VALADES, Diego (vah-lah'-days), Mexican missionary, b., according to some authors, in Spain, but, according to others, in Tlaxcala, Mexico, about 1520; died in Italy about 1590. He entered the Franciscan order, became a missionary to the Chichimec Indians, was superior of the convent of Tlaxcala, and on account of his learning was sent to Rome in 1570 as resident procurator-general of his order. He edited Father Jean Focher's "Itinerarium Catholicum" (1574), but his reputation rests on his remarkable work "Rhetorica Christiana ad concionandi et orandi usum accommodata, quae quidem ex Indorum Historia maxime deprompta sunt" (Perugia, 1579; Rome, 1587), in which he describes the Indian customs, the ornaments of the Mexican temples, and the human sacrifices that were offered in them, while at the same time he praises highly the intellect and advanced civilization of the Aztecs and Tlaxcalans.