Spain-Ponce-2014

The 5th Centenary of Juan Ponce de León’s arrival at the Florida coast is being commemorated by the issue of a stamp referring to the historical event. On Easter Sunday 1513, also called Pascua Florida(Festival of Flowers), the Spanish expedition led by Juan Ponce de León disembarked in a new land which they named Florida, in honour of the religious festival.
It seems that the explorer landed in the place nowadays called Melbourne, near Cape Canaveral, without knowing that he had just discovered the territory where the United States of America would be founded a few centuries later.Juan Ponce de León (Santervás de Campos, Valladolid, 1460 – Cuba, 1521) came from a noble family. He was a page in the court of the Catholic Monarchs and fought at the conquest of Granada. It is thought that he went on Christopher Columbus’s second expedition to America and took part in the conquest of Hispaniola, the island formed by Haiti and Santo Domingo. From there, he went on to take the nearby island of Borinquen, now Puerto Rico, in 1508, and colonised it easily with the help of Agueybana, the chief of the Taino Indians. He was appointed governor of Puerto Rico, where he built towns and mined for gold and natural resources after subduing the Indians. In 1511, he was removed from the post of governor.The conquistador started on new adventures in 1513, and with royal assent, left Puerto Rico in search of an uncharted place, called Bimini. After several weeks at sea, on Ester Sunday or Pascua Florida, the expedition disembarked in an exotic land that they named Florida. Back in Puerto Rico, Ponce de León obtained the title ofAdelantado, which confirmed his right to explore, using his own means, on behalf of the Spanish crown.In 1521, Juan Ponce de León led a new expedition, consisting of ships, religious orders, men, women, craftsmen, seeds, livestock and farming tools, to colonise Florida. He was wounded by a poisoned arrow in a fight with the Indians and ordered withdrawal to Cuba, where he died. Other Spanish expeditions followed in Ponce de León’s footsteps and left a clear imprint of Spain in Florida with the founding of the first towns, schools, churches, hospitals and courts of justice.
Source: Spanish Post
Released January 21st, 2014