Forgotten Hispanic North America with Carrie Gibson (HoH Podcast – Ep, 81)

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Dr. Carrie Gibson is a US-born, UK-based historian and journalist with a large obsession about small islands, which led her to write her first book – Empire’s Crossroads: A History of the Caribbean from Columbus to the Present Day, published by Pan Macmillan in the UK and Grove/Atlantic in the United States.

Her latest book, El Norte: The Epic and Forgotten Story of Hispanic North America is a bit more land-based (but not completely!) and is out now in the United States. You can read an extract on Literary Hub. It will be published in the UK in August 2019.

You can find out more about her extensive travel experience by looking at her journalism and photography.

You can find her on Facebook and follow her on Twitter and Instagram.

This description is adapted from Carrie's website, which has much more information for you.

Read Carrie's Work:

Some Highlights: 

Approaching hundreds of years of history through cities and case-studies
Examining the construction of the Hispanic Past
Who is Hispanic?
Where do people speak Spanish? Who speaks Spanish in the United States?
The United States as a part of Latin America
American History from the South
Working as a journalist and historian
The Conceptualization of El Norte
Columbus and the use of him in a number of histories
Cities to go and see in the United States
Spanish Louisiana

Suggestions:

Carrie: Think about the idea that the United States is a Latin American country and take time to travel within the United States to see places you didn't know about and talk to people you might not have talked to otherwise.

Steven: Take a look at historical maps and think about history. For example, some of the great maps put out by the National Parks Service and the great maps collection at Cornell.

Featured Image Description and Credit: Phoenix, AZ, USA: Projecto Calle 16 - the 16th Street Project; "Bienvenidos a Arizona" - "Welcome to Arizona - Build Ur Own American Dream" Genarro Garcia/Dose, Artists and others, 2011 -- Chris English

[hus]

I won't call it "forgotten". It just doesn't take the same attention as the Anglo colonies, since the 13 British colonies formed the USA. In California, they teach in K-12 how the state was formed by the Spanish missions. Same deep history with Florida, Louisiana and Texas.

[mariafh]

Thank you very much for sharing this video about the interesting and necessary work of Mrs. Gibson to recover the forgotten history of Spain in America. I would like to highlight that:

1) The conquerors were not an army sent by the Spanish kings. They were PRIVATE companies. where there were men of different races (including African slaves who thus achieved freedom and social advancement) and conquering women. Once they join the native americans, they are 99% of the conquering forces. As private companies, they intend to recover their investment by applying the "right of conquest" (as was done throughout the world), which gave the right to seize everything discovered, including people. It will be since Philip II that armies are created for conquest, under Ordinances that limit their acts

2) SPAIN was THE FIRST NATION in the HISTORY to promulgate LAWS AGAINST THE RIGHT OF CONQUEST and DECLARE the ones conquered VASALLIES with THE SAME RIGHTS as THE REST OF SPANIARDS (Right to OWNERSHIP of the land and other BETTER rights than the Europeans had themselves). Even indigenous languages were collected in GRAMMARS and taught in colleges and universities (Spain founded 23 Universities in 100 years and the other powers, none).

3) In 1500, Isabella the Catholic issued a Law that PROHIBITED the SLAVERY of the indigenous people and recognized their OWNERSHIP OF THE LAND and ordered their GOOD TREATMENT. So did queen Juana's LAWS OF BURGOS and the NEW LAWS of 1545 and OTHERS. Pelipe II orders that the mistreatment of an indigenous person will have MORE PENALTY than the same abuses committed against the rest of the Spaniards.

4)Spain did not colonize, it created a new civilization with the indigenous people : they founded cities, hospitals, schools, newspapers, universities where SEGREGATIONISM was not applied, it was authorized INTERRACIAL MARRIAGES in 1514. . Ethnic cleansing was not carried out, people died of smallpox (and then the BALMIS EXPEDITION was carried out to take the smallpox vaccine FREE for 10 years throughout the world. About the "stolen" GOLD: only 1/5 of it was sent to Spain (tax that later went to 1/10 which is LESS that EU TX IVA)

[PC.]

Cuba and Puerto Rico wasn't colonies but part of Spain. Also Spain prohibited slavery in 1500 with Isabel la Católica. And definitely there was no thing such a "genocide". Is praiseworthy the work of Dr. Carrie Gibson, but she should probably study more.