This book "The de Riberas" is a celebration of the sacrifices made by my progenitors, a way to pay homage to the part they played in the founding of the northern areas New Spain. It is also an appreciation of their contributions to this great nation, the United States of America. To be sure, this is not a historical book. I leave that to the real historians. Much of this information is gleaned from the internet and used to explain one family’s descendents in various historical timelines using the history at each stage as a backdrop.

I have only just come to understand how little I know about my forbearers. Even the length of four hundred years of New World history tells little about a family or a man’s background. The de Riberas were Spaniards. They left the Old World’s beautiful Iberian Peninsula for the New World, specifically New Spain’s most northern frontier. The families settled in Santa Fe, New Mexico about 1695. The other lines had progenitors that arrived in Santa Fe earlier, in 1599. This began their life in a brave new world. What follows is but the shadow of a rich and complex tapestry of the times and places, and those men and women who once lived them. As I knew little of Spain this work has taken me on quite a journey of discovery about that wonderful nation known as Spain. I spent some time there when a young man and participated in the running of the bulls in Pamplona.

Today’s Spain is located on the Iberian Peninsula in southwestern Europe and is officially called the Kingdom of Spain or Reino de España. Spain’s mainland is bordered to the south and east by the Mediterranean Sea except for a small land boundary with Gibraltar. On the north and northeast it’s bordered by France, Andorra, and the Bay of Biscay. In the west and northwest Portugal and the Atlantic Ocean are its borders. Spain, France, and Morocco are the only three countries to have both Atlantic and Mediterranean coastlines. Spain's border with Portugal is the longest uninterrupted border within the European Union.

Modern humans first arrived on the Iberian Peninsula around 35,000 years ago. Many, many things have happened on the Peninsula since then. However, for most little is known or understood about Spain’s past.

Some people have a vague idea about Spain’s emergence as a unified country in the 15th Century, following the marriage of the Catholic Monarchs, Ferdinand and Isabella and the completion of the centuries-long reconquest, or Reconquista, of the Peninsula from the Moors in 1492.

If pressed, a few would have a sprinkling of knowledge that in the early modern period, Spain became one of history's first global colonial empire, leaving a vast cultural and linguistic legacy that includes over 500 million Spanish speakers, making Spanish the world's second most spoken first language.

High school classes in America teach the history of exploration and the colonization of America. In that context there is a mention of Spain. Teachers speak of Spanish conquistadors, the Armada, etc.

There is little emphasis on Spanish culture, Spanish life, history or geography. So let us begin again with some facts.

But what is Spain? Modern Spain is a democracy organized in the form of a parliamentary government under a constitutional monarchy. It is a developed country with the thirteenth largest economy in the world. It is a member of the United Nations, NATO, OECD, and WTO.

Spanish is a part of the Ibero-Romance group of languages, which evolved from several dialects of common Latin in Iberia after the collapse of the Western Roman Empire in the 5^th Century. It was first documented in central-northern Iberia in the 9th Century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia. From its beginnings, Spanish vocabulary was influenced by its contact with Basque, as well as by other Ibero-Romance languages, and later it absorbed many Arabic words during the Muslim presence in the Iberian Peninsula. It also adopted many words from non-Iberian languages, particularly the Romance languages Occitan, French, Italian and Sardinian and increasingly from English in modern times, as well as adding its own new words. Spanish was taken to the colonies of the Spanish Empire in the 16^th Century, most notably to the Americas as well as territories in Africa, Oceania and the Philippines.

Spanish is the most popular second language learned by native speakers of American English. From the last decades of the 20th Century, the study of Spanish as a foreign language has grown significantly, in part because of the growing populations and economies of many Spanish-speaking countries, and the growing international tourism in these countries.

Spanish is the most widely understood language in the Western Hemisphere, with significant populations of native Spanish speakers ranging from the tip of Patagonia to as far north as Canada and since the early 21st Century, it has arguably superseded French as the second-most-studied language and the second language in international communication, after English.

Christian resistance to Muslim advances began almost immediately. However, the notion of a Christian holy war designed to exterminate or at least to expel the Muslims, and not simply to reconquer Spanish Christian territories, did not set in until the 11^th Century during the reign of Alfonso VI (1085-1109). In this era of crusading reconquest, a need arose for the living presence of religious-national figures, capable of rallying around themselves the Spanish Christian forces. Two figures emerged as emblems of Christian strength and supremacy: El Cid and Santiago. They fulfilled the needs of the Iberian Christians for heroes to emulate, and united them in their struggle for political and religious independence from Muslim rule. As Christian paragons, Santiago and El Cid became increasingly identified with one another. Christians attributed identical symbols to them, and their images merged to the point of being indistinguishable in the artistic depictions of these historical individuals in the eleventh through thirteenth centuries.

The unification of the spiritual and the secular, symbolized by the convergence of these figures’ images, marked the birth of the formation of a united Spanish Christian kingdom, and the creation of a unique national-religious identity in Spain.

Under the leadership of Alfonso VI a decisive program of crusading reconquest began. The monarch’s objective entailed uniting all of Spain under one crown and one religion. Tolerance and coexistence with the Muslims were no longer options if Alfonso sought to create a truly unified Spanish Christian kingdom. Thus, Santiago and El Cid grew to immense national and religious proportions because both fulfilled an historical need. Santiago represented the spiritual component of Alfonso’s agenda. The Leonese monarch called upon Spaniards to fight against the Muslims and establish the supremacy of the Catholic Church. To ensure the success of the reconquest, Spaniards believed God sent his vassal Santiago to lead them in battle and help them realize their goal. El Cid represented the secular element of the Christian Reconquista.

As Alfonso’s vassal, El Cid united the Spaniards in their struggle to oust the infidels and reclaim the peninsula for the Spanish Christian monarch Alfonso and his peoples. The Christian reconquest created faith in Santiago and El Cid as leaders who inspired resistance to the Muslims, and promised ultimate victory over Islam. Despite the similarities these figures acquired in their roles as Spanish crusaders, their origins could not be more diverse.

Santiago or St. James was the son of Zebedee, a fisherman in Galilee, and Salome, the sister of the Virgin Mary. He and his brother John the Evangelist were devout disciples of Christ, and such zealous preachers of the good news that Christ named them Boanerges, "the brothers of thunder." In 44 A.D. Santiago became the first of the Twelve Apostles to suffer martyrdom when Herod Agrippa I arrested and beheaded him in Jerusalem. Tradition places Santiago in Spain proselytizing prior to his execution. Why then would his body be buried in Spain if he died in Jerusalem? According to legend, Santiago’s disciples Athanasius and Theodore took his body back to Spain when a ship miraculously appeared, guided by an angel, to transport them. They buried the saint in the area known today as Compostela, "field of stars," where Santiago lay forgotten for nearly eight centuries.

According to legend, the saint aided the Spaniards at least forty times in earthly warfare, including the battle of Clavijo. This was a "brave assertion of faith in St. James, in the miracle at Clavijo, and in the patron saint’s heavenly care for Spain." The Spaniards "needed Santiago as the supernatural ally who would sustain their courage and bring certain success to their arms." This strong faith identified Santiago with the religious element of the reconquest and the revival of Spanish fortunes. It follows then, that at the end of the 11^th Century when a decisively religious element entered the equation of the Reconquista, an aggressive program of dignifying the apostolate of James and of exalting Compostela as the "second Rome" took place. The image of Compostela as a "second Rome" points to the site’s religious significance, and established its importance as a preeminent place of pilgrimage.

Over the next centuries several Christian kingdoms emerged in Spain, notably: Asturias,  Leon,  Castile.

Kingdom of Asturias

The Kingdom of Asturias was, in origin, a Visigoth kingdom of Spain created by Pelayo (Pelagius), a grandson of King Chindaswinth, who had been defeated by the Moors. Pelayo established his capital at Cangas de Onis, securing his independence with a victory at the Battle of Covadonga. The Moors, rather than sending more soldiers into Asturias, headed into France and in 732 were defeated at the Battle of Tours.

Kingdom of León

Alfonso had three feuding sons who plotted against each other and then against their father. To try to placate them all, Alfonso divided his kingdom into three parts. Garcia became king of León, Ordoño became king of Galicia, and Fruela became king of Oviedo (ruling Asturias). This division was short-lived as wars among the young men resulted in all the lands eventually coming together under one ruler.

García only reigned for four years before he died, without any children. Ordoño II ruled in Galicia before dying 14 years later and eventually Fruela II "The Cruel," Alfonso III’s fourth son, who had outlived the others, reunited the kingdom in 924. However he died of leprosy in the following year, with Ordoño II’s son’s becoming King Alfonso IV.

He did not want to rule and abdicated in order to spend the rest of his life as a monk. This allowed Alfonso IV’s brother to become King Ramiro II. Soon after this, Alfonso tried to regain the throne, only to be taken by his brother, blinded, and left at the Monastery of St. Julian, where he died soon afterward.

Ramiro II was succeeded by his elder son, Ordoño III, and then by a younger son, Sancho I "The Fat." There were two years when Ordoño IV "The Wicked," a son of Alfonso IV, was king, but then Sancho I’s only son became King Ramiro III. He was five when he became king and the Normans decided to attack again, destroying many coastal towns. Eventually he abdicated and allowed his cousin, Bermudo II, son of Ordoño III, to become king.

It was during the reign of Bermudo II that the Moors attacked and managed to get as far as León. When Bermudo II died in 999, his son Alfonso V was only five, and Don Melindo González, count of Galicia, became regent. In his 20s Alfonso V led his armies into battle against the Moors, recaptured much of León, but was killed in battle with the Moors at Viseu in Portugal, on May 5, 1028.

His only son, Bermudo III, was 13 and during his nine year reign faced more threats from the neighboring Christian kingdom of Castile. In 1037 he was killed at the Battle of the River Carrion fighting King Ferdinand I of Castile, and the kingdom of León, as it was then known, was absorbed into Castile.

In the northern provinces of Castile there lived a large class of minor nobles, the hidalgos. The inhabitants of Guipúzcoa (by the westernmost French border) even claimed that they were all of noble birth. But the south, New Castile (southeast of Madrid), Extremadura (southwest of Madrid), and especially Andalusia—that is, those provinces most recently reconquered from the Muslims—were the domain of the great nobility. There the Enríquez, the Mendoza, and the Guzmán families and others owned vast estates, sometimes covering almost half a province. They had grown rich as a result of the boom in wool exports to Flanders during the 15^th Century, when there were more than 2.5 million sheep in Castile, and it was they, with their hordes of vassals and retainers, who had attempted to dominate a constitutionally almost absolute, but politically weak, monarchy.

It was in this kingdom that the Catholic Monarchs determined to restore the power of the crown. Once this was achieved, or so it seemed, the liberties of the smaller kingdoms would become relatively minor problems. Like their contemporary Henry VII of England, they had the advantage of their subjects’ yearning for strong and effective government after many years of civil war. Thus, they could count on the support of the cities in restoring law and order.

During the civil wars the cities of northern Castile had formed leagues for self-defense against the aggressive magnates. A nationwide league, the hermandad ("brotherhood"), performed a wide range of police, financial, and other administrative functions. Isabella supported the hermandad but kept some control over it by the appointment of royal officials, the corregidores, to the town councils. At the same time, both municipal efficiency and civic pride were enhanced by the obligation imposed on all towns to build a town hall (ayuntamiento).

With the great nobles it was necessary to move more cautiously.

Castile, too, was a poor country. Much of its soil was arid, and its agriculture was undeveloped. The armed shepherds of the powerful sheep-owners’ guild, the Mesta, drove their flocks over hundreds of miles, from summer to winter pastures and back again, spoiling much cultivated land. Despite the violent hostility of the landowners, the government upheld the Mesta privileges, since the guild paid generously for them and was supported by the merchants who exported the raw wool to the cloth industry of Flanders. The activities of the Mesta were undoubtedly harmful to the peasant economy of large parts of Castile and, by impoverishing the peasants, limited the markets for urban industries and thus the growth of some Castilian towns.

The Catholic Monarchs revoked usurpations of land and revenues by the nobility if these had occurred since 1464, but most of the great noble estates had been built up before that date and were effectively left intact. From a contemporary chronicler, Hernán Pérez del Pulgar, historians know how they proceeded piecemeal but systematically against the magnates, sometimes using a nobleman’s defiance of the law, sometimes a breach of the peace or of a pledge, to take over or destroy his castles and thus his independent military power. Even more effective in dealing with the nobility was the enormous increase in royal patronage. Isabella was stage manager to Ferdinand’s election as grand master of one after another of the three great orders of knighthood: Santiago, Calatrava, and Alcántara. This position allowed the king to distribute several hundred commanderships with their attached income from the huge estates of the orders.

Equally important was royal control over all important ecclesiastical appointments, which the Catholic Monarchs insisted upon with ruthless disregard of all papal claims to the contrary. In the Spanish dependencies in Italy, Ferdinand claimed the right of exequatur, according to which all papal bulls and breves (authorizing letters) could be published only with his permission. A letter from Ferdinand to his viceroy in Naples, written in 1510, upbraids the viceroy for permitting the pope to publish a brief in Naples, threatens that he will renounce his own and his kingdoms’ allegiance to the Holy See, and orders the viceroy to arrest the papal messenger, force him to declare he never published the brief, and then hang him. In Spain the Catholic Monarchs had no formal right of exequatur, but they and their Habsburg successors behaved very much as if they did. From that time onward the Spanish clergy had to look to the crown and not to Rome for advancement, and so did the great nobles who traditionally claimed the richest ecclesiastical benefices for their younger sons.

After Isabella’s death in 1504, the nobles appeared to be tamed and politically innocuous. In fact, their social position and its economic basis, their estates, had not been touched. The Laws of Toro (1505), which extended the right to entail family estates on the eldest child, further safeguarded the stability of noble property. In 1520 Charles I agreed to the nobles’ demand for a fixed hierarchy of rank, from the 25 grandees of Spain through the rest of the titled nobility, down to some 60,000 hidalgos, or caballeros, and a similar number of urban nobility, all of them distinguished from the rest of the population, the pecheros, by far-reaching legal privileges and exemption from direct taxation. Thus, the Catholic Monarchs’ antinoble policy was far from consistent. Having won the civil war, they needed the nobility for their campaigns against the kingdom of Granada and, later, the kingdoms in North Africa and Italy. They now favored the nobles against the towns, allowing them to encroach on the territory around the cities and discouraging the corregidores and the royal courts from protecting the cities’ interests. Thus, the seeds were sown for the development of the comunero movement of 1520: Aragon and Navarre.

These gradually expanded and eventually managed to defeat the Moors using their alliances. They ejected them from the Iberian Peninsula in 1492, when Isabella, heir to the throne of Castile, and Ferdinand II, king of Aragon, captured Granada, the last Muslim possession on the peninsula.

After the final conquest of the last Moorish stronghold at Granada in 1492, Spain started financing voyages of exploration. At the same time, the Jews of Spain were ordered on March 30, 1492 to convert to Christianity or be exiled from the country. Christopher Columbus voyages and explorations brought a New World to Europe's attention.  They were followed by Spanish soldiers who brought the native empires of Mesoamerica and the Inca under Spanish Control.

Through a policy of alliances with other European nobility and the conquest of most of South America and the West Indies, Spain began to establish itself as an empire. The Treaty of Tordesillas, negotiated by Pope Alexander VI between Portugal and Spain, effectively divided up the non-European world between these two budding empires. Massive amounts of gold and silver were imported from the New World into Spain's coffers. However, in the long run this hurt the Spanish economy much more than it helped it. The bullion caused high inflation rates, which undermined the value of Spain's currency. Additionally, Spain became dependent on her colonies for income, and when Queen Elizabeth I of England began to capture Spanish vessels on the way to and from the New World, Spain suffered massive economic losses. These effects, combined with the expulsion of Spain's most economically vital classes in the late 15th Century (the Jews and the Moors), caused Spain's economy to collapse several times in the 16th Century, bringing the Golden Age of Spain to a close.

During the 1500s and 1600s, Europeans were much the same in the sense that these countries were looking to expand their economies and increase their prestige. It was this pride and thinking that motivated many of the superpowers of the world’s past. Two such monarchies in the European continent included England and Spain, which had at the time, the best fleets the world has ever seen. Because both were often striving to be the best, they remained in conflict with one another. Although England and Spain had their differences, they both had a hunger for exploration and it was this hunger that led them both to discovering different parts of the "New World" and thus, colonizing the Americas.

A generation later, in 1518, Hernán Cortes arrived in Mexico with his force of soldiers.  By using their military skills they took South America and made it a vast Spanish empire. Unfortunately, the Spanish unknowingly carried smallpox which decimated the indigenous populations.

When they saw the sacrificial religious ceremonies of the Aztecs that produced many skulls, they thought of these people as savages and not entirely human. This of course may seem hypocritical because the Spanish had killed before and during the Inquisition for their faith, Christianity. Perhaps, it was the Aztec’s use of sacrificial religious ceremonies that led the Spaniards to believe it acceptable to decimate the natives.

The colonial system of Spain was independent and more about financial ventures via contracts. However, later the monarchy of Spain made a hierarchical system in which the authority extended into the government of local communities and so colonists were not to establish any political institutions without the Crown’s consent. On the other hand, the British would be much less restrained. The English developed a system where the English queen played an unimportant role. There were also economic differences of what was to come with the English. The Spaniards were more about obtaining "treasure" from American colonies and therefore, they spent less time and energy on trade and agriculture which would prove to be less effective in the long run because the gold would eventually run out. Since the Spanish were very protective against piracy and only allowed only one colony ship to go through the Spanish ports and only two fleets to go to the colonies, economic development was hindered. Yet the English produced a larger amount of commercial products that would sustain their economy long after the gold and silver were reduced. Also in comparison, the British of North America concentrated heavily on permanent settling, family life, and also outnumbered the natives by far. Despite the diseases the Spanish inadvertently passed onto the native populations, the ratio of the Natives to Spaniards was much larger. The line between the Natives and the Spanish were less clear compared to that of the English because over time, men craved family and female companions and married natives, whereas in the English colonies, intermarriage was rare.

Another reason for leaving was so England could have a wider variety of commerce. Several merchant companies had already formed in monopolies, such as the East India Company of 1600. Investors made money from exchanging exotic products. By then, England followed mercantilism, which supported colonialism because the motto was to export a little and to gain a lot. Acquiring colonies was seen as getting necessities they would otherwise have to buy. Other people of England also supported colonies being established in the New world because they saw it as a simple yet, ingenious way to get rid of the superfluous, and at times, the poverty stricken population.

Before the English settled in North America, they settled in Ireland. On the other hand, Spain primarily colonized the Americas. The English suppressed the Irish natives and because they did not understand their "primitive" ways, the English chose to stay separate from them. This concept was taken to the New World. Unlike Spain, the English tried to build their own society instead of ruling a foreign one. Under the leadership of Queen Elizabeth I and England’s nationalism that promoted expansion, Jamestown became the first permanent settlement in North America. Like the Spaniards, the colony was not achieved on the first visit to the New World. Sir Walter Raleigh, with the queen’s approval, established the state of Virginia (the virgin queen) and sent settlers to make a colony, which came to be named Roanoke. However, when a few of the men which had left for England returned in a few years, no one was found in the colony. It is still a mystery to this day what happened with the Roanoke colonists. It is theorized that the Indians murdered them because the English, like the Spanish, had also been cruel to the natives for the land.

It is obvious to see that much of history would have been changed if it were not for the Age of Exploration. The seemingly economy driven expeditions of the English and the Spanish actually altered the face of the world because colonies were developed in which not only would be beneficial for money, but would also be called home for the next centuries to come for Europeans.

The colonization of both Spain in South America and England in North America were alike in that both were done to secure a better productive commercial future but also because of the way they viewed the natives. They saw the "Indians" as inhuman beings and treated them unfairly. However, England and Spain hold many differences in terms of the New World as well.

In the beginning, the Spanish conquistadores went strictly for gold and the fame of exploration. The Catholic Church was interested in the saving of souls. Later, Spaniards colonized and expanded their settlements. The latter were simply settling lands that were available and attractive for farming and ranching.

The English civilians thought they would benefit if they left to go to a "Utopia", as they heard of it. The English lived separately from the natives. Although there are many differences between the Spanish encomiendas and the English colonies, the basic idea of much cultural exchange is the same, for as it is seen, it is rare to see Native-Americans in North America and to see non-Spanish speaking people in South America.

A change occurred in the 16th Century. Just as in the rest of Europe, the population of Spain grew, rising in Castile from about 4.25 million in 1528 to about 6.5 million after 1580. To meet the increasing demands for agricultural products, the peasants expanded the cultivation of grain and other foodstuffs, and the Mesta and its migratory flocks gradually lost their dominant position in the Castilian economy. Their contributions to government finances declined as a proportion of total government revenue. The growing market also stimulated urban industries. Segovia, Toledo, Córdoba, and other towns expanded their manufactures of textile and metal. The apex of this expansion was reached in the third quarter of the 16th Century, but it never matched that of Flemish and northern Italian cities. Overall, Spain remained a country that exported raw materials and imported manufactures.

The Habsburg dynasty became extinct in Spain and the War of the Spanish Succession ensued in which the other European powers tried to assume control of the Spanish monarchy. King Louis XIV of France eventually "won" the War of Spanish Succession, and control of Spain passed to the Bourbon dynasty.

Philip V, the first Bourbon king, of French origin, signed the Decreto de Nueva Planta in 1715, a new law that revoked most of the historical rights and privileges of the different kingdoms that conformed the Spanish Crown, unifying them under the laws of Castile, where the Cortes had been more receptive to the royal wish. Spain became culturally and politically a follower of France. The rule of the Spanish Bourbons continued under Ferdinand VI and Charles III. His son Charles IV was truly incompetent (some say mentally handicapped), and under his reign Spain fell to the armies of Napoleon.

Under the Bonaparte’s, Spain failed to embrace the mercantile and industrial revolutions of the 18th Century, and also failed to absorb the ideals that of the Enlightenment that were revolutionizing European thought. These missed opportunities, combined with the economic failures of the 17th Century, caused the country to fall desperately behind Britain, France, and Germany in economic and political power.

In 1812 the Cortes took refuge at Cadiz and created the first modern Spanish constitution, informally named as La Pepa. This constitution was revoked by the returning king Ferdinand VII.

1820-1823 [Trienio Liberal] - After the pronunciamento (coup d'etat) by Riego, the king was forced to accept the liberal Constitution.

1823-1833 [Decada ominosa] - Another coup d'etat revoked the Constitution, executed Riego, and restored Ferdinand VII as an absolute monarch.

By 1898, Spain had lost most of its colonial possessions. Then Cuba, Puerto Rico, the Philippines and Guam were lost to the United States. (See also: Spanish-American War) Spain's colonial possessions were reduced to Spanish Morocco, Western Sahara and Equatorial Guinea.

Mistreatment of the Moorish population in Morocco led to an uprising and the loss of all North African possessions except for the enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla in 1921. Abd el-krim, Annual. In order to avoid accountability, the king Alfonso XIII decided to support the dictatorship of general Miguel Primo de Rivera.

The dictatorship of Miguel Primo de Rivera collapsed in 1930. Disgusted with the king's involvement in it, urban population voted for republican parties in the municipal elections of April 1931. The king was forced to resign and a republic was established.

Second Spanish Republic (1931-1939) was he first time women were allowed to vote in general elections. In this period, autonomy devolved to the Basque country and to Catalonia.

Spanish Civil War 1936-1939 was caused by a right wing coup d'etat by Francisco Franco and other generals which started the Spanish Civil War against the Republic.

The dictatorship of Franco 1936-1975 in Spain left her neutral in World Wars I and II. However, she suffered through a devastating Civil War (1936-39). During Franco's rule, Spain remained largely economically and culturally isolated from the outside world, but slowly began to catch up economically with its European neighbors.

Under Franco, Spain actively sought the return of Gibraltar by the UK, and gained some support for its cause at the United Nations. During the 1960s, Spain began imposing restrictions on Gibraltar, culminating in the closure of the border in 1969. It was not fully reopened until 1985.

Spain also relinquished its colonies in Africa, with Spanish rule in Morocco ending in 1956. Spanish Guinea was granted independence as Equatorial Guinea in 1968, while the Moroccan enclave of Ifni had been ceded to Morocco in 1969.

The latter years of Franco's rule saw some economic and political liberalization, the so called Spanish Miracle, including the birth of a tourism industry. Francisco Franco ruled until his death on November 20th 1975 when control was given to King Juan Carlos.

In the last few months before Franco's death, the Spanish state went into a paralysis. This was capitalized upon by King Hassan of Morocco, who ordered the 'Green March' into Western Sahara, Spain's last colonial possession.

The transition to democracy 1975-1978

At present, Spain is a constitutional monarchy, and is comprised of 17 autonomous communities (Andalucia, Aragon, Asturias, Illes Balears, Islas Canarias, Cantabria, Castilla y Leon, Castilla-La Mancha, Catalunya, Extremadura, Galicia, La Rioja, Madrid, Murcia, Paes Vasco, Comunitat Valènciana, Navarra, Ceuta and Melilla). One of the most important problems facing Spain today is ETA's terrorism - this illegal organization defends Basque independence through violent means, which is condemned by both Central and Basque government, although there is tension between these governments since PNV (the party presently governing Basque Country) longs for greater autonomy from Spain, including the possibility of independence, something Spanish government doesn't accept.

11/11/2014 01:13 PM