Si no hubiese llegado Cristóbal Colón...

If Cristóbal Colón hadn't arrived, Latin history would be very different. Si no hubiese llegado Cristóbal Colón, la historia latina sería muy diferente. Wouldn't the following be better? If Cristóbal Colón hadn't arrived, Latin history would have been very different. Si no hubiese llegado Cristóbal Colón, la historia latina habría sido muy diferente.

Same thing: Me gustaría que me hubieras ayudado. I would've liked that you had helped me. Me habría gustado que me hubieras ayudado.

Dang...I thought you were going to initiate a discussion about the Spanish conquest of the new world. For me, one of the side benefits of learning Spanish is that it has caused me to become interested in and study all of that history that we were taught (incompletely, inaccurately, or at least heavily sanitized) in school all those years ago. I have been reading a little book called "The Early Spanish Reader" lately, and part of the book is a condensed history of Mexico, from the arrival Cortés forward. Problem is, every time I read a story my mind goes to the song "Cortez the Killer" by Niel Young. A few weeks ago I saw Randy Newman perform on PBS. He sang "Political Science," which has a verse that goes: Asia's crowded and Europe's too old Africa is far too hot And Canada's too cold And South America stole our name Let's drop the big one There'll be no one left to blame us I laughed when I thought about the fact that us North Americans were the ones who did the stealing. The new world was named after Americus Vespucci, who did all of his exploring in South America. Us folks north of the equator are lucky that we are not called something related to the Vikings (and we know what kind of subterfuge Erik the Red engaged in while naming Iceland and Greenland.) Or if naming rights went to Spaniards, I guess we should be named after Giovanni Caboto (a guy that practically no one ever heard of). Sorry to hijack your thread, Steven, but I feel lots better now getting all of that out there. Tenga un feliz diá del trabajo! Dan

No problema, Dan. I enjoyed reading your post.

I like both of your posts. I am still thinking about Steven's post. It seems to make sense. I am still in "me gustaria" as I would like. I just started the Platinum and looking at it, I think every lesson will take me a week to finish, especially with the play it section.