Juan Garrido

Juan Garrido (1480-1550) was a black conqueror of the 16th century. Born in Africa, he moved to Portugal as a young man, where he adopted his name. He spent thirty years in the service of the Spanish militia. Biography

He converted to Christianity in Lisbon, crossed the Atlantic as a freedman in 1510, fought in various Spanish Caribbean military campaigns. He participated in the conquest of Cuba by Diego Velázquez and in the expeditions of Juan Ponce de Leon to Florida, Puerto Rico, Guadalupe and Dominica.

Later, he embarked with Hernán Cortés and was in the conquest of Tlaxcala and the siege of Tenochtitlan.

After the conquest of the Aztec Empire he had a farm in Coyoacan, where he was the first to grow wheat in the New World. Bibliography

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