Alonso de Espinosa

Who is Alonso de Espinosa?

This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Herbermann, Charles, ed.. Catholic Encyclopedia. Robert Appleton Company.

Alonso de Espinosa was a Spanish priest and historian of the sixteenth century. It was the first official historian of the island of Tenerife.

Little is known of his early life. He is first heard of towards the end of the sixteenth century in Guatemala where he had become a Dominican. It was while he was in Central America that he first heard of the reported miracles of Our Lady of Candelaria. This was an image of the Virgin and Child that had been among the Guanches of Tenerife since long before their conversion to Christianity, and had been venerated not only by the Guanches, but later by their conquerors, the Spanish. Inspired by the fame of this image, Espinosa soon found a member of the fraternity which had possession of it, and resolved to research and write a history of the image and its miracles. The result was his Guanches of Tenerife published in Seville in 1594.