Pedro de Vera Mendoza

Pedro de Vera Mendoza was sent to Gran Canaria during the final phase of the royal conquest, after the conflicts that had marked the early years of the Castilian enterprise begun in 1478. He served as governor and captain with direct responsibility for the military and political culmination of the conquest.

The surrender of Ansite, dated to April 1483, marked the close of the Castilian conquest of Gran Canaria. Traditions about the incorporation of the last Indigenous leaders and the island's transition into colonial organisation under the Crown of Castile are organised around this phase.

His profile is not limited to Gran Canaria. After the Gomera rebellion he intervened in La Gomera, where, together with Beatriz de Bobadilla, he carried out the captivity and sale of Gomerans as reprisal, an episode confined to that island and that specific context.

Pedro de Vera therefore remains a central and contentious figure of the conquest: decisive in the Castilian integration of Gran Canaria, but also associated with practices of violence and captivity.