Tejano History
Dorantes De Carranza, Andres
DORANTES DE CARRANZA, ANDRÉS (ca. 1500–1550s). Andrés Dorantes de Carranza, early Spanish explorer, a native of the southwestern Castilian town of Gibraleón, was the son of Pablo Dorantes. Like many young Spaniards faced with bleak economic prospects in Spain, he sought his fortune in the New World. He enlisted in 1527 as a captain in the ill-starred expedition of Pánfilo de Narváez. After the expedition was compelled to travel along the Gulf Coast in crude barges, one boat was placed under the joint command of Dorantes and Alonso Castillo Maldonado. After a month at sea, disaster struck in early November on the Texas coast. The horsehide vessel bearing Dorantes ran aground and broke up on or near the western extremity of Galveston Island. Among the survivors were Dorantes, his slave Estevanico, Castillo, and Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca. In March 1536, after considerable peregrination, the survivors contacted Spanish countrymen north of Culiacán.
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Full article on the Texas State Historical Association's Handbook of Texas Online
Courtesy of the Texas State Historical Association.
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