Juan de Carvajal, the founder of El Tocuyo

The name of Juan de Carvajal is inseparably linked to that of El Tocuyo: he was the one who founded the city on December 7, 1545, in an act that would have enormous consequences for the history of Venezuela. But Carvajal's life is much more than that date: it is the story of an ambitious, skillful and tragic conquistador, whose fate ended on the gallows just one year after founding the Mother City.

Origin and previous trajectory

Carvajal was born in Cuenca, Extremadura, Spain, around 1500. Like many conquistadors of his generation, he was the son of hidalgos without great resources, which pushed him very young to seek fortune in the Indies.

He arrived in the Antilles around 1525 and held administrative positions in Hispaniola and Cuba. Around 1530 he moved to the territory then called Province of Venezuela, granted in lease by Emperor Charles V to the German banking house Welser since 1528.

Under the Welsers

The Welsers of Augsburg —bankers who financed the imperial election of Charles V— administered Venezuela as a colonial enterprise. Their captains, Ambrosio Ehinger, Nicolás Federmann, Jorge Espira and Felipe de Hutten, traveled the territory looking for El Dorado and the legendary House of the Sun, without establishing stable cities.

Juan de Carvajal was treasurer, accountant and lieutenant governor at different times under the Welser regime. He thoroughly knew the territory, the indigenous networks and the agricultural possibilities of central-western Venezuela.

The break with the Welsers

In 1545, the situation reached a critical point. Felipe de Hutten and other German captains had spent years lost on useless expeditions through the Plains and Guayana looking for El Dorado. The Spanish population of Coro was decimated by diseases, hunger and internal conflicts.

Carvajal took advantage of the prolonged absence of Hutten —who was wandering through the Meta and Guaviare— to proclaim himself interim governor of the Province of Venezuela. He argued that the contract with the Welsers had expired and claimed the right to found cities in the name of the Crown, not of the German bankers.

The founding of El Tocuyo (December 7, 1545)

Carvajal organized an expedition from Coro toward the interior, in search of fertile lands where to settle permanently. He arrived at the valley of the Tocuyo river, a place blessed by:

• Warm but not extreme climate.
• Mighty river all year round.
• Deep black soils ideal for wheat and sugarcane.
• Numerous indigenous Cuibas, Caquetíos and Jirajaras population but peaceful by the standards of the time.
• Strategic geographic position between Coro, the Plains and the Andes.

On December 7, 1545, the eve of the Inmaculada Concepción, Carvajal founded the city there with the solemn name of "Nuestra Señora de la Pura y Limpia Concepción del Tocuyo", under the Marian invocation that would later become the perpetual patroness of the city.

He laid out the streets in a grid, designated lots for residents, raised a primitive church, installed the first looms and began the planting of wheat, sugarcane and cotton that would make Tocuyo wealth.

Capital of the Province

In a matter of months, El Tocuyo became the effective capital of the Province of Venezuela: Coro declined and the European residents moved to the new valley. It was the beginning of the Tocuyo era, which would last until 1620.

The conflict with Felipe de Hutten

In late 1545 and early 1546, Felipe de Hutten finally returned from his failed expedition to El Dorado, along with Bartolomé Welser the Younger (son of the German banker). Both demanded that Carvajal return the government in the name of the House of Welser.

Carvajal refused and laid an ambush for them. In May 1546, he ordered them captured on the outskirts of El Tocuyo. After a summary process, he had them beheaded —executions that went down in history as one of the darkest events of the Venezuelan conquest—. Thus died Felipe de Hutten and the young Welser, an event that caused indignation at the German court and in Seville.

The trial against Carvajal

The news of the executions reached the Audiencia of Santo Domingo, which sent the judge Juan Pérez de Tolosa with full powers to investigate and punish. Pérez de Tolosa arrived in Coro in 1546 with troops, captured Carvajal and brought him to trial.

The trial was quick. Carvajal was accused of:

• Rebellion against the Welsers (legitimate concessionaires at that time).
• Murder of Felipe de Hutten and Bartolomé Welser the Younger.
• Usurpation of the position of governor.

He was found guilty and sentenced to the gallows. He died hanged and quartered in El Tocuyo, in September 1546, less than a year after having founded the city. His head was publicly exhibited as a warning.

An ambiguous figure

Venezuelan historiography has discussed for centuries the figure of Juan de Carvajal. For some he was:

• An ambitious traitor who murdered his superiors.
• A cruel conquistador with the indigenous people.
• A usurper of the colonial order.

For others he was:

• The first liberator of Venezuela from the German Welsers and returner of the territory to the Spanish Crown.
• A visionary who saw the potential of the Tocuyo valley when everyone was still trapped looking for El Dorado.
• The true founder of the stable settlement of Venezuela.

His legacy

Despite the tragic end, Carvajal's work survived. El Tocuyo became:

• Second capital of the Province of Venezuela.
• Founding mother of Barquisimeto (1552), Trujillo (1557), Carora (1569), Valencia (1555), San Cristóbal (1561), Caracas (1567) and many others.
• Economic center of the Tocuyo cloth, exported to three continents.
• Religious capital of central-western Venezuela.

Memory in El Tocuyo

Although Carvajal's figure remains controversial, the people of El Tocuyo recognize his foundational role. His name appears on monuments, streets and commemorative plaques in the historic center. Every December 7, founding date, solemn ceremonies are held in the Plaza Bolívar and in the Inmaculada Concepción Church.

Carvajal may have been a cruel conquistador and a traitor for some, but without him El Tocuyo would not exist, and without El Tocuyo a good part of the Venezuela we know would not exist. That is, at least, a historical debt that the city recognizes.