of the interim governor of the Río de la Plata and Paraguay, Diego Ortiz de Zárate y Mendieta, a cousin of Garay's. Thus, the name changed until it returned to the original "Santa Fe de la Vera Cruz" but this time in the new location.
Regarding this first location of the city, it would only last about 80 years, which is why it is known as “Santa Fe la Vieja”, since it would later be moved a few kilometers to the south for security reasons, due to of the attacks of the guaycurúes. The transfer lasted ten years, since it began on October 5, 1650 and ended around December 1660.
Lieutenant Governor of Santa Fe and Lieutenant General of Asunción
Appointment from Santa Fe and co-founder of the city Zaratina
Once the members of the Santa Fe council were elected, they named Juan de Garay by mutual agreement on March 12, 1574, as lieutenant governor of Santa Fe, a position confirmed by the adelantado Juan Ortiz de Zárate on June 7 of the same year.
In the month of May of this last year, Garay would accompany the Adelantado Juan Ortiz de Zárate to the Banda Oriental and near the mouth of the San Salvador River he would found the city of Zaratina del San Salvador —in the vicinity of the current Uruguayan city of Dolores—with settlers from Santa Fe but would last until its abandonment three years later.
Lieutenant Governor General of Asunción
Once Juan Ortiz de Zárate confirmed the title of advance before the king on July 10, 1569 and returned to the Río de la Plata on October 17, 1572, in November 1573 he arrived with an army on the island San Gabriel where he built a fort but when he was isolated by the resistance of the Charrúa aborigines, Garay would go to his aid in May of the following year and after defeating them in the battle of San Salvador, Zárate could go to the mainland to take office as governor only in the same month from 1574 to 1576, the date on which he would die.
The adelantado had designated to succeed him the person who would marry his daughter Juana Ortiz de Zárate y Yupanqui. While he chose the candidates to marry her, he appointed his nephew Diego Ortiz de Zárate y Mendieta to temporarily occupy the government, a fact that would take place from 1576 to 1577. He, in turn, appointed Luis Osorio as mayor of Asunción.
In January of this last year, after Garay resolved the issue of the depopulation of the "Ciudad Zaratina" whose inhabitants fled to Santa Fe, Córdoba and Tucumán, he headed for Peru since he had been appointed guardian of Juana de Zárate, for which she had to go through this first named city and then through Santiago del Estero. When going to Tucumán, Gonzalo de Abreu y Figueroa, who had left Córdoba, forced him to help him with the foundation of the "City of San Clemente de la Nueva Sevilla" on the ruins of the previous Córdoba de Calchaquí —founded in March 1559. by Juan Pérez de Zurita and destroyed in 1560 during the first war with local aborigines, whose current location is the town of Chicoana— which lasted a few days and after several fights against the Calchaquíes, he refounded it but in another place —in the southeast of the current Rosario de Lerma - but it would also be razed. For the third and last time he would try, although he would also end up destroyed. In March of the same year, Garay was able to get rid of this obligation to be able to continue with his trip, until he reached Lima.
When Mendieta was deposed in Santa Fe due to his excesses and had to leave to travel to Charcas, on the same day, May 3, 1577, he appointed Osorio as his lieutenant, taking charge of the interim government of the Río de la Plata and of Paraguay, from that date until the arrival of the new adelantado. During the management of the latter, the "Ciudad Zaratina de San Salvador" was definitively depopulated, on July 20 of the same year and already occupying his position as mayor of Paraguay again. Asunción would send a troop of 30 arquebusiers to quell the rebellion of the Guarani from the north of Asunce, who were led by the messianic cacique Oberá, but without much result.
Finally, the one chosen to marry Juana de Zárate was Juan Torres de Vera y Aragón, consummated in secret in mid-1577 and for which he would be named the fourth advance, and Juan de Garay his executor, although not could immediately occupy the position of governor of the Río de la Plata and Paraguay, since he was persecuted and arrested by the viceroy Francisco de Toledo who was upset for not having managed to marry his marriage candidate. Garay managed to flee Lima and took refuge in Santa Fe, and finally Torres de Vera would take office on December 3 of the same year. During his government the aforementioned "Ciudad Zaratina de San Salvador" which was attacked by the charrúas, Garay went to his aid, earning him the promotion to lieutenant governor general of all the provinces of the Río de la Plata based in Asunción and also appointed him as his lieutenant.
The unpopularity of the adelantado made the attorney of Asunción, Juan Caballero Bazán, take the claims to the Court of Charcas that were received with favorable reception. In this way, on September 15 of the following year he would be arrested in Charcas and Osorio would remain as his replacement.
Governor of the Río de la Plata and Paraguay
Recognition as governor and colonization of Upper Paraguay
Luis Osorio, who had been named Mendieta's lieutenant when he went to Charcas, immediately handed over the government to Juan de Garay on September 15, 1578, for alleging that he had more rights because he had been named lieutenant by both adelantados when he founded and defend the "Zaratina City of San Salvador".
Once governor, Garay led a campaign in 1579 to the Jejuy or Jejuí region and the Ñuaras or Itatín area —which since January 13, 1596 was the tenure of government of Santiago de Jerez and which would be later the current Brazilian state of Mato Grosso do Sul—and after defeating the cacique Oberá, he decided to found a city in the region near the Xarayes, Jarayes or Gran Pantanal lagoon on the upper Paraguay River.
Order to found Santiago de Jerez by Melgarejo
To achieve his objective, he appointed the lieutenant governor of Guayrá, Captain Ruy Díaz de Melgarejo, who left Asunción in 1580 with 60 soldiers and towards latitude 19ºS, on the eastern or right hand side of the Mbotetey or Miranda, which is an eastern tributary of Paraguay, would found the first city of Santiago de Jerez, although it would be abandoned shortly after by its inhabitants, since the region lacked mines, in addition to having no commercial traffic and being continuously besieged by the Guaycurúes.
Founder of the city of Buenos Aires and death
Asuncean settlers for the second foundation of Buenos Aires
In January 1580, Juan de Garay began preparations for the second foundation of Buenos Aires. It was intended to populate the new city with people from Asunción, for which an edict was promulgated offering land and other grants. 200 Guarani families and 76 settlers signed up. He took everything necessary across the river in the caravel Cristóbal Colón and two brigantines among other smaller ships, an expedition that left on March 9 of the same year. In addition to the settlers there were 39 soldiers. A part of the convoy went by land and left a month before.
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On Sunday, May 29, 1580, Juan de Garay arrived at the mouth of the Riachuelo. He disembarked right in the place where the Adelantado Pedro de Mendoza had done years before and installed a camp; the column traveling overland arrived a month later. By Wednesday, June 11, a small settlement had already been built, somewhat to the north of the previous foundation, which gave rise to the new city of Buenos Aires. That day the founding ceremonies were held. It is important to emphasize a part of the founding act:
... I Juan García Garay, lieutenant of Governador and Captain General and Major and Sheriff Justice in all these provinces, for the very illustrious Juan de Torres de Vera and Aragón, of the Council of his magestad, and his listener in the Royal Audience of the city of La Plata in the Kings of the Pirú, Adelantado..., and instead of the said Mr. Adelantado and Ara The church of which I place its advocation of the Most Holy Trinity... and the so-called commanding city that is established the City of the Trinity.
The founding act and the first city council members of Buenos Aires
The founding act of the new city calls this "City of Trinidad", in memory of its arrival that took place on Holy Trinity Sunday. The port of the same received the name of "Santa María de los Buenos Aires". Ortiz de Zárate had officially named the region "Nueva Vizcaya" in honor of his homeland.
The "tree of justice" or symbol of the city was planted, and as was customary and obligatory in such cases, he brandished the sword in the four directions and cut the earth to mark possession, and They distributed land among the 63 settlers who accompanied him, some of whom were present at the first foundation.
Rodrigo Ortiz de Zárate and Gonzalo Martel de Guzmán were appointed mayors and the Cabildo was formed with six aldermen, one of them being General Alonso de Escobar, at the same time that the coat of arms of the new city was assigned, white square with crowned black eagle, with wings fully unfolded, holding Calatrava's red cross in its right paw. Parcels were also assigned. All of this was recorded in the minutes of the event drawn up by the notary public Pedro de Jerez and three witnesses.
Aboriginal attacks by Tehuelche chief Tabobá
The new foundation was attacked by the natives, commanded by their chief Tabobá, but Garay was warned of the attack by Cristóbal de Altamirano, who was a prisoner of the former, which served to organize the defense. In that attack the attorney Juan Fernández de Enciso killed Tabobá.
In October of that year, Garay returned to Santa Fe and returned to Buenos Aires in February of the following. In the middle of 1581 he went by land to Cabo Corrientes —where the city of Mar del Plata is located today— in search of the mythical “City of the Caesars”.
Development and distribution of land to the first residents
Meanwhile, the lawyer Ruano Téllez who had made a stopover in Vitória in Brazil, where he had married Yomar de Melo, to go with her and her nephew across the Río de la Plata to the homonymous town of La Plata of Nueva Toledo to occupy the position of prosecutor of the Royal Audience of Charcas, they acquired two blocks of land in the name of the young nephew Juan de Melo Coutiño, a Portuguese royal fidalgo, about 10 years old, for when he married and how it would happen ten years later.
In January 1582, Garay arrived in the city of Buenos Aires, after the departure of prosecutor Ruaño who was already traveling northwest —along with his wife and nephew— from where he returned to Santa Fe and then to Asunción, a city where he would begin to see that the new city could move its capital status.
Death
In March 1583, Juan de Garay accompanied Alonso de Sotomayor on the journey from Buenos Aires to Santa Fe. The convoy of boats was made up of 40 men, a Franciscan and some women. On March 20, they got disoriented (among the numerous islands and lagoons of the Paraná River) and entered an unknown lagoon, for which Garay, some of his men, the Franciscan friar and two women decided to spend the night on land, in order to do not sleep uncomfortably aboard the small boat. His camp was attacked by the local Indians, who killed Garay, the Franciscan, one of the women, and 12 of his 40 soldiers.
Although the exact place of those events has not been documented, there are several hypotheses about their location:
- In a lagoon of the islands off the coast of the current city of Baradero, about 200 km north of Buenos Aires.
- In a lagoon on the coast of the current city of San Pedro, about 30 km northwest of Baradero.
- In the lagoon Montiel – a network of lakes within the inter-Aryan islands facing the mouth of the Pavón creek (province of Santa Fe) in the Paraná River – as the historian Manuel María Cervera (1863-1956).
- In the isleñas lagoons near the ruins of the Sancti Spíritus fort, the former Sebastian Caboto fort located at the mouth of the Carcarañá River in the Paraná River, which was destroyed by the indigenous in 1529; according to the Cervera historian.
- In an island lagoon in front of the current city of Coronda (Garay would have unwittingly traced the Coronda River, parallel to the Paraná River).
- In a lagoon facing the coast that would later be called Punta Gorda (about 80 km north of the fort Sancti Spíritus), which is currently occupied by the city of Diamante, in the province of Entre Ríos, about 120 km south of the old location of the village of Santa Fe and about 40 km south of the current city of Santa Fe).
- In the lagoon network opposite the current location of the city of Santa Fe, about 90 km south of the old location of the village of Santa Fe.
The ethnic group of the warriors (“forty Indians who lived around there”) who killed Garay is unknown. Different historians mention
- the Querandíes, but these almost never reached the Paraná River: they were located between the center of the province of Buenos Aires (to the southeast) and the Sierras Grandes de Córdoba (to the northwest), about 300 km from the Paraná River;
- the Minuan, as expressed by Del Barco Centenera—privileged witness—who called them Mañanus.
Marriage and offspring
The hidalgo Juan de Garay Ochandiano y Mendieta Zárate had a premarital relationship with a Chiriguana native and only married once with a Spanish-Extremaduran infanzona:
1) - He was married around 1558 in the city of Asunción in Paraguay with Isabel de Becerra y Mendoza (Cáceres of Castilian Extremadura, ca. 1535-Santa Fe la Vieja, ca. 1608), a sister of Elvira de Becerra y Contreras Mendoza —who was linked to Captain Ruy Díaz Melgarejo, lieutenant governor of Guayrá from 1575 to 1585 and founder of Ciudad Real del Guayrá in 1556, from Villa Rica del Espíritu Santo in 1570 and Santiago de Jerez del Itatín in 1580—both being the daughters of Captain Francisco de Becerra (Cáceres, 1511-costa Mbiaza, 1553) and Isabel de Contreras Mendoza (b. Medellín, ca. 1518), maternal granddaughters of Álvaro de Contreras y Carvajal (b. Badajoz, ca. 1480), warden of the Mérida fortress, and his wife Juana Carrillo de Mendoza.
Therefore, both sisters were maternal great-granddaughters through the female route of Álvaro de Mendoza y Luna, lord of La Torre de Esteban Hambrán since 1502 —whose parents were the second duke Íñigo López de Mendoza and María de Luna y Pimentel— and his wife Teresa Carrillo de Castilla, who in turn was a daughter of Alfonso Carrillo de Acuña and his wife Leonor Álvarez de Toledo y Guzmán, paternal granddaughter of María de Castilla (b. 1400), lady of Mandayona, and her husband Gómez Carrillo de Acuña and paternal great-granddaughter of the infant Diego de Castilla — imprisoned for 55 years in the castle of Curiel de Duero by his uncle Enrique de Trastámara, who was the incipient king of the new dynasty after the first Castilian civil war—and his concubine Isabel de Salazar.
The aforementioned family of Isabel —parents and sister— had arrived in South America in 1550 in the brig La Concepción belonging to Captain Juan de Salazar Espinosa who was the founder of the city of Asunción in 1537, and directed by Mencia Calderón Ocampo "la Adelantada", who, accompanied by the hidalgo Fernando de Trejo y Carvajal, would found in 1553 on the Atlantic coast, the ephemeral Spanish town of San Francisco de Mbiaza —little more a century later it would re-emerge as a Portuguese town—and where the future bishop of Tucumán, Hernando de Trejo y Sanabria, would be born.
Before the marriage, Juan de Garay had confessed to his future wife about the existence of his 3-year-old natural son of the same name, who in response obtained that she herself "wish to raise him to the Castilian custom".
As a result of the marriage between Juan de Garay and Isabel Becerra there were six documented legitimate children:
- Mary of Garay (n. Assumption, 1559) had joined twice in marriage:
- 1) - In the first nupcias on March 6, 1585 in the first city of Santa Fe with General Gonzalo Martel de Cabrera (Cuzco, ca. 1562-Córdoba, March 12, 1599) —son of the advance Jerónimo Luis de Cabrera — who was master of the encomienda de Lagunilla in 1577, the royal alferez, mayor of the second vote of Córdoba in 1585 and From this link between Mary of Garay and Gonzalo of Cabrera there was at least one son: Jerome Louis II of Cabrera and Garay (Córdoba, 1586-ib., 18 June 1662) who was master of the field and the successive governor of the Río de la Plata in 1642, of Chucuito in 1646 and of the Tucumán in 1659 who would join in marriage with his cousin Elizabeth of Save
- 2) - In second nuptials with the captain Pedro García de Arredondo (f. 1618) who was the mayor of Córdoba and later was appointed by the ruler Hernandarias, as lieutenant of the governor of Buenos Aires since the 9th of May 1615, and conceive at least one daughter: Francisca de Mendoza Garay and Arredondo (Santa Fe la Vieja, 1606 - Córdoba, December 1667)
- Jerónima de Garay—or Jerónima de Contreras— (first Santa Cruz de la Sierra, ca. 1563-Santa Fe la Vieja, February 1649), had been baptized into the city of birth, married in 1582 with Hernando Arias de Saavedra "Hernandarias" and conceived three daughters: Jerónima, Isabel and María. At the age of eight, when she was old, she would donate on October 5, 1642 the virgin that was preserved in the convent of Saint Francis. He would testify on October 5, 1643 and in a codicil of February 5 of the year of death, he said that Jerónima made a donation of four hundred strong pesos (3200 real or 400 coins of silver of 8 real) to his nephew Juan de Garay Saavedra who then resided in Spain.
- Juan de Garay "the Legítimo" (first Santa Cruz de la Sierra, ca. 1565-Santa Fe la Vieja, October 1638) had been named on May 1615 by the new governor of those lands — his brother-in-law Hernandarias — as a lieutenant of governor of Santa Fe and had joined in marriage with Juana de Saavedra and Sanabria
- Tomás de Garay and Becerra (Asunción, ca. 1566-ib., between January and mid-July 1608) was a family hidalgo of the Holy Office, appointed as a governer of Asunción in 1586 and in 1592, as well as a lieutenant of governor of Buenos Aires in 1603 and in 1605, and married Juana de Morales of whom there were three children, to later become pregnant in Buenos Aires.
- Ana de Garay (n. Asunción, ca. 1571) married Gonzalo de Luna and Trejo—a nephew of Bishop Hernando of Trejo and Sanabria—so she became acquainted in the city of Santiago del Estero and with whom she was a descendant.
- Cristóbal de Garay (n. Asunción, ca. 1572) was a captain with performance in Santa Fe who would die single.
2) - As a result of a pre-marital union between Juan Garay and an aboriginal woman of unknown name —a daughter of the captive cacique of the Chiriguano or Avá Guarani ethnic group— he had had an illegitimate mestizo son who would be raised with European customs:
- Juan de Garay «the Mozo» (ca. 1555-Buenos Aires, January 30, 1610) that he set with him at the foundation of Buenos Aires and in the first division of land, besides being appointed ordinary mayor of first vote of Buenos Aires in 1604, mayor of the Santa Hermandad in 1605, and in the year 1606 he joined late in marriage with the young Juana de Espíndola and Palomino (Madrid).