Gaspar Fernández

Gaspar Fernández (born in Bungo, Japan), also known as Gaspar Japón, was a Portuguese slave of Japanese descent, once briefly in the service of the Portuguese merchant Rui Pérez. He was kidnapped by a fellow countryman in 1585 and sold to Pérez, whom he would come to accompany amid his time in the Philippines. Alongside his master, Fernández embarked upon a voyage to Mexico, where Pérez was to face trial due to suspicion of secretly practicing Judaism. Fernández would testify in his favor posthumously, and was ultimately able to gain his freedom by virtue of his identification with Native Americans, who were legally exempt from slavery.

Biography Born in Bungo (now Ōita Prefecture), a region of Southern Japan, he was abducted in 1585 at the age of eight, likely by his fellow countrymen; the fate of his parents is unknown. Shortly thereafter, he was sold to a Portuguese merchant in Nagasaki by the name of Rui Pérez, serving as his family's servant. He henceforth began learning Portuguese and Spanish, and accompanied his master to Manila, Philippines, over which the Spanish had dominion. Accused of being a Crypto-Jew in 1596, Pérez underwent persecution, ultimately being sent to Acapulco, Mexico, where he was to be subject to trial by the Inquisition. His family, along with Fernández, was among his company amid the voyage thereto; however, he died two days prior to their arrival in 1597. Nonetheless, Fernández was among those who testified on his behalf posthumously, serving as a witness for Pérez's religious beliefs. He also offered an explanation concerning his origins, a direct excerpt of which is preserved:I am a free person, son of free father and mother, and not subject to enslavement, and my birth was in the city of Bungo in Japan, where they brought me kidnapped from to Nagasaki.