Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) San Juan Bautista săn wän bətēˈstə [key], mission, W Calif., in the fertile San Juan valley. Largest of the California missions, San Juan Bautista (1797) draws thousands of visitors annually. ...

(Encyclopedia) Santo Domingo sänˈtō dōmēngˈgō [key], former Spanish colony on the island of Hispaniola. The name has also been used for the Dominican Republic, and in early days it applied to Haiti. Columbus ...

(Encyclopedia) San Juan Islands săn wän [key], archipelago of 172 islands constituting San Juan co., NW Wash., E of Vancouver Island. The islands were visited and named c.1790 by Spanish explorers. The islands wer...

(Encyclopedia) Pérez, Juan hwän pāˈrāth [key], d. 1774, Spanish colonial naval officer, explorer on the coast of the Pacific Northwest. In 1774 he commanded a fleet sent by the Spanish viceroy to investigate Ru...

(Encyclopedia) Pizarro, Juan pēthärˈrō [key], d. 1536, Spanish conquistador, brother of Francisco Pizarro. He aided Francisco in the conquest of Peru. With his other brothers, Gonzalo and Hernando, he fought ag...

(Encyclopedia) Pablos, Juan hwän päˈblōs [key], d. 1561?, printer in Spanish America. Pablos printed in Mexico City the first book known to have been printed in the Western Hemisphere. It was a religious manual,...

(Encyclopedia) Ruiz, Juan hwän ro͞oēthˈ [key], 1283?–1350?, Spanish poet, musician, and archpriest of Hita. Ruiz suffered 13 years in prison, during which time he revised his masterpiece, El Libro de buen amor...

(Encyclopedia) Lavalle, Juan hwän läväˈyā [key], 1797–1841, Argentine general, governor of Buenos Aires province (1828–29). He served (1816–24) in the War of Independence and (1826–28) in the war with B...

(Encyclopedia) Bosch, Juan (Juan Bosch Gavino) hwän bōsh [key], 1909–2001, president of the Dominican Republic (Feb.–Sept., 1963). A teacher and writer, he spent 24 years in exile during the dictatorship of Ra...

(Encyclopedia) Juan Fernández hwän fārnänˈdās [key], group of small islands, S Pacific, c.400 mi (640 km) W of Valparaiso, Chile. They belong to Chile and are constitutionally a special territory; they are adm...