Alonso del Castillo Maldonado
| Alonso del Castillo Maldonado | |
|---|---|
| Born | Unknown Salamanca, Spain |
| Died | 1540s New Spain |
| Nationality | Castillan |
| Occupation | Explorer and Treasurer (1547) |
Alonso del Castillo Maldonado (died c. 1540) was one of the first Spanish explorers in the Americas. He was one of the last four survivors of the Pánfilo de Narváez expedition, along with Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca, Andrés Dorantes de Carranza and his African slave Estevanico. They were the first non-natives to travel in the Southwest region of the modern United States. Castillo Maldonado lived with a Native American tribe in Texas in 1527 and 1528.
Alonso del Castillo Maldonado was born in Salamanca, Spain, the son of Castillo and Aldonza Maldonado. He was a close cousin of the Alcalde Mayor of Santo Domingo, Alonso Maldonado, and of Martín de Guzmán. Raised in the poor noble family of Hidalgos, Castillo travelled to the Americas in search of wealth. He took part in Pánfilo de Narváez's 1527 expedition to Florida.
On 17 June 1527, a fleet of five ships with 600 men led by Narváez set sail from the coast of Sanlucar de Barrameda. After several weeks, they arrived at the island of La Española where they were provisioned and stayed for a time. When leaving the island and entering the waters of the Gulf of Mexico, one ship of the expedition was put under the joint command of Alonso del Castillo Maldonado and Andrés Dorantes de Carranza.
In early November, this ship captained by Andrés Dorantes de Carranza and manned by Castillo, Cabeza de Vaca, the slave Estevanico, and about 40 other men, was wrecked by storms on or near the western end of Galveston Island, on the coast of what is now Texas. The fifteen survivors, who had no clothing, food, or weapons, suffered heavy privations and were forced to feed on the cadavers of their peers. Through the good grace of the Native Americans that were present on the island, Castillo and the group managed to survive the winter and took up positions among the natives as spiritual healers.
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