The day God failed to understand the sun
A story of encounter, misinterpretation, and the difference between creating and commanding In the year 1540, under a sun so unrelenting it bleached bone and belief alike, the first Spaniards arrived in the high desert lands of what they called Nuevo México. They came armoured, cross-bearing, speaking of one true God and the divine right to plant flags where no one had asked for them. Their leader, a conquistador with polished ambition and questionable maps, had been told of golden cities. Instead, he found pueblos — villages of mud and memory, built into the very bones of the land. No towers, no thrones, no cathedrals. Just people who seemed to know exactly where they were. ...