By Richard Flint and Shirley Cushing Flint In 1540, at age 22, Hernando de Alvarado, a native of the small town of Las Montañas in northern Spain, became captain of artillery for the Coronado expedition. Rather than a strictly military rank, the designation "captain" signified Alvarado's social status as…
By Richard Flint and Shirley Cushing Flint Francisco Vázquez de Coronado was in his late twenties when he led a major expedition of reconnaissance and conquest from Mexico City to Cíbola, Tiguex, and Quivira from 1539 to 1542. He was a native of the great university town of Salamanca…
By Richard Flint and Shirley Cushing Flint Although he was never in what is now New Mexico, Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca and three companions of his had a momentous effect on the region's history. In February 1536 four survivors of the expedition to La Florida that had been…
