Francisca Coya

Doña Francisca Coya (1515-1543 or 1544), also known as María de Sandoval or simply La Coya, was a Princess of the Inca Empire. She was the daughter of Emperor Huayna Capac and his cousin-wife Mama Runtu Coya. She was born in Cuzco, Peru in 1515 and died in Popayán, Colombia, around 1543–44.

Fernando Jurado Noboa described her as "the nurturing mother of Ecuador and Colombia."

Biography

Francisca Coya was born in Cuzco around 1515 as the legitimate daughter of Huayna Cápac and his cousin-wife Mama Runtu Coya. Coya later accompanied Sandoval to Popayán, where she lived near one of her sisters (whom Benalcázar had also taken for himself). According to the rituals and customs of the time, such veneration was expected for women of the Inca elite, who were refined and were treated with great respect by the people.

Children In 1536, Francisca Coya gave birth to Eugenia de Sandoval Inca

From Gregorio Henao Vivas, it is easy to follow Coya's Colombian descendants in the book titled Genealogies of Antioquia and Caldas, by Gabriel Arango Mejía. The line included people such as ex-president Roberto Urdaneta Arbeláez, archbishops Arturo Duque Villegas and Aníbal Muñoz Duque, Braulio Henao, Anselmo Pineda, Abraham Moreno, José Tomás Henao and Braulio Henao Mejía, Tomás Carrasquilla; Luis López de Mesa; León de Greiff, and Manuel Mejía Vallejo. This line of descendants is confirmed by bishop and historian Lucas Fernández de Piedrahita.

The historical and cultural values inherited by her descendants in Ecuador, such as the ex-Presidents Luis Cordero, Juan León Mera, and Antonio Borrero Cortázar, are an illustration of Doña Francisca Coya's important impact on history. Among other Ecuadorian historical figures that descend from her are Luis A. Martínez, Miguel Angel León Pontón, Octavio Cordero Palacios, Alberto María Ordonez Crespo, Carlos Concha Torres, Luis Quirola Saá, Emiliano Crespo Astudillo, Jose Maria Borrero Baca, Alfonso Borrero Moscoso, Manuel Borrero González, Vicente Salazar y Cabal, José Gabriel Pino Roca, Teodoro Luis Arroyo Robelly, Alfonso Arroyo Robelly, Pedro Cocha Torres, and Remigio Romero y Cordero.

The genealogical works demonstrate how the Incan bloodline of Francisca Coya occupy mainly the middle class spheres, but also have enriched the elite (high and middle-high classes) of colonial and republican Ecuadorian and Colombian societies.