History of Juan Garrido an African Conquistador .
Friday, February 24, 2023
Juan Garrido was an African Conquistador born in what is now Present day Republic of Congo in the Kingdom of Kongo in 1480 , Juan went to Lisbon, Portugal at a young age and had to become a Catholic and changed his unknown Congolese name which others referred as Unknown African name to a Spanish name known as Juan Garrido even other account said he was born in Africa or West Africa with so many claims .
Juan Garrido worked alongside with Ponce de Leon for 13 years , he later Sojourned a Spanish expedition and arrived the Hispaniola around the 1500s . He was believed to had joined the Invasion of Present day Puerto Rico , Mexico and Cuba in 1508 . By the 1519 , he joined the Cortes forces and Invaded what is now Mexico , participating in the siege of the Aztec Empire .
He married and settled in Ciudad de Mexico known as Mexico City , It is said Juan Garrido continued to serve with Spanish forces for more than 30 years , Including the expeditions to the Western and Southern Mexico to the Pacific . Juan was considered as the Earliest African to reach the Americas in between 1502 and 1503 and then he joined expeditions from Spain , Portugal to the Americas .
Garrido and other Earliest Africans were also part of the expeditions to Michoacan de Ocampo in 1520s . It is believed Nuno de Guzman swept through that region in 1529-1530 with the support of black auxiliaries .
According to National Park Service’s account on Juan Garrido , African Conquistadors like Garrido were not uncommon . Many found their way into the Spanish life , rather than being enslaved . It is said Juan Garrido joined Spanish Conquests as Soldiers , some in exchange for freedom others for financial gain . It is claimed by others that Garrido was born in Present day Angola or on the west coast of Africa in 1487 and later moved to Lisbon , Portugal . Garrido was described to be a freeman among the Enslaved Africans .
The History Accounts on The African Conquistador known as Juan Garrido By Dr. Ricardo Alegria and Dr. Amy Howard.
According to Dr. Ricardo Alegria, Juan Garrido was a son of an African King and It is believed the King might have traded with the Portuguese and some other historians believed Garrido was sold into Slavery later fought for his freedom . It is said Garrido coincidence that his name matched of a Spaniard's on his 1st Voyage to the Americas Others believed Juan Garrido was 15 turning 16 when he travelled to Lisbon , Portugal , Seville , Spain and joined the convoy to Hispaniola in 1503 . Juan spent 6 years in Hispaniola , Spanish government allowed Conquistadors to take the land , people and treasure . This was believed to be the Crown’s attempt to convert the world into Catholicism . In 1508 , Juan Ponce de Leon a Spanish Explorer on his mission to search for gold in Puerto Rico . Once Ponce de Leon settled and became a Governor on the Island , Juan Garrido fought the Spanish over the natives who were originally Africans and revolted in 1511.
After Ponce de Leon lost his position to Diego Columbus who was described as a Portuguese Explorer under the Kings of Castile and Aragon in 1513 , It is believed he took Garrido and Others to search for treasure on the Island . Instead, It is said Garrido and Other Africans found Florida then fought the Florida natives and It was conquered by Africans . In around 1518-1519 , Garrido became a Veteran Conquistador . Juan Garrido was a member of the Hernan Cortes expedition that Invaded what is now Mexico and lay siege on the Aztec Empire’s Capital known as Tenochtitlan. After the Surviving the Cortes troops in 1520 , Garrido had a property given to him on a dried out lake Ped outside the former Aztec Empire’s Capital in 1522 . It is believed Juan Garrido became a farmer and was one of the Outstanding first Cultivators to harvest wheat in the Americas along with watermelons and grapes .
Later Juan Garrido returned to Florida in 1521 , Juan Garrido , Ponce de Leon and Other Africans arrived with settlers , livestock , supplies, and weapons to control the natives . Juan Garrido went to what is now Havana, Cuba and what is now Puerto Rico a month later . By the end of between 1547 and 1550 he passed away, During the Early life of Juan Garrido he served with the Spanish forces for over 30 years and went on a final expedition with Cortes in 1533 before his death . According to Dr. Amy Howard’s account on Juan Garrido an African Conquistador , Garrido fought for Spain in Hispaniola , Puerto Rico , Mexico , Florida, Guadeloupe and Dominica . Like Other Conquistadors , he was in search of fortune , or at the very least , a comfortable life for his family . He did win some spoils and farmland from Conquered natives . Garrido was the 1st Black man in the Americas to grow wheat in the new world and any European who will claimed to have grow wheats in the New world is considered as allegory or fairytale.
It is said Juan Garrido and Other Africans found their way into Spanish Society . Many joined the conquest as Soldiers , Howard believed Juan Garrido was born in 1487 on the West coast of Africa and moved to Lisbon , Portugal in his youthful age . Dr. Ricardo Alegria claimed suspects Garrido’s father to be a King who might have made trade with the Portuguese and It is believed to be a myth that the father who was a King sent his son to go with the Portuguese for Portuguese and so called Christian Education in Portugal . Garrido built a chapel and buried some of his fallen Conquistadors , Juan Garrido was more of an Adventurer at heart In the 1520s , he and a group of African treasure hunters rushed for gold that was reported in Michoacan .
He then settled down at a plantation for 5 years . He followed a legendary black woman from California on the Island filled with gold and pearls as one people , he borrowed resources from the black woman before he submit the request for pension in 1538.
There was Unsigned engraving of Juan Garrido and Hernan Cortes meeting Aztecs in the 16th Century.
. Juan Garrido died at age 67 due to illness and before his death he was believed to have divorces and had 3 children with his wife actually , this fate was on par with most of the Spanish Conquistadors and was well known to be depicted as and Explorer with Hernan Cortes and Ponce de Leon in fresco paintings in the 16th Century .
Others believed Garrido originally came from Republic of Congo some also claimed West Africa and Present day Angola , Garrido was the New World’s first wheat sower and in 1950s , a Mexican known as Diego Rivera painted an Image of the late Garrido as he was described by the locals in a mural of Mexican agriculture on the wall of the National Palace .
“White Supremacist are against such people and the West want you to believe that we Blacks have never achieved anything and we are labelled as Uncivilized by our Oppressors”.
It is all part of the Brainwashing agenda hiding Black History is to rob the Black race achievement .
According to Park Ethnograph’s narration of Juan Garrido , It is believed that Juan Garrido was born circa . 1480 on the coast of West Africa and went to Lisbon , Portugual at age 15 and he converted to Catholicism in Seville, Spain in 1503 , he crossed the Atlantic to Hispaniola Present day Haiti and Dominica Republic as part of the entourage of newly appointed Governor known as Nicolas de Ovando . Juan Garrido possibly traveled as a Conquistador of a Spaniard named Pedro Garrido . In 1508, Juan Garrido joined Ponce de Leon with about other 50 African Conquistadors to explore Puerto Rico .
Between 1508 and 1519 Juan Garrido participated in the conquests of Puerto Rico and Cuba , and In the attempts to conquer the Islands of Guadeloupe , Dominica and Other Islands and in all fought the Caribs after the death of Ponce de Leon in 1521, Juan Garrido during this period he participated in the discovery of Florida between expeditions he lived in Puerto Rico and during the battle , Spanish sustained a heavy loses in the night of sorrow known as Noche Triste . After his return from California, Garrido and other Blacks Conquistadors fought for the Spanish Crown, and received various compensation .
It is said Early Africans were already in Spain, Southwest Baja of California , Florida , Mexico , Cuba and Puerto Rico before even so called Slave Trade took place there was an Early African Presence .
According to Peter Gerhard and Matthew Restall’s account , Even though It is believed by other that he came from Present day Angola and Present day Congo , Juan Garrido was said to be born on 1480 in West Africa , he was described as the most prominent among the small group of Africans who are freed and travelled to the Americas to take part in the Spanish Conquest to the West Indies and Mexico in the late 15th and early 16th Centuries . Juan Garrido became an agricultural Innovator and is credited with the Introducing wheat harvesting to the Americas .
After arriving in Lisbon, Portugal and became a Catholic Christian in 1495 , Garrido travelled to the Island of Santo Domingo . Although the record is conflicting , Juan Garrido accompanied a Spaniard by the name Pedro Garrido , as a protege or servant . By 1508 , Juan Garrido was said to be part of the Spanish auxiliary forces that helped Invaded and captured Puerto Rico and Cuba .
Historian Dr. Henry Louis Gates , Jr and Dr. Kwamena Essilfie of Elmina , Ghana and Adjaye and a Nigerian Writer account on Juan Garrido an An African Conquistador .
According to Historian Dr. Henry Louis Gates , Jr account on Juan Garrido , Dr. Gates claimed Juan Garrido was either sold by Portuguese or traveled on his own to Lisbon , Portugual when he was 15 then to Seville , Spain in 1503 However , a Nigerian Writer claimed Juan Garrido was a son of a Edo Royal King in Present day Nigeria some people also claimed Juan Garrido was either a son of a Congolese Kikongo King and some believe in a myth that he might be a son of an Angolan Tribal Chief in a Village .
According to Dr. Kwamena Essilfie of Elmina , Central Region of Ghana account , There lived Elmina Sailors who were taken to Spain and Portugual places such as Moguer , Huelva , Andalusia, Seville in Spain and Lisbon in Portugual , It is narrated by Dr. Kwamena that there was a man known as Nino who had children such as Pedro Alonso , Francisco, Juan , and other Ninos who might came from Elmina in the Central Region of Ghana and such claims is not yet confirmed as accurate or Inaccurate according to Fred Perez .
Matthew Restall said Juan Garrido was granted a house plot between 1524 and 1526, he held the post of door keeper ( Portero) and was also a crier ( Pregonero) and guardian of the Chapultepec aqueduct . Criers could function as constable , auctioneer , executioner , piper, master of weights and measures and doorkeeper or guard . According to Dr. Marco Palo Hernández - Cuevas account , Juan Garrido was one of the many free Africans and or Afro Descendants who arrived in the Americas the first year of the 16th Century . He actually arrived in Santo Domingo with Nicolas de Ovando ‘s fleet in 1502 . Just as Interesting in his daughter , Beatriz de Palacios was present with Cortez during the so called Noche Triste in Mexico City in 1519 and Beatriz was the Black woman who was a Conquistador .
A Speech by the Late African Conquistador Juan Garrido.
“ I , Juan Garrido , black in color , resident of this city ( Mexico) , appear before your Mercy and State tha am in need of providing evidence to the (perpetuidad rey) , a report on how I served your Majesty in the Conquest and pacification of this New Spain , from the time when the Marques del Valle Cortes entered it and his company I was present at all the Invasions and conquests and pacifications which were carried out , always with Marques , I said all of which i did at my own expense without being given either Salary or allotment of natives ( repartimiento de Indios) or anything else . As I am married and a resident of this city , where I have always lived , and also I went with Marques del Valle to discover the Islands which are in the part of the Southern sea ( the Pacific) where there are much hunger and privation , and also as I went to discover and pacify the Island of Cuba with the adelantado Diego Velazquez , In all these ways of 30 years I have served and continue to serve your Majesty for these reasons stated above do I petition your Mercy . And also because I was the first to have the Inspiration to sow Maize here in New Spain and to seek If I took , I did this and experimented at my own expense “.
Below are Potraits of Juan Garrido.
