He was one of the four last survivors of the Narváez expedition, along with Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca, Alonso del Castillo Maldonado, and Estevanico, Dorantes' slave of African descent.
When the expedition was organized, one boat was placed under the joint command of Dorantes and Alonso del Castillo Maldonado.
In April 1528, the expeditionary group escaped a hurricane near Cuba and arrived to Florida, landing in a zone located near Tampa Bay.
[2] In March 1536, after wandering throughout Texas (much of the time spent enslaved by various Native American tribes)[5] the survivors crossed the modern Mexican states of Chihuahua and Sinaloa, reaching the city of Culiacán, where they connected with other Spanish people.
When New Galicia's governor Nuño de Guzmán heard news about the Spanish castaways who had reached land under their jurisdiction, he gave them several goods (horses and clothing) and sent them to the capital of New Spain, Mexico City, to surrender accounts to the Viceroy of New Spain, Antonio de Mendoza.
[3] One of his children was Baltazar Dorantes de Carranza, born in Mexico in the mid-sixteenth century, who served as treasurer of Veracruz and procurator of New Spain in Castile.