Most Spanish conquistadors, even those regarded in sources as favorable, are viewed as complicated individuals motivated by a mixture of greed and religious fervor. However, there is one conquistador who is almost universally hated and maligned. That man is Pedro de Alvarado. This presentation follows the brutal conquistador from his initial forays in Cuba, to his massacre of festival goers in Tenochtitlan, through his campaigns against the Maya, and ending with his death at the hands of rebellious Caxcanes.
Matthew J. Barbour holds BA (2002) and MA (2010) degrees in Anthropology from the University of New Mexico and has worked for the New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs since 2002. Throughout his twenty-two-year career, he has published over 200 nonfiction articles and monographs. His popular and well-researched lectures range from pre-colonial African empires to New Mexican archaeology digs to turkeys. In 2012, and again in 2014, Mr. Barbour was awarded the City of Santa Fe Heritage Preservation Award for Excellence in Archaeology. In 2018, under Mr. Barbour’s management, Coronado Historic Site received an Award of Merit from the American Association for State and Local History. Then in 2019, with Mr. Barbour as manager, the Jemez Historic Site received the Archaeology Heritage Preservation from New Mexico Historic Preservation Division.
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