Antonio de Mendoza and Pacheco he was the second viceroy of Peru. He was born in Granada around 1493. The second son of Don Iñigo López de Mendoza -second Count of Tendida and Captain General of Andalusia- and Doña Francisca Pacheco Portocarrero, from the lineage of the Marquises of Villena. He received from his father the encomienda de Socuéllamos, jurisdiction of the order of Santiago, which included more than 50,000 fanegas of crops. he was part of the entourage of Carlos V in his first tours of Spain , he fought the rebellion of the comuneros of Castile (1520) and fulfilled a wise role in several diplomatic commissions. He was the first viceroy appointed to govern the territory of New Spain, with a salary of 6,000 ducats a year and an additional 2,000 for the maintenance of his guard.
As such, he officially assumed command in Mexico City on November 14, 1535 . During his government, he favored the creation of the Santa Cruz de Tlatelolco school (for the education of noble Indians), approved the installation of the first printing workshop (in the house of Juan Pablos, 1539) and ordered the first minting of coins in the mint of Mexico. For the rest, he avoided - based on prudence and care - the emergence of conflicts derived from the application of the New Laws and the consequent claims of conquerors and settlers.
Transfer to the Viceroyalty of Peru
Estimating that Don Antonio's extensive experience in the government of New Spain would be appropriate to curb the seditious impetus and shrewdly direct Peruvian life, the court assigned him the positions of viceroy, governor and captain general of Peru and president of the Lima audience (July 8, 1549). He was thus the first in the extensive series of New Spain leaders who received as a prize the transfer to the great southern viceroyalty. Mendoza was an ailing man when he embarked in Acapulco, made landfall in the ports of Realejo and Panama, and finally arrived in Tumbes on May 15, 1551. From here he continued along the land road of the plains and made his solemn entry into the city of the Kings on September 12 of that year. Despite his poor health and the consequences of a hemiplegia, he dedicated himself to putting order in the administration and public service. Unable to impose himself personally on the state of the country, he sent his son, Don Francisco, to tour the well-populated regions of the south, from Lima to Potosí, examining the use of natural resources and the treatment given to Indians. In 1552 he issued some ordinances for the audience of Lima, which signify the first code of judicial procedures promulgated in Peru, with indication of the powers and obligations of magistrates, prosecutors, rapporteurs, lawyers and other ministers of the forum. In his short mandate of ten months, likewise, the arrival of the first priests of the order of Saint Augustine and the celebration of the first provincial council of Lima took place, at the call of Archbishop Jerónimo de Loayza (1551).
The suppression of the "personal service" of the Indians, that is, the free use of their labor by the encomenderos, had been ordered from the metropolis a couple of years ago, but it was left without effect in Peru for fear of outbreak of riots. Notwithstanding this imminent circumstance, the magistrates of the Lima hearing resolved that the application of said measure should not be postponed any longer , and on June 23, 1552, they issued a provision abolishing unpaid labor for the natives. Well known is the atmosphere of social unrest and furious protests that resulted. The valetudinario Don Antonio de Mendoza -who should have endorsed the decision of the hearers- died, however, in the palace of Lima on July 21, 1552 and he was buried, in a pompous funeral ceremony, in the sacristy of the cathedral of Lima. Illustrious works of his pen are not known, but he contributed at least with the commission to collect truthful information about the government of Tahuantinsuyo and the facts of the conquest:such is the origin of the Sum and narration of the Incas by Juan de Betanzos (1551).