Juan de Albarracín

Juan de Albarracín (?, Castile - ?, Castile) was a Spanish conquistador who participated in the Spanish conquest of the Muisca and Panche. He was captain of the brigs that intended to sail up the Magdalena River from the Caribbean coast in 1536 and later discovered the high quality salt that lead the Spanish conquistadors along the Camino de la Sal up the slopes of the Eastern Ranges of the Colombian Andes towards the Muisca Confederation.

De Albarracín fought battles alongside Martín Galeano and Juan de Céspedes against the Panche and ordered in Guataquí the construction of two small boats to sail the conquistadors Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada, Sebastián de Belalcázar and Nikolaus Federmann back to Spain via Cartagena. Juan de Albarracín married Ana de Lugo, daughter of Pedro Fernández de Lugo with whom he had arrived in the New World in January 1536. De Albarracín died in Spain in an unknown year.

Juan de Albarracín is mentioned as Albarracín in the early chronicle about the Spanish conquest, a work of uncertain authorship; Epítome de la conquista del Nuevo Reino de Granada.

Biography
Juan de Albarracín left Spain with his father-in-law Pedro de Lugo for the New World, arriving in January 1536 in Santa Marta. Under his command, De Albarracín taught his men to fish for pearls, near Cabo de la Vela in northernmost present-day Colombia. De Albarracín joined the expedition in search of El Dorado, the journey lead by Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada leaving Santa Marta in April 1536. Juan de Albarracín was one of the three captains of the brigs that De Quesada sent up the Magdalena River, the other two Gómez del Corral and Antonio Díaz de Cardoso.

During the strenuous journey, in La Tora, present Barrancabermeja, De Quesada sent troops ahead to investigate routes towards the then unknown Andes. De Albarracín and Díaz de Cardoso found the loafs of high quality salt that would lead the conquistadors along the Camino de la Sal ("Salt Route") into the Muisca Confederation.

De Albarracín participated in battles against the bellicose Panche, together with Martín Galeano commanded by Juan de Céspedes.

After the two conquistadors Nikolaus Federmann and Sebastián de Belalcázar had arrived on the Bogotá savanna after the foundation of Bogotá as capital of the New Kingdom of Granada by De Quesada on August 6, 1538, they left with De Albarracín for Guataquí, a town they founded. Guataquí, at the Magdalena River, was the port where De Albarracín ordered the construction of two small boats, elaborated by indigenous people. From here, the Spanish conquistadors left for Cartagena to sail back to Spain. De Albarracín never returned to the New Kingdom, yet settled in a mansion in Jérez de la Frontera.

Juan de Albarracín was married to Ana de Lugo and the couple had three sons and three daughters. His grandson Pedro de Lugo Albarracin was the sculptor of various images of Jesus Christ in the Colombian capital, among others at Monserrate in the Eastern Hills.