The expansion of New Julfa merchants had a worldwide scope in the se­ven­teenth century. In the Far East, one can remember Hovhannes Jughayetsi and his travels to Nepal and Tibet around the 1680s, of which he left tangible proof in his ledger book. At the same time, the teacher Kostandin Jughayetsi wrote his treatise on commerce (published in 2020), in which he mentioned scores of places reached by his fellow citizens. Among them he listed Spain and “Yeni Dunia” (New World), in the Far West.

It is hardly a coincidence that Martin the Armenian, the very first one mentioned by name in North America (1619), was from Persia and probably from New Julfa. We have every reason to think that the first Armenian men­tioned by name in South America ten years later (1629), marrying a local from present-day Bolivia, was also from New Julfa, even if he is said to have been born in Erevan. (One of the neighborhoods of New Julfa was named Erevan.) He was called Jacome (Hakob) the Armenian.

By 1660 a small but noticeable Armenian community coming from Nor Julfa started settling in Cadiz, the main Spanish port and doorstep to and from the New World. There were scattered Armenians, or perhaps small groups in other cities of Spain, such as Seville, since an edict by King Charles II expelled them from the country in 1685, although the community of Cadiz was spared.

The article outlines and contextualizes the Armenian presence in Cadiz and Seville, and its ramifications in South America, gathering all references avail­able so far.