Peru

The Basque mark on the history of Peru is made of proper names and loose pieces: a conquistador from Bergara, a Virgin who reached Lima with the viceroy in her procession, a bronze plaque, a bank, a general from Arequipa and a novelist who ended up in the jungle.

Domingo de Soraluce, one of the Thirteen of Gallo

Domingo de Soraluce was born in Bergara in 1499, and in 1524 he was in Panama as a merchant’s apprentice. He followed Francisco Pizarro, and on the Isla del Gallo he was one of the thirteen who refused to go back to Panama and chose to stay with him. He later travelled with Pizarro to Spain to seek the conquest of Peru, and the Crown made him a knight and alderman of Tumbes. He died at sea at the end of 1536 and was buried in Panama. In his will he left donations to the church of Bergara.³

The Virgin of Aránzazu, received by the viceroy (1646)

In October 1646 the image of Our Lady of Aránzazu reached Lima for the Basques’ chapel. According to the Franciscan chronicler Diego de Córdova y Salinas, it was carried under a canopy by priests of the cathedral, and in the procession went the viceroy, the Audiencia, the town and cathedral chapters and the religious orders. On 18 October it was placed in the chapel of San Francisco.¹

A plaque for the “sons of Cantabria” (1693-1808)

From 1693, the vault of the chapel had a bronze plaque: “Here lie the most noble and most loyal sons and descendants of the Province of Cantabria”. When it had to be closed in 1808, the stewards left written instructions for anyone who might wish to reopen it one day: “if necessary it is easy to remove it and give access to the vault”.¹

A Biscayan bank in Lima

In the 1620s, the Biscayan Juan de la Plaza founded a bank in Lima, the third in the city. He did so with the written support of numerous merchants, many of them Basques.¹

José Manuel de Goyeneche, a general from a family from Baztan

José Manuel de Goyeneche y Barreda was born in Arequipa, into a family from Baztan, and was a soldier in the service of the Crown during the wars of independence. He took La Paz in 1809 and won the battle of Guaqui, which earned him the title of Count of Guaqui.⁴

From exile to the jungle

Jon Andoni Irazusta, a Basque nationalist politician and novelist in Basque, spent his exile in Colombia and Argentina, and wrote two novels about the Basque emigrants and exiles in America. In 1950 he settled in Moyobamba, in the Peruvian jungle, thanks to the Basque missionaries who lived there.⁵