Inés de Suárez, conquistadora

[Ferran]

INÉS DE SUÁREZ, CONQUISTADORA

Born in Plasencia, Extremadura, Spain in 1507, Inés de Suárez arrived in Lima in 1538. It is generally assumed that she was in search of her husband , who left Spain to serve in the New World with the Pizarro brothers.

Her husband died before Inés reached Peru - she told a compatriot that he died at sea - and the next word of her is in 1539, when she applied for and was granted, as the widow of a Spanish soldier, a small plot of land in Cuzco and encomienda rights to a number of Indians.

The earliest mention of her friendship with Pedro de Valdivia was after Valdivia returned from the Battle of Las Salinas (1538). Although they were from the same area of Spain and at least one novelist relates a tale of long-standing love between them, there is no real evidence that they had met prior to her arrival in Cuzco. It is not known just when Inés became Valdivia’s mistress.

In late 1539, over the objections of Francisco Martínez and encouraged by some of his captains, Valdivia, using the intermediary services of a Mercedarian priest, requested official permission for Inés to become a part of the group he was leading to the South.

Francisco Pizarro, in his letter to Valdivia (January of 1540) granting permission for Inés to accompany Valdivia as his domestic servant, addressed the following words to Inés, “...as Valdivia tells me, the men are afraid to go on such a long trip and you very courageously put yourself in the face of that danger...” Tomás Thayer Ojeda said of her,“She was a woman of great drive and loyalty, discrete, wise and charitable, and she enjoyed high estimation among the conquistadores.”

Ida Stevenson Vernon wrote of Inés, “With these few gallant men went another - one who on more than one occasion turned out to be the savior of the group; who looked after the food, supervised the yanaconas, nursed the wounded, cheered the sick, and, in the end, saved the life of the leader - the only Spanish woman amid seven or nine or twelve or twenty Spanish men...”

During the long and harrowing trip to the south, Inés, in addition to caring for Valdivia and treating the sick and wounded, found water for them in the desert, and saved Valdivia when one of his rivals tried to undermine his enterprise and take his life. The natives, having already experienced the incursions of the Spaniards,(Diego de Almagro, 1535-1536) burned their crops and drove off their livestock, leaving nothing for Valdivia’s band and the animals which accompanied them.

In December of 1540, eleven months after they left Cuzco Valdivia and his band reached the valley of the Mapocho river, where Valdivia was to establish the capital of the territory. The valley was extensive and well populated with natives. Its soil was fertile and there was abundant fresh water. Two high hills provided defensive positions.

Soon after their arrival, Valdivia tried to convince the natives of his good intentions, sending out delegations bearing gifts for the caciques. The natives kept the gifts but, united under the leadership of Michimalongo, attacked the Spaniards and were on the point of overwhelming them. Suddenly the natives threw down their weapons and fled. Captured Indians declared that they had seen a man, mounted on a white horse and carrying a naked sword, descend from the clouds and attack them. The Spaniards decided it was a miraculous appearance of Santo Iago (Saint James) and, in thanksgiving, named the new city Santiago. The city was officially dedicated on 12 February, 1541.

In August of 1541, when Valdivia was occupied on the coast, Inés uncovered another plot to unseat him. After the plotters were taken care of, Valdivia turned his attention to the Indians and he invited seven caciques to meet with him to arrange for the delivery of food. When the Indians arrived, Valdivia had them held as hostages for the safe delivery of the provisions and the safety of outlying settlements. On the 9th of September, Valdivia took forty men and left the city to put down an uprising of Indians near Aconcagua.

Early on the morning of 10 September, 1541, a young yanacona brought word to Captain Alonso de Monroy, who had been left in charge of the city, that the woods around the city were full of natives. Inés was asked if she thought that the Indian hostages should be released as a peace gesture. She replied that she saw it as a bad idea; if the Indians overpowered the Spaniards, the hostages would provide their only bargaining power. Monroy accepted Inés’s idea and issued a call for a council of war.

Just before dawn on 11 September, mounted Spaniards rode out to engage the Indians, whose numbers were estimated first at 8,000 and later at 20,000. In spite of the advantage of their horses and their skill with their swords, by noon the Spaniards were pushed into a retreat toward the east, across the river; and, by mid-afternoon, they were backed up to the plaza itself. All day the battle raged.

Fire arrows and torches set fire to most of the city; four Spaniards were killed along with a score of horses and other animals. ... The situation became desperate. The priest, Rodrigo González, said later that the fight was like the Day of Judgement for the Spaniards and that only a miracle saved them.

All day Inés had been carrying food and water to the fighting men, nursing the wounded, giving them encouragement and comfort. Mariño de Lobera wrote of her activities during the battle,

...and she went among them, she told them that if they felt fatigued and if they were wounded she would cure them with her own hands...she went where they were, even among the hooves of the horses; and she did not just cure them, she animated them and raised their morale, sending them back into the battle renewed...one caballero whose wounds she had just treated, was so tired and weak from loss of blood that he could not mount his horse. This señora was so moved by his plea for help that she put herself into the midst of the fray and helped him to mount his horse...

Inés recognized the discouragement of the men and the extreme danger of the situation; she offered a suggestion. All day the seven caciques who were prisoners of the Spaniards, had been shouting encouragement to their people. Inés proposed that Spaniards decapitate the seven and toss their heads out among the Indians in order to frighten them. There was some objection to the plan, since several men felt that the fall of the city was imminent and that the captive caciques would be their only bargaining advantage with the Indians. Doña Inés insisted that hers was the only viable solution to their problem. She then went to the house where the chieftains were guarded by Francisco Rubio and Hernando de la Torre and gave the order for the execution. Mariño Lovera wrote that the guard, la Torre, asked, “In what manner shall we kill them, Señora?” “In this manner,” she replied; and, seizing la Torre’s sword, she herself, cut off the head of the first cacique ... as if she had been a Roland or el Cid Ruy Diaz!”

After the seven were decapitated and their heads thrown out among the Indians, Inés donned a coat of mail and a helmet; and, throwing an elk hide cloak over her shoulders, she rode out on her white horse. According to an eye-witness, “...she went out to the plaza and put herself in front of all the soldiers, encouraging them with words of such exaggerated praise that they treated her as if she were a brave captain,...instead of a woman masquerading as a soldier in iron mail.”

The Spaniards took advantage of the confusion and disorder engendered among the Indians by the gory heads, and spurred on by the courageous woman who now led them, succeeded in driving the now disordered Indians from the town. One historian wrote, “The Indians said afterward that the Christians would have been defeated were it not for a woman on a white horse.”

In 1544, in recognition of her courage and valor, Valdivia rewarded Inés with an encomienda. His testament of dedication said in part,

...in battle with the enemies who did not take into account the caciques who were our prisoners, they that were in the most central place - to which the Indians came, ...throwing themselves on you, and you, seeing how weakened your beleaguered forces were then, you made them kill the caciqueswho were prisoners, putting your own hands on them, causing the majority of the Indians to run away and they left off fighting when they witnessed the evidence of the death of their chieftains; ...it is certain that if they had not been killed and thrown among their countrymen, there would not be a single Spaniard remaining alive in all this city...by taking up the sword and letting if fall on the necks of the cacique prisoners, you have saved all of us.

Although there is a great deal of consistency in the accounts, given the passage of time and the tendency of the Spaniards to embroider their reports a bit, it is likely that there is at least some exaggeration in the telling. The truth of the matter is that it is certain that Inés Suárez played a crucial role in the salvation of Santiago in the year 1541. Had it not been for her bravery, the city would have certainly fallen and the Spaniards most likely would have been slaughtered by the Indians, ending, at least for a time, the southward colonial expansion.



Source: http://www.ipsonet.org/congress/5/papers_pdf/akn16.pdf

[Caesar Princeps]

Is not she the one about whom Isabela Allende wrote in his book "Ines de mí alma"?

[Ferran]

Originally Posted by Caesar Princeps

Is not she the one about whom Isabela Allende wrote in his book "Ines de mí alma"?

Yes, she is. This book is also important because it's thanks to it that the figure of Inés de Suárez began to be minimally (and deservedly, I might add) known. As a concrete example, prior to its publication she just had a four-lined entry in the Spanish Wikipedia.