Born in 1485, Badajoz, Extremadura, Spain
Died June 29, 1541, Guadalajara, Mexico

Pedro de Alvarado was born in the town of Badajoz, in Spain’s west-central Extremadura region. Nothing is known about his early life until 1510, when he arrived in the West Indies with his four brothers. They settled in Santo Domingo (now the Dominican Republic), where Pedro helped run a plantation. He then lived in Cuba for a time. In 1518 he was given command of a ship in Juan de Grijalva’s expedition, which explored along the coast of Mexico’s Campeche Bay and the Yucatán Peninsula. Grijalva sent Alvarado back to Cuba with reports of a rich kingdom located in the center of Mexico: the Aztec civilization. Spanish governor Diego Velazquez sponsored an expedition led by conquistador Hernán Cortés to further explore the territory, the first...