There was a time when the fate of America was decided in the taverns of New Orleans. Spain, in the shadows, moved its pieces while a new nation was born. A young spy infiltrated conspirators, merchants, and patriots with a mission that could change everything. This is the story no one told you about the independence of the United States. El fuego en el Misisipi reveals the exciting story--inspired by real events--of Alfonso Salazar, a young man fleeing pain and loss to reinvent himself in vibrant Spanish Louisiana. Under a false identity and in the service of the government of Charles III, he becomes a privileged witness to diplomatic intrigues, Creole rebellions, and the birth of a nation. Amid spies, conspirators, merchants, and revolutionaries, Alfonso faces moral dilemmas, impossible loves, and the weight of history being written with every step. In the best tradition of adventure storytelling, Juan Pérez-Foncea rescues an unknown but crucial episode: Spain's decisive intervention in American independence. A novel that combines rigor and emotion, adventure and memory, to shed light on a fire--that of the Mississippi--that still burns at the foundations of the modern world.