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 Narvaez Exspedition. He was one of four survivors among the 600 men who started, and traveled for eight years with Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca, and Alonso del Castillo Maldonado across northern New Spain/U.S. Southwest and Northern Mexico before they reached Spanish forces in Mexico 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 Hawiku in 1539. The outcome was that Estevanico was the first African to arrive in "The United States."
Later Estevanico served as the main guide for a return expedition to the Southwest, where he was killed in the Zuni city of Hawiku in 1539. The outcome was that Estevanico was the first African to arrive in "The United States."