BENAVIDES, ALONSO. — Born in an unknown year on the island of São Miguel, he entered the Franciscans at the convent of Mexico in 1603. He was the first “custodian” of the missions of New Mexico (from 1622), whither he went with 26 companions. By 1630, it was reported that from 80,000 to 100,000 Indians had been baptized, especially among the Jumano and the Quivira, so that the viceroy sent him to Spain to inform King Philip IV. These rapid conversions are linked to the apparitions Ágreda (v.).
In 1631, while preparing to return to New Mexico, he was elected archbishop of Goa. The place and year of his death are unknown.
He wrote several brief reports on those missions, valuable for their geographical and ethnographic contributions, though not free from some exaggeration regarding the number of Indians (Relaciones de los grandes Tesoros espirituales y temporales descubiertos con el auxilio de Dios en el Nuevo México, and Memorial que Fray Juan de Santander de la orden de S. Francisco... presenta a la Majestad Católica del Rey, both published in Madrid in 1630).