Bartolomé Blumenthal

Bartolomé Blumenthal (in some texts Blumen) alias Bartolomé Flores (1511 – November 11, 1585) is believed to have been the first German to arrive in Chile. He came with the expedition of Pedro de Valdivia at the beginning of the Spanish conquest of Chile.

Biography
Blumenthal, known in Chile as Bartolomé Flores was born 1511 in the Bavarian town of Nuremberg. His parents were Johann Blumenthal and Ágatha (Agueda) Welzer. His Spanish family name Flores is a direct translation of Blumen.

Blumenthal came about 1528 to America and stayed first in La Española, Santo Domingo and Nicaragua, from where he travelled to Peru, to support Gonzalo Pizarro. There he got to know Pedro de Valdivia.

Blumenthal travelled together with Valdivia's expedition in the beginning of the conquest of Chile. There he participated in the defense of the settlement of Santiago, when it was attacked by local tribes led by chief Michimalonco on 11 September 1541.

In Chile he changed his family Name in 1555 to Flores (flowers in Spanish, and is a direct translation from the German word Blumen. Blumenthal, on the other hand, means literally "Valley of the flowers" in German, which has no direct translation as a Spanish surname). He married Elvira, the only daughter of Tala Canta Ilabe, the Cacique of Talagante. The daughter of Flores and Elvira was baptized with the name of Águeda Flores and is the grandmother of Catalina de los Ríos y Lisperguer, called La Quintrala.

He died in 1585 in Talagante.