Hispanic-American History Timeline
Cronología de la Historia Hispano-Americana
By Lehman College CUNY Students
Abbreviated version
16th Century 1513-1598
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April 2, 1513
April 2, 1513 -- Spanish explorer, conquistador and former Governor Puerto Rico Juan Ponce De Leon leads three ships and 200 explorers who become the first Europeans to set foot on what is now the United States mainland.
He thinks he has discovered another island, like those he knows in the Caribbean. He arrives on Easter season, or “Pascua Florida,” he sees that this new land is rich with lush vegetation, and so he names this new flowery island, “La Florida.” Obviously, that name stuck, even after it was discovered that Florida is not an island, but a peninsula attached to a much bigger mainland. In fact, unlike Christopher Columbus, who never set foot on North America, it is Ponce de Leon who discovers the mainland that becomes the United States – although he doesn’t get proper credit for it. We often think of him as the explorer who only discovered today’s State of Florida, which is a grave mistake. Read more... By David Peña, Lehman College |
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Juan Garrido, an African-Spanish conquistador joins the Juan Ponce de Leon Florida-discovery expedition and becomes the first known black person to arrive in what is now the United States mainland. Garrido is a free man!
While American history tells us that the first black people in colonial America are some 20 Africans brought from Angola to Jamestown, Virginia as slaves in 1619, there is ample evidence that Garrido precedes them by more than a century, that he comes on his own accord, and that he is part of a monumental feat! He is part of the three-ship, 200-men expedition that sails north from Puerto Rico and discovers the land Juan Ponce de Leon names “Florida.” Garrido, born in the Kingdom of Kongo, Africa in 1487, is sold to Portuguese slave traders as a child, and somehow acquires his freedom when he reaches Lisbon, Portugal, as a young man. When he moves on to Seville, Spain, he converts to Christianity and takes the Spanish name Juan Garrido. And when he travels from Seville to Santo Domingo, Garrido becomes one of the first free Africans to reach the Americas. Despite whatever misconceptions we may have about Spanish conquistadors, Garrido is a black man who, before coming to Florida, participates in the Spanish conquest of the Caribbean islands with Ponce de Leon, and after Florida, with Hernán Cortéz in Mexico. For Garrido’s participation in the conquest of the Aztecs in Tenochtitlan (Mexico City) in 1519, Cortéz awards him land. And with the labor of Indian and African slaves, Garrido becomes the first person to grow wheat in the New World. In 1538, Garrido submits his request for pension, which includes a ‘probanza,’ or proof of merit, outlining his service to Spain for more than 30 years. He dies in Mexico City between 1547 and 1550, leaving behind a wife and three children. |
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April 22, 1513
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While Ponce de Leon explores the eastern shore of La Florida, in the area of present-day St. Augustine, his pilot, Antón de Alaminos, stays on a ship and makes another amazing discovery: An eastbound, warm water current in the Atlantic Ocean.
While two of their three ships are anchored off Florida, Alaminos' ship keeps getting pulled by the current. On April 22, 1513, the ship's logbook notes that this stream is "more powerful than the wind." That current later becomes known as the Gulf Stream, and for centuries serves as an accelerator – the fastest route – for European ships sailing back home from North America. Although it was Benjamin Franklin who named the Gulf Stream in a 1770 map, the ocean current that still propels ships back to Europe, was not only discovered by Alaminos, it was also first tested by him. Six years later, in 1519, Alaminos becomes the first navigator to return to Europe propelled by the Gulf Stream. |
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Spanish explorer and cartographer Alonso Álvarez de Pineda explores and maps the entire Gulf Coast -- from Florida to present day Texas and discovers that Florida is a peninsula -- not an island, as previously thought.
Sailing from Santiago, the Spanish colony in present-day Jamaica, with three ships and 270 sailors, he proves the insularity of the Gulf of Mexico and disproves the idea of a sea passage to Asia. He and his men become the first Europeans to see the coastal areas of what is now western Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas, including major landmarks like Mobile Bay and the mouth of the Mississippi River. Álvarez de Pineda names Corpus Christi Bay in present-day Texas. He charts the Texas coastline and his map is considered the first document in Texas history. Antón de Alaminos is his pilot. But as they go into the Pánuco River, in present-day Mexico, where they spent some time repairing their ships, they are attacked by Huastec natives. Alvarez de Pineda is killed in battle, but his maps and reports on his findings are taken back to Spanish authorities in Santiago. 
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Spanish conquistador Juan Ponce de León returns to Florida, from Puerto Rico, in Spain's first effort to establish a permanent colony in the land he had discovered and named eight years earlier.
His two ships and 200 colonists land in the vicinity of what is now Fort Myers on the west coast of Florida, but they are driven back into the sea by attacks from the Calusa Indians. A poisoned arrow mortally wounds Ponce de Leon, and the colonization effort is abandoned. The expedition retreats to Havana, Cuba, where Ponce de Leon dies in July of 1521. His remains are returned to Puerto Rico, where he has served as governor, and he is buried inside the Cathedral of San Juan Bautista, in Old San Juan. Curiously, he rests near the house that was being built for his family, and where he expected to live upon returning from Florida. The beautiful Old San Juan home, overlooking the bay, is called Casa Blanca. And although Ponce de Leon never gets to live in it, his family resides there for 250 years. Nowadays, Ponce de Leon is honored with many statues, and the many streets, parks and other landmarks that are named after him, both in Florida and Puerto Rico. That’s where the City of Ponce got its name! Moreover, Casa Blanca is now a 16th century museum! By Keila Rivera, Lehman College |
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Spanish ship captain Estevan Gomez explores the east coast of North America – from Nova Scotia to Florida – leading a 29-men, single-ship expedition in search for a northwest passage to the Spice Islands, and ends up as the namesake northeast America.
Gomez (or Estêvão Gomes) is a Portuguese navigator and cartographer who sails for Spain. While searching for a waterway across North America, he enters every bay and river along the way. And while never finding the long-sought passage, Gomez charts the entire American east coast. Based on his charts, European mapmakers create the most accurate maps of North America (to date) and call the entire Northeast "La Tierra de Estevan Gomez." But when they see the Hudson River, how many New Yorkers know that Gomez first named it "El Rio San Antonio?" Read more . . . By Michael Torres, Lehman College |
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1523-24 |
Before moving on to the next Spanish expedition to step foot on what is now the U.S. mainland, two footnotes are noteworthy here:
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In 1523, Francisco de Garay, the Spanish governor of Jamaica, led an expedition across the Gulf of Mexico that was long thought to have reached the mouth of the Rio Grande in present-day Texas. However, it is now more widely accepted that he reached the Soto la Marina River, in present-day Mexico and that he never reached what is now U.S. territory.
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 Verrazano
In 1524, a few months before Estevan Gomez explores the East Coast, Giovanni da Verrazano, an Italian explorer in the service of France, also explores some of the same coast. He also sails into New York Harbor, as he also searches for a water passage across North America, never finding the illusive "Northwest Passage." However, it was Gomez' charting of the coastline, and the map that was created, that made a huge difference.
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Conquistador Lucas Vázquez de Ayllón leads Spain's second effort to establish a colony in North America, landing with 600 colonists in present-day South Carolina and establishing San Miguel the Gauldape in present-day Georgia.
Although it survived for less than three months, and Ayllón dies there (from an unknown illness), Gauldape becomes the first European colony in what is now the United States -- preceding Pensacola by 33, St. Augustine by 39 years, and Jamestown by 81 years. A 1529 map of the East Coast by celebrity Portuguese cartographer Diogo Ribeiro, followed in Europe for many years, describes the southern half of the U.S. East Coast as 'Tierra de Ayllón.' Despite recent efforts to correct American history by commemorating the sad date when African slaves were brought to the Carolinas by British colonists in 1619, regrettably, it was Ayllón who first brought African slaves to what is now the United States -- some 93 years earlier! Even in terrible events in American history, the British are noticed and the Spanish are invisible! |
VÁZQUEZ DE AYLLÓN
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Spanish ship captain Pánfilo de Narváez leads an ill-fated 300-men and 40-horse expedition to establish a colony in Florida. Marooned and battered by storms, deseases and Native Americans, only five survive.
Narváez, who had lost an eye fighting the Aztecs of Mexico, sails from Hispaniola, disembarks in the Tampa Bay area and decides to lead an overland trek to north Florida, a decision that dooms the expedition. His explorers survive by eating their own horses and plundering Native American villages. Their conquest expedition becomes one of survival. Exhausted and without supplies, when they reach the native village of Appalachian, near present-day Tallahassee, they are met with hostility and violence by the natives of the area. They know that, to survive, they must trek across North America to rejoin Spanish forces in Mexico. But as they travel from Florida to Texas, often aboard makeshift rafts, many, including Narváez, are never to be seen again. Some drown and some succumb to attacks from the natives. Only five survive, including four who reach Mexico and one who stayed captive of the Florida natives and was rescued by another expedition more than a decade later. The site of the Narváez landing is marked today by the Jungle Prada Park, in St. Petersburg. Read more . . . NEW DETAILS: See Stop 28 from my summer 2022 road trip: St. Petersburg: Jungle Prada de Narvaez Park, Whitewashing Hispanic History? https://www.hiddenhispanicheritage.com/on-the-road-again.html |
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Alvar Nuñez Cabeza de Vaca and three other survivors of the De Narváez expedition explore the Southwest. To survive among the natives, they become slaves, traders, preachers and even healers!
One of them, Estevanico, an enslaved black man, born in Morocco, becomes one of the first Africans to step ashore on what is now the continental United States. Cabeza de Vaca becomes America's first evangelical preacher, first historian and first European to describe the fascinating lifestyles of Native Americans, including same-sex marriage. Although most of his shipmates died along the way, Cabeza de Vaca and the other three Spanish sailors - Andres Dornate, Alfonso Castillo and Estevanico - had to succumb to much pain and humiliation in order to survive living among many different groups of Native Americans. Eventually, Cabeza de Vaca and his three surviving companions make it all the way to Mexico City, where they rejoin Spanish forces. The other three survivors remain in New Spain. Estevanico then goes on another expedition and allegedly gets killed by natives. But Cabeza de Vaca goes back to Spain and writes a book that becomes sensational in Europe, inspiring many other explorers to seek fame and fortune in North America. |
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Spanish conquistador Álvar Nuñez Cabeza de Vaca, one of four survivors of the ship-wrecked, 300-men Panfilo de Narvaez expedition, returns to Spain and writes “La Relación” (The Account), a book describing his eight-year, on-foot journey across North America - from Tampa, Florida to Mexico City. Although it is written in Spanish and published in Spain, it is really "the first American history book," covering life in North America from 1528 to 1536.
His book introduces Europeans to samae-sex marriage among Native Americans! And it serves as one of the first warnings of the terrible European diseases that kill many Native Americans. “Half the natives die from disease of the bowels and blamed us,” he writes. The book is also one of the first Spanish essays calling for tolerant and compassionate treatment of the natives of the Americas. Yet by the time the book is being sold in Europe, Cabeza de Vaca is finally leading his own expedition - in South America! Spanish King Charles V sends him to take over as governor of the Rio de Plata region. On his way there, deciding to take an overland route across the southern tip of South America instead of the traditional sea route, he leads the first Europeans to see the "largest-in-the-word" Iguazú Falls that now serve as the border between Brazil and Argentina. Read more . . . By Yulibell Sanchez, Lehman College
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CABEZA DE VACA MONUMENT AT IGUAZÚ FALLS
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1539
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De Niza Searches for Golden Cities of Cibola
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With Estevanico as his guide, Fray Marcos de Niza leads an expedition to find the fabled seven golden cities of Cíbola, reaching into present-day New Mexico and turning back after Estevanico was allegedly killed by Zuni Indians.
Yet, having seen adobe buildings glittering in the sun from a distance, Niza reported having found golden cities and created the incentive for future Spanish expeditions into the current U.S. mainland. Some historians cite the possibility that Estevanico, who would again be a slave upon returning to present-day Mexico, may have decided to stay to live with the natives. |
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1539-1542
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De Soto celebrates first American Christmas
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Spanish explorer and conquistador Hernando de Soto leads the first European overland expedition of the present-day United States, exploring the territory that later became Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas and Louisiana. They celebrate America's first Christmas!
Starting from Cuba, their four-year, 4,000-mile hike finally lost its drive when de Soto died of "a fever" from some unknown disease near the banks of the Mississippi. To prevent the natives from finding his body, this crew buries him in the Mississippi. Read more: America's First Christmas. NEW DETAILS: See Stop 27 from my summer 2022 road trip: De Soto National Memorial, Bradenton, Fl. https://www.hiddenhispanicheritage.com/on-the-road-again.html |
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Spanish explorer Hernando de Alarcon sails northward from Acapulco, along New Spain's Pacific coast, through the Gulf of California, enters the Colorado River, and becomes one of the first Europeans to reach what it is now California. He also confirms that California is not an island.
After sailing with three ships and for three months, avoiding sandbars that slowed the journey, de Alarcon finds the mouth of the Colorado. He then selects about 20 experience seamen, takes two boats, and spends 12 days leading the first Europeans to ascend the river for a considerable distance. Their mission is to meet and resupply the simultaneous overland expedition into North America led by Francisco Vasquéz de Coronado. Although the meeting is not realized, de Alarcon's expedition finally discards a fictional legend. For many years, the civilized world thought that California was an island. That misconception comes from a 1510 Spanish romance novel that made the first known mention of "an island called California." It was to be found "on the right hand of the Indies" and "very close to the side of the Terrestrial Paradise," and it apparently led early Spanish explorers to wishfully assume that the body of land to the west of New Spain (Mexico) was the legendary island of California. They named California and called it an island even before circumventing it. Read more . . . By Glenda Fred, Lehman College |
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1540-1542Spanish explorer Francisco Vasquez de Coronado leads an expedition of more than 1,000 settlers and slaves through territories covering present-day Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, and Kansas. And some of his explorers discover the Grand Canyon!
Following directives from the Spanish Crown, Coronado sets out to spread the word of God, to expand Spain’s territory in the New World and find the mythical Seven Cities of Cibola, believed to be rich with gold. The Coronado caravan, including 340 Spanish soldiers, 700 Indian allies and some slaves, starts in New Spain (present day-Mexico) and travels with supplies, tools, and thousands of livestock. Five months into the expedition, when Coronado and his followers reach Cibola in present-day New Mexico, they fail to find the riches they were expecting. What they find are Native American pueblos built of stones and mud – and Zuni Indians who know nothing about gold. But Coronado isn’t giving up. While he gives up his search for Cibola, he hooks up with a Native American who claims to be able to lead him to another land of richness, known as Quivira. But when they finally reach Quivira, in the plains of Central Kansas in 1541, they discover the grass-hut villages of the Quivira Indians, but there is no gold to be found. Coronado decides to return to New Mexico to rejoin the main expedition. However, while Coronado is in Kansas, a small group from his expedition, lead by Garcia Lopez de Cardenas, is searching for the Colorado River and discovers the Grand Canyon! The Coronado expedition discovers no gold and converts no new Catholics, but it lays claim to vast new territories for Spain. The expedition covers about 4,000 miles of new territory, fertile ground for European farming and important landmarks such as the Grand Canyon. Read more . . . By Tiffany Guzman, Lehman College |
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Spanish conquistador Tristan de Luna leads an 11-ship, 1,500-person expedition, starting from Veracruz, Mexico, to settle Santa Maria de Ochuse in present-day Pensacola, Fl.
It predated the founding of Jamestown by a half century and St. Augustine by a half dozen years. Although the settlement was wiped out by a fierce hurricane shortly after it was established, Pensacola still calls itself "America's First Settlement." This statue is the centerpiece of a beautiful plaza facing Pensacola Bay. "If the Luna settlement had succeeded, the story of America would have been much different," according to an exhibit at the T.T. Wentworth, Jr. Florida State Museum in downtown Pensacola. |
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Spanish conquistador Pedro Menendez de Avilés establishes St. Augustine, the first successful settlement in Spanish Florida, and the city that is to become the oldest continuously inhabited European settlement in the continental United States.
He names the settlement "San Agustin" because 11 days earlier, on August 28, the feast of San Agustin, his fleet sighted the coast of Florida. To commemorate the town's foundation, on Sept. 28, they celebrate a Catholic Mass with the Timacua natives of the area. That ceremony is to be regarded as America's first Thanksgiving. Leading a fleet of several ships with some 1,000 sailors, soldiers and settlers, his mission is to survey the North American east coast, seek a suitable site to establish a permanent colony and drive away European intruders who could be encroaching on territory claimed by Spain. Menendez becomes the first governor of Florida and St. Augustine serves at the capital of Spanish Florida for more than 200 years. Today, St. Augustine is the foremost Spanish colonial city in the United States, dotted by landmarks and monuments that attract tourists from all over the world. Read more . . . By Yissel Liriano, Lehman College NEW DETAILS: See Stops 8-19 from my summer 2022 road trip: St. Augustine! https://www.hiddenhispanicheritage.com/on-the-road-again.html |
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Pedro Menendez de Alvilés, the first governor of Spanish Florida, establishes Santa Elena, a Spanish settlement on what is now Parris Island, South Carolina.
One year after establishing St. Augustine, Menendez expands the Spanish emprire northward, building Santa Elena at a site near an abandoned French outpost, Charlesfort, which was build by explorer Jean Ribault in 1562 and deserted one year later. At this time, Spanish Florida extends all the way north to the Carolinas, and Santa Elena becomes a sizable community and the base of operations for Spanish Jesuit and military expansion. From Santa Elena, Menendez orders inland expeditions -- led by Captain Juan Pardo -- to the interior of what is now South Carolina, North Carolina and Tennessee. Pardo's mission is to pacify and convert the natives to Catholicism, and to discourage the creation of French colonies in this area. Read more . . . By Madly de la Rosa, Lehman College NEW DETAILS: See Stop 5 from my summer 2022 road trip: Santa Helena, S.C. https://www.hiddenhispanicheritage.com/on-the-road-again.html |
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Juan de Oñate, a Spanish conquistador born in New Spain (present-day Mexico), leads a caravan of 129 soldiers, 10 Franciscan friars, some 300 settlers, 83 wagons and about 7,000 head of cattle, crosses the Rio Grande and claims New Mexico for the Spanish crown.
To celebrate the river crossing, in present-day Texas, he hosts a mass and invites the natives to join him and his troops in a thanksgiving meal. Today, this is known as the Texas Thanksgiving. In New Mexico, the expedition settles at the juncture of the Rio Grande and the Chama River and establishes “San Juan de los Caballeros” as the first capital of New Mexico. In 1607, Oñate is forced to resign as the colonial governor of Santa Fe de Nuevo Mexico and returns to Mexico City to face the charges of maladministration. He is convicted of disobedience and mistreatment of both the natives and colonists, and is banished from New Mexico. Nowadays, some people honor Oñate for his accomplishments as "the great colonizer" of New Mexico, while others vilify him for his cruelty to Native Americans. In Texas, Native Americans pressured local politicians and, as a compromise, the planned statue of Oñate was renamed “The Equestrian” before it was even finished. Read more . . . By Gail Diaz, Lehman College |
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17th Century 1602-1695
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Spanish explorer Sebastian Vizcaino sails north along the Pacific Coast from Acapulco to San Miguel, which he renames San Diego de Alcala -- now the city of San Diego, California.
In search for new trade routes that would improve the economy of New Spain (Mexico), Vizcaino takes three ships -- The San Diego, The Santa Tomas, and The Tres Reyes -- with 200 soldiers and sailors, three Catholic friars and his 13-year-old son Juan. On his mission to expand Spain's northwestern trading frontier, he follows the shoreline first explored by Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo 60 years earlier. But Vizcaino visits and names many California landmarks, including Monterey Bay, Santa Catalina Island, San Pedro, Santa Barbara, Point Conception, the Santa Lucia Mountains, Carmel Bay and the Carmel River. Read more . . . By Flor Johnson, Lehman College |
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1602 |
Mission Santa Catalina de Guale
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As part of Spain’s efforts to covert Native Americans to Catholicism, Spanish Franciscan friars open Santa Catalina de Guale, a mission and town on present-day St. Catherines Island, and the first Spanish outpost in Georgia.
Florida governor Pedro Menendez de Aviles and other Spanish explorers have visited the area since 1566. And while the Spanish establish several mission/villages along the east coast of present-day northern Florida and Georgia, Guale grows to become the center of missionary work in Spanish Florida. And yet epidemic diseases reduce the town’s population. Attacks from pirates, slave raiders and British-backed natives force the mission to move south to Sapelo Island, Ga., in 1680 and again to Amelia Island in present-day Florida in 1684. The Westo Indians, who capture and sell other Indians as slaves, and who raid Spanish settlements with support and encouragement from the British, are primarily responsible for the setbacks to Spanish colonization and evangelization. The mission remains on Amelia Island, consolidating natives from various other attacked mission/villages until 1702, when it is attacked and destroyed by British forces from South Carolina and Guale residents flee further south to St. Augustine. |
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Spanish Army officer Don Pedro de Peralta, appointed second governor of New Mexico, arrives at its capital, La Villa de San Gabriel, and decides to move the capital to a new town. He establishes and names Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Replacing Governor Juan de Oñate, who had made many enemies among the natives, Peralta travels to New Mexico with only 12 soldiers and eight Franciscan priests, who are determined to convert the natives to Catholicism. While the missionaries promise the natives that baptism would protect them from deceases, Peralta convinces some 200 San Gabriel settlers that the capital is erroneously located in an area that suffers drought, lacks fertile land, and is also too far from the Pueblo Indian population centers. Peralta selects an alternative site, with better land and a water good supply, and a surveyor designs the new settlement, which is separated by districts, home and garden plots, and including a downtown area, Santa Fe Plaza, for commerce and government buildings. The Plaza is designed to hold "1,000 people, 5,000 head of sheep, 400 head of horses, and 300 head of cattle without crowding." Read more . . By Anthony Valero, Lehman College |
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Misión San Miguel Church, a mission chapel that is to become the oldest church in the continental United States, is built by Tlaxcalan Indians led by Franciscan padres in present-day Santa Fe, New Mexico. Taking many years to complete, it is built with adobe walls, above an ancient sacred house of worship known as a “kiva” of the Analco Native American tribe.
Also known as San Miguel Chapel, and originally called “La Hermanita de San Miguel,” the chapel is named after St. Michael the Archangel, and serves as a place of worship for small groups of Tlaxcalan Indians, workers, artisans and Spanish soldiers who live in the area south of the Santa Fe River. They all built homes in an area that comes to be known as Barrio de Analco, which takes its name from the Tlaxcalan word “Analco,” meaning “the other side of the river.” Read more . . . By Stephanie Gil, Lehman College |
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1613 Juan Rodriguez becomes the first Manhattan immigrant
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Juan Rodriguez, a native of the what is now the Dominican Republic, becomes the first immigrant in Manhattan. This is 12 years before Dutch colonists establish New Amsterdam, and 51 years before the English take control of the colony and rename it New York.
Born in Santo Domingo of a Portuguese sailor and an African woman, Rodriguez arrives on a Portuguese ship and decides to stay. He marries a Native American woman and establishes a family. He builds a very lucrative business, trading furs for European tools with the natives and the explorers who came to the New World. But he is not only the first immigrant. Rodriguez is also the first person of both European and African heritage to live in Manhattan. And he is not only the first Latino, he is the first New York Dominican! In 2012, New York City recognized him by co-naming a portion of Broadway, "Juan Rodriguez Way." In two predominantly Dominican neighborhoods, from 159th Street in Washington Heights to 218th Street in Inwood, many people now can look up an see streets signs recognizing that one of their ancestors arrived here first! 
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JUAN RODRIGUEZ WAY MAKED IN RED
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Misión San Luis de Apalachee is established by Franciscan friars Pedro Munoz and Francisco Martinez, in present-day Tallahassee, Florida, to covert the Apalachee Indians to Christianity and colonize the Florida Panhandle.
Built in Anhaica, the capital village of the Apalachee Indians, the most powerful and advanced tribe in Florida, Mision San Luis becomes a community unlike any other in Florida, where Spaniards and Apalachees live and work together, and marry each other. Anhaica, the village first encountered by the Hernando de Soto expedition in 1539, is already a wealthy agricultural Apalachee community when San Luis is established. But the mission brings European knowhow and San Luis' crops are soon feeding soldiers and settlers in St. Augustine, the Spanish capital of Florida. In fact, when the mission is moved and expanded to a more secure location in 1656, the San Luis community has the largest number of European settlers in Florida, outside of St. Augustine. In 1656, when the Spanish government decides to built an outpost in northerwest Florida and encourages San Luis settlers to relocate the mission to a nearby, more defendable, hilltop location, the San Luis Spanish settlers and Apalachee Indians move the mission, build a church and fortified house (casa fuerte), and become a colonial community of some 1,400 people, including a powerful Apalachee chief and the Spanish deputy governor. But in 1704, following a series of raids by the English and Creek Indians, San Luis is evacuated and destroyed. The Spanish and some of the Apalachees return to St. Augustine, and about 800 Apalachees flee west to Mobile, a French village where they settle for some time. Some three centuries later, from 1998 to 2009, the mission is rebuilt, drawing from 15 years of historical and archaeological research. Of the many mission settlements established by Spain in Florida, San Luis is the only reconstructed mission in the state. This tourist attraction is made even more impressive by its "living historic interpreters" -- real people representing historic figures and recreating life at it was in San Luis in 1703. Read more . . . By Clara Chavira, Lehman College |
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Copus Christi de San Antonio de la Ysleta del Sur, the first Spanish mission in present-day Texas, is established by Fray Francisco de Ayeta and Antonio de Otermin, the Spanish governor of New Mexico, in El Paso, Tx.
First used as a temporary refugee camp for Pueblo Indians who were fleeing from Apache raiders, the mission flourishes as an agricultural community, the first of several established by Spaniards and Native Americans near the Rio Grande. These were people who were returning north to Texas after fleeing south from northern New Mexico during the Pueblo Revolt of 1680. Built with mud and chinked logs, the mission was forced to relocate several times due to fires and flooding of the Rio Grande, but one of the original church bells still survives. Today, the Ysleta community is not only recognized as the oldest in Texas, and it's parish is not only the oldest continuously operated church in the state, but it also claims the oldest continuously cultivated plot of land in the country. Today, the Ysleta church still serves the descendants of the Tigua people who first converted to Catholicism more than 500 years ago. Every year, they still celebrate the feast of St. Anthony of Padua, the mission's patron saint. By Annie Malembe, Lehman College |
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1688 |
Runway British Slaves Granted Freedom in Spanish Florida |
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Diego de Quiroga, the Spanish Governor of Florida, grants sanctuary in St. Augustine to eight men, two women and a three-year-old girl who escape British slavery on a stolen raft - once they convert to Roman Catholicism.
The two women worked as domestic helpers in the governor's home. Two of the men were employed as blacksmiths, and the other six worked on the construction of Castillo de San Marcos. They were all paid for their labor. In spite of efforts by British slave owners to regain their property, de Quiroga resisted, and protected them. But they were only the first. Spanish records show that at least six separate groups of runaway British slaves escape from South Carolina to St. Augustine, the capital of Spanish Florida, between 1688 and 1725. Most of them made the journey after 1693, when the Spanish Crown officially granted them freedom after they arrived in Florida. |
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First comes La Misión San Cayetano de Tumacácori (years later replaced by Mission San José de Tumacácori). One day later, came La Misión de San Gabriel de Guevavi, which years later became known as Misión Los Santos Ángeles de Guevavi.
Tumacácori and Guevavi are the first two missions to be established in preset-day Arizona by Father Eusebio Kino, who is on a quest to convert the O'odham natives of the region to Christianity. With time, the Tohono O'odham not only adopt the Catholic religion, but the Spanish language. Today, more than three centuries later, the decedents of the Tohono O'odham still speak their native pima language as well as Spanish. Today, both missions are part of the Tumacácori National Historical Park. The Mission San José de Tumacácori complex is open to the public. Nearby are the park's visitor center and the Tumacácori Museum. The Guevavi mission is not open to the general public, but can be visited on reserved tours led by park staff. Read more . . . By Mary Addy, Lehman College |
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Father Eusebio Kino, an Italian-born Jesuit missionary and explorer, establishes the Spanish Catholic mission San Xavier del Bac in southern Arizona.
On a mission to spread Christianity among the Tohono O'odham natives of the area, in the past year, Kino already has established two nearby missions, at Tumacácori and Guevavi, and now becomes the first non-Indian to visit the village of Bac. He already has established many other missions in present-day northern Mexico, and he goes on to establish more missions in Arizona. He also conducts several expeditions on horseback, covering and mapping more than 200 miles -- all along teaching the natives how to raise cattle and crops. Kino's original San Xavier church is rebuilt from 1783 to 1797 - 14 years! - by Native Americans and Franciscan missionaries who have taken control of the mission. The church is known as "The White Dove of the Desert," because it appears that way when seen from a distance. With its combination of Moorish, Byzantine and late Mexico Renaissance architecture, and with its interior walls packed with numerous hand-carved and brightly painted wooden angels and saints, San Xaxier remains as perhaps the best example of mission construction in the U.S. It's one of the few places in the United States where you can step back in time by entering an authentic 18th-century space. The church still serves the descendants of the Tohono O'odham natives Kino converted to Catholicism. Read more . . . By Juana Arellano, Lehman College |
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Don Diego de Vargas, the Spanish Governor of New Mexico, leads a military expedition to reconquer Santa Fe and other territory that was taken by Native Americans during the Pueblo Revolt of 1680. Leading a 200-men army, he peacefully gains control over numerous pueblos without firing a single shot.
Twelve years after the Pueblo people drove Spanish settlers out of New Mexico, and forced them to retreat to present-day northern Mexico and southern Texas, De Vargas conducts a "bloodless reconquest" that turns many former enemies into allies. He uses Catholic rituals to persuade the natives that he wants peace. But De Vargas' repossession of New Mexico doesn't remain peaceful. Late on, when some natives refuse to submit to his rule, he retaliates violently and in many ways, from cutting off their water supply to having 70 opposing Pueblo warriors executed. Many natives side with the Spanish, but violent skirmishes with rebelling natives continue until 1694. A devout follower of the Virgin Mary, De Vargas prays to her as "La Conquistadora" (The Conqueress). He believes that it was her who granted his initial peaceful re-entry into Santa Fe, and he celebrates a feast in her honor. That feast is still celebrated nowadays by the descendants of the reconquest, both Native Americans and Hispanics who come together to commemorate peace between the two groups in the city's annual "Fiestas de Santa Fe." Read more . . . By Jonell Payamps, Lehman College |
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Workers brought from Havana, Cuba, complete the construction of Castillo de San Marcos, the stone colonial fort built to replace nine wooded fortifications that guarded St. Augustine, the Spanish capital of Florida, from British or pirate attacks.
Guarding downtown St. Augustine, on the shoreline of Matanzas Bay, the impressive star-shaped fort, which took 23 years to build, is surrounded by a moat, fortified by powerful cannons. Made of "Coquina" (small seashells bonded together), which is similar to limestone, the powerful fort becomes an important New World military outpost for many years. When the British Navy laid siege on St. Augustine in 1702, the Castillo sheltered the town's 1,500 residents and soldiers. In spite of a two-month battle, British cannons had little effect on the coquina walls. Today, Castillo de San Marcos stands as the oldest masonry fort in the continental United States. A National Monument managed by the United States National Parks Service, the Castillo is the biggest tourist attraction in St. Augustine and a popular icon of representing centuries of Hispanic presence in North America. Read more . . . By Lurie Gonzalez, Lehman College NEW DETAILS: See Stop 9 from my summer 2022 road trip: Castillo de San Marcos, St. Augustine, Fl. https://www.hiddenhispanicheritage.com/on-the-road-again.html |
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18th Century 1718-1797
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Father Antonio de San Buenaventura y Olivares, a Franciscan priest from Andalusia, Spain, treks north from New Spain into present-day Texas and establishes Mision San Antonio de Valero, the Spanish mission that is much better known as The Alamo.
Named after Saint Anthony of Padua, this is the first of five Spanish missions established in East Texas by Spanish Franciscan friars who have received training on how to engage and evangelize the American natives at the Convent of Querétaro, New Spain (Mexico). They are seeking to covert Native Americans to Catholicism and to colonize northern New Spain. After relocating twice until settling at its present site in 1724, just across the river from the town of San Antonio de Bexar -- today's City of San Antonio, Tx. -- the mission becomes self-sufficient, with its own church, granary, living quarters, workshops, fields, and pastures. But in 1836, when it is no longer used as a Spanish mission, it becomes the site of the most famous battle of the Texas Revolution against Mexican dictator Antonio López de Santa Anna. After the mission is closed in 1793, the buildings keep changing hands and functions, serving as a meeting place, a hospital and finally a military fort that becomes known as "The Alamo." Occupied by rebels who fight and die for Texas independence from Mexico - including many Hispanics - the Alamo suffers a defeat against the Mexican Army that becomes legendary. "Remember the Alamo" becomes the battle cry that eventually won Texas independence from Mexico. Of the estimated 189 men who die defending The Alamo, only six are actually born in Texas - and all of them are Hispanic: Juan Abamillo, Juan A. Badillo, Carlos Espalier, Gregorio Esparza, Antonio Fuentes, and Andrés Nava. And a man who leaves The Alamo to seek reinforcements and survives, Juan Seguín, is also Hispanic. Nowadays, they are all recognized in a monument outside the mission. And The Alamo is San Antonio's biggest tourist attraction, celebrating both its heritage as a Spanish mission and as the sacred battleground of the Texas Revolution. By Adelaida Ospina, Lehman College |
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Spanish Florida governor Manuel de Montiano orders the Spanish black militia - composed of runaway British slaves - to build and command a fort for freed African slaves now serving as soldier for the Spanish Crown.
The fort, “Gracia Real de Santa Teresa de Mose” (Royal Grace of St. Teresa of Mose), better known as Fort Mose, is built to defend St. Augustine from British attacks. It becomes the first free African-American community in what is now the United States! For some 50 years runaway British slaves have escaped from South Carolina and fled to St. Augustine, the capital of Spanish Florida, where they are granted freedom if they convert to Catholicism, agree to serve in the Spanish army and declare loyalty to Spain. One of them is Francisco Menendez. Born in the Mandinka tribe of West Africa, Menendez is brought to British plantations in South Carolina as a slave in the early 1700s. But in 1724, with nine other slaves, he escapes to Florida, regains his freedom, joins Spanish forces, becomes the captain of the black Spanish militia (of former British slaves), and leads the construction of Fort Mose. Built two miles north of St. Augustine, to protect the city against enemy attacks by both land and water routes, the fort attracts other former African slaves who settle outside its walls and create the first free African-American community in North America. Today, Fort Mose is a Florida State Park and U.S. National Historic Landmark where visitors can go back in time to the first African-American settlement. Read more . . . By Melissa Trinidad and Maribel Pantoja, Lehman College NEW DETAILS: See Stop 7 from my summer 2022 road trip: Fort Mose Historic State Park, Fl. The first free African American community — in Spanish Florida! https://www.hiddenhispanicheritage.com/on-the-road-again.html
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Spanish soldiers open Fort Matanzas on the east coast of Florida, 15 miles south of St. Augustine, to protect the city from attacks by way of the Matanzas Inlet and the Matanzas River. It is meant to reinforce the city's southern flank and to supplement the security already provided by Castillo de San Marcos, the city's imposing waterfront fort.
Guarding the Matanzas Inlet, which leads to the Matanzas River and the southern waterway entrance to the city, Fort Matanzas has five cannons and adds considerable security, since it allows Spanish soldiers to observe approaching enemy vessels before they can reach St. Augustine. It also serves as rest stop, coast guard station, and a place where friendly vessels heading for St. Augustine get advice on navigating the river. This small, square, supplemental fort - 300 feet high and 50 feet long on each side - took two years to build, and it is made of the same coquina shell-stones that were used to build Castillo de San Marcos. It is manned by a garrison of one officer in charge, four infantrymen, and two gunners, who serve on rotation from their regular duty in St. Augustine. Close to completion, when the fort is challenged by 12 approaching British ships, its cannons force the fleet to retreat without reaching St. Augustine. It is the only time the fort fires cannons against an enemy. Today, Fort Matanzas, a National Monument, It is managed by the National Parks Service, in conjunction with Castillo de San Marcos. Fort Matanzas is normally, open to the public, by way of a ferry. However, ferry access is temporarily closed. Read more . . . By Laedy Lopez, Lehman College |
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The Presidio of San Ignacio de Tubac, also known as Fort Tubac, is built by Spanish soldiers, becoming the first Spanish colonial garrison in what is now southern Arizona, and the foundation for the Village of Tubac.
It is built to protect the Spanish missions colonists who have settled, since the 1730s, in the area of Tubac, a small Pima Indian village. One year after a Pima uprising destroyed the Spanish settlements, the Pimas surrender and the fort is build to prevent further rebellion. Tubac becomes the first European settlement in what is now the state of Arizona. Read more . . . By Venus McGee Ramirez, Lehman College |
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Spain trades Florida to England in exchange for Cuba. As a result of the Seven Years (French-Indian) War, in which Great Britain defeated France and Spain, England gets all French territory east of the Mississippi River, except for New Orleans. And Spain gives up East and West Florida to the British in return for Cuba, which Spain had lost during Seven Years War.
This is all the result of the Treaty of Paris of 1763, which ends the long, bloody war and sets the Florida peninsula on a totally different course. More than two decades after the Spanish government in Florida had granted unconditional freedom to all runaway slaves from the British plantations in South Carolina, Britain imports thousands of new slaves from Africa, and from other British colonies, to Florida. Yet, because England had gone into debt to fight the Seven Year War, and because it was forced to imposed heavy taxes on its North American colonies, the Treaty of Paris May have triggered the American Revolutionary War against Britain a few years later. Twenty years later, it took another Treaty of Paris -- in 1783 -- to return Florida to Spain. This second Treaty of Paris brings an end to the American Revolution, after the Americans colonies defeated the British with the help of Spain. By Justin Acosta, Lehman College |
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Spanish military officer and first governor of Las Californias, Gaspar de Portolà leads the first overland expedition from Baja California to Alta California, visiting many of its most important landmarks from San Diego to San Francisco Bay, and taking with him the soldiers and Franciscan friars who establish the first California Spanish forts and Franciscan missions.
Traveling with Portola is Father Junípero Serra and other Spanish Franciscan missionary priests with the quest of bringing Christianity to the Natives of California. His quest, following orders from Spain, is to prevent English and Russian encroachment into territory that is already claimed by Spain. They establish settlements (now cities) at San Diego Bay and Monterey Bay, at landmarks discovered by sea some 227 years earlier -- by Spanish explorer Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo in 1542, and revisited by Sebastián Vizcaíno in 1602. And discover San Francisco Bay, which had not been discovered by sea! Along the way, the Portolá expedition discovers and names many other California landmarks, including el “Rio De Nuestra Señora la Reina de Los Angeles de Porciuncula,” known today as the Los Angeles River, and from where the City of Los Angeles got its name. |
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Father Junipero Serra, a Franciscan priest, arrives in California, from Baja California, as part of the Gaspar de Portolá overland expedition and establishes the San Diego De Alcalá Mission, the first of 21 Spanish missions built along the coast of California to convert the natives to Christianity - and the foundation for today's City of San Diego.
Known as the "Mother of all missions," San Diego De Alcalá marks the beginning of Catholicism in this region, and the gateway that opened California to Spanish and Mexican settlement. Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo had claimed California for the Spanish empire in 1542, but they did not settle in the area until Father Serra leads a groups of Franciscan priests who establish the first nine of California's 21 missions. Today Father Serra is remembered for his dedication to his faith, and for bringing Catholicism to California. To recognize his dedication, Pope Francis canonized Father Serra during his first visit for the United States in 2015. Read more . . . By Jungmin Park, Lehman College
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Father Junípero Serra, Roman Catholic Spanish priest and leader of Franciscan missionaries on the Gaspar de Portola expedition, establishes the San Gabriel Arcángel mission in present-day Los Angeles County, California to convert Native Americans to Catholicism. It is the fourth of 21 missions eventually built in California and the foundation for the City of San Gabriel.
Although San Gabriel's motto is "A City with a Mission," it is also known as "The Birthplace of Los Angeles," since the pioneer Los Angeles settlers first gathered at San Gabriel mission before setting out to build "El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora La Reina de Los Angeles" in 1781. The march of the first 44 Los Angeles pobladores, from the mission to downtown Los Angeles -- “Los Pobladores Historic Walk to Los Angeles” -- is still celebrated every year during labor day weekend. Read more . . . By Chadae McAnuff, Lehman College |
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Based on the success of a hunting expedition – more than 25 mule loads of dried bear meat – Father Junípero Serra selects the site to establish Mission San Luis Obispo de Tolosa, the fifth of the 21 California Spanish missions and the namesake of today’s City of San Luis Obispo.
Facing a food shortage while based at Misión San Carlos Borromeo de Carmelo (also known as Mission Carmel in today’s City of Carmel-by-the-Sea), Serra remembers the stories he has heard from the soldiers in the Gaspar de Portola expedition, stories of a valley with plenty of bears and buffalo. In fact, the soldiers already have a name for that area. They call it “El llano de los osos” – “The Valley of the Bears.” Serra has been told that this area has a mild climate, with plenty of food and water, and that the local Chumash natives are very friendly. And so he decides to send a hunting expedition down south to The Valley of the Bears. The expedition is so successful that, instead of continuing to send other hunting parties to that area, Serra decides to build the fifth California mission there. He leads a small group down to El Valle de los Osos, carrying some mission supplies, and establishes Misión San Luis Obispo de Tolosa. After 1810, when Mexico begins its war of independence from Spain, like the other California Spanish missions, San Luis Obispo de Tolosa faces a decrease of funds and supplies from Spain. And after 1821, when Mexico wins its independence and secularizes the missions, Spanish friars are replaced with Mexican missionaries and management of the missions is turned over to government administrators. Mission lands often are sold and divided into “ranchos.” Mexican Governor Pio Pico sells Misión San Luis Obispo – everything but the church – for $510.00 in 1845. Mission buildings go on to be used a school, a jail and the first county courthouse. After California becomes part of the United States in 1848, and a state in 1850, the Catholic church petitions the U.S. government to return some of the Mission properties back to the church. Read more . . . By Maria Fernandez, Lehman College |
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Presidio San Agustín del Tucsón, the foundation for the City of Tucson, Ariz., is established by Spanish army soldiers led by Captain Hugh O’ Connor, an Irish mercenary working for Spain, also known as El Capitan Colorado (The Red Captain).
Seeking to gain greater control of Arizona and strengthen New Spain's northern border, O'Connor decides to move the Spanish fort at Tubac, Ariz., built 23 years earlier, almost 50 miles north, to an area surrounded by mountain ranges, the site of present-day Tucson. But the original Tucson fort is poorly constructed, and, after an Apache assault in 1783, its palisade (wooden stakes) fence is replaced by an 8 to 12-foot-high a mud-brick wall that is about 700 feet long on each side -- making the Tucson Presidio one of the strongest and largest frontier forts. Read more . . By Dahianna Feliciano, Lehman College |
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1776-83Hispanics in the American RevolutionSpain deems the American army a viable ally after troops led by General George Washington capture the Hessian (German) Garrison, in the Battle of Trenton, New Jersey. Spain’s agreement to work in support of the Continental Army – although covertly – formally establishes the Hispanic participation in the most important war in American history: The American Revolution.
The Hessians are German mercenaries hired to fight for the British. This small victory, in an array of losses for General Washington, encourages more American colonists to enlist and prompts Spain’s King Carlos III to covertly begin supporting Washington and his troops. Spain secretly sends supplies to American ports, aiding the colonists by smuggling material from Cuba and other Caribbean islands. King Carlos III encourages his American subjects to donate pesos to fund the cost of the war. Yet, Spain’s support of a colonial rebellion against a monarchy remains mostly undercover, to prevent a riotous rebellion in their own nation. But that’s until – with King Carlos III’s blessing – Don Bernardo de Galvez, the Spanish governor of Louisiana, enters Spain into the fight of the 13 colonies, blatantly declaring Hispanic participation in the American army. Galvez leads an army of thousands of Hispanic soldiers – mostly from Mexico and the Caribbean Spanish colonies – across the Gulf of Mexico, defeating the British in Natchez, Mississippi, Mobile, Alabama and Pensacola, Florida. The success of his military operations, in effect, cover Washington’s rear (southwest) flank, allowing the Continental Army to concentrate on fighting the British along the eastern front. Galvez’s successful military operation along the Gulf of Mexico opens up a supply channel along the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers by which Spain can send weapons, gunpowder, military uniforms, and even cattle to Washington’s troops – while avoiding British interference. Spain’s aid, and Galvez’s heroic success, were a surprise to the British, and huge factors that affected the outcome of the American Revolution. Galvez’ conduct during that pivotal time in American and Hispanic history has not gone unnoticed. In 2014, a joint resolution of the U.S. Congress, signed by President Barack Obama, made Galvez an Honorary Citizen of the United States, the seventh person to receive this high honor! By Deseree Velasquez, Lehman College 
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This painting depicts the siege and defeat of the British Pensacola by Bernado de Galvez's Spanish and Latin American troops.
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Spanish Army Lieutenant José Joaquin Moraga and Francisican missionary Francisco Palóu reach San Francisco Bay as part of the 1,000-mile Juan Bautista de Anza overland expedition from present-day southern Arizona and establish Mision San Francisco de Asis, also known as Mision Dolores -- the foundation of what is to become the City of San Francisco.
While the 13 American colonies on the east of North America are declaring their independence from Great Britain, on the west coast, Father Palóu dedicates the site and celebrates the mission's first mass on June 29, 1776 -- only a few days before the American Founding Fathers signed the Declaration of Independence. The mission, of wood poles plastered with mud and thatched roofs, is formally founded with a great celebration on Oct. 9, 1776. At a nearby site designated by De Anza, three months earlier, Moraga also leads the construction of the Presidio of San Francisco, formally established on September 17, 1776. Today, Mission Dolores, recognized as a California Historical Landmark, is the oldest surviving structure in San Francisco. Read more . . . By Sirky Sanchez, Lehman College |
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Field Marshal Bernado de Gálvez y Madrid, Governor of Louisiana and commander of Spanish forces in North America, leads a successful two-month siege and subsequent capture of Pensacola, Florida, during the American Revolutionary War.
After Spain formally declares war against the British on June 21, 1779, in support of independence for the 13 American colonies, Gálvez and his Spanish soldiers, including many Latin American recruits, cut a path of victories along British held territory along the coast of Gulf of Mexico, culminating in the capture of Pensacola on May 10, 1781. The victory turns the tide of the American Revolution! With Pensacola and the Gulf Coast under Spanish control, the British cannot effectively attack George Washington’s troops from the rear, allowing Washington to focus his resources on the war’s eastern front. Read more . . . By Jonathan Yubi-Gomez, Lehman College |
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A group of about a dozen families are recruited bt Spanish authorities in Sinaloa, Mexico, to make a long journey to Alta California and establish El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora La Reina de Los Angeles (The Town of Our Lady, the Queen of the Angels), now known as Los Angeles.
The 44 settlers – 22 adults and 22 children – had first gathered at San Gabriel Mission, established 10 years earlier, from where they set out looking for the right site for the new town. Escorted by a military detachment and two priests from the mission, they settle in what in now downtown Los Angeles. The "Pobladores" of Los Angeles, mostly farmers, rapidly establish a successful community. The streets of downtown Los Angeles still follow the same pattern of the streets of the old colonial town. The old town limits are still marked by Hoover and Indiana Streets in the west and east respectively. Today, Los Angeles embraces and recognizes its beginning by celebrating the annual "Los Pobladores Historic Walk to Los Angeles." It happens over the Labor Day weekend and coincides with the anniversary of the city's founding. It is organized by Los Pobladores (Townspeople) 200, an association of the descendants of the original 44 settlers and soldiers who accompanied them. The walk starts from the San Gabriel Mission to El Pueblo de Los Angeles, and follows the historic route that was taken by Los Pobladores. Read more . . . By Dionaly Carrasco, Lehman College |
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Alessandro Malaspina an Italian-born Spanish naval officer leads a two-ship scientific expedition from Cadiz, Spain across the Atlantic Ocean, around Cape Horn and all the way up the West coast of the Americas to the Gulf of Alaska.
They never find what they were looking for, the illusive Northwest Passage, but the expedition and its Spanish scientists spend a month studying the lifestyle of the Tinglit, the indigenous people of the Pacific Northwest Coast of North America. Spanish scholars study and document the Tinglit's language, customs, economy, warfare methods and even burial practices. Spanish artists paint portraits of the tribal members and sketch scenes of Tinglit daily life. Spanish botanists collect many new plants. They also surveyed the Alaska coastline and explored huge glaciers, including the Malaspina Glacier, subsequently named after him, which is the world's largest piedmont glacier. Read more . By Karen Anderson, Lehman College |
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Franciscan missionary Fermín Francisco de Lasuén establishes Misión San Fernando Rey de España in present-day Mission Hills, Los Angeles County, California. It is the 17th of 21 Spanish missions to be established in California to convert the native people to Christianity, colonize the area and to consolidate Spanish power. It is also the fourth mission established by de Lasuén in as many months.
Named for Ferdinand III, King of Spain (1217-1252), the mission becomes the namesake for the nearby City of San Fernando and the San Fernando Valley. After the death of Father Junípero Serra in 1784, Father de Lasuén was appointed the second Presidente of the missions of California in 1785, and has continued the missionary work begun by Father Serra -- establishing settlements where Spanish settlers and Native Americans can coexist in harmony. But life is tough for the first few years after these missions get started. Spanish settlers and Native Americans initially depend on supplies delivered by sea from New Spain. It normally takes a few years before they can plant sufficient crops and raise enough cattle to become self-sufficient. Read more . . . By Michelle Acosta, Lehman College |
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Eight settlers from Guadalajara, New Spain, make an arduous journey to Alta California and are the first to establish a village that is to be called Villa de Branciforte.
The new town – now part of the City of Santa Cruz, California – is built on a bluff, facing Mission San Cruz, founded six year earlier on the other side of the San Lorenzo River. Following orders from the Spanish crown, New Spain’s Viceroy, Don Miguel de la Grúa Talamaca de Carini y Branciforte, orders the establishment of the new town. However, knowing that he would have to send new settlers to live in Alta California, and that it would be costly and difficult to populate the town, Viceroy Branciforte recruits residents of Guadalajara, by promising them money, land and the best adobe houses available. But when the first settlers arrive at the new village, they find that they have been mislead. The land is bare, abandoned, and has to be worked. The Viceroy’s promises never materialize. However, since trekking all the way back to Guadalajara is not a viable option, the settlers decide to make due with their limited tools and resources. They build a village without much help from Spain. Branciforte, an Italian military officer of Spanish nationality, serves as the 53rd Viceroy of New Spain, from 1794 to 1798, but never travels north to see the town. He is remembered by history as a very corrupt administrator. Nevertheless, although he has misled its colonists, Villa de Branciforte is named after him - until it becomes part of the City of San Cruz. Read more . . . By Miguel Monsalvo, Lehman College |
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What's Missing? Que Falta?
Please note that this timeline is devoted to the Hispanic presence in North America starting on April 2, 1513. While Latin America Timelines obviously begin much earlier, and cover the history of our antecedents in Latin America and Spain, they often exclude everything that happened in North America - even the accomplishments of the conquistadores who came north from the Caribbean and Mexico, and the Hispanics who followed them! With our timeline, our goal is to fill the huge gaps that leave U.S. Hispanics out of U.S. history.
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