In his recent book, “Mexico: A 500-Year History,” historian Paul Gillingham begins his sprawling retelling of Mexican history with a pair of Spaniards, a friar and a sailor. They were captured by the Maya after surviving a 1511 shipwreck north of the Yucatán Peninsula.
The friar, Jerónimo de Aguilar, rejected the Maya’s culture, which resulted in his enslavement. The sailor, Gonzalo Guerrero, quickly adapted to the Maya culture and became a military advisor to the tribal chieftain; he later married one of the chieftain’s daughters and had three children.
