Vázquez de Coronado, Francisco (1510–1554)

Type: Biography

Published: 1952

Updated: August 5, 2020

Font size: A / A reset Translate / Traducir / Traduire

Francisco Vázquez de Coronado, explorer and governor, son of Juan Vázquez de Coronado and Isabel de Luján, was born at Salamanca, Spain, in 1510. In 1535 he accompanied Viceroy Antonio de Mendoza to Mexico, where he married Beatriz de Estrada; they had one son and four daughters. Coronado was appointed in 1538 to the city council of Mexico City and to the governorship of Nueva Galicia, a province with four principal villages-Guadalajara, Compostela, Purificación, and Culiacán. On January 6, 1540, Mendoza appointed Coronado to lead an expedition to the Seven Cities of Cíbola, concerning which wondrous tales had been brought to Mexico by Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca. On April 22, 1540, Coronado left Culiacán for the north. There was no gold at Cíbola (the Zuñi villages in western New Mexico), but he was led on by stories of great rewards to be found in Quivira, a region on the Great Plains far to the east. Chasing this chimera occupied Coronado until the early part of 1542. When he returned to Mexico he was subjected to an official examination of his conduct as leader of the expedition and as governor of Nueva Galicia. He was cleared of charges in connection with the expedition, but on some of the other charges was fined and lost his commission. In Mexico City he served as councilman until his death, on September 22, 1554. He was buried in Santo Domingo Church, Mexico City. See also CORONADO EXPEDITION.

Herbert Eugene Bolton, Coronado: Knight of Pueblos and Plains (New York: Whittlesey; Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1949). David Donoghue, "The Route of the Coronado Expedition in Texas," Southwestern Historical Quarterly 32 (January 1929). Dianna Everett, ed., Coronado and the Myth of Quivira (Canyon, Texas: Panhandle-Plains Historical Society, 1985). George P. Hammond, Coronado's Seven Cities (Albuquerque: U.S. Coronado Expedition Committee, 1940). Stewart L. Udall, "In Coronado's Footsteps," Arizona Highways, April 1984. Vertical Files, Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, University of Texas at Austin. J. W. Williams, "Coronado, from the Rio Grande to the Concho," Southwestern Historical Quarterly 63 (October 1959). Norma Clay Wright, The Coronado Expedition (Ph.D. dissertation, New Mexico Highlands University, 1957).

Time Periods:

Spanish Texas

The following, adapted from the Chicago Manual of Style, 15th edition, is the preferred citation for this entry.

David Donoghue, “Vázquez de Coronado, Francisco,” Handbook of Texas Online, accessed September 23, 2021, https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/vazquez-de-coronado-francisco.

Published by the Texas State Historical Association.

All copyrighted materials included within the Handbook of Texas Online are in accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107 related to Copyright and “Fair Use” for Non-Profit educational institutions, which permits the Texas State Historical Association (TSHA), to utilize copyrighted materials to further scholarship, education, and inform the public. The TSHA makes every effort to conform to the principles of fair use and to comply with copyright law.

For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml

If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond fair use, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.

Original Publication Date:: 1952
Most Recent Revision Date:: August 5, 2020

This entry belongs to the following Handbook Special Projects:

Save to MyTSHA Load a Random Entry Report an Error Request a Revision

Become a TSHA member and get a FREE Texas Almanac!

Vázquez de Coronado, Francisco (1510–1554)

Categories:

Time Periods:

This entry belongs to the following Handbook Special Projects:

Recently Viewed

Settings