Miguel Díez de Aux, known as ''"The Younger"'' (1496,

Haina Haina (Kloster) () is a municipality in Waldeck-Frankenberg in northwest Hesse, Germany. Geography Location Haina lies in Waldeck-Frankenberg south of Frankenberg and east of Burgwald at the southwest slope of the Kellerwald range. It lies on ...

- unknown year,

New Spain New Spain, officially the Viceroyalty of New Spain ( ; Nahuatl: ''Yankwik Kaxtillan Birreiyotl''), originally the Kingdom of New Spain, was an integral territorial entity of the Spanish Empire, established by Habsburg Spain. It was one of several ...

) 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 countries in the Americas **Spanish cuisine **Spanish history **Spanish culture ...

mestizo ( , ; fem. , literally 'mixed person') is a term primarily used to denote people of mixed European and Indigenous ancestry in the former Spanish Empire. In certain regions such as Latin America, it may also refer to people who are culturall ...

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 ...

. Born in

Hispaniola Hispaniola (, also ) is an island between Geography of Cuba, Cuba and Geography of Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico in the Greater Antilles of the Caribbean. Hispaniola is the most populous island in the West Indies, and the second-largest by List of C ...

to a Spanish father and

Taíno The Taíno are the Indigenous peoples of the Caribbean, Indigenous peoples of the Greater Antilles and surrounding islands. At the time of European contact in the late 15th century, they were the principal inhabitants of most of what is now The ...

mother, he later served under

Hernán Cortés Hernán Cortés de Monroy y Pizarro Altamirano, 1st Marquis of the Valley of Oaxaca (December 1485 – December 2, 1547) was a Spanish ''conquistador'' who led an expedition that caused the fall of the Aztec Empire and brought large portions o ...

in the

conquest of the Aztec Empire The Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire was a pivotal event in the history of the Americas, marked by the collision of the Aztec Triple Alliance and the Spanish Empire. Taking place between 1519 and 1521, this event saw the Spanish conquistad ...

. He is considered the first documented mestizo in the history of the Americas.Gilbert 2004

Early life

He was born in

. His father, Miguel Díez de Aux the Elder, hailed from the Aragonese lower nobility and served as

Bartholomew Columbus Bartholomew Columbus (; ; ; ; – 12 August 1514) was a Genoese explorer and the younger brother of Christopher Columbus. Biography Born in Genoa in the 1461, Bartholomew became a mapmaker in Lisbon, the principal center of cartography of the ...

' servant in his 1494. The Elder and five other conquistadors had run away from the settlement of La Isabela after he mortally wounded another Spaniard in a duel, leading them to plant their own settlements in the Haina area of the island, along with the

Ozama River The Ozama River () is a river in the Dominican Republic. It rises in the Loma Siete Cabezas mountain in the Sierra de Yamasá mountain range, close to the town of Villa Altagracia. History In 1498, Bartolome Colon had a fort built on the Ozama R ...

. There he married by the native rite a

chieftainess who got later baptized as Catalina, eventually giving birth to Miguel the Younger. He was their second child, after a first one who died soon. Aux learned from the indigenous about the existence of gold and farmable land, leading him and his family to return to La Isabela, where he was exonerated from his crime thanks to his findings and the fact that his opponent hadn't died as Aux believed.

Expeditions to mainland

While Aux the Younger was educated, his father was recruited by

Francisco de Garay Francisco de Garay (1475 in Sopuerta, Biscay – 1523) was a Spanish Basque people, Basque conquistador. Early life Garay was born in the Garay tower in Sopuerta, in the county of Encartaciones located in the province of Biscay. He was a companio ...

to return to Catalina's lands and establish an official settlement, later renamed

Santo Domingo Santo Domingo, formerly known as Santo Domingo de Guzmán, is the capital and largest city of the Dominican Republic and the List of metropolitan areas in the Caribbean, largest metropolitan area in the Caribbean by population. the Distrito Na ...

, current capital of the

Dominican Republic The Dominican Republic is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles of the Caribbean Sea in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean. It shares a Maritime boundary, maritime border with Puerto Rico to the east and ...

. Aux the Elder and Garay became immensely wealthy thanks to their newfound gold mines, leading the former to be appointed ''alcaide'' and ''alguacil mayor'' of the Fuerte de Santo Domingo. In July 1510, he was arrested and sent to Spain by

Juan Ponce de León Juan Ponce de León ( – July 1521) was a Spanish explorer and ''conquistador'' known for leading the first official European expedition to Puerto Rico in 1508 and Florida in 1513. He was born in Santervás de Campos, Valladolid, Spain, in ...

on accusations of cruelty against the natives, but he was declared innocent and returned to Hispaniola the following year. He did so while married to a Christian woman, although he retained his mestizo son as his heir. Aux the Elder originally wished for his son to study and become a

Catholic priest The priesthood is the office of the ministers of religion, who have been commissioned ("ordained") with the holy orders of the Catholic Church. Technically, bishops are a priestly order as well; however, in common English usage ''priest'' refe ...

, but the Younger preferred to become a conquistador like him. The Younger joined Francisco de Garay in his exploration of

Jamaica Jamaica is an island country in the Caribbean Sea and the West Indies. At , it is the third-largest island—after Cuba and Hispaniola—of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean. Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, west of Hispaniola (the is ...

. In 1521, two years after his father's death, he was sent by Garay to the continent at the head of a rescue fleet to find

Alonso Álvarez de Pineda Alonso Álvarez de Pineda (; 1494–1520) was a Spanish conquistador and cartography, cartographer who was the first to prove the insularity of the Gulf of Mexico by sailing around its coast. In doing so he created the first map to depict what i ...

, who had gone missing in his own expedition in the

Pánuco River The Pánuco River (, ), also known as the ''Río de Canoas'', is a river in Mexico fed by several tributaries including the Moctezuma River and emptying into the Gulf of Mexico. The river is approximately long and passes through or borders the ...

. This was but the second attempt to find Pineda, the first being one headed by Diego Camargo, future father of mestizo chronicler

Diego Muñoz Camargo Diego Muñoz Camargo ( – 1599) was the author of '' History of Tlaxcala'', an illustrated codex that highlights the religious, cultural, and military history of the Tlaxcalan people. Life Diego Muñoz Camargo was born in Spanish colonial Mex ...

. Aux failed to find Pineda, who had been killed by

Huastecs The Huastec or Téenek (contraction of ''Te' Inik'', "people from here"; also known as Huaxtec, Wastek or Huastecos) are an Indigenous people of Mexico, living in the La Huasteca region including the states of Hidalgo, Veracruz, San Luis Potosí ...

, and after skirmishes with those, he eventually desisted and headed to Veracruz to reinforce the expedition of

, who was at the time preparing the

siege of Tenochtitlan The fall of Tenochtitlan, the capital of the Aztec Empire, was an important event in the Spanish conquest of the empire. It occurred in 1521 following extensive negotiations between local factions and Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés. He ...

Career in New Spain

Díez joined Cortés with his 56 soldiers on horse, who were jokingly nicknamed ''los de los lomos recios'' ("the Wide-Backed Ones") because they had gained weight due to their more comfortable life in Jamaica. He coincidentally found there Camargo's expedition, which had also joined Cortés, although Camargo was ill and would die soon. Another expedition leader, Francisco Ramírez, also met them there. Aux commanded one of the Spanish brigantines during the siege of Tenochtitlan,Díaz del Castillo, chapter CXLIX the first showing in a career as a land conquistador in which, according to comrade and chronicler

Bernal Díaz del Castillo Bernal Díaz del Castillo ( 1492 – 3 February 1584) was a Spanish conquistador who participated as a soldier in the conquest of the Aztec Empire under Hernán Cortés and late in his life wrote an account of the events. As an experienced ...

, he served excellently in a long list of conquests.Díaz del Castillo, chapter CXXXIII In 1541, Díez sued Cortés' brother-in-law Andrés de Barrios, whom he accused of having capitalized on his connections to illegitimately receive lands in Metztitlan which belonged to Aux. The tribunal of the

Council of the Indies A council is a group of people who come together to consult, deliberate, or make decisions. A council may function as a legislature, especially at a town, city or county/shire level, but most legislative bodies at the state/provincial or nati ...

, presided by

García de Loaysa y Mendoza García or Garcia may refer to: People * García (surname) * Kings of Pamplona/Navarre ** García Íñiguez of Pamplona, king of Pamplona 851/2–882 ** García Sánchez I of Pamplona, king of Pamplona 931–970 ** García Sánchez II of Pam ...

, was initially unfavorable to Aux due to his eccentric manners, which saw Aux lying down on the ground on his cape and pointing his dagger to his own throat while goading the judges to execute him on the spot if he was lying. Loaysa had Aux expelled from the room, but he ultimately declared him right and ordered the lands to be handed to him, under the condition Aux was banished from them for two years due to having previously killed some native chieftains. According to chronicler Francisco Cervantes de Salazar, Díez died "very old and very rich" in

Ciudad de México Mexico City is the capital and largest city of Mexico, as well as the most populous city in North America. It is one of the most important cultural and financial centers in the world, and is classified as an Alpha world city according to the ...

. Francisco Cervantes de Salazar, ''Crónica de la Nueva España'', volume 5, chapter XLI

References

Bibliography

* G. Fernández de Oviedo, ''Historia general y natural de las Indias, Islas y Tierra-Firme del mar Océano'', Madrid, Imprenta de la Real Academia de la Historia, 1851–1855 * R. Esteban Abad, ''Estudio histórico-político sobre la Ciudad y Comunidad de Daroca'', Teruel, Instituto de Estudios Turolenses, 1959 * B. Díaz del Castillo, ''Historia verdadera de la conquista de la Nueva España'', Madrid, edición crítica de Carmelo Sáenz de Santamaría, 1967 * V. Rubio, OP, Diario El Caribe, Santo Domingo (República Dominicana), April 41992 * M. Fuertes de Gilbert Rojo, “El barbastrense Miguel Díaz de Aux y el primer oro de las Indias”, Annales XVII, Anuario del Centro de la Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia, Barbastro (Zaragoza) 2004. {{DEFAULTSORT:Diez De Aux, Miguel 1496 births Year of death unknown Dominican Republic military personnel 16th-century Mexican people Mestizo conquistadors Spanish conquistadors