Monday, May 14, 2007

How/why did our culture forget about St. Augustine?

Anyone who half paid attention to the news last week and the week before would've gotten the distinct impression that Jamestown was the first permanent settlement in the US. Wtff? Was this another way of erasing the Spanish influence on our culture? Is it related to the way we are encouraged to mispronounce Spanish names around here (San Jacinto, Manchaca, Guadalupe, Pedernales)? Here's an article about St. Augustine's reaction. It makes the excellent point that Jamestown wasn't even permanent. It stopped being a town in the mid-18th century while St. Augustine has continued to survive since it was founded in 1565.

2 comments:

Pete said...

Thanks for that post - I don't know much about the U.S. colonial past and this was quite enlightening.

Dr. D'Orsogna said...

That was totally me and not Pete. I guess he was on this computer.