Juan de Grijalva (; born c. 1490 in

Cuéllar Cuéllar () is a municipality in the Province of Segovia, within the autonomous community of Castile and León, Spain. The municipality had a population of 9,730 inhabitants according to the municipal register of inhabitants (INE) as of 1 Jan ...

Crown of Castile The Crown of Castile was a medieval polity in the Iberian Peninsula that formed in 1230 as a result of the third and definitive union of the crowns and, some decades later, the parliaments of the kingdoms of Castile and León upon the accessi ...

– 21 January 1527 in

Honduras Honduras, officially the Republic of Honduras, is a country in Central America. The republic of Honduras is bordered to the west by Guatemala, to the southwest by El Salvador, to the southeast by Nicaragua, to the south by the Pacific Oce ...

) was a Spanish

conquistador Conquistadors (, ) or conquistadores (, ; meaning 'conquerors') were the explorer-soldiers of the Spanish and Portuguese Empires of the 15th and 16th centuries. During the Age of Discovery, conquistadors sailed beyond Europe to the Americas, ...

, and a relative of Diego Velázquez.Diaz, B., 1963, The Conquest of New Spain, London: Penguin Books, He went to Hispaniola in 1508 and to

Cuba Cuba ( , ), officially the Republic of Cuba ( es, República de Cuba, links=no ), is an island country comprising the island of Cuba, as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located where the northern Caribb ...

in 1511. He was one of the early explorers of the Mexican coastline.

1518 expedition

In 1518, Grijalva became one of the first to explore the shores of

Mexico Mexico (Spanish language, Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a List of sovereign states, country in the southern portion of North America. It is borders of Mexico, bordered to the north by the United States; to the so ...

. According to Hernán Cortés, 170 people went with him, but according to Pedro Mártir, there were 300 people. The main pilot was

Antón de Alaminos Antón de Alaminos (c. 1482 - ?) was a Spanish navigator and explorer in the New World. He was considered the most experienced and knowledgeable marine pilot serving in the Spanish Main during the first quarter of the sixteenth century. Antón ...

, the other pilots were Juan Álvarez (also known as ''el Manquillo''), Pedro Camacho de Triana, and Grijalva. Other members included Francisco de Montejo, Pedro de Alvarado, Juan Díaz, Francisco Peñalosa, Alonso de Ávila, Alonso Hernández, Julianillo, Melchorejo, and

Antonio Villafaña Antonio is a masculine given name of Etruscan origin deriving from the root name Antonius. It is a common name among Romance language-speaking populations as well as the Balkans and Lusophone Africa. It has been among the top 400 most popular ...

. They embarked from the port of Matanzas,

, with four ships in April 1518. Expedición de Girjalva 1518

After rounding the

Guaniguanico Guaniguanico, also known as Cordillera de Guaniguanico, is a mountain range of western Cuba that spans from the centre-west of Pinar del Río Province to the western area of Artemisa Province. It is formed by the subranges of Sierra del Rosario ...

in Cuba, Grijalva sailed along the Mexican coast, discovered Cozumel, and arrived on 1 May at the Tabasco region in southern Mexico. The Río Grijalva in Mexico was named after him. He was also the first Spaniard to encounter

Moctezuma II Moctezuma Xocoyotzin ( – 29 June 1520; oteːkˈsoːmaḁ ʃoːkoˈjoːt͡sĩn̥), nci-IPA, Motēuczōmah Xōcoyōtzin, moteːkʷˈsoːma ʃoːkoˈjoːtsin variant spellings include Motewksomah, Motecuhzomatzin, Montezuma, Moteuczoma, Motecu ...

's delegation. One of the natives joined them, being baptized as Francisco, and became an interpreter on Cortes' expedition. Bernal Díaz del Castillo wrote about the travels of Juan de Grijalva in his book ''Historia de las Indias.''. In 1518 Hernán Cortés stayed at Juan's home in Trinidad, Cuba, at the start of his Mexican expedition. He recruited men there, including the five Alvarado brothers. He was killed by natives in

on 21 January 1527.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Grijalva, Juan De Spanish conquistadors History of the Aztecs Spanish explorers of North America 16th-century Spanish people People of New Spain Colonial Mexico Spanish colonial period of Cuba History of Hispaniola Spanish West Indies 1490s births 1527 deaths Explorers of Mexico