Abstract

TEMKIN, Samuel. Gaspar Castaño de Sosa: process, sentence, and death. Sig. his [online]. 2021, vol.23, n.45, pp.148-191.  Epub June 02, 2021. ISSN 1665-4420.

A few months after the death of Luis de Carvajal, governor of Nuevo Reino de León, his lieutenant in Almadén, Gaspar Castaño de Sosa, abandoned that village taking with him all its inhabitants. The purpose was to re-settle in Nuevo México, an area to the north not yet under Spanish dominion. Although he reached that province, his colonizing efforts were ended by Viceroy Luis de Velasco II, who sent after him a small army under captain Juan Morlete to apprehend him and to take him to Mexico City for punishment, because, according to the viceroy, Castaño’s entrada was illegal. Based on documents that contain what Velasco and Morlete said, several historians have reached the same conclusion. In this work we consider the events that took place in Almadén, the charges against Castaño, his sentence and his death. Based on the same documents and of others we found recently in the archives, we conclude that the entrada was legal, and that Castaño’s persecution had more to do with political matters than with what his detractors said.

Keywords : Nuevo México; Nueva España; Luis de Carvajal; Almadén; Nueva Vizcaya.