Afro-Descendant Conquistadors of the Americas: How Conquistadors of African Heritage Challenge Stereotypes of the Spanish Conquest

ENDNOTES Afro-Descendant Conquistadors of the Americas: How Conquistadors of African Heritage Challenge Stereotypes of the Spanish Conquest

Conquistadors in the Americas have traditionally been portrayed as white men with goatees, wearing breastplates and kettle hats. African and Indigenous peoples on the continent, in contrast, have often been portrayed solely as victims of white Spaniards. Yet, recent scholarship has complicated this portrait, unearthing the more active role of African and Indigenous persons in the conquest of the Americas.1 A survey of three conquistadors of colour— Esteban de Dorantes, a Moorish slave who took a leading role in expeditions to North America; Juan Garrido, a free West African conqueror serving

A white conquistador. Jacques Reich, Portrait drawing of Spanish explorer and Spain in the Caribbean conquistador Hernando de Soto, 1791, illustration, in Appletons’ Cyclopædia and Mesoamerica; and of American Biography, vol. 2, edited by James Grant Wilson and John Fiske (New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1887), 152. Wikimedia Commons. Juan Beltrán de Magaña, an Afro-Indigenous warrior whose war efforts against the Mapuche in Chile were renowned among the colonists— reveals that some men of African heritage have historically played significantly active roles in the exploration, conquests, and border conflicts of North, Central, and South America in service of Spain. The cases of Esteban, Garrido, and Beltrán put more colour into a whitewashed history, revealing the agency of a minority of Africans who advanced their social prestige through colonial contributions during the early Spanish Atlantic.

Recent studies of non-white accounts of the conquest suggest that accounts by white conquistadors may be exaggerated. In his Seven Myths of the Spanish Conquest, historian Matthew Restall says the trope of great conquistadors partly derived from self-promoting documents known as probanzas de merito (“proofs of merit”), wherein conquistadors wrote to the king about their service in order to receive rewards from the crown.2 For example, the sixteenth-century probanzas of Juan de Alvarado (1562), Rodrigo de Quiroga (1560), and

Pedro Martin de Villarreal (1573) start with the claimant’s testimony, followed by requests and eyewitness testimonies.3 This means readers should take conquistadors’ accounts of themselves critically for they would likely be disposed towards portraying themselves favourably. It is also known conquistadors were dependent on Indigenous and African goodwill. As an Indigenous aristocrat, interpreter, and encomendero once noted to Gonzalo Pizzaro in 1547 that conquistadors needed the support of Indigenous peoples, free Africans, and slaves for colonization, and in 1553, a viceroy claimed that Indigenous and black inhabitants outnumbered colonists in New Spain.4 We know that Indigenous people assisted conquistadors from Indigenous requests for compensation from the Spaniards for aiding, sheltering, and feeding them in their wars against the Mexica.5 At least in the early stages of Spanish colonization in the Americas during the first half of the sixteenth century, the popular image of an all-powerful white minority easily ruling over a powerless majority of persons of colour cannot be considered accurate. Though traditional histories pass them over as mere subjects of white oppression, the success of conquest sometimes hinged on Africans and Indigenous persons who actively contributed to Spanish dominance in the Americas.

Esteban de Dorantes, a black Moor from Azamor in Morocco, was an indispensable interpreter-guide in the first Spanish exploration of northernmost New Spain (contemporary northern Mexico, the Gulf Coast of the United States, and the Southwestern United States). According to Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca’s account of the expedition, Pánfilo de Narváez set sail on June 17, 1527, after Charles V granted him the right to own the lands from Rio Grande to Florida.6 This region encompasses the modern-day Gulf Coast of the United

States and the states of Florida, Texas, and New Mexico. They intended to sail first to Havana, Cuba, but after desertions and a shipwreck on the island in 1527, the fleet was blown off course and washed up in Florida in April 1528.7 They wandered as castaways for nine years until they were found in 1536. Over that time, Narváez’s expedition, which started out with six-hundred men, dwindled to only four: Esteban, his master Andrés Dorantes de Carranza, Cabeza de Vaca, and Alonso del Castillo Maldonado.8 Lost in a land neither Europeans nor Africans had seen, the castaways had to learn to adapt to their surroundings in order to survive. These nine years transformed Esteban’s identity. He began his exile as an Arabic speaker and Christian slave; by its end he had become an explorer who served Spanish interests and a healer of an Amerindian tradition. The evolution in his identify ambiguates the stereotype of the conquistador as a white warrior.9

By learning the language, culture, and geography of Indigenous peoples, Esteban became an interpreter-guide, important skills to aid in the Spanish conquest.10 Spaniards did not rely on white conquistadors alone to do all the work of colonization, they also relied on the help of particular Indigenous nations to conquer other Indigenous nations.11 This required acculturation and learning multiple languages to communicate with the various nations. When the four survivors were hosted by the Han people, who firmly believed these foreigners were extraordinary, Esteban and the others were forced to become medicinemen.12 This earned Esteban status not only with the Han but also with the Concho, who gifted him a gourd rattle believed to have healing powers.13 Though some argue Esteban was not an official interpreter,14 he had enough cultural rapport to build relationships with the Han, Concho, and Opanta. According to his fellow castaway Cabeza de Vaca, the Spaniards made Esteban act as a mediator between them and the Opanta, learning of paths and settlements in the surrounding area through the slave’s frequent conversations.15 The Spaniards used Esteban’s skills as an interpreter to their advantage by gaining knowledge of the territories lying north of Mexico, which would be useful for future colonizers. By the time the four explorers encountered the Spanish slave ship that rescued them, Esteban was wellequipped to guide its captain and fifty Indigenous allies to find any surviving Spaniards.16

In 1539, three years after his rescue, Esteban was chosen to assist the Coronado expedition in exploring modern-day Arizona and New Mexico. Though he was still a slave, Kevin Young argues that Esteban occupied a “new hybrid identity,” serving as a missionary, explorer, and diplomatic representative.17 His new master, Francisco Vásquez de Coronado the Viceroy of New Spain, tasked Esteban to guide the Franciscan Fray Marcos of Nice in his searching for the legendary Seven Cities of Cibola located in present-day New Mexico.18 Fray Marcos wrote that he sent Esteban ahead with over three-hundred men.19 The Spanish explorers’ trust in Esteban shows they valued his ability to interact with local Indigenous nations. The only time he failed at this was fatal. Esteban’s contingent entered the settlement of Cibola without permission, thinking they would be well-received; they were not and Esteban was killed along with many of his contingent.20 A writer for the Coronado expedition opined that the interpreter-guide failed because he coveted the glory of discovering Cibola, a place believed to be abundant with gold and silver.21 Whether Esteban served Spain for glory, fear of his masters, or hope for his freedom remains a mystery, but he was evidently useful to conquistadors. Though a slave, Esteban exhibited a degree of agency when he was entrusted by white Spaniards to penetrate Indigenous territories, leading hundreds on a scouting mission to a location that would be later colonized by Spain.

Juan Garrido, a West African conquistador, freely chose to join the Spanish conquest of Mesoamerica. Born around 1480, Garrido represented a common type of black conquistador that arrived to the Americas in the first decades of the conquest.22 Based on Ricardo Alegría’s and Peter Gerhard’s studies, Restall believes Garrido was born in West Africa and, either as a slave or a freeman, travelled to Lisbon where he was baptized as a Catholic before he moved to Seville.23 He walked in Spanish cities in a time when awareness of the American continent was still new in the Spanish imagination. Though uncertainty exists regarding whether he was a slave or free, Garrido always emphasized that he alone decided to serve Spain as a conquistador. On September 27, 1538, Garrido presented his probanza to the mayor of Mexico City. “[B]eing free and emancipated,” he said, “I worked very well and served his majesty with my person and at my expense.”24 For some, it may be surprising that a black man, who was part of a demographic enslaved by colonists during this time, would so voluntarily invest in conquest.

Garrido’s probanza listed several of his accomplishments. He participated in the conquests of Puerto Rico, Cuba, Guadalupe, and Dominica against the Caribs; later he explored Florida and Mexico; and he fought in Tlaxcala and Tenochtitlan.25 Five witnesses confirmed he fought in Tenochtitlan with Hernán Cortés in 1521.26 Alegría says Garrido went on an expedition to Michoacán and Zacatula, where he led slaves in a goldmine.27 As Gerhard adds, Garrido owned both black and Indigenous slaves, showing that at least during this time, a conquistador’s blackness did not rescind his status as a potential slave-owner.28 Besides his military successes, Garrido’s probanza also outlined his virtues as a citizen. At a time when maize was the major staple food in New Spain, he claimed he was the first to sow wheat to see if it would be a productive crop. This improved local agriculture.29

These feats suggest that a few Africans willingly contributed to the Spanish conquest. Early sixteenth-century Africans who served Spaniards were not only slaves, but also voluntary colonists themselves and unarmed or armed auxiliaries.30 Witnesses confirmed that Garrido’s services were voluntary and that he never asked for rewards before his probanza, despite being a poor, hard worker who struggled to provide for his wife and children.31 His race and wealth did not obstruct his probanza to the king. Based on new evidence, David Sánchez argues Juan Garrido returned to Spain with Hernán Cortés to verify the status of his probanza and also sold his Indigenous slave.32 Garrido’s case shows that though some Africans were victims of colonial slavery, others were slave-owning conquistadors who actively participated in colonization with Spaniards.

In the far-flung corner of Chile, Juan Beltrán de Magaña began his celebrated career as an AfroIndigenous conquistador. Beltrán’s probanza said he came to the Americas in 1543.33 Restall argues Beltrán was unusual for a non-white conquistador; most sought a station in the colonies after their conquests in Mesoamerica or the Andes, but he permanently pursued warfare in the fringes.34 Beltrán wanted to fight as an end in itself, not merely as a means to prosperity. He fought Gonzalo Pizarro in the battle of Jaquijahuana of 1548 in Peru, after which he travelled to serve the governor of Chile.35 Beltrán then helped to explore, conquer, and settle the cities of Concepción, Confines, Imperial, Rica, and Valdivia.36 Following the governor’s death in a Mapuche uprising, Beltrán said he fought like a good soldier without taking anything for himself.37 Once again, this third case of a non-white conquistador showcases the openness of the early Spanish Atlantic world, where Spanish colonists accepted the voluntary participation of some Africans who wanted advance their prestige.

In 1536, Beltrán applied for his probanza. In return for his services, he requested a salary and a corregimiento—a large encomienda owned by authorized officials with a fixed pension and a fee proportional to the worker labour time—in either the outlying areas of Cuzco, La Paz, or La Plata.38 An appeal to the king of Spain from an Afro-Indigenous person was a bold move, even as a captain who served in a colony, since persons of African heritage were still expected to either voluntarily fight to the death for Spain or serve in positions under their white superiors as “gatekeepers” of fringe settlements away from the Spanish headquarters.39 Though valuable to the marginal colonies, Beltrán did not have the same rights as a white conquistador in the more central regions.

A battle between Spaniard conquistadors and Mapuches during the Arauco War, 1646, in

A battle between Spaniard conquistadors and Mapuches during the Arauco War, 1646, in Tabula Geographica Regni Chile, by Alfonso de Ovalle, Wikimedia Commons. However, his Afro-Indigenous heritage did not bar Beltrán from leadership, riches, and fame. The king honoured his service, even though he was not granted a corregimiento. In 1620, almost two hundred years after arriving in the Americas, Antonio Vásquez de Espinosa’s history of the Americas said Beltrán’s probanza granted him the title of infantry captain, an encomienda of five-hundred Indigenous subjects, and two leagues of land where he built his fort close to Villarica.40 Vásquez also painted a lionizing portrait of Beltrán, writing that his acts were worthy of a “whole book.”41 He extolled the “valiant Captain Juan Beltrán Mulatto, son of a black man, and an Indian woman, [as being] worthy of eternal memory for Great acts.”42 His mixed race was a sign of honour; for how could a non-Spaniard fight for Spain if not for his noble character? He was humble, obedient, and loyal to the Spaniards when they needed help, but fearsome to his enemies. When he died in battle, Espinosa portrayed him as a legend.43 His reputation demonstrates how an Afro-Indigenous person’s conquests advanced his personal ambitions by serving a white colonial system of prestige in the margins of empire.

The lives of Esteban, Garrido, and Beltrán challenge the narrative that the Spanish conquest was wholly an effort of white men; whether slave or free, persons of colour actively participated in American colonization. Esteban’s ambiguous identity as a slave, representative, and interpreter-guide was critical for the survival of Spaniards during the exploration of North America. In Mesoamerica, Juan Garrido’s voluntary participation as a conquistador and freedom to pursue ambitious projects demonstrate that some Africans in the Americas had autonomy in their destinies. Lastly, Beltrán’s character and battles on the edges of the empire were celebrated among the colonists.

Brian Thomson

MAIH (History stream)