www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/florida/sfl-foldcity14m -
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Published on: 5/14/2007
Last Visited: 5/14/2007
"We speak English and we're reared in … English historical traditions, which have tended to depreciate what the Spanish have contributed to history," said Bill Adams, the city's director of Historic Preservation and Heritage Tourism.Historians have tended to "write the Spanish out of their history books or diminish their contributions.So Americans have inherited that."
Adams says St. Augustine is also to blame for why it gets no respect compared to Jamestown and Plymouth, Mass., where the Pilgrims settled in 1620."It hasn't advertised itself very well.It hasn't gotten any press," Adams said.
Still, he said, St. Augustine's contribution to American history should be celebrated and believes it will get more notice with the growing Hispanic population of this country and the 450th anniversary in 2015.The king and queen of Spain, who visited in 2001, will be invited back.
"I don't know how long it will take before the Spanish people realize that St. Augustine is their Williamsburg or their Plymouth or their Jamestown," Adams said."St.
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They came here to set up a military base that would prevent their enemies from establishing a position from which they could menace the treasure ships of Spain off the coast," Adams said.