Where My Journey Began — 1492

I prepared carefully for this photograph.

The previous day, I had spent the entire day inside the Alhambra.

I later found the Mirador de San Nicolás, the courtyard before the church overlooking the palace across the valley.

I arrived approximately an hour before sunset to find a position and wait for the light, knowing many others would gather for the same view.

This panorama was created from multiple photographs meticulously stitched together.

There are thousands of images of the Alhambra.

This one is special to me because I was there.

I shared the evening air, sunlight, humidity, clouds, and history of that place.

The history of the Alhambra is part of Granada.

The history of Granada is part of Spain.

The events associated with 1492 connected Spain to the Americas and ultimately to my own history.

Standing there, I felt as though I had arrived somewhere my soul already remembered.

I still believe I was there before I got there.

Where My Journey Began — 1492 transforms a celebrated monument into a personal act of witnessing.

The panorama does not claim to be the definitive view of the Alhambra.

Its significance lies in presence: one traveler standing beneath one sky at one unrepeatable moment while recognizing that history has already connected him to the place.

After spending a full day inside the Alhambra, the artist returned to experience the monument from across the valley.

He arrived before sunset at the Mirador de San Nicolás and waited for the changing light.

Multiple aligned exposures were later stitched into one panoramic composition.

The final work required time before its meaning fully emerged.

Like fine wine, the photograph was allowed to mature until the artist understood how to make it his own.

The title connects the historical year 1492 with the long relationship between Spain, the Americas, Puerto Rico, and the artist's personal sense of origin.

Every generation inherits history.

We visit monuments believing we have come to see them.

Sometimes they have been waiting to see us.

We leave with photographs, memories, and questions we did not bring.

Perhaps history does not only tell us where we came from.

Perhaps it reminds us that we have always belonged to a story larger than ourselves.

Preserved as the thirty-second accessioned photograph in the Francisco Colón Studio Photography Wing, Where My Journey Began — 1492 serves as a signature work of the Journeys collection and as the cover image for Curated Paths.

The panorama connects personal presence, historical consciousness, and the transatlantic origins of the artist's larger story.