Hernán Venegas Carrillo

Hernán Venegas Carrillo Manosalvas (Córdoba, ca. 1513 - Santa Fe de Bogotá, February 2, 1583) was a Spanish conquistador who participated in the Spanish conquest of the Muisca and conquest of the Panche in the New Kingdom of Granada, present-day Colombia. Venegas Carrillo was mayor of Santa Fe de Bogotá in two terms; in 1542 and from 1543 to 1544. Between the two terms, the post was filled by Juan de Céspedes. Conquistador Pedro Fernández de Valenzuela was his cousin. In total Hernán Venegas Carrillo got twelve children, four with Magdalena of Guatavita, the sister of the last zipa Sagipa and eight with his second wife, Juana Ponce de León y Figueroa, daughter of the governor of Venezuela Pedro Ponce de León. Venegas Carrillo is buried in the Primatial Cathedral of Bogotá, located at the Bolívar Square in the centre of the Colombian capital.

Sagipa was Hernán's first father-in-law

Venegas Carrillo was born in Córdoba, Andalusia, around 1513. His parents were Diego Ruiz Venegas Manosalvas and Inés Venegas. Venegas Carrillo was married twice; first to Magdalena of Guatavita, the sister of Sagipa (also named Zaquezazipa), the last Muisca zipa. This was one of the first mestizo marriages conducted in the New Kingdom of Granada. With her he got four children; María, Alonso, Isabel and Fernán Venegas. After the death of his Muisca wife, Venegas Carrillo married Juana Ponce de León and got eight more children with her; Maria, Alonso, Pedro, Luis, Francisco, Juana, Isabel and Inés Venegas Ponce de León. His daughter Maria Venegas Carrillo Ponce de León died in Pamplona, Norte de Santander. Alonso, his son with Magdalena de Guatavita, killed fellow conquistador Gonzalo García Zorro in a duel in 1566.

Hernán Venegas Carrillo was a member of the main expedition from the Caribbean coastal city of Santa Marta into the heart of the Colombian Andes, shown in green

Hernán Venegas Carrillo embarked on a ship sailing from Seville, Spain to the New World, probably in 1533 in the company of Juan del Junco. He was one of the conquistadors who participated in the strenuous expedition from Santa Marta at the Caribbean coast to the Muisca Confederation on the Altiplano Cundiboyacense.

In 1541, Venegas Carrillo received ownership over the encomiendas of Guatavita, Gachetá, Chipaleque, Pausa, Tuala, Tuaquira, Suba, Tocancipá, Gachancipá, Gachacá, Unta, Turmequé and Itencipá. In 1542 and from 1543 to 1544, Hernán Venegas Carrillo was mayor, at that time called encomendero, of Bogotá.

On March 20, 1544, Venegas Carrillo founded the town of Tocaima. He was sent east by Alonso Luis de Lugo. Tocaima became one of the richest cities in the New Kingdom of Granada.

In 1547, Venegas Carrillo was sent to Spain and returned the next year to the New Kingdom of Granada. He made multiple voyages back to Europe and at one of them he married Juana Ponce de León y Figueroa, daughter of the governor of Venezuela Pedro Ponce de León. His wife accompanied Venegas Carrillo in 1569 to Bogotá. Hernán Venegas Carrillo died on February 2, 1583 in Bogotá. His many children were the encomenderos of Guatavita, Gachetá, Chipasaque (today Junín), Tausa, Suba and Gachancipá. Venegas Carrillo is buried in the Primatial Cathedral of Bogotá.

• A school founded in 1958 in Tocaima, is named after Hernán Venegas Carrillo