El Arenal

Illustration by Arturo Redondo of the neighborhood of El Arenal in Seville in 1519.

The sand running from the wall to the river became a huge, frenetic hive of human activity every morning. A vast stream of merchandise was spread out along the sand, waiting to be transported and distributed across the city or to be loaded onto ships headed for distant shores.

In the suburbs of Carretería and El Baratillo, in their open spaces, a mishmash of customers arrived every day, attracted by the dazzling gleam of gold and riches from the New World: dockworkers and adventurers, beggars, thieves and robbers, monks and rich traders, soldiers, sailors, and travelers, all in search of that much-anticipated stroke of luck on the wheel of fortune that would change their lives forever.