Black history in Puerto Rico

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Main article: History of Puerto Rico

The Black History of Puerto Rico begins with the colonization of the key Caribbean island of Puerto Rico by the Spanish Empire. Spanish planters brought slaves from Africa to work the land. Black Puerto Ricans intermarried extensively with European and indigenous persons, so modern Puerto Rico does not recognize such distinct racial divisions as in the continental United States, still today there remains a rich black culture in Puerto Rico.

1 Colonial Era
2 Modern society
3 See also
4 References

[edit] Colonial Era

Before Christopher Columbus discovered Puerto Rico during his second voyage, Taíno Indians were the island's main inhabitants. Puerto Rico became a Spanish territory soon after Columbus's discovery.

[edit] Pre-Columbian contact

Some historians speculate that Africans of the Sahel region, including the energetic Mali Empire, may have had contact with Caribbean and Brazilian indigenous peoples before the arrival of Europeans in the New World.^[1] Perceived linguistic similarities between West African groups and the Taíno, paired with the theoretical ability of the West Africans to cross the Atlantic, suggest the possibility of African cultural influences that long predate European contact. The paths that hurricanes tend to follow across the Atlantic (known as "Hurricane Alley") may have also been a natural push for these early African voyagers. Compelling archaeological evidence of such contact, much less mutual trade and cultural exchange, remains to be presented.

[edit] Slavery

Soon after Christopher Columbus brought European culture to Puerto Rico (and the rest of Latin America), the Europeans began to sell slaves to rich farmers or landowners who came from Spain to Latin America. Many of the slaves who came to Puerto Rico were from Congo (Mayombe religions such as "Palo Monte" were an intrinsic part of Puerto Rico's early spiritualist history before Allan Kardec ), the Ashanti, Yoruba and Bantu tribes.^[2] In all, 31 known African tribes were brought to the island from Central and West Africa through the slave trade.

It is believed that many slaves entered Puerto Rico through the island's east side, hence the large population of blacks from San Juan to Vieques. Ponce and Mayagüez have large populations that came from Cuba, Haiti, and Colombia. During the years of indigenous and African slavery, miscegenation was rampant. Tainos were believed to have been raped by Spaniards, and they also intermarried with the incoming Africans.

In Puerto Rico, as in many other countries, slave owners would insult black workers and make them labor under poor working conditions for little or no money. They also abused them physically, sometimes injuring or killing them. Some slave owners would also rape black women and girls, including the wives of the male slaves. These types of abuses, of which most Puerto Ricans born during the 20th century had little knowledge, were exposed in many of Abelardo Diaz Alfaro's books written during the 1940s. Diaz Alfaro opposed racism and his writing reflected those sentiments.

As in most countries where slaves were brought over from Africa, slaves in Puerto Rico were assigned new last names. Slaves usually took their owners' Spanish names, passing the adopted last names to their children, and so on. Many slaves worked in sugarcane fields, others in manufacturing or other types of jobs.

After the annihilation of Puerto Rico's Taino population, Africans were brought to the island to provide labor for the short-lived gold mining industry. When the gold ran out, so did most of the white population. Fortune hunting Europeans abandoned Puerto Rico to seek riches in Mexico and South America. The Spanish Crown used a subsidy from its gold producing colonies on the mainland, called El Situado, to maintain a garrison and forts in San Juan. Puerto Rico was the last stop in the Greater Antilles before the long voyage to Europe for Spanish ships laden with gold.

However, with few whites (and no Tainos) to provide a population base to support the garrison, the Spanish government sought to alleviate this problem by offering freedom to Black people from non-Spanish colonies who immigrated to Puerto Rico. Although this became official through a Spanish edict in 1664, this process already was occurring since about 1570. Initially, most of this population settled in Cangrerjos (today, Santurce). However, the entire northeast coast, from Cangrejos through Carolina, Loíza, Canóvanas, Fajardo to Culebra and Vieques, was settled by this immigrant Black population. Consequently, the majority of Puerto Rico's population from the end of the 16th Century to the beginning of the 19th Century was Black and/or Mulato.

Puerto Rico had the oldest and largest Free Black population in the Western Hemisphere during the era of the African Slave trade. It was this free Black population that was largely responsible for keeping Puerto Rico Spanish. They played key roles in repelling all European invasions of the island, especially the last British invasion attempt in 1797 (which helped to end British expansion in the Caribbean). Black militia from Puerto Rico served under the Spanish Armed forces in Haiti, Venezuela, and in the American War of Independence. There were several notable Black or Mulato Puerto Ricans who contributed to the island's history during this period: Jose Campeche, the island's first famous painter; Miguel Henriquez, the Corsair, whose ships defeated a British fleet off the island of Vieques in 1714; Rafael Cordero, a self taught educator who in the early 19th Century tutored the island's future political leaders; and Rafael Cordero's sister, Celestina, who attempted to create the first school for girls in Latin America, 17 years before her brother started his school. This free Black population essentially created and developed what is known as Puerto Rican culture, especially in its music and culinary traditions.

After Spain lost its colonies in Mexico, as well as Central and South America, at the onset of the 19th Century, Spain reinstituted the sugar economy in Puerto Rico. White immigration was encouraged, first from the Americas and later from the provinces of Spain. There was an increase in the importation of African slaves who worked the sugar plantations from Guayama, west through Ponce and Mayaguez, and the northwest coastal towns through Vega Baja. This was the period in which the island reached the height of its Slave population, from 1810 to abolition in 1873. Still, even during this time, the slave population was never the majority of the Black population of Puerto Rico. Even so, the Spanish government imposed draconian laws to control the behavior of all Black Puerto Ricans, slave or free, during the early part of the 19th Century (el Bando contra La Raza Africana). This had been caused in part by the hysteria engendered by the Haitian Revolution and the Escalera Conspiracy in Cuba.

As the white population on the island increased during the 19th Century, Black Puerto Rican culture became marginalized and denigrated. Although there have been a great many famous Black Puerto Ricans (e.g., Pedro Albizu Campos, Roberto Clemente, Ruth Fernandez, Rafael Hernandez, Félix Trinidad, etc.), most AfroBoricuas still live on the periphery of island society.

[edit] Abolition

By the 19th century the abolitionist movement attracted many Spanish creoles, mestizos, and freed "people of color" who developed a social conscience with regard to slavery. Among them were Ramon Emeterio Betances, Segundo Ruiz Belvis, Eugenio Maria de Hostos, Arturo Alfonso Schomburg, and Lola Rodríguez de Tió. Betances even formed a secret society which helped many slaves gain their freedom. On September 23, 1868, many slaves participated in the failed uprising against Spain, headed by Manuel Rojas and known as "El Grito de Lares", with the promise that they would be freed.

On 1873-03-22, a law proclaiming the abolition of slavery in Puerto Rico was passed. ^[3]

[edit] Modern society

The term Negro(a) or Negrito(a), which means small black person, originated during the African slave trade and was used to describe a person of visible African descent (i.e., Negro Jose or Negra Maria). Today the word has lost its negative connotations and is often applied to another as a term of endearment regardless of his or her background. In 2003, several major DNA studies done at the University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez discovered that 61%, 27%, and 12% of Puerto Ricans have Taino, African, and European ancestry, respectively, through matrilineal lines. This was due to the fact that the Spanish Conquest was mostly male and the Iberian men who accompanied Christopher Columbus came into the Caribbean's "New World" to take their share of gold and "exotic" native women.

The Spaniards also abused the enslaved African women. While some had consented marriages, the majority did not. "Race" could no longer be defined clearly as the various populations became blended to the point of social obscurity. The Spanish culture dominated all aspects of island life. Taino culture disappeared into the conquering culture as did African culture. They were overshadowed and relegated to the "back burners" of Puerto Rican society until the present day. As Puerto Rican culture moves toward a better understanding of its origin, more confidence and pride than ever before felt toward its roots.

Most Puerto Ricans enjoy Salsa music, a musical blend of African and Caribbean rhythms developed by Puerto Ricans who grew up in the streets of New York. Salsa was imported back into Puerto Rico and Cuba as "popular" music in the 30s, 40s, and 50s. On the island of Puerto Rico, Bomba (from Loiza, Mayagüez, and Ponce), which has origins in West Africa, has always been one of the major forms of music enjoyed by all Puerto Ricans. The Taino-Spanish influence (also included in Salsa and evidenced by the use of the clave and maracas as integral musical instruments) comes from the mountain regions where the strongest vestiges of Taino culture are held. Plena (which many say came from Barrio San Anton in Ponce) is another major form. Reggaeton, a form of music that blends latin rythms and Hip Hop with Jamaican Reggae rhythms, has also entered the popular Puerto Rican musical arena.

Although many black Puerto Ricans live in poor residential areas, many others have progressed and are able to live comfortably. Still, at least two-thirds of all Puerto Ricans live on public assistance.

Among the towns with the largest black populations in Puerto Rico, apart from San Juan and Vieques, are Loíza, Canovanas, Carolina, Fajardo, Ponce, and Mayagüez. Other cities, such as Caguas and Bayamon, also have significant numbers of black residents.

To many Puerto Ricans a person is not considered black because his or her ancestors were black, as in the mainland United States, but by the color of the skin. So, for example, if someone has a grandparent or other ancestor who was black, if he or she looks white, he or she is considered white by a Puerto Rican.