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Why is Pocahontas a Hispanic story?
Pocahontas and Juan Ruiz looking for a lost Spanish expedition, about to be roasted. And he was saved by the intervention of the indigenous princess Ulele
+ Hispanic Roots
Its real protagonists were the Spanish and the indigenous princess
The supposed protagonist, the English John Smith, was actually the Spanish Juan Ruiz and the Princess Hirrihigua (Ulele) the first Pocahontas
When he was taken prisoner, he got an unpleasant surprise, his physical appearance was reminiscent of a Spaniard very hated by the natives. Unfortunately, Juan Ortiz’s resemblance to the hated Pánfilo de Narváez was about to cost him more than his life
A Hispanic History, appropriated by the English
English legend, Spanish royal history
The true story is sometimes deformed by the countries or by the cinema and this is one of those occasions. It did not happen in Virginia but in Florida. Its protagonist was not English but Spanish. And the story is worse than it is known.
Pocahontas: An English Legend Based On A Spanish True Story, Occurring Nearly A Century Before
He was waiting for a grill
The boss wanted revenge on Narvaez
Pocahontas (Ulele) fell in love with a Spaniard, 80 years before Smith’s story. Thanks to her, Juan can come out of the grill alive when he was beginning to be roasted.
An English Plagiarism
The real story of the Spanish Juan Ortiz but an Englishman John Smith attributed it
Princess Ulele saved his life, renamed Pocahontas by this boastful and opportunist Englishman, who read English print of the story.
The Indian Princess and the Spaniard
Many years before the first English arrived in America, history happened.
As a consequence of the loss of Pánfilo Narváez’s expedition to Florida, it was decided to search for her. Another rescue expedition was sent, with the aim of locating and rescuing him. The ship that was looking for the missing expedition came across the natives that Narváez massacred.
The Spanish were unaware of what had happened long before. They knew nothing of the brutalities that Narváez had committed. And 4 of the crew regretted landing in Tampa. They paid in their flesh, the cruelty of Narváez with the natives.
In the true story, Juan Ortiz was about to be burned on a grill. It was the revenge of the indigenous Chief for the atrocities committed by Narváez, against his people and against his own mothers
Juan Ortiz, a Spaniard from Seville
The first John Smith almost 100 years earlier
Movies and cartoons have popularized a character John Smith, the English explorer in love with Princess Pocahontas.
However, this legend is based on a real event, which occurred 80 years before and the protagonist was a Spaniard. His name was Juan Ortiz, a Sevillian in search of the cruel Pánfilo de Narváez.
Ulele, renamed Pocahontas
In Tampa Bay (Florida)
There was a princess from the Hirrihigua tribe who lived in Florida. She was the daughter of the chief who captured him. She this she felt sorry for the young Spaniard (18 years old) who was about to die burned.
Her father, the Chief named Ucita, ordered that they put him on a grill over the fire, so that he would die burned.
The Cruel Pánfilo de Narváez
The savagery and cruelty of the character has gone down in history. (Imitated by the English Governor, John Ratcliffe. Head of the Spanish expedition of the year 1528
He led an expedition through Florida. Thirsty for Gold, he did all kinds of atrocities to the Indians trying to find out where it was. This Spanish explorer has gone down in history as an example of greed, stupidity and cruelty.
The cruelties that Pánfilo de Narváez carried out, harmed the rest of the Spanish explorers. Spain had much more difficulties and it took decades to settle in Florida among other reasons due to the hatred of the Indians towards them.
Ucita, Florida Indian Chief
(Powhatan of Virginia was actually the chief in the Tampa Territory in Florida
The Indian chief saw and suffered the cruelty of Pánfilo de Narváez who cut off his nose. He was able to contemplate how the animal of Pánfilo de Narváez performed cruelties using Spanish hunting dogs. To the Indian Chief, what he saw that they did to his mother created a sick hatred towards the Spanish without differentiating between people.
Painting about the story that happened 80 years before and the protagonist was not an Englishman
The confusion and revenge of the indigenous chief
A Spanish ship arrives looking
Following the search for the lost expedition, a ship was dispatched. 4 Spaniards are captured through deception
A ship arrived in Florida from Cuba looking for Pánfilo de Narváez’s expedition. As the orders from Cuba were friendship with the Indians of the new territories, the crew were unaware of the enmity that Narváez had created with the natives.
They did not suspect anything of what happened. As a precaution, they took 4 natives hostage as an exchange with the 4 Spaniards who disembarked. However, they were surprised as suddenly the Indians who were in the boat jumped into the water, and it was impossible to reach them.
When the boat arrived on the beach with the 4 Spaniards, they were surrounded by a multitude of Indians and were taken prisoner.
Incapable of being able to do something in the face of the enormous number of indigenous people, the ship set sail, leaving them to their fate.
Death of the Spanish by arrows
They ran naked through the village among the warriors
The Indian chief, determined that some Spaniard would pay for the atrocities committed by Pánfilo de Narváez, prepared a cruel entertainment for his town.
He made 3 Spaniards run naked among the Indians while they shot arrows at non-vital points to prolong their agony until they died. Thus it happened, the Spaniards were pierced by arrows and spears. They slowly perished in the middle of the town.
They kept Juan Ortiz apart, because of his resemblance to Narváez. He did not suspect that the Indigenous Chief had other horrible plans for him. His physical resemblance to Narváez reminded her of him, or assumed some kinship with him. He wanted revenge on the Sevillian, for the damages and cruelties that Pánfilo de Narváez previously carried out.
The roast for the end
Saved by Princess Hirrihigua, he narrowly saved himself from being grilled over hot coals
Perhaps Ortiz’s noble appearance led us to believe that he was related to Pánfilo Narváez. The Indian Chief noticed him, and reserved the worst for him. They were applying horrible torments to him. They even put him on a grill with the intention of roasting him.
The desperate cries of the young man made him appear, the daughter of the Chief, Princess Hirrihigua. With the help of her mother and other women, they managed to get her father to release him for the time being. As I remember this fact, some horrible scars remained on his body all his life.
Princess Ulele helps him run away
She also gets him the protection of another Indian Chief
Fed up with the princess of the torments that his father made him, he gets her to escape and looks for a place to hide him. The princess gets the Chief of another rival tribe (Mococo) to protect her and allow her to live with them.
For 10 years he lived with this tribe. The arrival of a new Spanish expedition changed his life. The Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto arrived in Florida on an expedition that would travel through 8 of the states of the current United States of America.
Hernando de Soto found him
Years later among the Florida Indians in (1539). Survivor of the expedition of Pánfilo Narváez (1528)
It is believed that he was in Tampa Bay in St. Petersbug, where the events occurred and there he was rescued. The Spanish ships of a new expedition arrived in the area and Juan Ortiz, in the company of other Indians, went to meet them.
When Hernando de Soto’s expedition came across this party of Indians, it was surprised. Among the Indians, one shouted in Spanish with an Andalusian, Sevillian accent, “I’m a Christian,” “Don’t kill me.”
Taken into the presence of Hernando de Soto, he told her his story. This put him directly at his service. He joined the expedition as an assistant and performed interpreter functions for the Indians.
Told by an assistant of Soto
The story was published in 1557 by a member of Hernando de Soto’s expedition.
John Smith I can adapt the story of Juan Ortiz in (1607)
The history of John Smith is doubted by the amount of doubts that he presents. Neither the way of acting of the Indians of the time corresponded with what John Smith tells, nor did he speak of it until more than 10 years later despite having published several books.
Given John Smith’s boastful and opportunistic nature, it is not surprising that he made the adaptation. Researchers believe that he was able to adapt the terrible story he had read about Juan Ortiz, published in London in 1605, when the translation was made.
