The population of New York City is approaching the milestone of being one-third Hispanic, a demographic transformation that will have a huge impact on the city's culture, daily life and its very future. This marks a new phase in New York's relations to the Hispanic world, as Latino cultures and the Spanish language become an ubiquitous and important presence in the city. The roots of this transformation run deep. The history of the city's ties to the Spanish-speaking world is as old as New Amsterdam itself, and is largely unknown. Accompanying a major exhibition organised by the New York Historical Society and El Museo del Barrio (an abbreviated version of which will travel through the United States), this groundbreaking, interdisciplinary publication will for the first time make visible these connections and the myriad ways in which they have shaped the city for more than four centuries. AUTHOR: Author Edward J. Sullivan is the Helen Gould Sheppard Professor of the History of Art at the Institute of Fine Arts and the Department of Art History, New York University. He is the author of over thirty books and exhibition catalogues on Iberian and modern Latin American art and has served as guest curator for numerous exhibitions on these topics in museums in Latin America, North America and Europe. 174 colour illustrations