GARCIA, GREGORIO. – Spanish Dominican missionary, born at Baeza in the mid-sixteenth century, died there in 1627.
He spent twelve years in Mexico and Peru, where he gathered numerous pieces of information on the traditions, customs, and origins of the indigenous populations, which he disseminated in several works. The principal one is Origen de los Indios del Nuevo Mundo y Indias Occidentales, averiguado por vía de opinión (Valenza 1607), in which he maintains that the population of America descended from various migratory movements occurring at different times and in different places, an assertion confirmed by modern ethnology. His other writings include a history, Monarquía de los Indios del Perú, and Predicación del Evangelio en el Nuevo Mundo, viviendo los Apóstolos.