Juan Damián López de Haro

Juan Damián López de Haro y Villarda, O.SS.T. (September 27, 1581 – August 24, 1648) was a Spanish Catholic prelate who served as Bishop of Puerto Rico from 1643 to 1648. He was member of the House of Haro and the Order of the Most Holy Trinity. He is known for expressing his disillusionment concerning Puerto Rico's dilapidated colony status, and for his poems written to Spanish officials.

Early years López de Haro was born in Toledo, Spain on September 27, 1581, where he was baptized on the same day. He enrolled in Religious studies in 1599, majoring in philosophy at the convent in Toledo. He later majored in Theology continuing his studies in Salamanca.

Bishop of Puerto Rico López de Haro was appointed Bishop of Puerto Rico on February 9, 1643, confirmed on June 13, ordained as bishop by García Gil Manrique, Bishop of Barcelona on February 14, 1644, and installed upon his arrival to Puerto Rico on July 13, 1644. Upon his arrival, López de Haro began to express his overall dislike with the conditions of the Colony of Puerto Rico at that time and convened a Synod.

In his final years as Bishop, López de Haro began visiting annexed regions of the diocese in what is now Venezuela.

In his letters to Juan Dias de la Calle, López de Haro is seen expressing his dissatisfaction with colonial conditions of Puerto Rico, and his distaste of white settlers' chivalrous hypocrisy. and his writings are the only known historical description of Puerto Rico in the mid-seventeenth century.