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The 16th-century Spanish explorer Francisco Vázquez de Coronado (c. 1510-1554) was serving as governor of an important province in New Spain (Mexico) when he heard reports of the so-called Seven Golden Cities located to the north. He followed the Sinaloan coast northward, keeping the Gulf of California on his left to the west until he reached the northernmost Spanish settlement in Mexico, San Miguel de Culiacán , about March 28, 1540, whereupon he rested his expedition before they began trekking the inland trail.

Four arduous months later, Coronado led an advance group of cavalrymen to the first city of Cíbola, which in reality was the Zuni Pueblo town of Hawikuh, located in what would become New Mexico When good places to eat in coronado the Indians resisted Spanish efforts to subdue the town, the better-armed Spaniards forced their way in and caused the Zunis to flee; Coronado was hit by a stone and wounded during the battle.

Vázquez de Coronado set out from Compostela on February 23, 1540, at the head of a much larger expedition composed of about 400 European men-at-arms (mostly Spaniards ), 1,300 to 2,000 Mexican Indian allies, four Franciscan friars (the most notable of whom were Juan de Padilla and the newly appointed provincial superior of the Franciscan order in the New World, Marcos de Niza ), and several slaves, both natives and Africans.

It provides all-day breakfasts and popular diner classics such as coffee, biscuits 'n' gravy, short-stacks, huevos rancheros, and chicken waffles from morning until 10 p.m. complete with cherry red bar stools at the counter that will transport you to another era.

The Turk is regarded as an Indian hero in a display at Albuquerque's Indian Pueblo Cultural Center because his disinformation led Vázquez de Coronado onto the Great Plains and thus relieved the beleaguered pueblos of Spanish depredations for at least a few months.

A string of Indian settlements built near what is now west-central New Mexico (near the Arizona border) by the Zuni Pueblo tribes inspired tales of the Seven Golden Cities of Cíbola, the mythic empire of riches that Francisco Vázquez de Coronado was seeking in his expedition of 1540-42.