Irala, Domingo Martínez de

Irala, Domingo Martínez de

(dōmēng`gō märtē`nās dā ērä`lä), d. 1556 or 1557, first governor of Paraguay. Of Basque origin, he accompanied Pedro de Mendoza on his expedition to La Plata in 1535. As the first governor in America elected by a free vote of the colonists, he founded in Asunción the first cabildocabildo
, autonomous municipal council, the lowest administrative unit in the Spanish government. The institution was especially influential in Spanish America, where it was set up in the early 16th cent.
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 in America. Under his administration, the city was a center for further colonization and a point of departure for Peru. From 1539, when he moved the inhabitants of Buenos AiresBuenos Aires
, city and federal district (1991 pop. 2,960,976; metropolitan area 11,255,618), the capital of Argentina, E Argentina, on the Río de la Plata. Buenos Aires is inhabited mostly by people of Spanish and Italian extraction, but there are many residents of
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 to Asunción, until his death (with a short interruption when Cabeza de VacaCabeza de Vaca, Álvar Núñez
, c.1490–c.1557, Spanish explorer. Cabeza de Vaca [cow's head] was not actually a surname but a hereditary title in his mother's family; he is frequently called simply Álvar Núñez.
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 was governor), he ruled forcefully. Churches and public buildings were erected, towns were established, and the native popultion was subjugated and distributed among the colonists in encomiendas.