City commissioners Monday approved a letter of intent to sell a 1.9 acre parcel on 11-acre Riberia Pointe for a proposed aquarium for $124,363.63. The entire property was appraised at $720,000 in 2012, and Appraiser Ronald Pacetti said that value hasn't changed despite an uptick in the economy.

City Manager John Regan said the letter is necessary for developers Shawn and Kathy Hiester to proceed with efforts to get a Small Business Administration loan as part of the financing, and the letter will not bind the commission in eventual
future negotiations.

ADDED LIGHTS OK - City commissioners approved adding $88,000 in additional lighting in a historic district streetscape plan in a 3-1 vote Monday. Commissioner Don Crichlow opposed "putting colonial fixtures in an area that's not colonial" - areas outside the city's restoration area on north St. George Street. Existing and proposed lighting on Spanish Street is highlighted in photos.

Signs must go

City commissioners Monday unanimously approved an ordinance for removal of signs and sign structures on vacated businesses - signs within 30 days and sign structures within six months.

Responding to a question of reusing existing sign structures, Planning and Zoning Director Mark Knight said, "Many sign structures would not be allowed under the entry corridor guidelines so reuse would not be approved."

Leyenda Negra 16th Century propaganda  

1 year, 5 months, 14 days to St. Augustine's 450th anniversary

   "Black Legend" is the accumulated traditions of propaganda and Hispanophobia accord­ing to which Spanish imperialism is regarded as cruel, bigoted, exploitative and self-righteous in excess of the reality. - Dr. Charles Gibson (1958)

   St. Augustine, survivor of bombardments, sieges, fires and weather was, finally, sacked by politics - a public relations campaign that has continued for four centuries, la Leyenda Negra, the Black Legend.

   The term was coined by Julián Juderías in his 1914 book La leyenda negra y la verdad histórica (The Black Legend and Historical Truth), to describe the allegedly biased depiction of Spain and Spaniards as "cruel", "intolerant" and "fanatical" in anti-Spanish literature starting in the 16th century. 

   The Black Legend propaganda is said to be influenced by national and religious rivalries as seen in works by early Protestant historians and Anglo Saxon writers, describing the period of Spanish imperialism in a deliberately negative way.

   One of the strongest and earliest supporters for the Legend was the Englishman John Foxe, author of the Book of Martyrs (1554). Other critics of Spain included Antonio Pérez, the fallen secretary of King Philip II of Spain. Pérez fled to England, where he published attacks on the Spanish monarchy under the title Relaciones (1594).

   These books were extensively used by the Dutch during their fight for independence from Spain, and taken up by the English to justify their piracy and wars against the Spanish.

   Foxe's book was among Sir Francis Drake's favorites; Drake himself was and is regarded by Spaniards as a cruel and bloodthirsty pirate.

The two northern nations were not only emerging as Spain's rivals for worldwide colonialism, but were also strongholds of Protestantism while Spain was the most powerful Roman Catholic country of the period.

   Former Secretary of the Interior Stewart Udall, a student of Spanish colonial history, in his Coronado and our Spanish Legacy: To the Inland Empire, noted, "Only once since the invention of the printing press has a successful campaign of defamation lasting centuries been waged against an entire people.

   "That nation is Spain, and that campaign of calumny - known to modern historians as the 'Hispanophobia Black Legend' - made Span­iards pariahs and demeaned the character of the Spanish people. This myth, I am convinced, has influenced earlier generations of Americans to cast a cold eye on the achievements of our Spanish pioneers."