A statue of Pedro Menéndez de Avilés, the founder of St. Augustine, stands outside the Lightner Museum.
(Joe Shlabotnik / Flickr)

In this episode, we'll talk with Prof. Kevin Kokomoor about his book, La Florida: Catholics, Conquistadores, and Other American Origin Stories.

Spanish sailors discovering the edges of a new continent, greedy, violent conquistadors quickly moving in to find riches, and Catholic missionaries on their search for religious converts: these forces of Spanish colonialism in Florida helped spark British plans for colonization of the continent and influenced some of the most enduring traditions of the larger Southeast. The key history presented in the book challenges the general assumption that whatever is important or interesting about this country is a product of its English past.