National Park Service Hispanic Heritage Sites

Built by the Spanish in St. Augustine to defend Florida and the Atlantic trade route, Castillo de San Marcos National Monument preserves the oldest masonry fortification in the continental United States and interprets more than 450 years of cultural intersections.

The park memorializes the harmonious settlement of a 100-year boundary dispute between the United States and Mexico. It celebrates the cultures of the borderlands to promote the same mutual respect that helped to diplomatically resolve an international disagreement.

Coronado National Memorial was established to interpret the Coronado Expedition led by commander and captain general Francisco Vázquez de Coronado. Their arrival in northwest Mexico and the American Southwest irrevocably changed the lives and cultures of the indigenous peoples of the region, some who had lived here for centuries. 

This park preserves the over 2,000 signatures, dates, messages, and petroglyphs carved by Ancestral Puebloans, Spanish and American travelers. Over the centuries, those who traveled this trail stopped to camp at the shaded oasis beneath these cliffs.  They left the carved evidence of their passing -- symbols, names, dates, and fragments of their stories that register the cultures and history intermingled on the rock.

The park preserves one of the oldest operating trading posts in the American Southwest, where the differing cultures of the Indians, Spanish, and Anglo-Americans have come together for mutual benefit. For almost 90 years, the Hubbell family welcomed traders and notable visitors to trade with the Navajo. The Spanish roots and character of this family not only influenced the lives of the Navajo, but also of the visitors that they encountered.

The park commemorates the site where United States and Mexican troops clashed on the prairie of Palo Alto on May 8, 1846. The battle was the first in a two-year long war that changed the map of North America. Palo Alto Battlefield National Historical Park preserves the site of this notable battle and provides an understanding of the causes, events, and consequences of the U.S.-Mexican War.

The park preserves thousands of years of rich history, from Pueblo and Plains Indians, Spanish conquerors and missionaries, Mexican and Anglo armies, Santa Fe Trail settlers and adventurers, to tourists on the railroad, Route 66 and Interstate 25.

The park preserves three distinct sites, Abó, Quarai, and Gran Quivira, that continue to stand as reminders of the Spanish and Pueblo peoples’ early encounters and prompt exploration of today’s interactions among different people.

The park preserves the more than 500 years of European history embedded in the walls of Old San Juan, Puerto Rico. Countries fought for control of this tiny yet strategic island for centuries. Generations of soldiers have lived and worked within the forts. Visitors today are as inspired by these stories as they are by the beauty of the architecture and the ingenuity of design and engineering of this World Heritage Site.

The park preserves over 6,000 years of history and culture, from the life stories of the native people who survived in Florida's environment prior to European contact, to the clash of cultures that occurred as nations converged in the New World, from Europeans attempts at colonization to the struggles of enslaved African peoples.

Tumacácori sits at a cultural crossroads in the Santa Cruz River valley. O’odham, Yaqui, and Apache people met and mingled with European Jesuit and Franciscan missionaries, settlers, and soldiers, sometimes in conflict and sometimes in cooperation.