Ten Spaniards Who Forged the United States

Here lie the bones of a lion.

This is not a zoo sign.

It is the legend inscribed on a tomb in the Cathedral of San Juan Bautista, in the capital of Puerto Rico.

There lies a man who was Leon more than by his last name for his exploits.

Pioneer in the colonization of the New World, founder of San Juan, first Westerner to see American soil today, discoverer of the very profitable Gulf Stream.

We are talking, of course, about Juan Ponce de León ”.

So begins the first of the ten

that the Hispanic Council entity and the Ministry of Defense, headed by Margarita Robles, have prepared to remember, as of this Friday and every 15 days, the feats of little-known or poorly recognized Spanish characters “who have contributed to forging the history of United States ”, according to this Hispanic North American entity defending the Spanish legacy.

• The Asturian pirate who became an admiral

Juan Ponce de León (Santervás de los Campos, Valladolid, 1460), the first of the historical figures that make up the series, was also the first European to set foot in the current territory of the United States in 1513. Previously, he had been the first governor of Puerto Rico and thanks to him the state of Florida receives his name.

The

—told in an entertaining and educational way in both Spanish and English— will recall the lives of such disparate characters as Felipe de Neve, founder of Los Angeles, or Pedro Menéndez de Avilés, creator of the oldest city in United States, Saint Augustine (Florida), in addition to being a pirate, privateer, secret agent of Felipe II and admiral of the royal fleet.

Daniel Ureña, president of The Hispanic Council, trusts that this initiative will help to better understand the figures who have shaped the history of the United States since its inception: “They have told us that their history began with the arrival of the

in 1621, but more than 100 years before, Spain had already arrived in Florida, so that other story is worth telling ”.

In addition, says Ureña, “in a year in which we have seen multiple attacks on figures of the US Hispanic heritage,“ today it is more necessary than ever to make the shared history of both countries known through new formats that help to reach a younger audience ”.

The

of

will be broadcast biweekly in both Spanish and English and will initially have 10 episodes.