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Estevanico

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Estevanico (c. 1500–1539), born in Morocco, was the first known person born in Africa to have arrived in the present-day continental United States. He is known by many different names, common are Esteban de Dorantes, Estebanico and Esteban the Moor. Enslaved as a youth by the Portuguese, he was sold to a Spanish nobleman and taken in 1527 on the Spanish Narváez expedition. He was one of four survivors among the 600 men who started, and traveled for eight years with Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca, Andrés Dorantes de Carranza, and Alonso del Castillo Maldonado across northern New Spain (present-day U.S. Southwest and northern Mexico), before they reached Spanish forces in Mexico City in 1536.

Later Estevanico served as the main guide for a return expedition to the Southwest, where he was killed in the Zuni city of Hawikuh in 1539.

Early life

Estevanico was sold into slavery in 1513 in the Portuguese town of Azemmour, on Morocco's Atlantic coast. Contemparary accounts referred to him as an "Arabized black";[1] "Moor", a term sometimes used for Berber natives; and "black African". Diego de Guzmán, a contemporary of Estevanico who saw him in Sinaloa in 1536, described him as 'brown'.[2] He was raised as a Muslim, but because Spain did not allow non-Catholics to travel to the New World, some believe he converted to Roman Catholicism.[3] In 1520 he was sold to Andrés Dorantes de Carranza, a Spanish nobleman.

North American explorer

Reconstructed route of the Narváez-Cabeza de Vaca expedition.

Estevanico traveled with Dorantes to Hispaniola and Cuba with Pánfilo de Narváez's ill-fated expedition of 1527 to colonize Florida and the Gulf Coast. Estevanico became the first person from Africa known to have set foot in the present continental United States. After a failed settlement attempt near present day Tampa Bay, Florida the party made a series of makeshift boats to try and reach Mexico. The boats wrecked off the coast of Texas leaving only Estevanico, Dorantes, de Vaca and Castillo alive.[4] Castillo's ability as a faith healer was said to have helped them with the Indians who told them about the 7 wonders.[2] The four had spent years enslaved on many of the Louisiana Gulf Islands. In 1534 they escaped into the American interior, contacting other Native American tribes along the way. The party traversed the continent as far as present-day southeastern Arizona, and through the Sonoran Desert to the region of Sinaloa in New Spain (present-day Mexico), where they were reunited with countrymen.

In Mexico City, the four survivors told stories of wealthy indigenous tribes to the North, which created a stir among the Spanish in the colony.[5] While the other three men returned to Spain, Estevanico was sold to Antonio de Mendoza, the Viceroy of New Spain. He employed Estevanico as a guide in expeditions to the North.

In 1539, Estevanico was one of four men who accompanied Marcos de Niza as a guide in search of the fabled Seven Cities of Cibola, preceding Coronado. Estevanico traveled ahead of the main party with a group of indigenous servants. He was instructed to communicate by sending back crosses to the main party, with the size of the cross equal to the wealth discovered. One day, a cross arrived that was as tall as a person, causing de Niza to step up his pace to join the scouts.[6] Estevanico had entered the Zuni village of Hawikuh (in present-day New Mexico). He had sent a gourd with a red feather, naive to the fact that it was the symbol for war, and they killed him and expelled the indigenous servants from the village.[2] After seeing this, De Niza quickly returned to New Spain.

Accounts suggest the Zuni did not believe Estavanico's story that he represented a party of whites, and that he was killed for demanding women and turquoise.[2] Roberts and Roberts write that "still others suggest that Estevan, who was black and wore feathers and rattles, may have looked like a wizard to the Zuni."[7] Juan Francisco Maura suggested in 2002 that Estevanico was not killed by the Zuni, and that he and friends among the Indians faked his death so he could gain freedom.[8]

Some folklore legends say that the Kachina Chakwaina is based on Estevanico.[9]

Names

Estevanico is known by different names, in the Portuguese, Spanish, Arabic and English languages, in a variety of historic works. Among the most common are Arabic: إستيفانيكو; "Mustafa Zemmouri" (مصطفى زموري), "Black Stephen"; "Esteban"; "Esteban the Moor"; "Estevan", "Estebanico", "Stephen the Black", "Stephen the Moor"; "Stephen Dorantes" and "Esteban de Dorantes," after his owner Andres Dorantes;[10] and "Little Stephen".

References

  1. ^ Robert Goodwin, Crossing the Continent, 1527-1540, Introduction, New York: Harper Collins, 2008
  2. ^ a b c d Donald E. Chipman, "Estevanico", Handbook of Texas Online, accessed 13 Aug 2009
  3. ^ Horwitz, Tony (2009). A Voyage Long and Strange: On Vikings, Conquistadors, Lost Colonists, and Other Adventurers in Early America the Trail of. New York: MacMillan. p. 131.
  4. ^ Cabeza de Vaca, Álvar Núñez (1983). Albuquerque, NM: University of New Mexico Press. pp. Chapter II. {{cite book}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  5. ^ Chipman, Donald T. (1999). Notable Men and Women of Spanish Texas. Austin, Tx: University of Texas Press. p. 17. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  6. ^ Weigle, Marta (2003). The Lore of New Mexico. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press. pp. 38–39.
  7. ^ Roberts, C.A. (2006). New Mexico. Albuquerque, NM: University of New Mexico. pp. 24–26. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  8. ^ Maura, Juan Francisco (2002). "Nuevas interpretaciones sobre las aventuras de Alvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca, Esteban de Dorantes, y Fray Marcos de Niza". Revista de Estudios Hispánicos. 29 (1–2): 129–154.
  9. ^ Washburn, Wilcomb E. (1996). The Cambridge history of the Native Peoples of the Americas, Part 1. London: Cambridge University Press. p. 371.
  10. ^ Katz, William Loren (1971). The Black West. Garden City, NJ: Doubleday & Company, Inc.

Bibliography

  • Arrington, Carolyn. Black Explorer in Spanish Texas: Estevanico, Austin, TX: Eakin Press, 1986
  • Goodwin, Robert. Crossing the Continent, 1527-1540, New York: Harper Collins, 2008
  • Katz, William Loren. The Black West, Garden City, NJ: Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1971
  • Logan, Rayford. "Estevanico, Negro Discoverer of the Southwest: A Critical Reexamination", Phylon 1 (1940): 305-314.
  • Maura, Juan Francisco. Burlador de América: Alvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca, Parnaseo/Lemir. Valencia: Universidad de Valencia, 2008.
  • Maura, Juan Francisco. “Nuevas interpretaciones sobre las aventuras de Alvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca, Esteban de Dorantes, y Fray Marcos de Niza,” Revista de Estudios Hispánicos (PR). 29.1-2 (2002): 129-154.
  • Shepherd, Elizabeth. The Discoveries of Esteban the Black, New York: Dodd, Mead, 1970. pp. 111–4.

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