Two years ago, on the Fourth of July, I “died” in Spain. And it was the best day of my life. That’s because I was reenacting my favorite historical battle: the Siege of Pensacola. Unlike most Revolutionary War reenactments, this one wasn’t in Virginia or Massachusetts. It was in Macharaviaya, a small town in Southern Spain.

A little-known fact is that one of the greatest heroes of the American Revolution was a Spanish General, Bernardo de Gálvez. Every year, Gálvez’s hometown of Macharaviaya celebrates American Independence in his honor.

For a history fiend like me, impersonating a soldier of the Louisiana Fixed Infantry Regiment under Gálvez’s command was pure fulfillment. I first heard of Gálvez in the third grade, when the author Guillermo Fesser brought a puppet show about Bernardo de Gálvez to our class. It shocked me that Hispanics like me had been so important to America’s birth—and that hardly anyone seemed to know.

As governor of Spanish Louisiana, Gálvez defeated the British forces at the Battle of Pensacola and secured the Mississippi River, a vital supply line to the colonists. Many of Galvez’s troops hailed from across contemporary Latin America, showcasing the Hispanic contribution to the birth of our country. In 2014, Gálvez was named an Honorary Citizen of the United States in recognition of his service as a hero of the Revolutionary War.

I wrote and performed a play that won the National Captain Ken Coskey Naval History Award, telling the story of Bernardo de Gálvez and the Battle of Pensacola.

My research on Bernardo de Gálvez has shown me that Hispanic contributions to America aren’t an afterthought. They are part of America’s origin story. When we tell the story of America’s Revolution, Gálvez and the Hispanic world don’t belong in the margins. They belong at the very beginning.