[2][3][4] De Bárcena was of native of Baeza in Andalusia, southern Spain, born in 1528; died at Cuzco, Peru on 15 January 1598.
[5] Barcena remained in Central Bolivia for eleven years, when the Provincial Juan de Atienza sent him to Tucuman in Argentina.
[5] De Bárcena is credited with having had a practical knowledge of eleven Indian languages and with having written grammars, vocabularies, catechisms in most of them.
Only one of his writings is known to have been published: a letter full of important ethnographic and linguistic detail, on the Indians of Tucuman, on the Calchaquis and others.
In March 2016, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Cusco opened Alonzo de Barzana's beatification process.