Gonzalo de Alvarado y Contreras was a Spanish conquistador and brother of Pedro de Alvarado who participated in campaigns in Mexico, Guatemala, and El Salvador (co-founding its present capital, San Salvador).
Gonzalo de Alvarado was a native of Badajoz and son of Diego Gómez de Alvarado y Mexía de Sandoval, born in Badajoz in 1460 and vecino of Badajoz, Extremadura, Commander of Lobón, [1] Puebla, Montijo and Cubillana, Alcalde of Montánchez, Trece of the Order of Santiago, Lord of Castellanos, Maestresala of Henry IV of Castile and General of the Frontier of Portugal, widow of Teresa Suárez de Moscoso y Figueroa, and second wife Leonor de Contreras y Gutiérrez de Trejo.
Alvarado y Contreras went to Hispaniola in 1510 with all his older brother Pedro and younger brothers Jorge, Gómez, Hernando and Juan and their uncle Diego de Alvarado y Mexía de Sandoval.
When Pedro de Alvarado was wounded on his left thigh and handicapped for the rest of his life he abandoned the war and appointed his brother, Gonzalo de Alvarado, to continue the task. In 1525 the conquest of El Salvador was completed and the city of San Salvador was established.
His descendants were represented by the family Vides de Alvarado after the famous 17th century historians Francisco Antonio de Fuentes y Guzmán and also the father Domingo Juarros y Montufar.
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Pedro de Alvarado was a Spanish conquistador and governor of Guatemala. 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 and El Salvador.
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Matthew Restall is a historian of Colonial Latin America. He is an ethnohistorian, a Mayanist, a scholar of the conquest, colonization, and the African diaspora in the Americas, and an historian of popular music. Restall has areas of specialization in Yucatán and Mexico, Guatemala, and Belize. He is a member of the New Philology school of colonial Mexican history and the founder of a related school, the New Conquest History. He is currently Edwin Erle Sparks Professor of Latin American History and Anthropology, and Director of Latin American Studies, at the Pennsylvania State University. He is a former president of the American Society for Ethnohistory (2017–18), a former editor of Ethnohistory journal (2007–17), a former senior editor of the Hispanic American Historical Review (2017–22), editor of the book series Latin American Originals, and co-editor of the Cambridge Latin American Studies book series. He also writes books on the history of popular music.
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