Salinas was born in Burgos in 1513, the son of the treasurer to emperor Charles I. He was blind from the age of eleven. He studied humanities, singing and organ at the University of Salamanca. He then entered the service of a relative, archbishop Pedro Sarmiento de Salinas, and accompanied him when Sarmiento followed emperor Charles to Rome in 1538. Sarmiento was elevated to the cardinalate that year, and Salinas took the holy orders and was granted an annual pension by Pope Paul III. Salinas lived in Rome for the next 23 years. In 1553, he became the organist at the court of Naples, where he was under the patronage of the then Viceroy of Naples, the Duke of Alba. While in Naples, he befriended Diego Ortiz, who served there as Kapellmeister; he also became acquainted with Orlando di Lasso and Tomás Luis de Victoria.
