Pedro Angulo

Who was Pedro Angulo?

Pedro Angulo was a Spanish Dominican missionary in Guatemala, in the sixteenth century.

He was a native of Burgos in Spain, and came to America in 1524 as a soldier, but joined the Dominican order in 1529. He became a companion of Bartolomé de las Casas in Guatemala, Central America in general, and the Greater Antilles. He was made Provincial of the Dominicans for Chiapas and Bishop of Vera Paz, but died soon afterwards.

Angulo was one of the principal figures of the earliest Indian Missions in Southern Mexico and Guatemala, and more successful than Las Casas. He visited tribe after tribe, and lived and taught among them. He resorted to charts on which biblical subjects were allegorically represented. These he carried with him through the wilderness to use as illustrations for his discourses to the natives.

He was proficient in Nahuatl and Zutuhil, and wrote several tracts on religious subjects in the latter.