Juan Tafur

Juan Tafur (1500, Córdoba, Andalusia, Castile - ?, ?) was a Spanish conquistador who participated in the Spanish conquest of the Muisca. He was a cousin of fellow conquistadors Martín Yañéz Tafur, Hernán Venegas Carrillo and Pedro Fernández de Valenzuela. Juan Tafur was five times encomendero of Santa Fe de Bogotá. He also received the encomiendas of Pasca, Chipaque and Usaquén. The encomienda of Suesca was shared between Juan Tafur and Gonzalo García Zorro.

Knowledge about the life of Juan Tafur has been provided by the work El Carnero (1638), by chronicler Juan Rodríguez Freyle.

Biography
Juan Tafur was born in the year 1500 in Córdoba, Spain. His parents were Juan Pérez Tubera and Isabel Díaz Tafur and Juan Tafur took the surname of his mother. Other family members of Juan Tafur were conquistadors Pedro Fernández de Valenzuela, Hernán Venegas Carrillo and Martín Yañés Tafur. In 1518, he left Spain for the New World under command of Pedro de los Ríos, governor of Tierra Firme in Panama. De los Ríos sent Juan Tafur with two ships to retrieve the dissatified members of the Pizarro expedition. In 1531 or 1533, Tafur left for Santa Marta, where he was sent to the Valle de Upar, together with conquistadors Antonio de Lebrija, Juan de Sanct Martín, Juan Muñoz de Collantes and Juan de Céspedes to submit the Chimila to the reign of the Spanish.

In April 1536, Tafur joined the expedition lead by Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada as cavalry leader, and left the Caribbean city of Santa Marta in search of El Dorado. Juan Tafur participated in the Spanish conquest of the Muisca and received the encomiendas of Pasca, Usaque, Chipaque, where he built the first church in 1538, and Itaque. The encomienda of Suesca was shared between Juan Tafur and Gonzalo García Zorro.

Juan Tafur was five times encomendero of Santa Fe de Bogotá; in 1541 succeeding Antonio Díaz de Cardoso and preceding Juan Díaz Hidalgo, from 1546 to 1547 succeeding Juan de Céspedes and succeeded by Pedro de Colmenares, in 1552 between the reigns of Juan Muñoz de Collantes and Gonzalo Rodríguez de Ledesma, in 1554 succeeding Gonzalo García Zorro and before Juan Ruiz de Orejuela and finally in 1559 after the rule of Gonzalo Rodríguez de Ledesma and preceding the reign by Antonio Bermúdez.

In 1552, Tafur requested 72 emeralds from Diego de Aguilar. He committed various cruel atrocities against the indigenous people; against the Panche to the west of the Bogotá savanna, the cacique of Pasca and the cacique of Chita whose body he threw at the dogs. In 1543, Juan Tafur was convicted for the mistreatment of the indigenous Muisca of Pasca.

Juan Tafur married three times; with an unnamed woman and with Antonia Manuel de Hoyos and Francisca de Ulloa. He had a daughter named Isabel Tafur.