Isabel de Guevara

Isabel de Guevara was one of the few European women to accept the offer from the Spanish crown to join colonizing missions to the New World during the first wave of conquest and settlement. Guevara sailed in 1534 the first voyage of Pedro de Mendoza and with a group of 1,500 colonists, including twenty women. It left from Cádiz and was bound for the Río de la Plata region of what is now Argentina. According to Spanish archives, she “suffered all the discomforts and dangers of the conquest.” De Guevara's correspondences paint one of the most elaborate, enduring portraits of the hazards of colonial life.