St. Augustine celebrates 442nd birthday
St. Augustine is the nation's oldest city, and its 442nd birthday celebration is scheduled for August 28-September 1, including historical re-enactments, entertainment, and yes, a Thanksgiving feast. But this one will commemorate a feast held in September of 1565 by the Spaniards and native Timucuan Indians, when the menu likely included wild turkey, venison and salted pork stew.
Historians and officials here can't help but wonder what all the Jamestown brouhaha is about. St. Augustine was founded September 8, 1565, by Spaniard Pedro Menendez de Aviles and his expedition of 500 soldiers, 200 sailors and 100 farmers and craftsmen. Some brought their wives and children. They, not the Pilgrims, celebrated the first Thanksgiving in the New World. The first schools, hospitals and banks in what is now the United States were built here.
"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, Massachusetts, where the Pilgrims settled in 1620.
"It hasn't advertised itself very well. It hasn't gotten any press," Adams said.
But, 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 upcoming 450th anniversary in 2015. The king and queen of Spain, who visited in 2001, will be invited back.