Martin del Barco Centenera
Martín del Barco Centenera (Logrosán, Cáceres, 1535 - 1602?), Spanish cleric of Extremaduran origin who actively participated in the conquest and colonization of the Río de la Plata region.
He is especially remembered for being the author of the "historical poem" (as he himself calls it) Argentina and conquest of the Río de la Plata with other events in the kingdoms of Peru, Tucumán and the State of Brazil, in which the place name " appears for the first time;Argentine" to name this region.
Biography
A man of the Church and a poet, Martín del Barco Centenera was born in Logrosán (Cáceres) in 1535. The son of wealthy farmers, he was a diligent student who wanted to pursue a career in the Church and went to Salamanca to properly prepare himself. He obtained a bachelor's degree in theology; This is at least what Hernando de Montalvo affirms, when declaring in an Information of 1593 that he saw the title two or three times, although there is no record in the records of the Spanish university. Induced by the Lascasian missionary thought and driven by his emotional curiosity, he wanted to know the conquering reality and the indigenous tribulations in his natural environment; in Madrid he obtained the appointment of Archdeacon of the Cathedral of Asunción in Paraguay and embarked for America as chaplain in the army of the Adelantado del Río de la Plata Juan Ortiz de Zárate "with servants, well treated and like a man of lustre& #3. 4;. After almost two years of navigation, he arrived at the Río de Plata basin at the end of 1573. Having organized the lodging of the people and accommodated the camp, he marched to the city of Asunción, today the capital of the Republic of Paraguay.
Soul Conqueror
He accompanied the expedition of Captain Ruy Díaz Melgarejo to spiritually assist the troops and take up arms when it was necessary to defend themselves against indigenous attacks. He learned Guaraní and, beginning with the island of Martín García, he took part in various exploratory expeditions and in the conversion of numerous indigenous people; when the Adelantado Ortiz de Zárate died in 1576 and was temporarily replaced by Diego de Mendieta, he left this position, apparently because there was a certain tension between Mendieta and Martín del Barco born of old quarrels or misunderstandings (he was prosecuted as a conspirator the first year of government Mendieta River Plate, in 1576). Del Barco did not want to continue providing his spiritual assistance to the troops and went to the diocese of Chuquisaca, where his old friend Bishop Granero de Ávalos ruled, whom he met in Extremadura when he was in Plasencia (Cáceres). Granero de Ávalos appointed him chaplain of the Royal Audience of Charcas and, later, vicar of the Potosí area, and he settled in Porco.
Council of Lima
Promoted by the Archbishop of Lima, Fray Jerónimo de Loayza, the first two Lima councils were held in 1551 and 1567 and, as Fray Jerónimo died in 1575, his successor in the archiepiscopal chair, Fray Toribio de Mogrovejo, convened the third in 1582. Accompanying his friend, Bishop Granero de Ávalos, Martín del Barco attended this council as secretary and, during its celebration, had differences of opinion and even clashes with Fray Toribio de Mogrovejo, in the sense that he took sides with those who defended softening certain aspects of church discipline. When the council ended, he was appointed commissioner of the Holy Office in Cochabamba, in addition to holding the position of vicar in Chuquisaca thanks to his friend, Bishop Granero de Ávalos. He actively helped put down a mestizo uprising that was to break out in Asunción simultaneously with the one in Santa Fe.
Prosecution for conduct
His behavior in Cochabamba apparently left a lot to be desired. He was accused and sentenced with the deprivation of his inquisitorial office by the visitor Dr. Juan Ruiz de Prado on August 14, 1590. The charges were having published edicts in Oropesa and Cochabamba, treating their neighbors as Jews and Moors, and having exercised revenge against his personal enemies through the application of the inquisitorial authority that his position conferred on him. And, in addition to being accused of these infamous factions, he added other charges for having been seen drunk, for engaging in commerce, for having had illegal relationships in Lima, and for living in a cohabitation with a married woman. The file was signed in Lima by the witnesses Lamberto Polanco, Francisco Rosel and Juan Sarabia before the notary public Juan Martínez de Mecolaeta.
He was fined 250 pesos and disqualified from holding positions in the Holy Office. The sentence is in the National Historical Archive of Spain (Inquisition, leg. 1640, exp. 2). He returned to Asunción, where he exercised the government of the Church for a short time. Appointed procurator of Buenos Aires before the Court of 1594, he definitively returned to Spain.
Stay in Portugal and composition of his epic
He settled in Lisbon (Portugal) as chaplain to Viceroy Cristóbal de Moura, Marquis of Ciudad Rodrigo. There he published his poem La Argentina (1602) and died shortly thereafter. The poetic merit of this heroic poem is low, like that of most of the American epics composed at this time, except La Araucana, by Alonso de Ercilla, which, in any case, is much earlier; however, its historical and documentary value is considerable. It describes almost a quarter of a century of Spanish efforts to colonize what would eventually become Argentina and its bordering lands in which it was an eyewitness and, therefore, fills a considerable gap in the knowledge of the history of that period., in another worse known form. It also alludes to the piracies of Francis Drake and Thomas Cavendish and to the important events during the government of Viceroy Toledo in Peru. Several of the violent earthquakes of the time are also mentioned and described, although not always exactly in terms of dates.
Works
- Argentina and Conquista del Río de la Plata: with other acaecimientos of the kings of Peru, Tucumán, and state of Brazil, Lisbon: Pedro Crasbeeck, 1602.