Teresa Martín and Luisa Menéndez

In 1600, Teresa Martín and Luisa Menéndez were among the witnesses called before the expansionist governor of La Florida after the Spanish crown demanded official testimonies regarding the land, resources, and potential wealth in the colonial interior of North America. Martín and Menéndez were considered ideal informants. As Indigenous women who had married Spaniards, both were closely associated with the first inland European settlement, a Spanish fort at the Catawba town of Joara. In these fir