Latinos helped win the U.S. War of Independence!

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Admin
– July 3, 2007Posted in: Classic Juice 2

I read with interest today a column by Raoul Lowery Contreras where he postulates that the U.S.A. would not exist today were it not for the help of Spaniards and Mexicans who helped to defeat the British. This is a great piece to read as we lead up to the 4th of July.

Here are a few excerpts:

Three hundred and fifty one days before the Declaration of Independence was signed by those brave revolutionary Americans in Philadelphia on July 4, 1776, Father Junipero Serra celebrated his first mass in San Diego with a dozen Spanish soldiers and a handful of curious Indians.

Fours years later, Spain joined France and declared war on England. Father Serra supported the war by levying each Indian in his Mission San Diego de Alcala one peso per Sunday mass and his Spanish parishioners two pesos. This levy was not for the glory of God; it was for guns, ammunition, and soldiers to fight the British.

Even before Spain declared war on England, its Governor General in Louisiana, a territory stretching from the Appalachian Mountains to the Mississippi Valley, was helping American revolutionaries with money, credit, arms and gunpowder.

With Spanish ships refusing to enter into the harbor to bombard the British fort, Galvez was left to his own devices, courage and charisma. Declaring himself a soldier, not a sailor, he hoisted his personal flag (Yo Solo, Me alone) on his command ship and sailed into the harbor to shell the fort. Other ships followed and the fort was bombarded until the fort


About Admin

"Admin" is just editors Vern Nelson, Greg Diamond, or Ryan Cantor sharing something that they mostly didn't write themselves, but think you should see. Before December 2010, "Admin" may have been former blog owner Art Pedroza.