My Hispanic
People Project

By Justin Caviness
Spanish 3A
November 16, 2007

Including

Vicente Fox

Atahualpa

Juan Ponce de Leon

Table of Contents

Page 1 Cover page
Page 2 Table of contents
Page 3 Rubric
Page 4 Atahualpa
Pages 5, 6 Atahualpa data
Page 7 Atahualpa pictures
Page 8 Juan Ponce de Leon
Pages 9, 10 Juan Ponce de Leon Data
Page 11 Juan Ponce de Leon Pictures
Page 12 Vicente Fox
Pages 13, 14 Vicente Fox data
Page 15 Vicente Fox Pictures
Page 16 Bibliography

Atahualpa

Atahualpa

Atahualpa was the last ruling emperor of the Inca Empire. He became emperor upon defeating his younger half-brother Huascar in a civil war started by the death of their father, Inca Huayna Capac, from a spreadable disease thought to be malaria or smallpox. During the civil war, the Spaniard Francisco Pizarro crossed his path, captured Atahualpa, and used him to control the Inca Empire. Eventually, the Spanish killed Atahualpa, ending the Inca Atahualpa's mother was a Shyri (Quito Kingdom) princess named Pacha. On the death of their father and their older brother, Ninan Cuyochi, who had been the designated heir, the empire was divided between the two surviving brothers, Huascar and Atahualpa. Huascar got the major part of it, containing the capital Cuzco, and Atahualpa the northern parts his mother's family's ancestral home. For a couple of years, the two brothers reigned without problems. But Huascar, who considered himself to be the real Inca emperor because he was a legal son of Huayna Capac and his sister, demanded that Atahualpa swear an oath to him. Atahualpa refused, and the civil war began. Huascar invaded the north with a great army and soon captured Atahualpa. Atahualpa fled from captivity with the help of a small girl, and united himself with the generals Chalicuchima and Quiz. He gathered an army and defeated Huascar in the battle of Chimborazo. Atahualpa pressed foreword and began to capture the rest of the empire whose citizens he punished in gruesome ways for supporting Huascar in the beginning of the civil war. Emperor Atahuallpa during the Battle of Cajamarca The final battle took place at Quipaipan, where Huascar was captured and his army disbanded. Atahualpa had stopped in the city of Cajamarca in the Andes with his army of 80,000 troops on his way to the south and Cuzco to claim his throne. The Spanish conquistador Francisco Pizarro established the city of Piura, the first Spanish settlement in Peru in July 1532. After a march of two months, Pizarro arrived at Cajamarca with just 168 men under his command and sent Hernando de Soto, friar Vicente de Valverde and native interpreter Felipillo to speak with Atahualpa about the Spanish presence. Through the interpreter, Valverde delivered the "Requirement", indicating that Atahualpa and his people must convert to Christianity, and if he refused he would be considered an enemy of the Church and of Spain. Atahualpa refused the Spanish presence in his land by saying he would "be no man's tributary". "Be advised that I, being free, do not have to pay tribute to anyone, nor do I believe there is a king greater than I. However, I will have the pleasure to be the friend of your emperor, since he should be a great prince to send his armies throughout the world. But this Pope does not interest me; much less will I obey him, I being in the kingdom of my father and our religion being good and I and my subjects are happy. However, despite my being a son of Huayna Capac I cannot discuss anything so wise and old. The Christ that you speak of died, the Sun and Moon never die, besides how do you know your god created the world? The Spanish envoys returned to Pizarro, who prepared a surprise attack against Atahualpa's army in what became the Battle of Cajamarca on November 16, 1532. The seizure of Atahualpa at Cajamarca. According to Spanish law, Atahualpa’s refusal of the Requirement allowed the Spanish to officially declare war on the Inca people. When Atahualpa coldly asked the priest Valverde by what authority he and his people could say such things, Valverde offered him a Bible, saying that the authority derived from the words in it. He examined it and then asked why did it not speak to him. He then threw it to the ground. That gave the Spaniards the excuse they needed to wage war on the Incas. They opened fire, and over the course of two hours more than two thousand Inca soldiers were killed. The Spanish then imprisoned Atahualpa in the Temple of the Sun. Atahualpa still could not believe the Spanish intended to take control of his kingdom. He thought that if he gave them the gold and silver they sought they would leave. In exchange for his release, he agreed to fill a large room with gold and promised the Spanish twice that amount in silver. Although he was stunned by the offer, Pizarro had no intention of releasing the Inca because he needed the ruler's influence over the native people to maintain order in the surrounding country or, more to the point, he meant to depose Atahualpa, placing the entire empire under the rule of Spain's King Charles I (Holy Roman Emperor Charles V), with himself as viceroy. Spaniards executing Tupac Amaru in 1572, drawing by Guaman Poma de Ayala. Still outnumbered and fearing an imminent attack from the Inca general Rumiñahui, after several months the Spanish saw Atahualpa as too much of a liability and chose to have him executed. Pizarro staged a mock trial and found Atahualpa guilty of revolting against the Spanish, practicing false worship and murdering Huascar, his own brother. Atahualpa was sentenced to execution by burning. He was horrified, since the Inca believed that the soul would not be able to go on to the afterlife if the body were burned. Friar Vicente de Valverde, who had earlier offered the Bible to Atahualpa, intervened again, telling Atahualpa that if he agreed to convert to Christianity he would convince the rest to commute the sentence. Atahualpa agreed to be baptized into the Christian faith. He was given the name Juan Santos Atahualpa and, in accordance with his request, was strangled with a weapon of wire or cord instead of being burned.

Juan Ponce de Leon

Juan Ponce de Leon

Juan Ponce de Leon was a Spanish conquistador. He was born in Santervas de Campos. As a young man he joined the war to conquer Granada, the last Moorish state on the Iberian Peninsula. Ponce de Leon accompanied Christopher Columbus on his second voyage to the New World. He became the first Governor of Puerto Rico by appointment of the Spanish Crown. He is also notable for his voyage to Florida, the first known European excursion there, as well as for being associated with the legend of the Fountain of Youth which is said to be in Florida. It is thought that Ponce de Leon, the Spanish explorer, first landed on the site where Cockburn Town is, on Grand Turk in the Turks and Caicos Islands but soon settled in Hispaniola. He helped conquer the Tainos of the eastern part of Hispaniola and was rewarded with the governorship of the Province of Higuey that was created there. While there, he heard stories of the wealth of Borinquen, and he sought and received permission to go there. In 1512, Ponce de Leon founded the first settlement in Puerto Rico, Caparra. He was greeted with open arms by the Taino Cacique Agüeybaná and quickly gained control of the island. As a result, Ponce de León was named Governor of Puerto Rico in 1509. Ponce de León and the other conquistadors forced the Tainos to work in the mines and to construct forts. The Tainos died in great numbers after exposure to the European diseases the sailors brought with them, to which they had no immunity. Ponce de Leon, however, became rich while serving as Governor. He married a Spanish woman named Leonore and had two daughters and one son. He was a Spanish nobleman In 1506, upon the death of Christopher Columbus, who had been appointed lifetime military governor of his discoveries, the Spanish authorities refused to grant the same privilege to his son Diego Columbus. The Spanish Crown by then had selected Ponce de Leon to colonize and govern the island of Puerto Rico. In the meantime Diego Columbus had taken his claim to the top court in Madrid and won his rights: Ponce de Leon was removed from office in 1512. Feeling that his good name had been damaged and not wishing to serve Diego, Ponce de Leon obtained title to explore the areas north of Cuba. According to a popular legend Ponce de Leon discovered Florida while searching for the Fountain of Youth. Though stories of life-restoring waters were known on both sides of the Atlantic long before Ponce de Leon, the story of him searching for them was not attached to him until after his death. A similar account appears in Francisco Lopez de Gómara's Historia General de las Indias of 1551. Then in 1575, Hernando de Escalante Fontaneda, a shipwreck survivor who had lived with the Indians of Florida for 17 years, published his memoir in which he locates the waters in Florida, and says that Ponce de Leon was supposed to have looked for them there. Though Fontaneda doubted that de Leon had really gone to Florida looking for the waters, the account was included in the Historia general de los hechos de los Castellanos of Antonio de Herrera y Tordesillas of 1615. Ponce de Leon equipped three ships at his own expense, and set out on his voyage of discovery and conquest in 1513. On March 27, 1513, he sighted an island, but sailed on without landing. On April 2 he landed on the east coast of the newly "discovered" land at a point which is disputed, but was somewhere on the northeast coast of the present State of Florida. Ponce de Leon claimed "La Florida" for Spain. He named the land La Florida, meaning flowery, either because of the vegetation in bloom he saw there, or because he landed there during Pascua Florida, Spanish for Flowery Passover, meaning the Easter season. Pascua Florida Day, April 2, is a legal holiday in Florida. Ponce de Leon then sailed south along the Florida coast, charting the rivers he found, passed around the Florida Keys, and up the west coast of Florida to Cape Romano. He sailed back south to Havana, and then up to Florida again, stopping at the Bay of Chequesta before returning to Puerto Rico. Ponce de Leon may not have been the first European to reach Florida. He encountered at least one Native American in Florida in 1513 who could speak Spanish. In 1514 Ponce de Leon returned to Spain and received commissions to conquer the Caribs of Guadalupe and to colonize the Island of Florida. His expedition to Guadalupe in 1515 was not successful, and he returned to Puerto Rico where he stayed until 1521 In 1521 Ponce de Leon organized a colonizing expedition on two ships. It consisted of some 200 men, including priests, farmers and artisans, 50 horses and other domestic animals, and farming implements. The expedition landed on the southwest coast of Florida, in the vicinity of Caloosahatchee River or Charlotte Harbor. The colonists were soon attacked by Calusa Indians and Ponce de Leon was injured by a poisoned arrow to the shoulder. After this attack, he and colonists sailed to Havana, Cuba, where he soon died of the wound. His tomb is in the cathedral in Old San Juan.