Historian claims Martín Alonso Pinzón Yáñez discovered America

Historian José Guerrero Sánchez, director of the National Museum of History and Geography (MNHG), has proposed that Spanish navigator Martín Alonso Pinzón Yáñez, rather than Christopher Columbus, was the true discoverer of America.

Guerrero argues that Pinzón reached continental lands first on October 12, 1492, aboard the ship La Pinta. He points to an absence of October 12 in Columbus’s own travel diary as evidence, suggesting Columbus skipped the date to hide the fact that Pinzón arrived a day earlier.

The research, titled “¿Por qué el 12 de octubre de 1492 no aparece en el diario de Colón?”, is featured in the MNHG’s new book “Conferencias”. Guerrero also claims Columbus failed to honor the Capitulaciones de Santa Fe agreement, which promised Pinzón specific payments and titles, leading to a rift between the two explorers.