Luis de Torres

Who was Luis de Torres?

Luis de Torres, perhaps born as יוסף בן הלוי העברי, Yosef ben HaLevi HaIvri, was Christopher Columbus's interpreter on his first voyage and the first person of Jewish origin to settle in America.

While still a Jew, de Torres served as an interpreter to the governor of Murcia due to his knowledge of Hebrew, Aramaic, Arabic, and Portuguese. In order to avoid the expulsion edict against the Jews of Spain, de Torres converted to Catholicism shortly before the departure of Columbus's expedition. Columbus hoped that the interpreter's skills would be useful in Asia because they would enable him to communicate with local Jewish traders, and he may also have believed that he would find descendants of the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel.

After arriving at Cuba, which he supposed to be the Asian coast, Columbus sent de Torres and the sailor Rodrigo de Jerez for an expedition inland on November 2, 1492. Their task was to explore the country, to contact its ruler and to gather information about the Asian emperor described by Marco Polo as the "Great Khan". The two men were received with great honours in an Indian village, from where they returned four days later.