Beatriz de la Cueva

Beatriz de la Cueva de Alvarado (c. 1498 – 11 September 1541), nicknamed "La Sinventura" ("The Unfortunate") was a Spanish noblewoman from Úbeda in Andalucia who became the governor of the Spanish colony of Guatemala for a few days in September 1541, before being killed by an earthquake shortly after taking office. Unique as the only woman to hold such a position in a major division of Spanish Latin America in colonial times, she is credited with having introduced the Spanish style of house construction and Spanish customs into Guatemala. She was buried in the cathedral of Santiago de los Caballeros de Guatemala.