Juan Garrido
Juan Garrido (c. 1480 – c. 1550) 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.
He participated in the Spanish conquests of Puerto Rico by Juan Ponce de León, Cuba by Diego Velázquez and the expeditions to Florida by 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.
He is considered the prime example of black 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. Other examples of black conquistadors included Beatriz de Palacios, Juan Valiente, Juan García Pizarro, Juan de Villanueva, Pedro Fulupo and Antonio Pérez. The presence of black people was shocking to Mesoamericans, who called them teucacatzactli ("black deities") in Nahuatl.
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