Learn Spanish (Latin America): El capataz recién llegó al campamento con la sierra afilada. - The foreman just arrived at the camp with the sharp saw.

While acaba de llegar is perfectly correct, using recién directly before a conjugated verb in the preterite tense (like llegó) is a very common way to express temporal immediacy in Latin America. In this structure, recién shifts from meaning "recently" to meaning that the action "just" happened a moment ago.

Could I use the present tense here and say recién llega instead?

Yes, absolutely! In many parts of Latin America, you can use recién with either the present tense (recién llega) or the preterite (recién llegó) to express the exact same idea: he "just arrived." Both are natural ways to talk about an action that just finished.

Why use afilada for "sharp"?

Afilada is the past participle of the verb afilar (to sharpen), functioning here as an adjective describing the feminine noun sierra. While English uses the base adjective "sharp," Spanish typically describes blades or tools as being "sharpened" (afilada or afilado).

Doesn't sierra mean "mountain range"?