Juan de Albarracín (?, Castile – ?, Castile) was a

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Cana ...

conquistador Conquistadors (, ) or conquistadores (, ; meaning 'conquerors') were the explorer-soldiers of the Spanish and Portuguese Empires of the 15th and 16th centuries. During the Age of Discovery, conquistadors sailed beyond Europe to the Americas, O ...

who participated in the

Spanish conquest of the Muisca The Spanish conquest of the Muisca took place from 1537 to 1540. The Muisca were the inhabitants of the central Andean highlands of Colombia before the arrival of the Spanish conquistadors. They were organised in a loose confederation of differe ...

and

Panche people The Panche or Tolima is an indigenous group of people in what is now Colombia. Their language is unclassified – and possibly unclassifiable – but may have been Cariban. They inhabited the southwestern parts of the department of Cundinamarca a ...

. He was captain of the

brigs A brig is a type of sailing vessel defined by its rig: two masts which are both square rig, square-rigged. Brigs originated in the second half of the 18th century and were a common type of smaller merchant vessel or warship from then until the ...

which sailed up the

Magdalena River The Magdalena River ( es, Río Magdalena, ; less commonly ) is the main river of Colombia, flowing northward about through the western half of the country. It takes its name from the biblical figure Mary Magdalene. It is navigable through much of ...

from the Caribbean coast in 1536 and later discovered the high quality

salt Salt is a mineral composed primarily of sodium chloride (NaCl), a chemical compound belonging to the larger class of salts; salt in the form of a natural crystalline mineral is known as rock salt or halite. Salt is present in vast quantitie ...

that lead the Spanish conquistadors along the ''Camino de la Sal'' up the slopes of the

eastern ranges The Eastern Ranges is an Australian rules football team in the NAB League, the Victorian statewide under-18s competition. The club is a founding member of the competition (1992) and has produced several players for the Australian Football Leagu ...

of the Colombian Andes towards the

Muisca Confederation The Muisca Confederation was a loose confederation of different Muisca rulers (''zaques'', ''zipas'', '' iraca'', and ''tundama'') in the central Andean highlands of present-day Colombia before the Spanish conquest of northern South America. The ...

Discovering the Salt Route

De Albarracín left Spain with his father-in-law Pedro de Lugo for the

New World The term ''New World'' is often used to mean the majority of Earth's Western Hemisphere, specifically the Americas."America." ''The Oxford Companion to the English Language'' (). McArthur, Tom, ed., 1992. New York: Oxford University Press, p. 3 ...

, arriving in January 1536 in

Santa Marta Santa Marta (), officially Distrito Turístico, Cultural e Histórico de Santa Marta ("Touristic, Cultural and Historic District of Santa Marta"), is a city on the coast of the Caribbean Sea in northern Colombia. It is the capital of Magdalena ...

.Rodríguez Freyle, 1638, p.63 De Albarracín taught the men under his command to fish for

pearl A pearl is a hard, glistening object produced within the soft tissue (specifically the mantle) of a living shelled mollusk or another animal, such as fossil conulariids. Just like the shell of a mollusk, a pearl is composed of calcium carb ...

s, near

Cabo de la Vela Cabo de la Vela (Spanish for "cape of sails") is a headland in the Guajira Peninsula in Colombia with an adjacent small fishing village. It is a popular ecotourism destination of the Caribbean region of Colombia History Spanish explorer Juan ...

in northernmost present-day Colombia.Los caballeros de la conquista
/ref> De Albarracín joined the expedition in search of ''

El Dorado El Dorado (, ; Spanish for "the golden"), originally ''El Hombre Dorado'' ("The Golden Man") or ''El Rey Dorado'' ("The Golden King"), was the term used by the Spanish in the 16th century to describe a mythical tribal chief (''zipa'') or king o ...

'', the journey led by

Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada y Rivera, also spelled as Ximénez and De Quezada, (;1496 16 February 1579) was a Spanish explorer and conquistador in northern South America, territories currently known as Colombia. He explored the territory named ...

which left Santa Marta in April 1536.Lista de los que consiguieron el descubrimiento del Reino de Granada con el General don Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada, en el año de 1538
–

Banco de la República The Bank of the Republic ( es, Banco de la República) is the central bank of Colombia. It was initially established under the regeneration era in 1880. Its main modern functions, under the new Colombian constitution were detailed by Congress a ...

Juan de Albarracín was one of the three captains of the

that De Quesada sent up the

; the other two were

Gómez del Corral Gómez (frequently anglicized as Gomez) is a common Spanish patronymic surname meaning "son of Gome". The Portuguese and Old Galician version is Gomes, while the Catalan form is Gomis. The given name ''Gome'' is derived from the Visigothic word '' ...

and

Antonio Díaz de Cardoso Antonio Díaz de Cardoso (1495, in Santa Comba, Portugal –1573 in Santafe de Bogotá) was a Portuguese conquistador who participated in the Spanish conquest of the Muisca people. Antonio Díaz de Cardoso is mentioned as ''Cardosso'' in the e ...

.Setenta y cinco por ciento sabían firmar
/ref> During the strenuous journey, in La Tora, present-day Barrancabermeja, De Quesada sent troops ahead to investigate routes towards the then unknown Andes. De Albarracín and Díaz de Cardoso found the loafs of high quality

that would lead the conquistadors along the '' Camino de la Sal'' or "Salt Route" into the

.Hallar la sal fue como encontrar El Dorado
/ref>

Further travels

Together with

Martín Galeano Martín Galeano (?, Valencia del Mombuey, Badajoz, Spain - ?, Vélez, New Kingdom of Granada) was a Spanish conquistador of Genovese descent who is known as the founder of the towns of Vélez, Oiba and Charalá in Santander, Colombia. He too ...

De Albarracín participated in battles against the bellicose

, commanded by Juan de Céspedes.De Castellanos, 1589, p.69 When the two conquistadors

Nikolaus Federmann Nikolaus Federmann ( es, link=no, Nicolás Féderman, ) (c. 1505, Ulm – February 1542, Valladolid) was a German adventurer and conquistador in what is modern-day Venezuela and Colombia. He is a significant figure in the history of Klein-Venedi ...

and

Sebastián de Belalcázar Sebastián de Belalcázar (; 1479/1480 – 1551) was a Spanish conquistador. De Belalcázar, also written as de Benalcázar, is known as the founder of important early colonial cities in the northwestern part of South America; Quito in 1534 and Ca ...

had arrived on the

Bogotá savanna The Bogotá savanna is a montane savanna, located in the southwestern part of the Altiplano Cundiboyacense in the center of Colombia. The Bogotá savanna has an extent of and an average altitude of . The savanna is situated in the Eastern Range ...

after the foundation of Bogotá as capital of the

New Kingdom of Granada The New Kingdom of Granada ( es, Nuevo Reino de Granada), or Kingdom of the New Granada, was the name given to a group of 16th-century Spanish colonial provinces in northern South America governed by the president of the Royal Audience of Santa ...

by De Quesada on August 6, 1538, they left with De Albarracín for

Guataquí Guataquí is a municipality and town of Colombia in the department Department may refer to: * Departmentalization, division of a larger organization into parts with specific responsibility Government and military *Department (administrative div ...

, a town they founded. In

, on the Magdalena River, he ordered the construction of two small boats by

indigenous people Indigenous peoples are culturally distinct ethnic groups whose members are directly descended from the earliest known inhabitants of a particular geographic region and, to some extent, maintain the language and culture of those original people ...

to sail the conquistadors back to Spain via Cartagena.Prieto, 2009, p.26 De Albarracín settled in a mansion in

Jérez de la Frontera Jerez de la Frontera (), or simply Jerez (), is a Spanish city and municipality in the province of Cádiz in the autonomous community of Andalusia, in southwestern Spain, located midway between the Atlantic Ocean and the Cádiz Mountains. , the c ...

and never returned to the New Kingdom.

Personal life

De Albarracín was married to Ana de Lugo, who sailed to the new world with him, and the couple had three sons and three daughters.Juan de Albarracín
– Geni His grandson Pedro de Lugo Albarracin was the sculptor of various images of

Jesus Christ Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label=Hebrew/Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth (among other names and titles), was a first-century Jewish preacher and religious ...

in the Colombian capital Bogota. De Albarracín died in Spain in an unknown year. Juan de Albarracín is mentioned as "Albarracín" in the early chronicle about the Spanish conquest, a work of uncertain authorship; ''

Epítome de la conquista del Nuevo Reino de Granada ''Epítome de la conquista del Nuevo Reino de Granada'' (English: ''Summary of the conquest of the New Kingdom of Granada'') is a document of uncertain authorship, possibly (partly) written by Spanish conquistador Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada be ...

''.''Epítome'', p.82

References

Bibliography

* * * *

Discovering the Salt Route

Further travels

Personal life

See also

References

Bibliography

Further reading