Museum: Arizona Heritage Center

Join the Arizona Historical Society and Dr. Andrés Reséndez for an installment of AHS Summer History Talks: Spanish Period in Arizona! This is a virtual program.

Cortés famously led campaigns that brought down the Aztec Empire in 1521. Far less known is his subsequent career as a silver baron and transpacific explorer. This presentation will focus on the connections between Spain’s mining activities in North America during the sixteenth century and the development of the Manila Galleon, as American silver sustained a durable transpacific relationship with silver-starved China.

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Join the Arizona Historical Society and Dr. Matthew Restall for an installment of AHS Summer History Talks: Spanish Period in Arizona! This is a virtual program.

In a staircase mural in the old Mexican Embassy in Washington, DC, the Discoverer, the Conqueror, and the Emperor almost met. But in the end, only Columbus was preserved in paint, chosen over Cortés and Montezuma. Drawing upon a trio of his books, recent and upcoming, historian Matthew Restall uses the story of this mural to explore how the legends of these three men evolved over the past five centuries. Understanding that evolution, he argues, dramatically changes how we see much of the history of the Americas, from the Aztecs to the present day.

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Join the Arizona Historical Society and Dr. Deni Seymour for an installment of AHS Summer History Talks: Spanish Period in Arizona! This is a virtual program.

With the addition of the 13th site to the Coronado Expedition route through Arizona it’s safe to say that our understanding of the expedition has grown exponentially. Six different site types have now been defined along Arizona’s Coronado expedition routes, including the main route between Nogales and the Gila River. Even the relatively small overnight encampments exhibit an informative array of evidence. When compared to the largest site (the settlement of San Geronimo III or suya), a rich narrative about the expedition as a whole emerges.

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Join the Arizona Historical Society and Dr. Paul Conrad for an installment of AHS Summer History Talks: Spanish Period in Arizona! This is a virtual program.

This presentation will consider the history and legacies of Spanish colonialism in Arizona and the Southwest from the vantage point of Apache history. Apache (Ndé) peoples are known for their independence from and resistance to Spanish, Mexican, and U.S. governance. Yet colonial efforts to subjugate them—including through long-distance forced migrations–were also deeply impactful to their communities. Dr. Paul Conrad will discuss this history through the stories of specific individuals and the broader themes their life experiences reveal.

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Join the Arizona Historical Society and Dr. Nick Myers for an installment of AHS Summer History Talks: Spanish Period in Arizona!

In 1765, as part of a royal inspection of the Kingdom of New Spain, Visitador General José de Gàlvez travelled to the far northern reaches of Spanish colonization in North America. Gálvez was charged with enacting fundamental reforms in the systems of defense and taxation across the Viceroyalty as a whole. This talk will relate the strange story of the royal visita to the northern frontier and uncover the roots of the regions peculiarity, wildly diverse population, and prevalence of political autonomy that characterized the western portion of today’s U.S.-Mexico Borderlands in the Spanish Colonial Era.

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Join the Arizona Historical Society and Dr. Cynthia Radding for an installment of AHS Summer History Talks: Spanish Period in Arizona!

Power, knowledge, and religion converge in the imperial networks that created the sinews of early modern globalization. In consonance with the historical frameworks that guide this celebration of the historical and cultural legacies of Tucson, Arizona, this presentation focuses on the peoples of the Sonoran Desert, the borderlands of imperial power, and the re-working of institutions and performative expressions of spiritual power. For both Amerindian and Iberian peoples of the early modern world, the spiritual and political realms of religion were not inseparable; rather the exercise of power through ritual was closely interlaced with the institutions of local governance and imperial rule. Set in the cultural and ecological borderlands of the Iberian imperial spheres in northern New Spain (northwestern Mexico), this presentation highlights the spiritual dimension of “the shining desert” as expressed by the Tohono O’odham and neighboring peoples. It places the founding of Tucson as a presidio on the borderlands of the Spanish imperium, in a O’odham village along the Santa Cruz drainage within the environmental and historical contexts of the enduring peoples of the Sonoran Desert.

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Join the Arizona Historical Society and Dr. Rosina Lozano for an installment of AHS Summer History Talks: Spanish Period in Arizona!

After the U.S.-Mexican War, the Spanish language became a language of politics as Spanish speakers in the U.S. Southwest used it to build territorial and state governments. Spanish was visible on a broad array of items: on ballots; on stage, where translators next to political speakers could be seen and were expected; in governors’ proclamations; and in officially sanctioned translations of state laws. In the twentieth century, Spanish became a political language where its speakers and those opposed to its use clashed over what its presence in the United States meant and whether to allow its continuation.

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Join the Arizona Historical Society for the installment of AHS Summer History Talks: Spanish Period in Arizona!

This roundtable discussion features authors from the forthcoming special issue of the Journal of Arizona History (Autumn 2025), which takes a fresh look at Spanish colonial history in this region. The authors will discuss topics ranging from Spanish-Indigenous relations and Spanish missionary efforts to the impact of the weather, the colonial soundscape, and plants and animals.

Help us keep programming free! Consider registering as a supporter and making a $10 donation to the Arizona Historical Society.