Alonso de Benavides, OFM ( pt, Afonso de Benavides) (c.1578-1635) was a Portuguese
Franciscan missionary active in
New Mexico, in the early part of the seventeenth century.
His use of the term ''
Navaho
The Navajo (; British English: Navaho; nv, Diné or ') are a Native American people of the Southwestern United States.
With more than 399,494 enrolled tribal members , the Navajo Nation is the largest federally recognized tribe in the United ...
'' is said to be the first printed reference.
Life
He was born on
São Miguel Island,
Azores,
Portugal. He came to
New Spain
New Spain, officially the Viceroyalty of New Spain ( es, Virreinato de Nueva España, ), or Kingdom of New Spain, was an integral territorial entity of the Spanish Empire, established by Habsburg Spain during the Spanish colonization of the Am ...
in 1598, and professed in the Franciscan convent of Mexico in 1603.
After acting as master of novices at the convent of
Puebla
Puebla ( en, colony, settlement), officially Free and Sovereign State of Puebla ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Puebla), is one of the 32 states which comprise the Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided into 217 municipalities and its cap ...
, he became
Custos of the Missions of New Mexico, 1626-9. He founded a mission in 1627 at what is now
Santa Clara Pueblo, New Mexico. With the support of the King of Spain, and helped by Fray
Esteban de Peréa, he secured a reinforcement of missionaries there.
He travelled to Spain in 1630 and there was in communication with
María de Ágreda
Maria may refer to:
People
* Mary, mother of Jesus
* Maria (given name), a popular given name in many languages
Place names Extraterrestrial
*170 Maria, a Main belt S-type asteroid discovered in 1877
*Lunar maria (plural of ''mare''), large, da ...
He acted as confessor to
Francisco de Melo, 1633-5. Back in Spain in 1635, he was appointed auxiliary Archbishop of Goa; he died on the eastward sea journey.
Works
In order to raise interest in New Mexico he wrote and published two booklets, exaggerated in regard to the number of Indians, but otherwise of value for the ethnography and ethnology of New Mexico. His account of the numbers of people and villages may have been influenced by data taken from
Antonio de Espejo.
[http://www.accessgenealogy.com/native/tribes/pueblo/tewaindianhist.htm, on the Tewa.]
He published "Relación de los grandes Tesoros espirituales y temporales descubiertos con el auxilio de Dios en el Nuevo Mexico", in 1630, and is best known through the "Memorial que Fray Juan de Santander de la orden de San Francisco &c. presenta á la Majestad Católica del Rey" (Madrid, 1630 translated into various languages and republished).
Sources
*''Memorial'' (Madrid, 1630 );
*Pinelo, ''Epitome'' (Madrid, 1738), II;
*
Beristain, ''Biblioteca, etc. Mexico'', 1816), II;
*
Vetancourt, ''Teatro mexican'' (Mexico, 1698); especially ''Cronica de la Provincia del Santo Evangelio de Mexico''; bandelier, Final Report, etc., I and II.
References
;Attribution
*
External links
''Handbook of Texas Online''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Benavides, Alonso De
1570s births
1635 deaths
Portuguese Friars Minor
Portuguese Roman Catholic missionaries
People from São Miguel Island
16th-century Portuguese people
17th-century Portuguese people
Franciscan missionaries
Roman Catholic missionaries in New Spain
Roman Catholic missionaries in the United States
es:Alonso de Benavides#top