Juan Tafur

He was a cousin of fellow conquistadors Martín Yañéz Tafur, Hernán Venegas Carrillo and Pedro Fernández de Valenzuela.

[1] Other family members were also conquistadors: Pedro Fernández de Valenzuela, Hernán Venegas Carrillo and Martín Yañés Tafur.

[3] In 1518 he left Spain for the New World under the command of Pedro de los Ríos, governor of Tierra Firme in Panama.

[4] In April 1536, Tafur was appointed cavalry leader in the expedition led by Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada[5] which left the Caribbean city of Santa Marta in search of El Dorado.

[6] Tafur participated in the Spanish conquest of the Muisca people and received the encomiendas of Pasca, Usaque, Itaque and Chipaque, where he built the first church in 1538.

Juan Tafur was one of the soldiers in the expedition along the green route from Santa Marta into the Muisca Confederation