Juan del Junco

Juan de(l) Junco (1503, Ribadesella, Asturias, Castile - ?, Santo Domingo) was a Spanish conquistador who participated in the Spanish conquest of the Muisca. Del Junco started his career as conquistador in the 1526 expedition lead by Sebastian Cabot exploring the Río de la Plata in present-day Argentina. In 1535, he arrived in Santa Marta at the Colombian Caribbean coast from where the strenuous expedition in search of El Dorado began in April 1536.

Del Junco played a role in the foundations of Bogotá (August 6, 1538) and Tunja (August 6, 1539) and was an honoured captain in the troops of Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada. Juan del Junco was named second in line of succession, after Gonzalo's brother Hernán, in case the first governor of the New Kingdom of Granada would die. Del Junco was awarded the encomienda of Cucaita, close to Tunja, for his efforts as a soldier. In 1541, Del Junco left South America for Santo Domingo, where he married and died in an unknown year.

Juan del Junco is named in the major publications of early chroniclers about the Spanish conquest of Colombia; Epítome de la conquista del Nuevo Reino de Granada (first published in 1889), Elegías de varones ilustres de Indias (De Castellanos, 1589)., El Carnero (Freyle, 1638), and Historia general de las conquistas del Nuevo Reino de Granada (De Piedrahita, 1676).

As a reward for his efforts, Juan del Junco received the encomienda over Cucaita

Juan del Junco, in texts also named Juan de Junco, was born in Asturias in 1503. As his brother, Rodrigo del Junco who would become governor of La Florida, he was baptised in Ribadesella. He was active as a soldier in Hungary and Italy in his early years.

Del Junco's father-in-law, Lucas Vázquez de Ayllón, is known as the first founder of a European settlement on the American East Coast
Map by Diego Ribero, 1539

The conquest expeditions of Juan del Junco commenced in 1526, when he embarked on a ship leaving Sanlúcar de Barrameda. He served under Sebastian Cabot in the exploration of the Río de la Plata. In 1532 or 1533 taking Hernán Venegas Carrillo with him, Del Junco sailed to Santo Domingo, Hispaniola. From there, his plan was to travel to the newly founded city of Cartagena, but went to Santa Marta instead to assist Roberto Infante, then governor of the city, arriving in 1535.

Juan del Junco joined the harsh expedition into the Colombian Andes from Santa Marta as a captain, an expedition lead by Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada departing April 6, 1536. After almost one year, the heavily reduced regiment reached the Muisca Confederation on the Bogotá savanna. As a captain, Del Junco participated in the foundations of Bogotá (August 6, 1538), by Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada, and Tunja (August 6, 1539), by Gonzalo Suárez Rendón.

Juan del Junco is noted as one of the captains of the newly founded New Kingdom of Granada to hand back the weapons of the earlier dismissed Lázaro Fonte, lover of Zoratama. His companions in this task were Gonzalo Suárez Rendón, Pedro Fernández de Valenzuela and Diego Paredes. Fonte was imprisoned but released when he informed De Quesada of the arrival of two other conquest expeditions on the Altiplano Cundiboyacense, by Nikolaus Federmann from the east and Sebastián de Belalcázar from the south. Fonte had used the skin of a deer to write his revelations.

After the conquest expeditions, captain Del Junco obtained the title of regidor of Santa Fe de Bogotá, and received the encomienda of Cucaita, in the province of Tunja. He was the first in line to succeed as commander of the province in case of death of Hernán Pérez de Quesada, brother of Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada. It is said that he spent twenty months in the New Kingdom of Granada and obtained 20,000 pesos of gold from the Muisca. Notable caciques he stole the precious resources gold and emeralds from were the caciques Quiminza, Cucayta, Boyacá, Sora, Sutamanga and Cuqueitagacha. In a 1560 letter, Juan del Junco wrote to the Spanish Crown "of the 11,000 indians that resided on the banks of the Magdalena River, not even 500 survived".

In 1541, Del Junco returned to Santo Domingo, the city he had left six years before. He married Inés de Villalobos, daughter of oidor Lucas Vázquez de Ayllón. The couple had children, but their fate is unknown, as is the year of his death.