This paper examines how Spanish-nation building activities in the twentieth century led to the occlusion of Islamic art and architecture from Spanish heritage sites, particularly in the modern Autonomous Community of Castilla-La Mancha. Toponymic, historical, and archaeological research confirm that the region of the Southern Meseta in Castilla-La Mancha was a space of North African colonization. However, this area has long been ignored in historical studies, marginalized in tenth and eleventh-century Arabic chronicles as well as on modern historiography. This paper seeks to answer why this occurred, especially when such physically impressive and imposing architecture, including the castle-fortresses of Zorita, Atienza, and Uclés constructed during the reign of Muhammad I (852-886 CE), dominate the landscape of the region, offering visual evidence of North African contributions to Umayyad al-Andalus. This discussion focuses on the ways in which Spanish national interest and the lack of investment in Andalusi sites created a cultural memory of an Arab al-Andalus in the southern part of the Iberian Peninsula, rather than a North African al-Andalus established in its center. This paper specifically looks at the castle-fortress of Zorita located in Castilla-La Mancha, initially reviewing its historic context and then looking at the ways in which twentieth-century politics affected the investment, preservation, and display of the site. This paper analyzes how Spanish cultural policy in the twentieth century resulted in the exclusion of North African history from regional cultural memory, revealing how the identification and funding of heritage sites as defined by the Decree of the Ministry of Public Instruction of Fine Arts on June 4, 1931 under the Second Republic, effaced the historic colonization of Islamic and North African societies from Castilla-La Mancha. While this paper does not contest the understandings of a Córdoban-centered al-Andalus, it argues that further research in areas located outside of the heavily studied regions of Andalucía, Murcia, and Valencia yield exciting possibilities for understanding the North African peoples that first colonized the Iberian Peninsula in the eighth century as well as their contributions to al-Andalus. Both architecture and artifacts testifying to the importance of North Africans in the history of Castilla-La Mancha exist and it is time we use this evidence to re-curate the history of the Southern Meseta to represent the peoples who fell by the wayside as part of the Spanish national project in the twentieth century.