Peñalosa Briceño, Diego Dionisio De (1621–1687)

Diego Dionisio De Peñalosa Briceño (b. 1621/22; d. 1687), governor of New Mexico from 1661 to 1664. Born in Lima, Peñalosa held several posts in Peru, Mexico, and Cuba before being appointed governor of New Mexico. Peñalosa was determined to use this office for personal gain, and his scheming strained relations between church and state. At the height of a jurisdictional dispute, Peñalosa arrested the Franciscan superior in Santa Fe. Charged with blasphemy and numerous other offenses by the Inquisition, he was banished from New Spain. Peñalosa traveled to England and France, where he proposed an invasion of New Spain. Although neither country adopted his plans, Peñalosa's intrigues encouraged the 1685 expedition of La Salle to the Gulf coast.

See alsoNew Mexico .

BIBLIOGRAPHY

The best account of this era of New Mexican history and of the conflict between church and state is France V. Scholes, Troublous Times in New Mexico 1659–1670 (1942). Peñalosa's fabricated trip to Quivira, a legend used to entice the English and French, is examined in C. W. Hackett, "New Light on Diego de Peñalosa," in Mississippi Valley Historical Review 6, no. 3 (1919–1920): 313-335.

Additional Bibliography

Cutter, Donald C. España en Nuevo México. Madrid: Editorial MAPFRE, 1992.

Villagrá, Gaspar Pérez de, and Felipe Echenique March. Historia de la Nueva México. México, D.F.: Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, Centro Regional de Baja California, 1993.

                                   Suzanne B. Pasztor