Nicolás Suárez Ponce was born between 1590 and 1595, in Almaguer, Cauca,[2][3] in what is now Colombia, then part of the Spanish colony of the New Kingdom of Granada.
[4][5] His father was a captain and Justicia Mayor (Chief Justice) of the Viceroyalty of Peru, while his paternal grandfather was Captain Alonso Suárez de Pereda, and his maternal grandfather, Fernando Ponce de León, was one of the first Spanish conquistadors of Peru.
[6] In 1622, Ponce began his military service with the Spanish Army in various actions against indigenous peoples in the province of Santa Marta, when it was administratively part of the New Kingdom of Granada.
[note 1][8] Ponce and Espinosa were dismissed from the co-governorship when Villegas died on July 29, 1633, and was replaced by Luis de Horruytiner.
[1] In 1637, Ponce, acting in his capacity as royal accountant, had the treasurer Francisco Menéndez Márquez imprisoned on charges of spending funds intended for the situado (an annual subsidy from the Crown) on gambling and other pleasures in Mexico City.