Early life

Pablo Francisco Pampolina (23 May 1506 - 5 September 1543) was an Italian explorer and navigator from the Republic of Verona. Pampolina, an ally to Spain, was one of four survivors of the 1527 Narvaez expedition along with the more well known Spanish explorer, Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca.

Pablo Francisco Pampolina was BORN around 1506 in the Verona region of Italy. His father, Ricci Donatello Pampolina was an Italian writer, and his mother was Doris Annici Pampolina, from a family of painters.

Exploration & shipwreck

Pablo Pampolina entered the service of Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca in 1521 as a line cook aboard MV Aurora da Giuseppe, advancing to sous chef in 1525 and promoted to head chef under de Vaca in 1527.

Though Pampolina's contributions to the expedition are lesser known than de Vaca, his commitment to preparing hearty meals of freshly caught crustaceans for the ship's crew has been credited for bringing now famous seafood dishes to the American gulf coast.

In November 1528, MV Giuseppe wrecked near Galveston Island (now part of Texas) with only 40 survivors, including, Pablo Francisco Pampolina and Cabeza de Vaca. Through the brutal winter, 25 crew members perished leaving only 15 remaining. The remaining explorers referred to Galveston Island as the Island of Doom. Desperate and broken, they attempted to construct small rafts out of tattered clothing and salvaged ship wood, but were unsuccessful in their endeavors.

pampolina’s legacy

As the number of survivors dwindled rapidly, they were enslaved for four years by various American Indian nomadic tribes off the upper Gulf Coast. Only four men managed to escape of which Pampolina and Cabeza de Vaca were the only named and known survivors.

Cabeza de Vaca and Pampolina set out on a long and arduous journey across the present-day American Southwest and Mexico, which would take them another eight years.

In 1537, Cabeza de Vaca returned to Spain, where he wrote his narratives of the Narváez expedition. These narratives were collected and published in 1542 in Spain. They are now known as The Relation of Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca. The narrative of Cabeza de Vaca is the "first European book devoted completely to North America."

Pablo Pampolina returned to Italy where he met and married French nurse Magedeline Créateur. Pablo and Magedeline Pampolina had two children: a son, Cassius PAMPLONA, who would become a famous author – and a daughter, Juliette, who followed in her mother’s footsteps, becoming a traveling nurse before marrying Romeo, a nobleman in Verona and of the House of Montague.

Though Pablo Pampolina never returned to what is now known as America, his great grandson, Pietro PAmpolina would eventually travel to America by ship, arriving at Ellis Island in New York and settling in the Port of Arthur in Texas. Generations of Pampolinas would go on to raise families in the land along the coast of the Gulf of Mexico where Pablo Pampolina and Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca once explored.