Pedro de Alvarado (; – 4 July 1541) was a Spanish conquistador, adelantado, governor and captain general of Guatemala.Lovell, Lutz and Swezey 1984, p. 461. He participated in the conquest of Cuba, in Juan de Grijalva's exploration of the coasts of the Yucatán Peninsula and the Gulf of Mexico, and in the conquest of the Aztec Empire led by Hernán Cortés. He is considered the conquistador of much of Central America, including Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, and parts of Nicaragua.Duncan, David Ewing, Hernando de Soto – A Savage Quest in the Americas – Book II: Consolidation, Crown Publishers, Inc., New York, 1995
While a skilled warrior who brought much of Central America under Spanish control, Alvarado developed a reputation for greed and cruelty, and was accused of various crimes and abuses by natives and Spaniards alike. In 1541, Alvarado was crushed by a horse while attempting to quell a native revolt in Mexico, dying a few days later.
Character and appearance
Pedro de Alvarado was flamboyant and charismatic,Myers 2004, pp. 19, 182. and was both a brilliant military commanderRecinos 1986, pp. 205, 207. and a cruel, hardened man. He is described as having "good features and bearing", and when presented with a picture of him, the Aztecs referred to him as Tōnatiuh. "Pedro de Alvarado was of very perfect grace both in face and person, that he looked like the Sun.... very well made and active, and of good features and bearing; and both in appearance and in speech and in everything else he was so pleasing that he always seemed to be smiling" "...they brought with them a picture of him with his face very naturally portrayed, and from that time forth they gave him the name of Tonatio, which means the Sun or the child of the Sun, and so they called him ever after." The Aztecs gave Alvarado this name because of his blond hair, and also his infamous temper. "Alvarado's blond hair, as well as his infamous temper, earned him the Nahuatl nickname Tonatiuh (Sun, see fig. 6)" He was handsome,León Portilla 2006, p. 132. and presented an affable appearance, but was volatile and quick to anger.Burland 1973, p. 216.
He was ruthless in his dealings with the indigenous peoples he set out to conquer. Historians judge that his greed drove him to excessive cruelty,Recinos 1986, p. 205. and his Spanish contemporaries denounced his extreme brutality during his lifetime. He was a poor governor of territories he had conquered, and restlessly sought out new adventures.Recinos 1998, p. 17.
His tactical brutality, such as the massacre in the Great Temple of Tenochtitlan, often undermined strategic considerations.Recinos 1998, p. 18. He was also accused of cruelty against fellow Spaniards.Recinos 1986, p. 206. Alvarado was little suited to govern; when he held governing positions, he did little to establish stable foundations for colonial rule. His letters show no interest in civil matters, and he discussed only exploration and war. Alvarado stubbornly resisted attempts by the Spanish Crown to establish ordered taxation in Guatemala, and refused to acknowledge such attempts. As governor of Guatemala, Alvarado has been described by W. George Lovell et al. as "an insatiable despot who recognized no authority but his own and who regarded Guatemala as little more than his personal estate."
American historian William H. Prescott described Alvarado's character in the following terms:
Spanish chronicler Antonio de Remesal commented that "Alvarado desired more to be feared than loved by his subjects, whether they were Indians or Spaniards."Recinos 1986, p. 208. In his easy recourse to violence, Alvarado was a product of his time, and Alvarado was not the only conquistador to have resorted to such actions. Hernán Cortés and Francisco Pizarro carried out deeds of similar cruelty, but have not attracted as much criticism as Alvarado.Recinos 1986, p. 209.
Early life and family Pedro de Alvarado was born in 1485 in the town of Badajoz, Extremadura.Recinos 1986, p. 9. His father was Gómez de Alvarado, and his mother was Leonor de Contreras, Gómez's second wife. Pedro de Alvarado had a twin sister, Sarra, and four full-blood brothers, Jorge, Gonzalo, Gómez, and Juan.Recinos 1986, p. 10. Pedro had an illegitimate half brother, also named Juan, referred to in contemporary sources as Juan el Bastardo.Recinos 1986, pp. 10, 21.
Very little is known of Pedro de Alvarado's early life before his arrival in the Americas. During the conquest of the Americas, tales of his youthful exploits in Spain became popular legends, but their veracity is doubtful.Recinos 1986, pp. 10–11. An example is the tale then current that when he was a youth awaiting passage to the Americas, he climbed the church tower in Seville with some friends. A banner pole extended some from an upper window. One of his companions walked out to the end of the pole after removing his cloak and sword, and returned to the tower backwards. Alvarado, afraid of being mocked, walked out onto the pole with both sword and cloak, and turned around at the end to return to the tower facing it.Recinos 1986, pp. 11–12.
Alvarado's paternal grandfather was Juan Alvarado "el Viejo" ("the elder"), who was comendador of Hornachos, and his paternal grandmother was Catalina Messía. Pedro de Alvarado's uncle on his father's side was Diego de Alvarado y Messía,Recinos 1986, pp. 9–10. who was the comendador of Lobón, Puebla, and Montijo, alcalde of Montánchez, and lord of Castellanos and of Cubillana. Diego was a veteran of the campaigns against the Moors.
First campaigns in the Americas Alvarado and his brothers crossed the Atlantic Ocean before 1511, possibly in 1510.Gall 1967, p. 38. By 1511 a system of licenses had been established in Spain to control the flow of colonists to the New World. The only one of the Alvarado brothers who appears in the registers is Juan de Alvarado, in 1511, leading to the assumption that the rest were already in the Americas by the time the licensing system was established.Recinos 1986, p. 14. The Alvarado brothers stopped off at Hispaniola, but there are few mentions of their stay there in historical documents.Recinos 1986, pp. 14–15.
Soon after arriving in Santo Domingo, on Hispaniola, Pedro de Alvarado established a friendship with Hernán Cortés, who at the time was serving as public scribe. Alvarado joined Cortés to participate in the conquest of Cuba, under the command of Diego de Velázquez. The conquest of Cuba was launched in 1511, and Pedro de Alvarado was accompanied by his brothers.Recinos 1986, p. 17. Soon after the invasion, Alvarado was managing a prosperous hacienda in the new colony.Recinos 1986, p. 16. It is around this time that Pedro de Alvarado emerges into the historical record as a prosperous and influential hacienda-owner, already well connected with Velázquez, who was now governor of Cuba.
Grijalva expedition, 1518
Diego Velázquez, the governor of Cuba, was enthused by Francisco Hernández de Córdoba's report of gold in the newly discovered Yucatán Peninsula.Sharer and Traxler 2006, p. 759. He organised an expedition consisting of four ships and 260 men.Sharer and Traxler 2006, p. 759. Clendinnen 2003, p. 14. He placed his nephew Juan de Grijalva in overall command;Sharer and Traxler 2006, p. 759. Recinos 1986, p. 18. Pedro de Alvarado captained one of the ships.Recinos 1986, p. 18. The small fleet was stocked with crossbows, muskets, barter goods, salted pork and cassava bread.Clendinnen 2003, pp. 14–15.
The fleet left Cuba in April 1518, and made its first landfall upon the island of Cozumel, off the east coast of Yucatán. The Maya inhabitants of Cozumel fled the Spanish; the fleet then sailed south from Cozumel, along the east coast of the peninsula.Sharer and Traxler 2006, p. 760.Clendinnen 2003, p. 15. The Spanish spotted three large Maya cities along the coast. On Ascension Thursday the fleet discovered a large bay, which the Spanish named Bahía de la Ascensión.Sharer and Traxler 2006, p. 760.
Grijalva did not land at any of these cities and turned back north to loop around the north of the Yucatán Peninsula and sail down the west coast. At Campeche the Spanish opened fire against the city with small cannon; the inhabitants fled, allowing the Spanish to take the abandoned city. The Maya remained hidden in the forest, so the Spanish boarded their ships and continued along the coast.Clendinnen 2003, p. 15.
At Champotón, the fleet was approached by a small number of large war canoes, but the ships' cannon soon put them to flight. At the mouth of the Tabasco River the Spanish sighted massed warriors and canoes but the natives did not approach.Clendinnen 2003, pp. 15–16. By means of interpreters, Grijalva indicated that he wished to trade and bartered wine and beads in exchange for food and other supplies. From the natives they received a few gold trinkets and news of the riches of the Aztec Empire to the west. The expedition continued far enough to confirm the reality of the gold-rich empire,Clendinnen 2003, p. 16. sailing as far north as Pánuco River.
At the Papaloapan River, Alvarado ordered his ship upriver, leaving the rest of the small fleet behind to wait for him at the river mouth. This action greatly angered Grijalva, who feared that a lone ship could be lost. After this, the Spanish referred to the river as the Río de Alvarado ("Alvarado's River").Recinos 1986, p. 19. A little further along the coast, the fleet encountered settlements under Aztec dominion, and was met by Aztec emissaries with gifts of gold and jewels sent by the Emperor Moctezuma II.Recinos 1986, pp. 19–20.
As punishment for entering the Papaloapan River without orders, Grijalva sent Alvarado with the ship San Sebastián to relay news of the discoveries back to Cuba. Alvarado made a triumphal entry to Santiago de Cuba, with a great display of the wealth that had been gained from the expedition. His early arrival in Cuba allowed him to ingratiate himself with the Governor Velázquez before Grijalva's return.Recinos 1986, p. 20. The rest of the fleet put into the port of Havana five months after it had left. Grijalva was coldly received by the governor, who Alvarado had turned against him, claiming much of the glory of the expedition for himself.Recinos 1986, p. 21.
Expedition to Mexico, 1519
Grijalva's return aroused great interest in Cuba. A new expedition was organised, with a fleet of eleven ships carrying 500 men and some horses. Hernán Cortés was placed in command; Pedro de Alvarado and his brothers Jorge, Gómez and Juan "El Bastardo" joined the expedition. Cortés charged Pedro de Alvarado with gathering recruits from the inland estates of Cuba. The crew included officers that would become famous conquistadors, including Cristóbal de Olid, Gonzalo de Sandoval and Diego de Ordaz. Also aboard were Francisco de Montejo and Bernal Díaz del Castillo, veterans of the Grijalva expedition.