Mexico
2 facts
c. 1609
Yanga Establishes Free Black Settlement in Mexico
Gaspar Yanga, a formerly enslaved African, led a community of escaped slaves in Veracruz, Mexico, establishing one of the first free Black settlements in the Americas.
1521
Juan Garrido Participates in Conquest of Tenochtitlan
Juan Garrido, a free Black conquistador from West Africa, participated in the Spanish conquest of the Aztec capital and later became one of the first people to grow wheat in the Americas.