Friday 12 October 2012

Spain gives Trinidad and Tobago historic documents

Happy National Day to Spain. Our former Colonial masters from 1498 to 1797.

The Fiesta Nacional de España is the national day of Spain. It is held annually on October 12 and is a national holiday. It commemorates the anniversary of Christopher Columbus's first arrival in the Americas, a day also celebrated in other countries. The day is also dedicated to Nuestra Señora del Pilar, Our Lady of the Pillar, the patron saint of all Hispanic peoples and of the Spanish Civil Guard.

Our Lady of the Pillar (Spanish: Nuestra Señora del Pilar) is the name given to the Blessed Virgin Mary for her claimed appearance during the start of Christianity in Spain. She is the Patroness of the Spanish Civil Guard and the Hispanic world (but the Patroness of Spain is the Inmaculate Conception).

So Spain has given Trinidad some Historic Documents. Below is an article taken from the Newsday Papers of October 12th 2012 written by Lara Pickford-Gordon.

A DESCRIPTION of TT by Admiral Christopher Columbus in 1498, the Royal Charter appointing the first Spanish Governor Antonio Cedeño and the earliest recorded economic and social statistics for Trinidad, were among the reproduced historical items given to TT by the Spanish government yesterday.

Also donated was a duplicate of the 1776 map of Trinidad and the “Real Cédula de Poblacíon,” which Spanish Ambassador Joaquín de Arístegui Laborde said is, “considered by some historians to be the social Constitution of the pre-19th century Trinidad.”

Spanish company REPSOL was the main private sponsor of the historical documents. Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar hosted a luncheon at the Diplomatic Centre, St Ann’s yesterday to commemorate the donation of historical documents from the General Archive of the Indies of Seville by the Spanish government. The donation was made to mark TT’s 50th anniversary of Independence and took place on the eve of Spain’s National Day.

Laborde said, “this archival donation clearly shows the islands of Trinidad and Tobago were important components of the hemispheric project for the construction of the Spanish Americas.”

He spoke of the significance of October 12 as a tribute to the transatlantic bond and the shared bond of 300 years.


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