A Hero for the Americas: The Legend of Gonzalo Guerrero

A group of shipwrecked Spaniards washed onto the coast of the Yucatan Peninsula in 1512, leading to first contact between the Spanish and the Maya. Two men survived the ordeal: Jeronimo de Aguilar, who became a translator for Hernan Cortes in his conquest of the Aztecs, and Gonzalo Guerrero, who, as legend has it, embraced the Mayan way of life and skillfully led the opposition to the Spanish take-over of the Yucatan. Reviled in 16th-century Spain as an apostate and a traitor, Guerrero is today remembered all over the Yucatan with statues and images, and as the symbolic father of millions of Mexican mestizos. But like Robin Hood and King Arthur, Guerrero’s story has become embellished by legend and myth. The product of fifteen years of research by a Governor General’s Award winner, A Hero for the Americas is the first comprehensive investigation of this controversial figure.