User:Sefaradish/Felipe Gutiérrez y Toledo

Felipe Gutiérrez y Toledo (Madrid, Spanish Crown, ca. 1500 – Viceroyalty of Peru, Spanish Empire, September 1544) was a Spanish military officer who held the position of the second governor of Veragua. His jurisdiction encompassed the remaining territory from the boundaries of Castilla del Oro to Cape Gracias a Dios, which included the entire Caribbean coast of present-day Costa Rica and Nicaragua, as well as parts of Panama.

He was the brother of Diego Gutiérrez y Toledo, the first governor of the province of Nueva Cartago and Costa Rica.

Biography
Felipe Gutiérrez y Toledo was born around 1500 in the town of Madrid in Castilla la Nueva, which was part of the Crown of Castile at the time. He was the son of Alonso Gutiérrez de Madrid, the royal treasurer of Emperor Charles V, and María Rodríguez de Pisa, both of whom were wealthy converts from Judaism. His brother was Diego Gutiérrez y Toledo, the first governor of the province of Nueva Cartago y Costa Rica. He married Ana Gómez de Zúñiga.

By a royal decree dated December 24, 1534, he was appointed as the second governor of Veragua, whose remaining jurisdiction extended from the boundaries of Castilla del Oro (Panama) to Cape Gracias a Dios, at the present-day border of Honduras and Nicaragua. In other words, it encompassed the entire Caribbean coast of present-day Costa Rica and Nicaragua, as well as parts of Panama.

He left Spain in July 1535, heading towards his governorship, but his expedition faced significant misfortune. They suffered from hunger and diseases, as well as hostility from the indigenous people of the region.

Both among these indigenous peoples and among his own men, he became known for his greed and cruelty. On the banks of the Belén or Veragua River, he founded the short-lived city of La Concepción, possibly on December 8, 1535.

Before long, hunger became widespread in the new settlement, and there were even cases of cannibalism among the Spanish settlers, which Gutiérrez repressed with great severity. Indigenous people from the surrounding areas besieged the population, and Gutiérrez sent several of his men overland to the city of Nombre de Dios to request assistance.

A ship was sent to him, and he embarked with sixty of his companions, leaving the others behind, who either perished from hunger or at the hands of the indigenous people. The governor arrived in Panama in early 1536 and decided to definitively abandon his position and head to Peru to join Francisco Pizarro.

In 1543, he conducted an expedition with Diego de Rojas to the northwest territory of present-day Argentina, reaching as far as present-day Córdoba and the Paraná River (Diego de Rojas' Entry into Tucumán). Upon his return, and because he refused to support Gonzalo Pizarro's rebellion, he was ordered to be executed in September 1544.