Rodrigo de Triana (born 1469 in Seville, Spain) was a sailor and believed to be the first European since the Vikings known to have seen America. Born as Juan Rodrigo Bermejo, Triana was the son of Morisco hidalgo and potter Vicente Bermejo and Sereni Betancour.
On October 12, 1492, while on Christopher Columbus's ship La Pinta, he sighted America.[1]
After spotting America at approximately two o'clock in the morning, he is reported to have shouted "¡Tierra! ¡Tierra!" (land! land!)[2] Columbus claims in his journal that he saw "light" at 10 p.m. the previous day, "but it was so indistinct that he did not dare to affirm it was land".[1]
Triana went without reward and credit for this find. According to Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo, he moved to Africa and converted to Islam from Judaism[3] or Christianity[4] following his unrewarded discovery, but other sources state that he travelled to Molucas in 1525.
James Street's 1953 historical novel, "The Velvet Doublet," richly details The Discovery and exposes the myriad myths of Christopher Columbus, all through the supposed eyes of Rodrigo de Triana. It is meat and wine for those who want to deepen their understanding of this time and its chief characters. Street, however, casts Rodrigo as a native-born Andalusian Catholic, not a Marrano.