Gonzalo Suárez Rendón


Gonzalo Suárez Rendón was a Spanish conquistador, known as the founder of the capital of Boyacá; Tunja. He took part in the Spanish conquest of the Muisca people led by Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada, and later by his brother Hernán Pérez de Quesada. On August6, 1539, he founded Tunja on the site of the former seat of the zaque of the Hunza.
Gonzalo Suárez Rendón is mentioned in the work of uncertain authorship Epítome de la conquista del Nuevo Reino de Granada as "Suarex".

Biography

Personal life

Gonzalo Suárez Rendón was born around 1503 in the Andalusian city of Málaga to Rodrigo Suárez Rendón de Jerez and Isabel Jiménez, or Ximénez, Suárez. He had one brother and one sister: Rodrigo Sabariego Suárez Rendon; and María Suárez Rendón. He married Mencia de Figueroa y Godoy in 1563 and the couple had four children: two sons and two daughters.

American expeditions

The Suárez River, which the conquistadors followed to reach the Altiplano Cundiboyacense in early 1537, was named after Suárez Rendón when his horse drowned in it.
Together with Hernán Pérez de Quesada and Gonzalo García Zorro, Suárez Rendón was one of the torturers of the last zipa, Sagipa.

House in Tunja

The house built by Suárez Rendon,, between August7, 1539, the day after the foundation of Tunja, and 1570, still exists as the oldest colonial building in Tunja and the only remaining house of a colonial city founder in Latin America; it has been a museum since 1965.

Gallery