Calle de Pedro de Valdivia

Behind this name stands a man from Villanueva de la Serena, in Extremadura, who trained as a soldier in the wars of Italy and Flanders before crossing the Atlantic. Pedro de Valdivia reached the Americas around 1535, fought alongside Francisco Pizarro in the civil wars of Peru, and in 1540 led a column of barely a hundred and fifty Spaniards southward to conquer Chile. On 12 February 1541 he founded the city he called Santiago del Nuevo Extremo, today Santiago de Chile. He then raised Concepción, La Imperial and the city he named after himself, Valdivia. His drive was met by Mapuche resistance that learned his tactics from within: his indigenous page, Lautaro, fled and became a war leader. In December 1553, at the fort of Tucapel, Lautaro’s forces surrounded and killed the governor. The calle de Pedro de Valdivia belongs to the layout of El Viso, opened in the 1920s and 1930s, where several streets recall conquistadors and explorers of the overseas world.