"llegar" + past participle = become?

Question

Here is a sentence from an article I'm reading::

Entre aquellos que llegaron atraídos por el surgimiento del volcán Paricutín se encontraba el géologo, vulcanólogo, escritor, activista político y pintor Gerardo Murillo.

The only translation that makes sense for "llegaron atraídos" is "became attracted."

While I've learned before that "llegar a ser" translates as "become," I hadn't ever seen, until now, "llegar" + the past participle used to mean "become."

Assuming I am right that "llegaron atraídos" means "became attracted," I wonder what other ways there are of saying this. Quedaron atraídos? Llegaron a ser atraídos?

Answer 1

No, 'llegaron atraídos por el surgimiento del volcán', means 'they arrived there attracted by the emergence of the vulcano'.

thank you. What a stupid mistake I made! - malbecblend, Aug 19, 2015

No Malbecblend, you did not make a stupid mistake; making mistakes in language is part of the process of learning it. You had the courage to think and made an effort to ask a worthwhile question. - languagenut, Aug 19, 2015

Answer 2

LuisCache has addressed directly your misinterpretation of the Spanish text, but your question about "become" needs a response.

The verb "to become" in English is translated into Spanish in many different ways. I hope you will do some private study on this but to get you started go to this old post here and read the answers.

to become

I made a list of various ways to express this because in Spanish the words you use depend a lot on the context. Hope this helps!

Thank you. I did look at the prior thread you referenced. - malbecblend, Aug 19, 2015