(David) Christopher Columbus brought many things to the Americas, some good, some not so good.

The heritage of his voyages and his crews of Spaniards endures.

It included the export of the culture of southwestern Spain.

That culture pervaded Columbus's thinking and that of the many sailors who guided him, accompanied him, and made his trips possible.

(Announcer) Funding for In the Americas with David Yetman was provided by Robert and Carol Dorsey.

Additional funding for In the Americas with David Yetman was provided by Laura and Arch Brown and by the Guilford Fund.

(David) This was the Alhambra in the city of Granada in southeastern Spain.

It is the most visited site by international visitors in the entire country.

Construction began in the mid 13th century, but 200 years later, the momentous year of 1492 changed everything.

Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand managed to drive the moors from Granada.

Their last vestige in the Iberian Peninsula.

They expelled Jews from the Iberian Peninsula as well.

The Spanish language became codified in an national dictionary, and Spain became unified as a country, all in 1492.

So Columbus set out in a year and which was very for him, propitious.

Granada, along with Sevilla and Cordoba is part of Andalucía.

The southern provinces of Spain.

It retains the strongest remnants of Moorish culture.

Christopher Columbus was of Italian origin, but he spent nearly a decade traveling around the region.

Its culture and history rubbed off on him.

It also rubs off on every person who visits the Great Palace of Moorish royalty: the Alahmbra.

Many experts consider the Alhambra to represent one of the seven artistic wonders of the Muslim world.

The enclosing walls are about one mile long.

The name Alhambra means Red Castle in Arabic due to the subtle reddish color of the walls.

After Isabella and her husband Fernando, defeated and expelled the Moors from Granada, the palace fell into ruin as a symbol of the defeated Muslims.

The restoration dates from the 19th century.

The project was endowed by Fernando the seventh King of Spain, with special instructions to preserve the original, masterful design.

The Alahmbra receives about 2 million visitors a year, which is by far the most popular in Spain and one of Europe's most popular attractions, for very good reason the architects wanted to create a place that would be the epitome of spiritual repose.

We have not seen the need that Spaniards felt to cover up the the Islamic art with Christian art.

From Granada, the city of Cordoba, with its great mosque, lies about 3 hours drive to the west.

The Great mosque called the Mesquita, or a little mosque, dates from the eighth century and was built over the ruins of a Roman city.

Cordoba was defeated by Spanish forces in the mid 13th century.

Soon thereafter, a Christian church was erected.

In the 17th century, a cathedral was constructed in the middle of the mosque.

It remains the cathedral of the city of Cordoba.

I know you can't possibly anticipate the difference between being outside and being inside where the power of the mosque and the designs combined with Christianity are simply overwhelming.

We have to keep in mind that by the middle of the eighth century, all of the Iberian Peninsula, south of the Pyrenees, had been invaded and conquered by Islamic forces, and immediately they began to assert their domination through their architecture.

Before long, Cordoba became the cultural center of the entire Western world.

The greatest scientists, mathematicians, scholars, architects were all Islamic and expressed their creativity here, especially in Cordoba.

The reconquest of Spain was enormously important for Catholicism.

So there is no subtlety about the construction of a huge Gothic church almost smashing down the mosque beneath.

The esthetic impact is quite different from the subtlety, the interplay of light, the ongoing illusions that the mosque created.

You have a clear, stern statement of Catholicism, of Christianity on top.

No question who won the battle here.

From Cordoba, it's a two hour drive to Sevilla, the dominant city of Andalucia.

In Columbus's time It was a thriving port.

Ships could arrive from the Atlantic or Mediterranean and sail up the Guadalquivir River to the city.

It was home to a large community of seafarers, as well as having a strong Catholic presence.

This building from the 16th century is called the Archivo General de Indias, the general archive of the Indies.

In the late 18th century, the King of Spain decreed that all the archives in Spanish hands throughout the world should be gathered here.

There are supposedly 80 million documents, including original documents signed by Christopher Columbus, King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella.

With a number of conquistadores, sailors, settlers, priests came into the New world.

That meant that there were new places constantly being founded, and the Crown decided there had to be regulations, strict regulations as to how these new places, cities and towns would be ordered.

The result was in the middle of the 16th century, a series of regulations called The Laws of the Indies.

These laws dictated every part of the development of a town, beginning with a town square, the location of the church administrative offices where people could live.

And those laws were applied for three or four hundred years.

And in every town in the Americas south of the United States border.

You can see the application of the laws of the Indies.

The Sevilla Cathedral is one of the two largest churches in the world.

Spaniards claim.

It is also clearly one of the most ornate and is the pride of southern Spain, if not the whole country.

The hiralda in the center of the plaza next to the cathedral in downtown Seville is probably the best known structure in all of Spain.

It was constructed in the 12th century as a part of a mosque a minaret, but less than 100 years later, Seville was conquered by the Christian forces.

Christians then added another 40 or 50 feet to the top.

It an outstanding example of Islamic architecture and design that has never been duplicated anywhere else.

Part of Sevilla█s great wealth, was derived from copper, gold, silver extracted from the Rio Tinto mine, which in Columbus's time had already been in operation for more than a thousand years.

The export of those metals also required the presence of shipping interests, entrepreneurs, owners, sailors and ship captains capable of navigating all the known waters of the world.

The Rio Tinto was such an unusual river in the world that the mining companies that over the years have owned it, have set up a kind of tourist train to take people along, show them and explain the river.

Because as you look at it, it almost makes you think that is the mining operation that caused the water in that river to appear so vile.

[In Spanish] (Guide) The main features of the river are entirely natural and have been like this for millions of years before there was any mining activity.

These are acid waters with a very low pH with significant concentrations of metals that have oxidized, hence the red color.

[In Spanish] The arrival of scientists from Spain's Astrobiology Center and also from NASA gave the river and this area an international dimension.

They have discovered very special types of micro-organisms like fungi, algae.

These are the oldest mines on the planet.

We have found evidence of mining activity already in the copper age, some 5000 years ago.

[In Spanish] During the Roman period these became the most important mines of the Western Empire.

My grandmother is 97 years old and she tells me stories about things that happened here in the mining community.

The mines have taken the lives of many, many men.

(David) The 13th century saw numerous battles of Christians against Moors as Catholic forces gradually recaptured the Iberian Peninsula from the forces of Islam.

In the city of Aracena, an hour's drive from the Rio Tinto mine and its fabulous mineral wealth.

A 13th century castle towers over the city.

This is where the battle began between the Christians and the Moors.

[In Spanish] (Eduardo) Aracena█s Castle is a transported place.

Where the middle age blends with the fights of the Portuguese and Castilian kingdoms.

It is also a multicultural place because we find Andalucia settlement between the 10th and the 13th centuries.

And a Christian settlement both Portuguese and Castilian.

The province of Huelva and Aracena, had a special connection with the colonization of America, because, for instance, the wood of the Sierrra Oaks was used in Seville█s ship yards, where they build the vessels that would sail to the new continent.

[In Spanish] Also Aracena and the surrounding areas provided much of the necessary food for the long journeys which lasted several months.

What we call now the jamón de jabugo was already produced here in the Middle Ages.

It is basically meat cured by salting, which makes it last longer.

An interesting thing is that we can find in America the last name Aracena which comes from those neighbors of the village who lived and use their places of origin as their last name.

You can find it nowadays in many places in Argentina, Dominican Republic, Chile, reclaiming the heritage of those early settlers.

[In Spanish] Mudejar is an artistic style characterized by the mix of Christian building methods with decorations and materials of the Islamic Period.

[In Spanish] (David) There are no representations of living creatures in here.

That's the Islamic tradition.

The Mudejar is a combination of Islamic and Christian elements.

(Eduardo) In medieval Spain you find spaces for cohabitation with the three cultures Jewish, Christian and Muslim living in peace in many places and developing strong bonds and high degree of acculturation.

This is the transferring of customs and information between cultures.

[In Spanish] (David) The city of Aracena was a dominant center for numerous villages in the region.

One of them has retained a remarkable degree of rural Spanish culture of that age.

Its name is Alájar, which means stone in Arabic.

Apparent in the town's construction.

We come here to join an annual pilgrimage.

We also learn about local products for which the region is renowned.

It's a straight shot of about 40 miles to the Atlantic Ocean.

It's in the region where Columbus came and spent about seven years trying to get financing and preparation for what would be his trip to the west.

There are innumerable small towns like this that still exist in Spain, and they produce products that would have been well-known in Columbus█ Day, particularly pork and ham, the cork bark that was essential to a number of industries.

Here, in Alájar, the most important thing we see is oak trees.

Why are they so important?

(Ángel) Because of the pigs and also because they produce very good wood and also the acorns so the pigs and also the cork.

So we have cork, wood and pigs.

Ham from these pigs that eat the bellotas, eat these acorns is actually nutritionally good for us.

(Ángel) Exactly, it█s 57, 58% in omega threes.

It raises the good cholesterol and lowers the bad cholesterol.

(Dave) If you've ever wondered where the cork comes from for your wine bottles.

Here we are in southwestern Spain, right near Portugal.

And that's where all the world's cork comes from.

It's a special tree.

And they go to the tree and begin to remove the bark.

It does not harm the trees.

It leaves them, the tree with this reddish color.

And then very slowly begins to grow cork again.

Some of the cork producing trees are hundreds of years old.

Alájar is an important pilgrimage destination.

There's a sanctuary here that is the object of veneration.

[In Spanish] (Lourdes) We come here all year round, not just during the days of the pilgrimage.

And once you get to know it.

You get hooked on it.

[In Spanish] Because it provokes such intense emotions.

You have to come here to feel it.

[In Spanish] My grandmother had a son who was very sick.

She came to see La Virgen riding a donkey and when her son got well, she made the promise to come walking barefoot every year with her sisters.

And so they did, because her son recovered thanks to her, La Virgen.

She kept her promise.

(David) Small towns from all over the region have a pilgrimage up here, and it is a huge spectacle.

People come from all over the country to participate.

People come out with their annual costumes, especially ones commemorating their roots in this area.

The men with their special hats, the women with their special dresses.

All the horses each year are decorated for this particular procession, and two oxen are pulling the special cart.

Those oxen are rented from town to town all over the region to do the same thing.

(Pilar) We come from many kilometers away because this brotherhood comes from the mining region, not from the Sierra.

So now when all the brotherhoods arrive after the procession, we attend mass and then we all will have lunch together.

We█re grateful for having left a pandemic behind and finally being able to come to see her.

[In Spanish] (Dave) Each of the ten brotherhoods that come from different small towns and even big towns have their own cart.

They█re normally called Carretas but for this particular use they're called Sin Pecados, which means without sin they are strictly dedicated to the Virgin Mary, each with its own particular design, depending on the town and with each with its own standard inside and each pulled by usually by oxen.

Or if the community can't quite afford it by mules, they have their own identity.

Each one of them.

And it's a great mark of pride to each hermanidad, each brotherhood, to show their distinctive group how different they are and yet how devoted they are to the Virgin.

(Rafael) This is primarily a family celebration where family members and friends who have not seen each other for a long time come to reconnect.

Many people had to leave these lands for personal or professional reasons.

So this day becomes very meaningful.

[Singing in Spanish] (David) Like every other festival in the world, and especially in Spain, the religious festivals is also a time for a party.

So when people walk up this steep climb up to this outcropping, this peña as they call it, there is always refreshments of all kinds available to the people who get there.

And once they have paid their religious obligation, it's also time to have a lot of fun.

(Eugeña) What I like the most is the journey to get here, and we make many stops to sing to La Virgen.

To give offerings.

It's a lot of emotions in a single day.

[Singing in Spanish] (David) As we look down from the shrine from the center of pilgrimage down to the town of Alájar, we realize what a special place it is.

You wonder how are they possibly able to maintain the beauty of this village in the mountains into the 21st century without huge amounts of change?

It looks probably like it did 150-200 years ago.

At the same time, as the annual fiesta in Alájar, a huge event is taking place in Aracena only ten kilometers away.

It's a stage in the Vuelta España.

One of the three great bicycle races in the world.

And Spain takes its bicycling very, very seriously.

I'm about 12 miles from the beginning of the race.

This major highway has been shut down to all vehicles except those involved in supporting the riders.

There will be somewhere around between 140 and 150 of them.

We see the peloton coming now.

And the lads are going to be going very fast, probably 30 to 35 miles an hour to get to this spot.

It's like a military invasion except by bicyclists.

And the stuff that they need.

It█s the Vuelta España!

[Crowd cheering] Prior to 1492, we could not have had the Vuelta España, the Spanish tour, because there was no Spain.

There were several kingdoms that were warring to try to control more and more territory.

But in 1492, the political forces aligned and Spain as a nation began to form.

Thank God that we have that, if we love bicycling because due to that we can now have 500 years later the Vuelta España, the great bicycle race.

(Carlos) We have being in the Sierra.

We have seen our pilgrimage.

We have seen Muslim Castle, we have seen flamenco dancing, We have seen so many things is to understand why these, this Mestizaje that happened in America, what it comes from, we learn, especially in academia, which are they, you know, they Aztecs or Miztecs or Inca, part of the heritage.

These were European coming here to Huelva seeing how people live, how people eat, how people go out, how people relate to each other.

I think that is very important will help you understand why the Latin American character is the way it is and how it would have been so different if it had been Anglo-Saxons or other northern Europeans who who had conquered Latin America, because for me that's the other thing that is very noticeable is you go to Latin America and you see these kind of common, you know, trade of interpreting life, living life, Native American, you know, heritage can be very different.

But then there is a common from Patagonia to to Sonora that is a very you can find a common interpretation of of life.

And I'm pretty sure that in a high proportion comes from how we interpret life here in Huelva.

(David) That Spanish ethos the pride of things Castilian and Andalusian were also part of what Columbus brought with him on his voyages to what would become the Americas.

Join us next time In the Americas with me, David Yetman.

Recently, the world commemorated the 500th anniversary of the Voyages of Christopher Columbus.

Those journeys made Europeans aware of a world new to them, a world they soon invaded and transformed.

These are the very famous Iberian pigs.

They make jamón iberico, which is by far and away the best ham in the world.

These are not ordinary pigs.

They are descended from a cross between domesticated and a wild pig.

Each one of these requires one hectare of land and they live on five months of the year, acorns.

(Announcer) Funding for In the Americas with David Yetman was provided by Robert and Carol Dorsey.

Additional funding for In the Americas with David Yetman was provided by Laura and Arch Brown and by the Guilford Fund.