First term
Ceinos arrived in New Spain in 1530 and took up his position as oidor early the next year. Bishop Ramírez carried with him instructions to begin juicios de residencia against the members of the first Audiencia (Nuño Beltrán de Guzmán, Juan Ortiz de Matienzo and Diego Delgadillo), as well as Hernán Cortés and Diego Hernández de Proaño. In 1532 the Audiencia brought back verdicts on the residencias of Cortés, the oidores of the first Audiencia and others. Cortés and Bishop Zumárraga were acquitted; Ortiz de Matienzo and Delgadillo were convicted, but not sentenced.
The second Audiencia also improved the road from Veracruz to Mexico City, and along the way founded the city of Puebla del Los Angeles as a resting-place for travelers (April 16, 1531). It imported horses and cattle from Spain, took steps to import a printing press, founded the Imperial College of Santiago Tlatelolco for higher learning for young Indigenous men, renewed exploration, and continued work on the cathedral of Mexico City. Enslavement of Indians was prohibited in 1532.
In 1535 the second Audiencia turned over its governing powers to the first viceroy of New Spain, Antonio de Mendoza.
Second and third terms
The second viceroy, Luís de Velasco, died in office on July 31, 1564. Ceinos was president of the Audiencia at the time. The Audiencia took charge of the government pending the appointment and arrival of Velasco's replacement. This was Gastón de Peralta, marqués de Falces, who began governing on October 16, 1566.
Ceinos served a third term in 1568, from July to November, when the Audiencia took charge pending the arrival of new Viceroy Martín Enríquez de Almanza. At this time the Audiencia included (besides Ceinos), Pedro Villalobos, Jerónimo Orozco and Vasco de Puga.
In total, Ceinos served as oidor for more than thirty years. He strongly opposed the exploitation of the Indigenous through the institutions of slavery, the encomienda system, forced labor and tribute.
On March 1, 1565, he completed comprehensive recommendations on colonization policies for newly conquered territories. In this report he wrote of the decimation of the Indigenous resulting from the Spanish conquest:
It is certain that from the day that Don Hernando Cortés, Marques del Valle, entered this land, in the seven years, more or less, that he governed, the natives suffered many deaths, much maltreatment, robbery and violence, taking advantage of their labor and their lands, without order or moderation.... A large part of the population disappeared, as much from the excessive tribute and maltreatment as from the diseases and smallpox, so that in this time the population is considerably less, especially in the hot lands.
Don Juan de Zumárraga y Arrazola was a Spanish Basque Franciscan prelate and first bishop of Mexico. He wrote Doctrina breve, the first book published in the Western hemisphere, printed in Mexico City in 1539.
A Real Audiencia, or simply an Audiencia, was an appellate court in Spain and its empire. The name of the institution literally translates as Royal Audience. The additional designation chancillería was applied to the appellate courts in early modern Spain. Each audiencia had oidores.
Nuño Beltrán de Guzmán was a Spanish conquistador and colonial administrator in New Spain. He was the governor of the province of Pánuco from 1525 to 1533 and of Nueva Galicia from 1529 to 1534, President of the first Royal Audiencia of Mexico from 1528 to 1530. He founded several cities in Northwestern Mexico, including Guadalajara.
Luís de Velasco was the second viceroy of New Spain during the Spanish colonization of the Americas in the mid-sixteenth century.
Gastón Carrillo de Peralta y Bosquete, 3rd Marquess of Falces (1510–1587) was a Spanish nobleman who was the third viceroy of the Viceroyalty of New Spain from October 16, 1566 to March 10, 1568.
Vasco de Quiroga was the first bishop of Michoacán, Mexico, and one of the judges (oidores) in the second Audiencia that governed New Spain from January 10, 1531, to April 16, 1535.
Sebastián Ramírez de Fuenleal was bishop of Santo Domingo and president of the Audiencia of Santo Domingo 1528 to 1531. He was also president of the second Audiencia of New Spain. Later he was a member of the Council of the Indies.
Alonso Muñoz was a high-ranking administrator in Spain and, from November 1567 to about July 1568, royal commissioner with Luis Carrillo for the inspection of the government of New Spain for King Philip II.
Diego Delgadillo was a judge of the first Audiencia of New Spain, which governed the colony from December 9, 1528 to January 9, 1531.
Juan Ortiz de Matienzo was a Spanish colonial judge and a member of the first Real Audiencia in the New World, that of Santo Domingo, in 1512. From December 9, 1528 until January 9, 1531, he was a member of the First Audiencia of Mexico City, which was the governing body of New Spain during that period.
Juan de Salmerón was a Spanish colonial official New Spain, and an oidor (judge) of the Second Audiencia, which governed the colony from January 10, 1531 until April 16, 1534. On the latter date, the government was turned over to Antonio de Mendoza, the first viceroy. Along with Fray Toribio de Benavente Motolinia he built the first European settlement at Puebla, Puebla.
Alonso de Maldonado Diez de Ledesma , was a Spanish lawyer and a member of the Second Audiencia of Mexico City, which governed New Spain from January 10, 1531 to April 16, 1535. He was also president of the First Audiencia of Guatemala, and in that capacity interim governor of Guatemala from 1536 to September 15, 1539. He was governor of Guatemala a second time, from 1542 to 1548.
Luis Carrillo was, from November 1567 to about July 1568, royal commissioner with Alonso Muñoz for the inspection of the viceregal government of New Spain for King Philip II.
The Real Audiencia of Mexico or high court was the highest tribunal of the Spanish crown in the Kingdom of New Spain. The Audiencia was created by royal decree on December 13, 1527, and was seated in the viceregal capital of Mexico City. The First Audiencia was dissolved by the crown for its bungling and corruption and the crown established the Second Audiencia in 1530. Another Audiencia was created in Guadalajara in western Mexico in 1548.
The Real Audiencia de Manila was the Real Audiencia of the Spanish East Indies, which included modern-day Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, Palau, Micronesia and the Philippines. Similar to Real Audiencias throughout the Spanish Empire, it was the highest tribunal within the territories of the Captaincy General of the Philippines, a dependency of the Viceroyalty of New Spain.
An oidor was a judge of the Royal Audiencias and Chancillerías, originally courts of Kingdom of Castile, which became the highest organs of justice within the Spanish Empire. The term comes from the verb oír, "to hear," referring to the judge's obligation to listen to the parts of a judicial process, particularly during the phase of pleas.
Don Martín Cortés y Zúñiga, 2nd Marquess of the Valley of Oaxaca (1532–1589) was the son and designated heir of Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés by his second wife, Doña Juana de Zúñiga. Don Martín shared his name with an elder half-brother, whose mother was Doña Marina. He was involved with a conspiracy of encomenderos, was investigated, tried, and spared the death penalty.
The Royal Audience and Chancery of Panama in Tierra Firme was a governing body and superior court in the New World empire of Spain. The Audiencia of Panama was the third American audiencia after the ones of Santo Domingo and Mexico. It existed three times under various guises since it first creation in 1538 until its ultimate abolition in 1751.
