Francisca Pizarro Yupanqui

Francisca Pizarro Yupanqui
A stone sculpture of Francisca Pizarro wearing a wide-brimmed hat
Statue of Francisca Pizarro Yupanqui at the Palacio de la Conquista
Born(1534-12-28)December 28, 1534
Jauja, Governorate of New Castile
Died1598(1598-00-00) (aged 63–64)
Trujillo, Spain
Other nameFrancisquita
Known forPeru's "first mestiza", Descendant of Inca emperors
Spouses
Parents
Relatives

Francisca Pizarro Huaylas Yupanqui (December 28, 1534 – 1598) was a South American woman who was both a direct descendant of Inca emperors on her maternal line and the daughter of conquistador Francisco Pizarro. Today, she is remembered as Peru's "first mestiza".[1]

Early life

Francisca Pizarro Huaylas Yupanqui was born in 1534 in Jauja, in what was then the Spanish Empire's Governorate of New Castile, present-day Peru.[1][2][3][4] Her father was the Spanish conquistador Francisco Pizarro, and her mother was the Inca princess Quispe Sisa.[1][5] On her mother's side, she was the granddaughter of the Inca Emperor Huayna Capac and of the Huaylas kuraka Contarhuacho, niece of the emperors Huáscar, Atahualpa, and Manco Inca Yupanqui.[2][5] She has since been remembered as Peru's "first mestiza," although that designation is unverifiable.[3] She and her brother Gonzalo, who died in childhood, were recognized as the legitimate heirs of both Pizarro and the Inca royal family by Emperor Charles V in the real cédula in the mid-1530s.[6][7][8]

The majority of Francisca's immediate family died during the Conquest of Peru, and she was given little opportunity to learn about her Inca heritage.[1] She was primarily raised by her uncle and aunt, Francisco Martín de Alcántara and Inés Muñoz, and she was taught to read and write, dance, and play the clavichord.[3] After the death of her father in 1541, Francisca, who was only 7 years old, was courted by the major Spanish nobles of Peru, including her 30-year-old uncle Gonzalo Pizarro.[3][6] It was believed they would make a powerful couple with the ability to crown themselves king and queen of Peru, as the Royal Council of the Indies feared.[6] However, as part of the Spanish Crown's strategy to pacify Peru, the Pizarros were deported to Europe, including Francisca; Gonzalo lost favor and was subsequently defeated and beheaded at the Battle of Jaquijahuana.[6][8]

Life at court

A pile of large stones as a monument to Francisca Pizarro at the Castillo de Trujillo
A monument to Francisca Pizarro at the Castillo de Trujillo

Francisca was brought to Spain in 1551, accompanied by her stepfather Francisco de Ampuero, the mayor of Lima and her mother's second husband.[7] There, she was married in her late teens to her uncle Hernando Pizarro, who was some 30 years her senior.[3][7] The couple lived at La Mota Castle in northwestern Spain, where Hernando was imprisoned, and had five children, Francisco, Juan, Gonzalo, Isabel, and Inés, almost all of whom died at a young age.[3][7][8] After Hernando's death around 1580, Francisca married the much younger aristocrat Pedro Arias Portocarrero, the son of the count of Puñonrostro, and moved to the court of Madrid.[1][3][8]

In Spain, she became known as Francisquita and immersed herself in courtly life.[9] She promoted the construction of the Palacio de la Conquista in Trujillo, Spain, the Metropolitan Cathedral of Lima, and the Convento de la Merced de Trujillo, among other works.[10][11][12] She died in Trujillo in 1598.[5][8]

  • Various books have been written about Francisca Pizarro Yupanqui, including the 2023 work of historic fiction Francisca, Princesa del Perú by Alonso Cueto.[4]
  • Renata Flores wrote and performed a song called "Francisca Pizarro" on her album Isqun.[13]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 "28 de diciembre de 1534. Nace Francisca Pizarro Primera Mestiza de la Historia del Perú" (PDF). Observatorio Mujer UNIFÉ (in Spanish). Retrieved 2026-08-03.
  2. 1 2 Cueto, Alonso (2023-05-04). Francisca: Princesa del Perú (in Spanish). Random House. ISBN 978-612-5080-08-0.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Ramírez, Verónica (2019-07-26). "Francisca Pizarro, una vida entre dos mundos". Fundación BBVA Perú (in Spanish). Retrieved 2026-08-03.
  4. 1 2 González Montes, Antonio (2026-01-13). "El Pacificador don Pedro de la Gasca en una tradición palmista y en la novela: Francisca. Princesa del Perú (2023) de Alonso Cueto". Aula Palma (24). doi:10.31381/ap24.8341. ISSN 2415-2218.
  5. 1 2 3 Sánchez-Risco, Carmen (2024-06-17). "El universo de Francisca Pizarro Yupanqui, la primera mestiza noble del Perú". Instituto Cervantes (in Spanish). Retrieved 2026-08-03.
  6. 1 2 3 4 Hemming, John (1973-10-24). The Conquest of the Incas. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. ISBN 978-0-547-41645-8.
  7. 1 2 3 4 Guardia, Sara Beatriz (2005). "Mujeres de la elite incaica en el drama de la conquista: La mestiza Francisca Pizarro y su viaje a España (1534-1598)". Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes (in Spanish).
  8. 1 2 3 4 5 Cervera, César (2018-03-22). "La tormentosa vida de la hija mestiza de Francisco Pizarro, la mujer que pudo reinar en Perú". Diario ABC (in Spanish). Retrieved 2026-08-03.
  9. ↑ Algorri, Luis (2024-04-17). "'La primera mestiza' relata la historia de Francisca Pizarro, "una mujer extraordinaria que no merece ser olvidada"". 20 Minutos (in Spanish). Retrieved 2026-08-03.
  10. ↑ "Palacio de la Conquista". Trujillo Joven (in Spanish). Archived from the original on 2014-03-02.
  11. ↑ Irigoyen, Manuel García (1898). Historia de la Catedral de Lima, 1535-1898 (in Spanish). Imp. de "El Pais,".
  12. ↑ Fernández, Luis Vázquez (1993). Tirso y los Pizarro: aspectos histórico-documentales (in Spanish). Fundación Obra Pía de los Pizarro. ISBN 978-3-928064-74-3.
  13. ↑ "Andean identity: Renata Flores releases Isqun, her first official album". Perú Info (in Spanish). Retrieved 2026-08-03.

Bibliography

  • María Rostworowski: Doña Francisca Pizarro: una ilustre mestiza 1534-1598. Lima: IEP, 1994.
  • María Luisa López Rol: Doña Francisca Pizarro Yupanqui en el Archivo de Protocolos de Trujillo. Badajoz: Fundación Obra Pía de los Pizarro, 2014.
  • Alonso Cueto: Francisca: Princesa del Perú. Lima: Penguin Random House, 2023
  • Carmen Sánchez-Risco: La primera mestiza. Spain: HarperCollins, 2023
This page is issued from Wikipedia. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.