Juan Valiente (1505? - † 1553,

Tucapel Tucapel is a town and commune in the Bío Bío Province, Bío Bío Region, Chile. It was once a region of Araucanía named for the Tucapel River. The name of the region derived from the rehue and aillarehue of the Moluche people of the area b ...

) was a Spanish black

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 expeditions of Pedro de Almagro in present-day Guatemala and Chile. Taken into captivity as a slave in Africa, he was transported to Mexico, where he was purchased by a Spaniard who returned with him to Spain. As a young man, Valiente negotiated a kind of lease - permission to join a conquistador's expedition for the chance to earn profits and buy his freedom. He ended up staying in Chile.

Biography

Valiente was born with another name in Western

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

. In 1505 he was enslaved and transported to

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

. He was bought by

Alonso Valiente Alonso Valiente (1482? in Medina de las Torres – 1564? in New Spain) was a Spanish conquistador. He was Hernán Cortés' cousin and secretary. He was one of the first governors ( Alguacil Mayor) of Mexico City. He was also the first encomende ...

, a Spanish colonist, who had him baptized as Catholic under the name Juan Valiente. When the senior man returned to Spain, he took the young slave with him as a servant. In 1533, Valiente signed a contract with his master. It allowed him to seek new chances as a conquistador and to return in four years with profits from the expedition to share with his master and use to buy his freedom. He sailed to

Guatemala Guatemala ( ; ), officially the Republic of Guatemala ( es, República de Guatemala, links=no), is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the north and west by Mexico; to the northeast by Belize and the Caribbean; to the east by H ...

and participated in

Pedro de Alvarado Pedro de Alvarado (; c. 1485 – 4 July 1541) was a Spanish conquistador and governor 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 Yucatá ...

's expedition. He went to

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...

with Alvarado, and joined Pedro de Valdivia's company. Such black conquistadors as

Juan Garrido Juan Garrido (– c. 1480 – c. 1550) was a black African-Spanish conquistador. Born in West Africa, he went to Portugal as a young man. In converting to Catholicism, he chose the Spanish name, Juan Garrido ("Handsome John"). Juan Garrido joined ...

and Sebastián Toral in

, Juan Bardales in

Honduras Honduras, officially the Republic of Honduras, is a country in Central America. The republic of Honduras is bordered to the west by Guatemala, to the southwest by El Salvador, to the southeast by Nicaragua, to the south by the Pacific Oce ...

and

Panama Panama ( , ; es, link=no, Panamá ), officially the Republic of Panama ( es, República de Panamá), is a transcontinental country spanning the southern part of North America and the northern part of South America. It is bordered by Cos ...

, and Juan Beltrán were among those who participated in expeditions in the New World. Many were also born in Africa, taken captive enslaved, and later became free, although Garrido appeared to have gone to Spain as a free man for his education. He may have been a chief or prince's son. Valiente helped establish

Santiago de Chile Santiago (, ; ), also known as Santiago de Chile, is the capital and largest city of Chile as well as one of the largest cities in the Americas. It is the center of Chile's most densely populated region, the Santiago Metropolitan Region, whose ...

in 1541 and was compensated with a land grant for a ranch on the outskirts. Four years later, he received a commission. He married Juana de Valdivia, an African and former slave, who once was held by a governor. In Chile, Valiente made a certain fortune and could live freely. His master Alonso Valiente had not forgotten his business deal and wanted his money. Juan Valiente had tried to pay but, due to a corrupt official or middleman, he was unable to do so. After extending the payment period, the senior Valiente in 1541 sent a grandson to negotiate a purchase price with the slave so he could become free. Alonso Valiente insisted on recovering his money, but it was too late; Juan Valiente had died in 1553 and was buried in Araucanía.

Bibliography

Matthew Restall Matthew Restall (born 1964) 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 sp ...

, ''Los siete mitos de la conquista española'', Paidós, 2005. * Matthew Restall, “Black Conquistadors: Armed Africans in Early Spanish America,” ''The Americas'' 57:2 (October 2000) {{DEFAULTSORT:Valiente, Juan African conquistadors Spanish conquistadors 1500s births 1553 deaths 16th-century Spanish people Spanish people of Senegalese descent People of the Arauco War People killed in the Arauco War Mexican slaves