BETANZOS, DOMINGO de. — Born in León in 1480, he studied in Salamanca; for a time he lived as a hermit on the island of Ponza, then entered the Dominican Order in Salamanca (1510). Ordained priest in 1513, he went to the island of Santo Domingo, where he took part (1516–19) in the struggle of his brethren for the rights of the Indians. In 1522 he won over to the Order the future Las Casas. After the discovery and conquest of Mexico, he arrived there in 1526 with the first band of Dominicans, led by Tomás Ortiz. The latter, departing immediately for Spain, left Betanzos with the task and honor of organizing the new foundation. In 1531 Betanzos returned to Europe, where he worked to establish in Mexico a Dominican province distinct from that erected in 1539 as the Province of Santa Cruz of the Antilles. He achieved his goal with a bull of Clement VII dated 11 August 1532. During his stay in Spain, he gave an unfavorable opinion in the Council of the Indies regarding the capacities of the Indians, an opinion which he himself later disavowed on his deathbed. Returning to Mexico in 1535, he was elected provincial prior and remained in office until 1538. In 1545 he was denied permission to go as a missionary to China, while in 1548 he was granted leave to visit the Holy Land. He died en route, at Valladolid, on 13 August 1549.
BETANZOS, DOMINGO DE
BIBL.: A. M. Carreño, Fray D. de B., Mexico 1934; J. R. Cabal, El p. fr. D. de B., Guatemala 1934; B. Biermann, Die Anfänge der Dominikanertätigkeit in Neu-Spanien und Peru, in Archivum Fratrum Praedicatorum, 13 (1943), pp. 5–58.