, d. May 21, 1554, Chuquinga, Peru) was a Spanish conquistador in Peru

Peru

Peru , officially the Republic of Peru , is a country in western South America. It is bordered on the north by Ecuador and Colombia, on the east by Brazil, on the southeast by Bolivia, on the south by Chile, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean....

 and Chile

Chile

Chile ,officially the Republic of Chile , is a country in South America occupying a long, narrow coastal strip between the Andes mountains to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It borders Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage in the far...

, and the discoverer of the site of Valparaíso

Valparaíso

Valparaíso is a city and commune of Chile, center of its third largest conurbation and one of the country's most important seaports and an increasing cultural center in the Southwest Pacific hemisphere. The city is the capital of the Valparaíso Province and the Valparaíso Region...

, Chile.

Biography

Saavedra was a soldier in the command of Diego de Almagro

Diego de Almagro

Diego de Almagro, , also known as El Adelantado and El Viejo , was a Spanish conquistador and a companion and later rival of Francisco Pizarro. He participated in the Spanish conquest of Peru and is credited as the first European discoverer of Chile.Almagro lost his left eye battling with coastal...

. In the first expedition to Chile, in 1535, Almagro sent Saavedra to reconnoiter the coast of Chile, in the ship that had brought reinforcements from Peru. Saavedra sailed as far as Alimapu, which he named Valparaíso after the town of his birth in Spain.

On his return from this expedition, Hernando Pizarro

Hernándo Pizarro

Hernando Pizarro y de Vargas was a Spanish conquistador and one of the Pizarro brothers who ruled over Peru...

 tried to enlist him in his cause in the Peruvian civil war, but Saavedra did not want to take sides. When he learned that Cristóbal Vaca de Castro

Cristóbal Vaca de Castro

Cristóbal Vaca de Castro was a Spanish colonial administrator in Peru.-Background:...

 had arrived in Peru as royal governor with full powers, he joined with him. He distinguished himself at the Battle of Chupas

Battle of Chupas

After the assassination of Francisco Pizarro, in retaliation for his father's execution in 1538, Diego de Almagro II, El Mozo, continued to press claims as the rightful ruler of Peru and as leader of his father's supporters...

on September 16, 1542, in which Almagro was defeated.

Saavedra died in Peru in 1554. After his death he was interred in the Church of San Miguel Arcánel de Valparaíso de Arriba.

External links

(Archived 2009-10-31) at Encarta