Juan Garrido

Juan Garrido
Dark-skinned conquistador in the Codex Azcatitlan, possibly Garrido himself.
Bornc. 1480
Kingdom of Kongo
Died1550 (aged 69–70)
New Spain, Spanish Empire
OccupationConquistador
EmployerHernan Cortés

Juan Garrido (c. 1480[1] – c. 1550[2]) was an Afro-Spaniard of Kongo origin conquistador known as the first documented Bantu person in what would become the United States. Born in the Kingdom of Kongo in West Central Africa, he went to Portugal as a young man. In converting to Catholicism, he chose the Spanish name Juan Garrido ("Handsome John"). He is the first known free African to arrive in North America.[1]

He participated in the Spanish conquests of Cuba by Diego Velázquez and the expeditions to Florida by Juan Ponce de León. By 1519, he had joined Cortes's forces and invaded present-day Mexico, participating in the siege of Tenochtitlan. He married and settled in Mexico City, where he was the first known farmer to have sowed wheat in America. He continued to serve with Spanish forces for more than 30 years, including expeditions to western Mexico and to the Pacific.[3]

He is considered the prime example of Bantu conquistador, although in reality the presence of Africans and mulattos in the Hispanic ranks had already became a widespread occurrence after the first decade of the 16th century.[4] Other examples of black conquistadors included Beatriz de Palacios, Juan Valiente, Juan García Pizarro, Juan de Villanueva, Pedro Fulupo and Antonio Pérez.[5][6] The presence of black people was shocking to Mesoamericans, who called them teucacatzactli ("black deities") in Nahuatl.[7]

  1. ^ a b "Juan Garrido (U.S. National Park Service)". www.nps.gov. Retrieved 2022-08-27.
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference Gerhard was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ Alegría, Ricardo E. (2004). Juan Garrido: el conquistador negro en las Antillas, Florida, México y California (in Spanish). Centro de Estudios Avanzados de Puerto Rico y el Caribe. pp. 6, 127–138. ISBN 978-0-942347-92-0.
  4. ^ De la Serna (2005), p. 29.
  5. ^ Davis (1995).
  6. ^ De la Serna (2005).
  7. ^ Ortiz (1987), p. 312.