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Don Juan

(Encyclopedia)Don Juan dŏn wän, jo͞oˈən, Span. dōn hwän [key], legendary profligate. He has a counterpart in the legends of many peoples, but the Spanish version of the great libertine has become the most un...

Vargas Zapata y Luján Ponce de León, Diego de

(Encyclopedia)Vargas Zapata y Luján Ponce de León, Diego de dyāˈgō dā värˈgäs thäpäˈtä ē lo͞ohänˈ pōnˈ thā dā lāōnˈ [key], c.1643–1704, Spanish governor and captain general of New Mexico, ...

Pardo, Juan

(Encyclopedia)Pardo, Juan, fl. 1560s, Spanish officier and explorer. On the orders of Menéndez de Avilés, Pardo led two expeditions (1566–67, 1567–68) from the Spanish settlement of Santa Elena on Parris Isla...

Puerto Rico, University of

(Encyclopedia)Puerto Rico, University of, main campus at Río Piedras, near San Juan; land-grant and commonwealth; coeducational; founded 1903 as successor to a normal school. The Río Piedras campus has faculties ...

Ruiz, Juan

(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...

Crespi, Juan

(Encyclopedia)Crespi, Juan krāsˈpē [key], 1721–82, Spanish explorer in the Southwest, a Franciscan. He came to America in 1749, and in 1767 he went to the peninsula of California in charge of Mission Purísim...

Cosa, Juan de la

(Encyclopedia)Cosa, Juan de la hwän dā lä kōˈsä [key], c.1460–1510, Spanish navigator. He sailed with Columbus in 1492 (as pilot of the flagship Santa María) and again in 1498. After accompanying Alonso de...

Cruz, Juan de la

(Encyclopedia)Cruz, Juan de la: see John of the Cross, Saint. ...

Cueva, Juan de la

(Encyclopedia)Cueva, Juan de la dā lä kwāˈvä [key], 1550?–1610?, Spanish dramatist, one of the precursors of Lope de Vega. He spent the years from 1574 to 1577 in Mexico. Of his 14 plays, the most famous is...

Cierva, Juan de la

(Encyclopedia)Cierva, Juan de la hwän dā lä thyārˈvä [key], 1895–1936, Spanish aeronautical engineer, inventor of a rotary-wing aircraft called an autogiro. He flew his first autogiro in 1923 and crossed th...