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The next morning, he woke up to a flurry of missed calls, asking him to come to the Pope's spartan accommodation at the Vatican's diplomatic mission near Manila's old Spanish quarter.

"In the Mojave Desert, you can still see the old Spanish mule paths from the 1700s. The time cycle for the desert is very slow. It doesn't heal very quickly."

Others visit as part of occasional special events, such as a flamenco dance presentation that took place on the grounds last month during Santa Barbara’s Old Spanish Days Fiesta.

He’d been diagnosed with aggressive brain cancer and refused treatment, preferring to play out his string sitting on a trashed recliner in the living room of the dusty old Spanish home he shared with Wally as he waited to die.

In a strange twist of fate, Olvera Street was the invention of Anglo city boosters who wanted to sell tourists on the myth of the old Spanish and Mexican past, said Eric Avila, professor of history and Chicano studies at UCLA.