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...in 1540, Hernando de Soto, while crossing the southeast, led an expedition up from Florida, through Georgia, and crossed the Savannah river near Silver Bluff in Aiken County? While in what is now South Carolina, he visited the Indian city of Cofitachequi?
...South Carolina was once the Capital of Florida? In 1566, Pedro Menendez de Aviles, governor of La Florida, established the colony of Santa Helena at Port Royal near what is now Beaufort. This colony was the capital of all of Florida and had more than 400 inhabitants.
...during the American Revolution, Bernardo de Galvez, governor of Spanish Louisiana, defeated the British in battle at Baton Rouge, Mobile, Pensacola, St. Louis, and in Michigan, diverting from the east thousands of British troops as America's forgotten allies.
...in 1836, led by South Carolinian William Barrett Travis, the only native Texans who fought and died at the Alamo were of Mexican birth?
...during the War Between the States, Charleston was saved from capture through the entire war due to expert artillery defending the city time and again during Union assaults. General P.G.T. Beauregard's artillery officer was Ambrosio Jose Gonzalez, a famous Cuban revolutionary.
...after the War, Hispanic Americans fought for fair and representative government in South Carolina. When The State newspaper began in 1891, at its helm was editor Narcissa G. Gonzalez. His father was a Cuban revolutionary and his mother was of the Elliott family from Beaufort. He, and his brothers, Ambrose and William wrote ardently defending the conservative causes of Wade Hampton and Alexander C. Haskell. In later years, as editor of The State, N.G. Gonzalez was the most important newspaper editor in all of South Carolina. Gonzales was shot on the streets of Columbia by Lt. Governor James Tillman in 1903.
They struggled to maintain their position in the new world but it was not to be. Dominance of this land went to another people, but the Spanish remained. Even as the French, then the English gained control of Carolina, Hispanic-Carolinians played pivotal roles in every aspect of South Carolina history. The Palmetto Junior Historian Society remembers these early dreamers and their descendants.
It wasn't the bright morning sun that awoke me from my safe dreams. Nor was it the off-tune wren screeching outside my window. It was the sound of voices, loud voices, in the next room. As I drew myself closer to the wooden wall, I heard pieces of the clamor. Words like "attack", "massacre", and "weapons" found their way through the cracks of my wall. I remember when the Frenchmen dismembered bodies of Spanishmen and hung them from trees. I still remember the look on my uncle's head as it swung carelessly in the wind. Fearing another massacre, I ran to find my madre y padre. Madre reassured me that I was safe after I babbled my thoughts and hearings. I guess I would just have to wait and see what the future held.
The little patches of love, knitted so carefully together,
I think of how they got there, to be separated never.
You told me of how carefully our grandmothers plotted and schemed,
then sewed and pieced together pictures of their dreams.
I imagine them sitting side by side,
dark old women, with faces that show wrinkles of time.
This gift they gave to me, warms and comforts silently,
then reminds me of my family, and I am proud of our Spanish-American history.
I had many names;
And many people claimed me.
It was like a game;
Why wouldn't they let me be?
I was Virginia, Carolina, New France, and then Florida.
It was as if I was being used.
I needed their love and care;
I didn't want to be abused.
South Carolina, where I was born,
Torn away by hate,
I can't stand this fighting,
Can't stand the blood.
Hope I'm not to late.
I run, I dodge, I go anywhere.
Just to give it my all.
I try, and I try, but it's too late and
Suddenly, I fall.
A bullet in the back....Oh dear!
I try not to worry, but I have so much fear.
What if I die? What if I live?
I thought
There is not much I can see now.
I see faint pictures of my wife, my mother, my daughter
So I love
How can this be?
I am dying.
Slowly....
Slowly....
Slowly....
Gone
I walked along a fresh new trail
To stumble and fall upon the brown leaves
The leaves are brown and the sky is pale
I walk along and through the hemlock trees
I fall once more on the bare ground
To find a rock that is not round;
It's an arrowhead!
A few steps later I find some armor
It appears to be Spanish, of long ago
Punctured with the holes of arrows,
From some battle of the days of yore;
Instantly,in my mind, I am transported
Back far in time to a battle;
I see Natives and Spanish
With long ago weapons
The war went on for many hours
In the end, victory-OURS
I am speaking from the side of the Spanish
Now of which all have vanished;
No traces left, other than these
Left scattered among the trees;
We built a colony among the trees,
One of which would not succeed