ACTIVIDADES

AMERICAN MEMORY. RECOVERING LEADING FIGURES FROM EXTREMADURA IN THE NEW WORLD

In Trujillo, on 12 December 2019

A conference focused on rescuing important leading figures from Extremadura in the New World.

ALONSO ÁLVAREZ DE PINEDA. Born in Aldeacentenera (Cáceres) in 1494, he was a sailor, explorer, and cartographer who carefully examined the Gulf of Mexico on demand of Jamaica’s Governor, Francisco de Garay. His expedition completed the recognition of the Gulf coast and mapped around 800 miles, furthermore, refuting the idea of the existence of a sea route in its waters that led to Asia. It also verified that Florida was a Peninsula and not an island and made Álvarez de Pineda the first European to see the western coastal areas of Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas.

DIEGO DE BOROA. Born in Trujillo (Cáceres) in 1585. He arrived in Río de Plata on 1 May 1610 and four years later is located in Guarambaré, Paraguay, in the company of father Bartolomé Saña. From then on he began his pastoral work among the natives of the Jesuit missions. This Jesuit historian died in Paraguay on 19 April 1657.

HERNANDO DE BUSTAMANTE. He was from Alcántara (Cáceres). He was a barber, surgeon, ship operator, treasurer and discoverer of the Strait of Magellan. In 1515 five ships sailed from the port of Seville under the command of the Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan in order to find a maritime passageway to the Pacific Ocean from the Atlantic. De Bustamante was one of the 18 survivors who returned to Seville on 6 September 1522 from the 265 sailors of the expedition.