Juan de Grijalva (Cuéllar approx. 1490 - Cape Guaniguanico, January 21, 1527) was a Spanish conquistador.
In 1508 he came to America. On May 1, 1518 he left with four ships and 300 men from Cuba to Yucatán, where he first landed at Cozumel. He acted cautiously, alarmingly by the death of his predecessor Francisco Hernández de Córdoba, trying to avoid fighting with the original population as much as possible. He discovered that the locals, the Mayan, had a highly developed culture. He conducted negotiations with the Maya cacique "Lázaro". The Spaniards knew to exchange precious things against gold and gems.
He traveled to the north where he met the Totonaken. This people told him about Mexico, a rich country somewhere in the west. His crew wanted to immediately set up a settlement and look for Mexico. Grijalva decided not to do that and Pedro de Alvarado sent back to Cuba with a number of treasures. On the Isla de Sacrificios, Grijalva found clues of human sacrifices. At the Río Banderas he met Aztec for the first time, with whom he exchanged gold. He continued further north to the Pauco and then returned to Cuba.
Once returned to Cuba, he received from Governor Diego Velázquez de Cuéllar the complaint not to act dealt with sufficiently. That's why he was not told Hernán Cortés at the head of a new expedition to Mexico. Unlike most other conquistadores, Grijalva was a modest and civilized man.
He died in Nicaragua in 1527. The Río Grijalva is named after him. The journey of Grijalva is described by Bernal Díaz.
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