García López de Cárdenas y Figueroa was a Spanish conquistador who was the first European to see the

Grand Canyon The Grand Canyon is a steep-sided canyon carved by the Colorado River in Arizona, United States. The Grand Canyon is long, up to wide and attains a depth of over a mile (). The canyon and adjacent rim are contained within Grand Canyon Nati ...

Life

Cárdenas was born in Llerena, then part of

Crown of Castile The Crown of Castile was a medieval polity in the Iberian Peninsula that formed in 1230 as a result of the third and definitive union of the crowns and, some decades later, the parliaments of the kingdoms of Kingdom of Castile, Castile and Kingd ...

, second son to Alonso de Cárdenas, 1st Count of La Puebla del Maestre, and wife Maria García Osorio. He was the

Encomienda The ''encomienda'' () was a Spanish Labour (human activity), labour system that rewarded Conquistador, conquerors with the labour of conquered non-Christian peoples. In theory, the conquerors provided the labourers with benefits, including mil ...

dor of Caravaca. López de Cárdenas was a

conquistador Conquistadors (, ) or conquistadores (; ; ) were Spanish Empire, Spanish and Portuguese Empire, Portuguese colonizers who explored, traded with and colonized parts of the Americas, Africa, Oceania and Asia during the Age of Discovery. Sailing ...

attached to the exploits of

Francisco Vázquez de Coronado Francisco Vázquez de Coronado (; 1510 – 22 September 1554) was a Spanish conquistador and explorer who led a large expedition from what is now Mexico to present-day Kansas through parts of the southwestern United States between 1540 and 1542 ...

. Expeditions, including one led by

Pedro de Tovar Pedro de Tovar (born 1501) was a Spanish explorer, military man and colonial administrator. He was part of Francisco Vazquez de Coronado's expedition and led the first expedition to Seven Cities of Cibola, Cibola in 1540. Tovar was also the firs ...

, had heard reports of a large river north of Cíbola (Zuñi). Cárdenas was dispatched in September 1540 by the general stationed in Cíbola with the express mission of locating such a river and returning within 80 days. Pedro de Sotomayor accompanied him to record the event as a ''cronista'', along with Hopi guides, Spanish soldiers, and an unknown number of servants. After some twenty days of marching in a northerly direction, he was successful; but his band found difficulties in reaching the river (which was the current

Colorado River The Colorado River () is one of the principal rivers (along with the Rio Grande) in the Southwestern United States and in northern Mexico. The river, the List of longest rivers of the United States (by main stem), 5th longest in the United St ...

, that they called River Tizon), owing to the sheer vertical distance down from their position. They were standing on the South Rim of the

, somewhere between present-day Desert View and Grandview Point. Cárdenas ordered three soldiers, including Pablo de Melgrossa and Juan Galeras, to descend into the canyon. After several days of failed attempts to reach the river (his men were suffering from

dehydration In physiology, dehydration is a lack of total body water that disrupts metabolic processes. It occurs when free water loss exceeds intake, often resulting from excessive sweating, health conditions, or inadequate consumption of water. Mild deh ...

), his party was forced to return to Cíbola. Cárdenas was the only member of the Coronado Expedition to be convicted of war crimes afterward because of his role in the brutal

Tiguex War Tigua, Tiguex, Tigüex, Tiwan, and Tiwesh may refer to: * Albuquerque metropolitan area The Albuquerque Metropolitan Statistical Area, sometimes referred to as Tiguex (named after the Southern Tiwa), is a metropolitan area in central New Mexico ...

.Herrick, Dennis. (2013) ''Winter of the Metal People: The Untold Story of America's First Indian War''. Mechanicsburg, PA: Sunbury Press, 240.

References

* Winship, George Parker. (1990) ''The Journey of Coronado, 1540-1542 (Fulcrum Series in American History)''. p. 12. . {{DEFAULTSORT:Lopez de Cardenas, Garcia People from Campiña Sur (Badajoz) Spanish explorers of North America Extremaduran conquistadors Year of death unknown Year of birth unknown 16th-century Spanish explorers Spanish conquistadors Explorers of the United States

Life

See also

References