José de Anchieta Llarena was born on March 19, 1534, in San Cristóbal de La Laguna on Tenerife in the Canary Islands, Spain, to a rich family. His father, Juan López de Anchieta, was a landowner from Urrestilla, in the Basque Country, who had escaped in 1525 to Tenerife after participating in a failed rebellion against the King, Charles V. His mother, Mencia Díaz de Clavijo y Llarena, was a descendant of the conquerors of Tenerife, and came from a Jewish family. He was a relative of Loyola's.