Juan de Garay

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Juan de Garay (born in 1528 in Orduña, Spain - died near the Río de la Plata in 1583) was a Spanish conquistador.

Garay worked and fought for the Spanish Empire, first in the Viceroyalty of Peru, and then at the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata. He was governor of Asunción (present Paraguay) and founded a number of cities in Argentina, specially near the Paraná River area, as well as the second foundation of Buenos Aires, in 1580.

In 1543 he sailed to Peru with his uncle Pedro de Zárate in Viceking Blasco Núñes Vela's first expedition. In 1561 ha participated in the fundation of Santa Cruz de la Sierra. In 1568 he mooved to Asunción were he became a political figure. Asunción governor sent him on April 1573, and with a company of 80 men, on an expedition to the Paraná river, during which he founded the city of Santa Fe de la Vera Cruz.

In 1580, already with the rank of Capitan General of the Viceroyalty, he performed the second foundation of the city on the banks of the Río de la Plata, which was first founded by Pedro de Mendoza in 1536 under the name of Nuestra Señora del Buen Ayre, and later destroyed by the natives. The second and definitive foundation of Buenos Aires took place on July 11 in the year 1580.

Juan de Garay died while travelling form Buenos Aires to Santa Fe in 1583, when his group was ambushed by aboriginals.

[edit] Sources

• Biography
• On his doubtful birth place (Spanish)
• Biography (Spanish)