What is Diego Velázquez de Cuéllar?
:''For the Spanish painter, see [[Diego Velázquez]].'' [[File:DiegoVelazquezCuellar.jpg|thumb|right|Diego Velázquez]] '''Diego Velázquez de Cuéllar''' (1465 - 1524) was a [[Spain|Spanish]] soldier and colonial administrator (a ''[[Conquistador]]'').He conquered and governed [[Cuba]] for [[Spain]]. He is often called ''Diego de Velázquez'' by [[Dominican Republic|Dominican]] historians (that is the name used in the [http://famousamericans.net/diegodevelazquez/ Appleton's Cyclopedia]). He was born in Cuéllar, near [[Segovia]], Spain. He came to [[Americas|America]] in the second voyage of [[Christopher Columbus]] in 1493. He spent 17 years in the [[Hispaniola]], living most of the time in the southwestern region of the island. He worked together with the Spanish governor [[Nicolás de Ovando]] in the fight against the [[Taíno]] Indians of the region. He founded and governed several towns: Azua de Compostela (1504),<ref>{{cite book | last = Matos González | first = Ramiro | title = Azua Documental (y Apuntes Históricos) | publisher = Editora Alfa & Omega | date = 1995 | location = Santo Domingo | language = Spanish | pages = 120 }}</ref> [[San Juan de la Maguana]] (1503),<ref>{{cite book | last = Garrido | first = Víctor | title = Espigas históricas | publisher = Academia Dominicana de la Historia, vol XXXI | date = 1971 | location = Santo Domingo | language = Spanish | pages = 330 }}</ref> [[Bánica, Elías Piña|Bánica]] (1504), Salvatierra de la Sabana (1504, now [[Les Cayes]], Haiti),<ref>{{cite book | last = Incháustegui | first = J. Marino | title = Historia Dominicana, Tomo I | publisher = Impresora Dominicana | date = 1955 | location = Ciudad Trujillo, República Dominicana | language = Spanish | pages = 72 }}</ref> Santa María de la Verapaz (near the present [[Port-au-Prince]], Haiti), Villanueva de Yáquimo (now Jacmel, Haiti). In 1511, he left from Salvatierra de la Sabana with 300 men and three or four ships to the island of [[Cuba]] to conquer that island. He