- published: 28 Oct 2010
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Juan Ruiz de Alarcón (1581?, Real de Taxco, now in Guerrero - August 4, 1639), one of the greatest Novohispanic dramatists of the Golden Age, was born in New Spain (modern Mexico).
The family of Juan Ruiz de Alarcón was of old Asturian nobility. The name Alarcón had been give to his ancestor Ferren Martínez de Ceballos by Alfonso VIII of Castile after he had successfully driven the Moors from the fortress of Alarcón near Cuenca in 1177. Juán Ruiz de Alarcón's maternal grandparents Hernando and María de Mendoza were among the first Spaniards to arrive in Mexico in 1535, when they established themselves in Taxco. Their daughter Leonor de Mendoza married Pedro Ruiz de Alarcón who was described as an hidalgo.
Juan Ruiz de Alarcón had four brothers: Pedro Ruiz de Alarcón, who was rector at the College of Saint John Lateran, Hernando Ruiz de Alarcón who was a priest and is known for having written a treatise documenting the non-Christian religious practices of the Nahua Indians of central Mexico, Gaspar and García, about whom little is known.