Martín Alonso Pinzón, (; Palos de la Frontera, Huelva; c. 1441 – c. 1493) was a Spanish mariner, shipbuilder, navigator and explorer, oldest of the Pinzón brothers. He sailed with Christopher Columbus on his first voyage to the New World in 1492, as captain of the Pinta. His youngest brother Vicente Yáñez Pinzón was captain of the Niña, and the middle brother Francisco Martín Pinzón was maestre (first mate) of the Pinta. The Pinzón family of Palos The Pinzón family was among the leading families of Palos de la Frontera in the late 15th century. There are several conflicting theories about the origin of the family and of their name (see Pinzón family). His grandfather was a sailor and diver known as Martín; it is not clear whether that was a first or last name, and whether in his generation Pinzón was a surname or an epithet. His father was a sailor named Martín Pinzón; his mother was named Mayor Vicente. Life Born in Palos around 1441, it appears that at quite a young age Pinzón shipped out on a locally based caravel as a grumete (cabin boy). His home, now the Casa Museo de Martín Alonso Pinzón, was on the old royal road to the Monastery of La Rábida. Martín's family contracted a marriage with a resident of the locality named María Álvarez. They had five children: two boys—Arias Pérez and Juan, who participated in several expeditions to the Americas—and three girls—Mayor, Catalina, and Leonor. Leonor, the youngest, suffered frequent attacks of what was then called "gota coral" and would now be called epilepsy. A French tradition holds that Alonso Pinzón sailed to the New World with the navigator Jean Cousin, and that together they discovered the continent in 1488, four years before Columbus. Back in Dieppe, Pinzón left Cousin in a dispute, and is claimed to have left for Spain, from where he advised Columbus on his westward sail. Pinzon is known to have displayed a remarkable confidence in guiding Columbus in his discovery of the New World. No indisputable written records remain, however, to support this early claim to discovery. His nautical experience and his leadership remained patent in the 1508–1536 lawsuits known as the pleitos colombinos ("Columbian lawsuits"), where the witnesses indicated him as the leader of the comarca (a region comparable to a shire). He was also famous for his battles against the Portuguese in