Spanish Florida

Sometimes is hard for me to picture Florida as a former Spanish colony. Now that Orlando and Miami, with their lights and agitated life are the most representative images of this state. Nonetheless, it was a gratifying experience to dig out a piece of history I didn't know anything about, and I think is been irresponsibly erased from Spanish historical annals. I really felt connected to my subject, a family of Spaniards that voluntarily decided to stay in America after the peninsula was sold to the U.S. In a way, I would have enjoyed spending more time on this topic, the little information I found about this family, specially the eldest son, Eusebio Maria Gomez, mean more to me than the thousands of pages I had to read for the tests. In a way, I was able to connect with their conflicting loyalties, their harassed culture, and their legacy. In a way, it's funny how I have lived in 3 different continents, yet I always lived in "Spanish" territory.