Mencía Calderón y Ocampo (1514 – c. 1564) was a Spanish noble lady, first expeditionary woman in the Río de la Plata .
17-909: Mencía is a feminine given name of Spanish origin, as well as a surname. It may refer to: People [ edit ] Aída Mencía Ripley , Dominican scientist Mencía Calderón (1514–1564), Spanish noble lady and expeditionary woman Mencía López de Haro (1215–1270), Castilian noblewoman, Queen consort of Portugal Mencía de Mendoza (1508–1554), Dutch culture patron Carlos Mencía (b. 1967), American comedian of Honduran origin María Mencía , Spanish artist and researcher Other uses [ edit ] Mencía (grape) , grape variety from Spain Doña Mencía , Córdoba, Spain Mind of Mencia , TV show Epicopeia mencia , moth species Topics referred to by
34-507: A Spanish noble is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Alejo Garc%C3%ADa Aleixo Garcia , also known in Spanish as Alejo García, (died 1525) was a Portuguese explorer and conquistador in service to Spain . He was a castaway who lived in Brazil and explored Paraguay and Bolivia . On a raiding expedition with a Guaraní army, Garcia and a few colleagues were
51-551: A few more Spaniards and Portuguese set out from Santa Catarina to journey westward to what would become the site of Asunción, Paraguay , passing Iguazu Falls en route. They were probably the first Europeans to see the waterfall. At the site of Asunción, the Guaraní gathered an army of 2,000 men. The army followed the Paraguay River northward, crossing the river a few miles south of the future site of Corumbá , Brazil near
68-530: A network of trails called Peabiru criss-crossed this region of South America, linking the lands of the Guaraní to the Inca Empire nearly 1,000 km (620 miles) distant across the semi-arid Gran Chaco . A Spaniard later described the Peabiru as "a path of eight spans [about 1.8 meters or six feet] wide on which the grass grows very short." During his travels, Garcia heard tales of a "white king" who lived to
85-618: A people unknown to them at the time. According to one account, the Incas responded by sending an army of 20,000 men to repel the invaders. The Guaraní army and the Europeans retreated back the way they had come, laden with their plunder. Reaching the Paraguay River, Garcia wanted to resume the attack on the Incas with a larger army. He sent men, either Guaraní or Portuguese (accounts differ), back to his colleagues who had remained on
102-508: Is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages Menc%C3%ADa Calder%C3%B3n Mencía Calderón y Ocampo was born in Villa de Medellín , Badajoz (Spain) daughter of Alonso Calderón and Ana Ocampo, belonging to a noble family of Extremadura. She was married to Juan de Sanabria , a noble Spanish expeditionary who died shortly before leaving for New Spain . Through his mother, Mencía Calderón,
119-457: The Andes , entering the Inca Empire and reaching Tarabuco , Bolivia. Tarabuco was a rich outpost of the Incas and the army plundered the riches of the area, mostly silver, cloth, jewelry, and slaves. Garcia and his companions were the first Europeans to enter the Inca Empire, accomplishing this eight years before Francisco Pizarro . The Incas were not aware that among the invaders were Europeans,
136-670: The Gonçalo Coelho and Amerigo Vespucci expeditions), a mulatto named Francisco Pacheco, and the Spanish sailor Melchior Ramírez. Melchior Ramírez, in turn, would assist and guide Cristóvão Jacques on his voyage of exploration to the Río de la Plata and the Paraná River in 1521, returning again to Santa Catarina. Aleixo Garcia traveled inland, living among the Guaranís and learning to speak their language. Since time immemorial
153-471: The Atlantic coast with two or three arrobas , about 40 kg (88 lb), of silver to demonstrate the success of the raid and to request reinforcements. He remained behind with most of the plundered goods, but in late 1525, he was murdered by the Guaraní. The reasons for his murder are unknown, but possibly it was for the silver and slaves he had acquired in the raid. Stories of Garcia's expedition and
170-581: The edge of the Pantanal wetland in the Itatín region. The Europeans and Guaranís then traveled westward, crossing the semi-arid flatlands of the northern Gran Chaco of Bolivia . A large army was probably necessary to cross the Gran Chaco as this was the homeland of the warlike and nomadic Mbayá , a Guaycuru speaking people. After crossing the Gran Chaco, the Guaraní army and the Europeans climbed into
187-426: The expedition. The fleet survived storms and attacks by French corsairs before managing to reach the isle of Santa Catalina . From there, they made their way to the coast of Brazil, where they settled for a year while repairing their ships and building new, more fit ones with what was left of the others. After this period of rest they left to Asunción . The arguments between Salazar y Saavedra became constant, and it
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#1732773229123204-655: The first Europeans known to have come into contact with the Inca Empire . Garcia was possibly a member of the failed expedition of Juan Díaz de Solís in 1515 and 1516, which sought a sea passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean. After reaching the mouths of the Uruguay and Paraná rivers, it was apparent that the Río de la Plata was not such a strait. At this point, Solís and several crew members were killed by
221-474: The indigenous people (Indians or Indios), variously identified as the Charrúa or Guaraní ). His lieutenants opted to return to Spain. On their return, some of their boats were shipwrecked off Santa Catarina Island in present-day Brazil. Among the 11 or 18 Spanish and Portuguese survivors was Aleixo Garcia, a Portuguese adventurer. Shipwrecked with Garcia were a Portuguese sailor Henrique Montes (a veteran of
238-465: The same term [REDACTED] This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the title Mencía . If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Mencía&oldid=920612597 " Categories : Disambiguation pages Disambiguation pages with given-name-holder lists Hidden categories: Short description
255-514: The west, ruling cities of incomparable riches and splendor. After eight years as a castaway Garcia joined a Guaraní invasion of the Inca Empire far to the west. The Inca Empire was known to the Guaraní as the "Land without Evil." The Guaraní were familiar with the route, having raided the Andean homelands of the Inca on at least one previous occasion. In 1524, Garcia, the mulatto Pacheco, and possibly
272-573: Was Mencía who managed to organize the expedition and keep the group together. Mencía took the rank of Adelantada upon herself and led an expedition of 21 women and 22 men across 1.600 km of rainforest, following the same path that years before had followed Alejo García and Alvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca . They reached Asunción in 1555, where some problems erupted when the women who had come to meet their husbands found them already remarried to indigenous women, and with mestizo children, some of which were already in their teens. This biography of
289-403: Was related to Francisco Pizarro and Hernán Cortés , belonging to noble Castilian families. On 10 April 1550 Mencía Calderón embarked to America . In the expedition traveled 300 passengers, among which there were captains Salazar and Saavedra, Calderon's daughters, 50 eligible maidens, the wives of various conquerors, 80 sailors, and adventurer Hans Staden , who would write the chronicle of
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