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Ines de Suarez
Ines Suarez (c. 1507 - 1580) was a Spanish conquistadora (female conquistador) who participated in the Conquest of Chile, was mistress to Pedro de Valdivia, successfully defended Santiago against an attack of Mapuche people in 1541, and was eventually married to Rodrigo de Quiroga, Royal Governor of Chile.
Suarez's husband had died before she had reached Peru (she told a compatriot that he died at sea) and the next information that is known of her is in 1539, when she applied for and was granted, as the widow of a Spanish soldier, a small plot of land in Cuzco and encomienda rights to a number of Indians.
Shortly afterwards, Suarez became the mistress of Pedro de Valdivia, the conqueror of Chile. The earliest mention of her friendship with Valdivia was after he returned from the Battle of Las Salinas (1538). Although they were from the same area of Spain and at least one novelist relates a tale of long-standing love between them, there is no real evidence that they had met prior to her arrival in Cuzco.
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This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article Ines de Suarez
