Pedro Menéndez de Avilés (1519–1574), Spanish admiral and explorer, remembered for planning the first regular trans-oceanic convoys and for founding St. Augustine, Florida in 1565;

Hernando de Soto (c.1496–1542), Spanish explorer and conquistador who led the first European expedition deep into the territory of the modern-day United States, and made the first documented crossing of the Mississippi River;

Juan Ponce de León (1474-1521), Spanish explorer and conquistador who became the first Governor of Puerto Rico;

Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca (c.1489–1558), Spanish explorer of the New World.