Juan Garrido (– c. 1480 – c. 1550) was a black African-Spanish conquistador. Born in

West Africa West Africa or Western Africa is the westernmost region of Africa. The United Nations defines Western Africa as the 16 countries of Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Mali, M ...

, he went to

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of ...

as a young man. In converting to

Catholicism The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

, he chose the Spanish name, Juan Garrido ("Handsome John"). Juan Garrido joined a Spanish expedition and arrived in

Santo Domingo , total_type = Total , population_density_km2 = auto , timezone = AST (UTC −4) , area_code_type = Area codes , area_code = 809, 829, 849 , postal_code_type = Postal codes , postal_code = 10100–10699 ( Distrito Nacional) , webs ...

( Hispaniola) about 1502. He participated in the invasion of present-day

Puerto Rico Puerto Rico (; abbreviated PR; tnq, Boriken, ''Borinquen''), officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico ( es, link=yes, Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico, lit=Free Associated State of Puerto Rico), is a Caribbean island and unincorporated ...

and Cuba in 1508. In 1513, as part of Juan Ponce de Leon entourage in search of gold, the expedition landed in Florida. He is the first known African to arrive in North America. By 1519, he had joined Cortes' forces and invaded present-day Mexico, participating in the siege of

Tenochtitlan , ; es, Tenochtitlan also known as Mexico-Tenochtitlan, ; es, México-Tenochtitlan was a large Mexican in what is now the historic center of Mexico City. The exact date of the founding of the city is unclear. The date 13 March 1325 was ...

. He married and settled in

Mexico City Mexico City ( es, link=no, Ciudad de México, ; abbr.: CDMX; Nahuatl: ''Altepetl Mexico'') is the capital city, capital and primate city, largest city of Mexico, and the List of North American cities by population, most populous city in North Amer ...

, where he was the first known farmer to have sowed

wheat Wheat is a grass widely cultivated for its seed, a cereal grain that is a worldwide staple food. The many species of wheat together make up the genus ''Triticum'' ; the most widely grown is common wheat (''T. aestivum''). The archaeologi ...

in America. He continued to serve with Spanish forces for more than 30 years, including expeditions to western Mexico and to the Pacific.

Early life and education

Garrido was born in West Africa in about 1480, and came to Portugal as a youth. When baptized, he took the name Juan Garrido (Handsome John). He went to Seville, where he joined an expedition to the

New World The term ''New World'' is often used to mean the majority of Earth's Western Hemisphere, specifically the Americas."America." ''The Oxford Companion to the English Language'' (). McArthur, Tom, ed., 1992. New York: Oxford University Press, p. ...

, possibly traveling in assistance to Pedro Garrido's (Handsome Peter). Arriving in

in 1502 or 1503, Garrido was among the earliest Africans to reach the Americas. He was one of numerous Africans or possibly a "freedman" who had joined expeditions from

Seville Seville (; es, Sevilla, ) is the capital and largest city of the Spanish autonomous community of Andalusia and the province of Seville. It is situated on the lower reaches of the River Guadalquivir, in the southwest of the Iberian Peninsula ...

to the Americas.Peter Gerhard, "A Black Conquistador in Mexico," ''The Hispanic American Historical Review'', Vol. 58, No. 3 (August 1978), pp. 451-459 From the beginning of Spanish presence in the Americas, Africans participated as voluntary expeditionaries, conquistadors, and

auxiliaries Auxiliaries are support personnel that assist the military or police but are organised differently from regular forces. Auxiliary may be military volunteers undertaking support functions or performing certain duties such as garrison troops, ...

. By 1519 Garrido participated in the expedition led by Hernán Cortés to Mexico, where they lay siege to

.In 1520 he built a chapel to commemorate the many Spanish killed in battle that year by the Aztecs. It now stands as the Church of San Hipólito. Conquistador Negro Duran

Garrido married and settled in Mexico City, where he and his wife had three children. Restall (2000) credits him with the first harvesting of

planted in New Spain. Garrido and other blacks were also part of expeditions to Michoacán in the 1520s. Nuño de Guzmán swept through that region in 1529–30 with the aid of black auxiliaries.James Krippner-Martínez, "The Politics of Conquest: An Interpretation of the 'Relación de Michoacán'," ''The Americas'' 47:2 (October 1990), pp. 177-98 In 1538, Garrido provided testimony on his 30 years of service as a conquistador

References

External links

Review: Matthew Restall, Probanza of Juan Garrido in "Black Conquistadors: Armed Africans in Early Spanish America"
''The Americas,'' Volume 57, Number 2, October 2000, pp. 171–205 , 10.1353/tam.2000.0015 {{DEFAULTSORT:Garrido, Juan African conquistadors Spanish conquistadors 16th-century Spanish people History of the Aztecs Explorers of Mexico

Early life and education

See also

References

Further reading

External links