El Nuevo Mundo - The New World.

In the wake the “discovery“ of the Western Hemisphere by Christopher Columbus in the late 1400s, Spanish and Portuguese explorers continued the quest for riches in the “New World”. One fateful day on April 21, 1519, a very decisive chapter in Mexican history was written when a fleet of 11 Spanish ships sailing along the eastern gulf coast dropped anchor just off the wind-swept beach on the island of San Juan de Ulúa. Under the command of Hernán Cortés, the vessels bore 550 Spanish soldiers and sailors, as well as 16 horses, the first of the species to tread the American continent. The Spanish explorers had found a land rich with resources, which they couldn’t wait to stake a claim for God and the Spanish Crown.

The period of the Spanish conquest and what they did in Latin America will always remain a controversial chapter in the history of mankind.

Note: One of the churches below has a huge green cross erected in the foreground. That is in fact not a cross representing Christ, but a Mayan cross. More details about this mystical church blending Catholicism and ancient Mayan rituals can be found on my blog here.

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