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Vaca, Cabeza de

(Encyclopedia)Vaca, Cabeza de: see Cabeza de Vaca, Álvar Núñez. ...

Val-de-Marne

(Encyclopedia)Val-de-Marne väl-də-märn [key], department (1990 pop. 1,219,300), N central France, adjoining Paris on the southeast. Créteil is the capital. ...

Valdés, Juan de

(Encyclopedia)Valdés, Juan de hwän ᵺā väldāsˈ [key], c.1500–1540, Spanish reformer, b. Cuenca. Suspected by the Inquisition, he went soon after 1530 to Naples, where he became the center of a circle of me...

Valdivia, Pedro de

(Encyclopedia)Valdivia, Pedro de pāˈdhrō dā väldēˈvyä [key], c.1500–1554, Spanish conquistador, conqueror of Chile. One of Francisco Pizarro's best officers in the conquest of Peru, educated, energetic, s...

Banville, Théodore de

(Encyclopedia)Banville, Théodore de tāōdôrˈ də bäNvēlˈ [key], 1823–91, French poet. He was one of the group known as the Parnassians. His many volumes of verse, including Odes funambulesques (1857) and L...

Acuña, Cristóbal de

(Encyclopedia)Acuña, Cristóbal de krēstōˈbäl dā ako͞oˈnyä [key], 1597–1676?, Spanish Jesuit missionary and explorer in South America, rector of the Jesuit college at Cuenca, Ecuador. In 1638 he was sent...

Sá, Mem de

(Encyclopedia)Sá, Mem de māN dĭ sä [key], d. 1572, Portuguese colonial official, governor-general of Brazil (1557?–1572). He drove (1567) the French colony from Guanabara Bay and founded the city of Rio de Ja...

Acuña, Juan de

(Encyclopedia)Acuña, Juan de hwän dā ako͞oˈnyä [key], 1658?–1734, Spanish-American administrator, viceroy of New Spain (1722–34), marqués de Casa Fuerte, b. Lima, Peru. After a distinguished career in Sp...

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