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Gonzalo Guerrero was a sailor from Palos, in Spain. In 1511, sailing with 15 others in a caravel from Panama and heading for Santo Domingo, he was shipwrecked. All aboard got into the ship's boat and drifted for 2 weeks until strong currents brought them to the shore of what is now Quintana Roo, in Mexico. Image File history File links Square-broom. ...

All were captured by the local Maya. A few of them were sacrificed almost immediately, while the rest were put into cages. Some escaped, others lived as slaves.

By 1519, the year Hernan Cortes began his Conquest of Mexico, only two from the original shipwreck were still alive: Gonzalo Guerrero, who by this time had become famous in the Maya world as a war leader for Nachan Kaan, Lord of Chektumal, and Geronimo de Aquilar, a Spaniard who had taken holy orders in his country of origin. Aguilar had survived as a slave for another Maya lord. Guerrero had by then married a rich Maya woman and was the father of Mexico's first mestizo children.

On arriving from Cuba at Cozumel, Cortes sent a letter by Maya messenger across to the mainland, inviting the two Spaniards, of whom he'd heard rumors, to join him. Aguilar became a translator, along with Dona Marina (La Malinche) during the Conquest. Guerrero, upon reading the letter - delivered by Aguilar - said: "Look at my beautiful children, look at my beautiful wife. And how could I ever go back to Spain looking as I do?" He'd been extensively tattooed by then, in recognition of his achievements on the battlefield.

Years later it was reported that a bearded, tattooed foreigner, dressed as a Maya warrior was found dead on a battlefield after a fight with Spanish forces, who by this time were invading the Yucatan Peninsula. The man was thought to be Gonzalo Guerrero, still fighting for his people.

A book published in Mexico in 1990, "Guerrero and Heart's Blood" by Alan Clark tells of the inward life and history of these two men.