For this month of Latino/a heritage, I thought I would share a little history about languages here in North America... we may all have heard of Ponce de Leon and the fountain of youth (OK, or maybe not, but roll with me!) but to stop and think about it, when you wonder what was the first European language spoken (and first permanent settlement), it was SPANISH in what's now Florida in 1565 - that's not a typo - 1565 -  just 73 years after Columbus' first voyage. Pedro Menendez de Aviles was the first governor of Florida in that year. ("Florida" means "flowery" so there must have been lots of beautiful flowers growing in the region of St. Augustine, Florida at that time.) That settlement in what is now the northeast corner of the state of Florida is the oldest continuously inhabited European-established settlement in the US.  And then, there was New Mexico (Santa Fe as its capital)... in 1610, whereas the Mayflower landed at Plymouth Rock (now Massachusetts) in 1620. Jamestown Virginia was established in 1607, so the Virginians beat the Plymouth Mayflower folks by 13 years. 

And as a little "lagniappe" (or extra, in New Orleans creole speak), Quebec (New France) was founded by the French in... 1608, just a year after Jamestown. So we had Spanish and French way early in North America. But hopefully this gives a little perspective on languages spoken on these shores, in addition to the thousands of Indigenous languages that were already well established before these Europeans ever came ashore. What languages did your ancestors speak?