Garro, José de (1623–c. 1702)
Garro, José de (1623–c. 1702)
José de Garro (b. 1623; d. c. 1702), governor of Buenos Aires (1678–1682). Garro was born in Guipúzcoa, in the Basque country of northern Spain. He saw intense action in the wars in Portugal and Catalonia. In 1671 he came to America to govern Tucumán, where he was outstanding for his role in public works and in Indian fighting. As governor of Buenos Aires, Garro was responsible for confronting the advance of the Portuguese, who in 1680 had founded the colony of Sacramento in the eastern territory. Garro stormed the colony and took its founder, Manuel Lobo, prisoner. Later he served for ten years as governor of Chile (1682–1691), where his rule was particularly notable for the conversion of Indians. He went on to become military commander of Gibraltar (1693–1702) and finally of his homeland, Guipúzcoa (1702), where he died.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Montaner y Simón, ed., Diccionario enciclopédico hispanoamericano (1938).
Enrique Udaondo, Diccionario biográfico colonial Argentino (1945).
Additional Bibliography
Assunção, Fernando O. Etopeya y tragedia de Manuel Lobo: Biografía del fundador de Colonia del Sacramento, 1635–1683. Montevideo: Linardi y Risso, 2003.
Retamal Avila, Julio. Testamentos de indios en Chile colonial, 1564–1801. Santiago de Chile: Universidad Andrés Bello, Departamento de Derechos Intelectuales de Chile, 2000.
JosÉ de Torres Wilson