Vasco de Quiroga

Venerated Spanish bishop and colonial administrator
Coming from a background as a lawyer and a judge he was appointed to be a judge in the second Audiencia after the first Audiencia's failure. As an oidor he took a strong interest in restoring order to the Michoacán area which had been ravaged by rebellions and unrest. He employed a strategy of congregating indigenous populations into congregated Hospital towns called Republicas de Indios, organized after principles derived from Thomas More's Utopia. The purpose of this policy was to teach the Indians a trade and to instruct them in Christian values and lifestyles. He established multiple such hospitals: Santa Fé de México close to the town of Tacubaya in the Valley of Mexico, and Santa Fé de la Laguna close to Pátzcuaro, Michoacán, and Santa Fe Del Rio close to La Piedad, Michoacan. Because of his contribution to the protection of the Indians, Vasco de Quiroga's legacy is recognized in America and Spain, and even venerated in the Catholic Church.

Vasco de Quiroga was born into a noble family in Madrigal de las Altas Torres, Castile. His family was of Galician origin. His brother Álvaro became the father of Gaspar de Quiroga y Vela, later Cardenal of Toledo. Traditionally his birth year has been given as 1470, because of a tradition that he was 95 at his year of death. Recent biographers prefer the later date around 1478, because of evidence from Quiroga's own hand that he was 60 in 1538. He worked as a letrado – a royal jurist in southern Spain and as a judge in Oran in Algeria from ca. 1520 1526. After returning from Africa, he stayed a while with the royal court, where documents have him in 1528. He certainly had powerful connections such as a friendship with Juan Bernal Díaz de Luco who was a member of the Council of the Indies, and with the Cardinal of Toledo Juan Tavera. This was probably the reason that he was offered a position as oidor (judge) in the second Audiencia of New Spain when the Council of Indies had to dismiss the first in 1530.

The skills he implanted among Purépecha of the Pátzcuaro region have been passed down to their descendants, who are today considered among the most skilled craftspersons in Mexico. Tata Vasco trained his pupils in a variety of disciplines. His method of specialization by community continues to this day: Paracho produces guitars, Tzintzuntzán pottery, Santa Clara copper products and Nurío woven woolens. There is a university named for him in Morelia, Michoacán. Miguel Bernal Jiménez wrote an opera, Tata Vasco, commemorating his fourth centenary. It premiered in Pátzcuaro in February, 1941. He is credited as the founder of the city of Irapuato, Mexico.

"Información en derecho del licenciado Quiroga sobre algunas provisiones del Real Consejo de las Indias." Edited by Paulino Castañeda Delgado. Madrid: Ediciones José Porrúa Turanzas, 1974. "Ordenanzas de Santa Fe de Vasco de Quiroga" / introducción, paleografía y notas por J. Benedict Warren Morelia, México : Fimax, 1999
"Testamento del Obispo Vasco de Quiroga" / introducción, paleografía y notas por J. Benedict Warren Morelia, Mexico : Fimax, 1997