Maps the influence of America's Hispanic past, from the explorers and conquistadors who helped colonize Puerto Rico and Florida, to the missionaries and rancheros who settled in California and the 20th-century resurgence in major cities like Chicago and Miami.

I: Original sins -- The First Hispanic Colonization of What Is Now US Territory, c. 1505/1846 -- The fountain of youth -- The first colonies in what was to be the United States, c. 1505-1763 -- The cities of Cibola -- The colonial Midwest from the Mississippi to the Rockies, c. 1598-1798 -- The pursuit of King Arthur -- The shadow of Anglo-America, c. 1607-1784 -- The realm of Queen Calafia -- The foundation of California and the showdown with Anglo-America, c. 1766-1846 -- II. The empire of Eden -- The expansion of Anglo-America and the Hispanic retreat, c. 1846-1898 -- The curse of Zorro -- The great expropriation, c. 1846-1887 -- The revenge of Moroni -- The triumph of Anglo-America, c. 1830-1898 -- Paradise regained? -- The second Hispanic colonization, c. 1898-2012 -- The return to Aztlan -- Americanization and resistance in the Age of Mexican countercolonization, c. 1898-1986 -- The republic of Hesperus -- The remaking of the Hispanic United States, c. 1914-2012 -- Retrospect and prospect -- Why the United States is--and has to be--a Latin American country.