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Zumarraga [History]

López de Legazpi

Zumarraga 1500/1505-Manila 1572

Colonizer. Second son of Juan Martinez de Legazpi and Elvira Gurruchategui. He was a Zumarraga town councillor in 1526 and scribe of the Areria “Alcaldía Mayor” (something like “Borough Council”) following the death of his father in 1527. Shortly afterwards, in 1528, he set off for Mexico where he married Isabel Garcés, who bore him nine children; he held positions at the “Casa de la Moneda” (Mint), became Senior Scribe in 1551 and rose to occupy the post of Mayor of the City of Mexico in 1559.

When King Philip II ordered the expedition to the western islands on the official request of Friar Andrés de Urdaneta, Velasco, who was the Viceroy of New Spain, appointed Legazpi in 1561 to lead the expedition and the King designated him “Admiral, General and Governor of all the lands he might conquer”.

The expedition, which Legazpi paid for mostly out of his own pocket, set sail for the Islands of the “Ladrones” (later the Philippines), and after putting in at the Island of Guam, arrived at the Island of Samar in 1565. There they had to overcome strong resistance put up by the natives, who regarded the Castilians as hostile, but who were eventually won over with peaceful gestures.

In the same year Legazpi arrived in Bohol where he made a “blood pact” with the Datu (chief) Sikatuna, which earned him the loyalty of the natives. He then headed for the Island of Cebú where he founded the town of San Miguel, the capital of the Castilian dominions until 1571, and the church of the “Santo Niño”.

He endured attacks by the Mohammedan natives and the Portuguese, and mutinies by the Castilians themselves. In 1570 he arrived at the town of Manila, which he re-established in 1571 in accordance with the plans of the architect Herrera, and sent an expedition under the command of his grandson Juan Salcedo to colonise the north of Luzon.

He died in poverty in 1572 as he awaited the arrival of his grandson, and knew nothing about the Royal Warrant by which King Philip II appointed him “Governor for Life and Captain General of the Philippines”.

Today, thanks to the good memories left by Miguel López de Legazpi in those lands, Zumarraga is twinned with the cities of Legazpi (on the Island of Albay) and with Tagbilaran (on the Island of Bohol).

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