Lope de Aguirre

**Lope de Aguirre** is the secondary antagonist of Disney’s live-action film Jungle Cruise, portrayed by Édgar Ramírez. Within the film, he is the primary rival to Frank Wolff.

The film's Lope is a fictionalized depiction of the historic Lope de Aguirre (1510- 1561), a conquistador active in South America, known by the self presented nickname of "**Wrath of God, Prince of Freedom, King of Tierra Firme**" or by his more common nickname, "**El Loco**" (Spanish: **The Madman**). The historic Aguirre is best remembered for his searches for the mythical El Dorado in the Omagua.

## History

### Biography

#### Origins

Lope de Aguirre was the son of a nobleman in Spain during the 16th century. He was raised alongside adoptive-brother Francisco Lopez de Heredia, the son of a mercenary within his father's service. At some point as an adult, Lope had a daughter named Anna.

#### Spanish colonialism

In 1556, he pursued the mythical Tree of Life in the Amazon rainforest which could cure any ailment to save his daughter Anna. After their ship wrecked in the Atlantic Ocean, he, Francisco, and remaining conquistadors Sancho, Melchor and Gonzalo discovered the tree's island of *Lágrimas de Cristal* while on the verge of death. During this time, Lope suffered from venom ingested from a snake-bite.

The men were saved via the Tree of Life's flowers by the *Puka Michuna* tribe. Although Aguirre was happy to be growing close to finding a cure, he knew that his daughter was running out of time, and he grew impatient. When the chief refused to give Lope access to the tree due to him being unworthy, he had his men massacre the tribe to find the sacred arrowhead: the key to the tree's power. Aguirre murdered the chief while Francisco turned coat to try and save the Indigenous tribe, allowing the chief's daughter to escape with the arrowhead. With his dying breath, the chief cursed the conquistadors to be immortal and bound to the Amazon.

Lope blamed Francisco for their curse, for betraying him and taking him away from his daughter (who by now, was long dead), leading to many confrontations with Francisco over the years. Francisco finally managed to imprison Lope, Sancho, Melchor and Gonzalo within a cave far from the river, where they were trapped, decomposed and turned to stone for roughly 300 years (indicating he might have been imprisoned around 1616). Francisco would later change his named to "Frank Wolff" and become a boatsman in the Amazon town of Porto Velho.

#### German Empire

In 1916, Lope and his men were revived and recruited by the deranged German Prince Joachim of Prussia to hunt down explorer Lily Houghton and her brother MacGregor Houghton who were competing with Joachim for the Tree of Life. The two had enlisted the services of Frank Wolff and were transported aboard his vessel, *La Quila* while Wolff was secretly working with the *Puka Michuna*. Aguirre managed to follow them by using snakes bound to his curse to watch the passing expedition.

Lope and his men captured MacGregor Houghton to force Frank and Lily to take them to the temple holding the Tree of Life. As the tree only worked under a blood moon which was passing, Lope betrayed Joachim to steal the petal for himself. Frank however defeated them all by crashing La Quila into the wall of the temple, causing the vines from outside to engulf the conquistadors and turn them back into stone.

## Appearances

### Film

#### Jungle Cruise

Lope de Aguirre is one of the main antagonists in this film.

### Disney Parks

#### Jungle Cruise

   Lope's morion helmet appears hung in the Jungle Navigation Company's boathouse in the Lost Delta of India in Disneyland's Jungle Cruise. In Walt Disney World's Jungle Cruise, his helmet is located in an office of the Amazon River Base along with the hat of Frank Wolff and map to Lagrimas de Cristal within the office of Alberta Falls. Additionally, the rock python appearing in Settler's Field and outside Boats & Baits/the Pygmy camp was the inspiration behind Lope's spy serpents in the film.

## Differences from history

### Assorted

* Lope's daughter Anna is fictional, likely being based on his historic daughter Elvira whom he mercy-killed in 1561 to prevent from being brutalized by enemy Spanish soldiers.
* In the film, Lope was cursed in 1556 and, "Died" in 1916 while in real-world history he died in 1561 after being shot and having his corpse taken from town to town as a lesson against rebellion.
* Lope's compatriots from his expedition to find the Tears of the Moon are fictional characters.

### Biography

Lope de Aguirre was the son of a Spanish nobleman. While a young man, he wished to follow in the footsteps of Hernando Pizarro (C.1501/1508-c.1578) following Pizarro bringing stolen Indigenous Tawantinsuyu treasure back to Spain. In Peru, he was appointed regidor of the city of Cuzco where he became infamous for his cruelty, extreme acts of violence and contempt for the Spanish monarchy.

By 1544, Lope assisted the first Peruvian viceroy, Blasco Núñez Vela. Aguirre and Vela would conspire to implement the *Leyes Nuevas*, a series of laws which would prevent conquistadors from enslaving the Indigenous peoples and control the hierarchical colonial *Encomienda* system. This made the two enemies of several conquistadors including Gonzalo Pizarro and Francisco "El demonio de los Andes" de Carvajal. The conflict lasted until 1546 with the victory of Vela and Aguirre.

In 1551, Aguirre was arrested by judge Francisco de Esquivel in *la Villa Imperial de Potosí* for fighting against his fellow conquistadors. The judge sentenced Aguirre to a public-flogging and then fled the city in fear of Aguirre's wrath. Aguirre hunted the judge, shoeless and on foot down for three years with a crew of unpaid soldiers. Aguirre found the judge sleeping in Cuzco where he killed him by stabbing him in his sleep.

In 1554, conquistador Alonso de Alvarado weakened Aguirre's forces by offering pardons to those who participated in his rebellion. In this event, Aguirre received a musket-shot to the leg which left him with a limp which ostracized him. In 1560, Aguirre and his daughter Elvira joined an expedition to find the mythical city of gold El Dorado in the Amazon rainforest, an expedition which was actually a wild-goose-chase arranged by conquistador Pedro de Ursúa to dispose of various troublesome veterans.

On the expedition, Aguirre killed both Ursúa and Ursúa's successor Fernando de Guzmán to claim their power. Deranged, he forced everyone else in the expedition to herald him as, "Prince of Peru, Tierra Firme and Chile". They invaded Isla Margarita and murdered its governor to take the isle for themselves as a rebellion against the Spanish throne. When the crown's forces began to defeat the expedition, Aguirre killed his own daughter so that she would not be sexually-assaulted by their enemies.

Aguirre himself was caught in 1561 and shot. Aguirre's corpse was subsequently beheaded and quartered by the crown who transported his remains throughout the Spanish colonies as a threat against rebellion.

## Trivia

* Aguirre's curse is very similar to that of Captain Hector Barbossa from *Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl* (2003), the first major blockbuster film to be based on a Disney Parks attraction.
* Lope's snakes are inspired by the rock python from the Jungle Cruise ride.
* Aguirre's inclusion in the film is likely a tribute to the Werner Herzog film *Aguirre, the Wrath of God* (1972).
* In real-world history, Aguirre was regidor of Cuzco, Peru. In the Jungle Cruise mythos, Cuzco is the location of the Lost River Delta.
* El Dorado which Aguirre famously searched for in real-world history has been integrated into the Jungle Cruise mythos via the *Indiana Jones* film-series and the *Jungle Cruise* overlay of *Indiana Jones Summer of Hidden Mysteries*.Whether any of this continuity carries over into film cannon is yet unknown though it is known Lope was cursed in 1556, four years before the historic expedition. If carried over, the expedition could have occurred earlier in the timeline or after Lope was cursed but before his imprisonment at the hands of Frank Wolff (referenced as having occurred very roughly around 1616).

## References

1. ↑ https://attractionsmagazine.com/first-look-whats-gnu-jungle-cruise-disneyland/
2. ↑ https://wdwnt.com/2021/08/photos-jungle-cruise-sign-updated-once-again-movie-props-and-amazon-river-sign-added-to-queue-at-magic-kingdom/