Malgarida or Margarita (born 1488) was a 16th-century African
conquistador
Conquistadors (, ) or conquistadores (; ; ) were Spanish Empire, Spanish and Portuguese Empire, Portuguese colonizers who explored, traded with and colonized parts of the Americas, Africa, Oceania and Asia during the Age of Discovery. Sailing ...
a and the concubine and servant of
Diego de Almagro
Diego de Almagro (; – July 8, 1538), also known as El Adelantado and El Viejo, was a Spanish conquistador known for his exploits in western South America. He participated with Francisco Pizarro in the Spanish conquest of Peru. While subduing ...
. She was the former slave of Almagro who freed her on the condition of she becoming his servant-for-life.
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Biography
Knowledge about her early life is scant. At an age of 25 and while she was pregnant, she was purchased in Spain by a man named Juan Fuico in 1513.[Alvarez Gómez, Oriel]
Sor Imelda y la primera mujer foránea que vino a Chile
/ref> Then, at about 38 years of age and still a slave, she was transferred from Spain to Spanish America.[ In the autumn of 1536, at an age of 48 years, she crossed the Andes from east to west at the San Francisco Pass as part of ]Diego de Almagro
Diego de Almagro (; – July 8, 1538), also known as El Adelantado and El Viejo, was a Spanish conquistador known for his exploits in western South America. He participated with Francisco Pizarro in the Spanish conquest of Peru. While subduing ...
's expedition to Chile. By doing this, she became the first non-Amerindian woman to enter the territory of what is today Chile.[Gray, N. (1951). The Negro in the Exploration and Conquest of Peru. '' Primitive Man'', 24(1), 1-9.] She was the primary caretaker of the young Diego de Almagro II; Diego de Almagro's son born to an indigenous Panamanian named Ana Martínez.[
After the execution of Almagro in 1538, she took care of his remains that had been left on display in the public square of ]Cusco
Cusco or Cuzco (; or , ) is a city in southeastern Peru, near the Sacred Valley of the Andes mountain range and the Huatanay river. It is the capital of the eponymous Cusco Province, province and Cusco Region, department.
The city was the cap ...
.[ After avenging his father in a 1541 ]coup d'état
A coup d'état (; ; ), or simply a coup
, is typically an illegal and overt attempt by a military organization or other government elites to unseat an incumbent leadership. A self-coup is said to take place when a leader, having come to powe ...
in which Francisco Pizarro
Francisco Pizarro, Marquess of the Atabillos (; ; – 26 June 1541) was a Spanish ''conquistador'', best known for his expeditions that led to the Spanish conquest of the Inca Empire.
Born in Trujillo, Cáceres, Trujillo, Spain, to a poor fam ...
was killed, Diego Almagro II was also executed in 1542. In 1553, Malgarida provided funds for the establishment of a chaplaincy
A chaplain is, traditionally, a cleric (such as a minister, priest, pastor, rabbi, purohit, or imam), or a lay representative of a religious tradition, attached to a secular institution (such as a hospital, prison, military unit, intelligen ...
in Convento de la Merced in Cusco where Diego Almagro, father and son, were then buried.[ When she died years later, she was also buried there.][
The history of Malgarida was first exposed with some detail in the 1981 book ''La Mujer en el Reyno de Chile'' by Sor Imelda Cano Roldán, a ]Mercedarian
The Royal, Celestial and Military Order of Our Lady of Mercy and the Redemption of the Captives (, abbreviated O. de M.), also known as the Mercedarians, is a Catholic mendicant order established in 1218 by Peter Nolasco in the city of Barcelon ...
religious sister
A religious sister (abbreviated: Sr.) in the Catholic Church is a woman who has taken public vows in a religious institute dedicated to apostolic works, as distinguished from a nun who lives a cloistered monastic life dedicated to prayer and ...
who was once an assistant to Professor Jaime Eyzaguirre
Jaime Eyzaguirre (21 December 1908 – 17 September 1968) was a Chilean lawyer, essayist and historian. He is variously recognized as a writer of Spanish traditionalist or conservative historiography in his country.Góngora ''et al''., pp. 201 ...
.[
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See also
*Beatriz de Palacios
Beatriz de Palacios was a Spanish woman soldier, nurse and explorer of African and Spanish descent who took part in the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire. She is widely considered to be one of the first people of African ancestry to set foot i ...
*Inés de Suárez
Ines, and variants, is a feminine given name related to Agnes.
Used alone it may refer to:
*Saint Ines (Agnes of Rome; c. 291 – c. 304), virgin–martyr, saint
* Ines (''Eda-Ines Etti''; born 1981), Estonian singer
As a first name
*Inés Albe ...
*Juan Valiente
Juan Valiente (1505? – 1553) was an African-Spanish conquistador and encomendero. He participated in the expeditions of Pedro de Alvarado in present-day Guatemala and Peru and Pedro de Valdivia in Chile. Taken into captivity as a slave in Afri ...
References
{{reflist
Spanish conquistadoras
Conquistadors of African descent
Female explorers
Former slaves
Women slaves
African slaves