Pedro Ruíz Corredor


Pedro Ruíz Corredor was a Spanish conquistador who participated in the Spanish conquest of the Muisca. He searched for El Dorado, returned to Spain, was sent back to the new world, helped consolidate newly conquered Peru for Spain, retired to his fiefdom to raise a family, and lived to a ripe old age.

Biography

El Dorado

The origins of Pedro Ruíz Corredor are unknown. He arrived from Spain in Santa Marta in 1533. Ruíz Corredor joined the expedition of Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada in the quest for El Dorado, leaving Santa Marta in April 1536. Ruíz Corredor received the encomienda of Oicatá and Nemuza. His brother Miguel was mayor of Tunja in 1591 and 1598.

Peru

Pedro Ruíz Corredor returned to Spain with the valuables he had obtained in the New Kingdom of Granada. In 1548 he was sent to Peru, where he assisted the troops of Pedro de la Gasca and Gonzalo Pizarro. In June 1570, Ruíz Corredor was back in Oicatá and ordered the Muisca of his encomienda, and the villages of Chivatá, Motavita, Suta, Cómbita and Moniquirá to construct acequias, channels for the drainage of the lands. In 1601 Ruíz Corredor is mentioned as he having promised to pay the native people in his encomienda 200 cotton mantles, but only supplying half of that.

Personal life

Pedro Ruíz Corredor married Elvira Pérez de Cuéllar and the couple had one daughter; María Ruíz Corredor. Elvira's sister Isabel was married to Bartolomé Camacho Zambrano, a fellow conquistador in Colombia. The place and year of his death are unknown.

Encomienda