The Historical Significance of Puerto Rico
For most of its history, Puerto Rico has been controlled by an outside power, and its people oppressed. While Puerto Rico is currently a U.S. territory, Spanish colonialism has had a significant impact on the island’s development and identity. The history of the island itself is proof of this fact, demonstrating each step Puerto Rico took to reach its current state. By examining the stages of Spanish control that Puerto Rico experienced, we can determine how each stage affected the structure and identity of Puerto Rico.
Before Spain invaded Puerto Rico, the native population known as the Taino inhabited it. At the beginning of the 1500’s, the Taino were conquered by the Spanish and, after a series of revolution attempts, virtually disappeared from Puerto Rican life. Those that were left fled to the interior of the island, which was, at that time, uninhabited. This part of the island became a refuge for the people who had fled from the approaching Spanish conquerors. This was the first stage in Puerto Rico’s development. Spain was the most dominant oppressor of Puerto Rico, and its occupation of the island resulted in many social and economic changes. The native people were marginalized, and Spain took over Puerto Rico in order to turn it into a productive colony. In addition to this, the presence of the Spaniards in Puerto Rico added a different ethnic group to the island’s native population. When the official slave trade began in 1518, African slaves were added to Puerto Rico’s mixed ethnic heritage. (Figueroa 9/22) According to "A Bicentennial Without a Puerto Rican Colony",
Unlike the United States, in Puerto Rico the different races mixed and intermingled to create the moder...
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Bergad, Laird. "The Coffee Boom, 1885-1897," from: Bergad, Coffee and Agrarian Capitalism in Nineteenth-Century Puerto Rico (Princeton: Princeton U Press, 1983), 145-203
Cruz, Jose. "Puerto Rican Independence-then and now".
http://www.hartford-hwp.com/cp-usa/archives/95-09-23-2.html
Scarano, Francisco, "Sugar and Slavery in Puerto Rico, 1815-1849: An Overview," from Scarano, Sugar and Slavery in Puerto Rico: The Plantation Economy of Ponce, 1800-1850 (Madison: U of Wisconsin Press, 1984), 3-34
Thomas, Piri. "A Bicentennial Without a Puerto Rican Colony". http://www.cheverote.com/texts/bicentennial.html
Valle Antiles, Francisco del, "The Spiritual Life of the Jibaro, " from: Iris M. Zavala and Rafael Rodrigues (eds.) The Intellectual Roots of Independence, An Anthology of Puerto Rican Political Essays (New York: Monthly Review Press, 1980), 95-103
Even from early on she “risked her life to lead hundreds of family members and other slaves from the plantation system to freedom” (“Harriet Tubman”). Once Harriet finally escaped, she felt that it was not enough. She became a conductor on the Underground Railroad and did her very best to give others a better chance at their lives’. For example, rather “than remaining in the safety of the North, Tubman made it her mission to rescue her family and others living in slavery [by] the Underground Railroad” (“Harriet Tubman”). Harriet was dedicating her life to this and took this problem to heart recognizing that everyone is equal and should never be discriminated. Harriet was faced with several challenges along the way such as having “never recovered from the damage done to her brain and skull [from her slave owner]” (“Harriet Tubman”) and also having a very large price on her head for being a fugitive slave. All of these trials shaped Harriet into a stronger, braver person as she watched her footsteps and never let go of her original motivation. Harriet Tubman played a very large role in U.S. history, slavery, and in almost everyone’s lives as she pushed to the end while suffering for the benefit of
In order to understand the current situation of Puerto Ricans one must look at their history and retrace the sequence of events that led to the current formation of the Puerto Rican people. An important component of this history is the time Puerto Rico spent under Spanish rule. Studying this portion of Puerto Rican history forces us to acknowledge the contribution the Spaniards, European immigrants, and African slaves had on Puerto Rican identity as we consider it today. This also addresses contemporary debates on Puerto Rican identity. An example of this is evident in an essay written by Jose Luis Gonzales entitled "Puerto Rico : Th Four Storied Country". In the article Gonzales points out what he feels is a disregard toward the African contribution to the Puerto Rican identity. He argues that the first Puerto Ricans were black , based on his interpretation that Africans were the first group to come to Puerto Rico and reproduce who did not have ties to a "motherland" because they were slaves. This is unlike the Spaniard elites and Criolles that demonstrated their commitment and loyalty to Spain. Since they had no other place to go, Puerto Rico was their motherland. Gonzalez also points out that the culture of a region is always the culture of the elite, not the popular culture.
del Valle Atiles, Francisco. "The Spiritual Life of the Jibaro" form :Iris M. Zavala and Rafael Rodriguez (eds.), The Intellectual Roots of Independence: An Anthology of Puerto Rican Political Essays (New York: Monthly Review Press, 1980), 95-103.
Although Isabel’s record of her family’s background begins much later, the roots of racial division in Puerto Rico started with the Spanish invasion of the island. Before the Spanish invasion in the 1500’s, Puerto Rico was populated by the native population known as the Taino. Once Puerto Rico was invaded by Spain, the Taino were marginalized by the Spaniards, thus creating the first racial conflict. According to Piri Thomas:
The intention of this essay is to demonstrate to a vision rational, concordant political leader to the Puerto Rican, American and worldwide reality. It responds to the necessity that to the statehood it is necessary to imagine it and to expose it with all the evidence available, since many Puerto Ricans, including many political leaders, do not know like defending it or exposing it before the peculiar ones or our adversaries.
Trías-Monge, José. "The Shaping of a Colonial Policy," from Trías-Monge, Puerto Rico:The Trials of the Oldest Colony in the World (New Haven: Yale U Press, 1997)45-121.
The Different Experiences of Puerto Ricans' Migration to the United States. Some people are inclined to view the Puerto Rican experience as a historical repetition of earlier migrations to the United States. However, the migration experience of Puerto Ricans to the United States is more complex, as well as one of a kind. Similarities do exist between the migration of Puerto Ricans and that of other groups, however, no other ethnic group has shared the tribulations of the Puerto Rican population.
Harriet Ross Tubman was an African American who escaped slavery and then showed runaway slaves the way to freedom in the North for longer than a decade before the American Civil War. During the war she was as a scout, spy, and nurse for the United States Army. After that she kept working for rights for blacks and women.
Harriet Tubman was born in the year 1820 in Dorchester County, Maryland. Her parents were Harriet Green and Ben Ross. She is known by the name Harriet Tubman, but her real name was Araminta Ross. She had ten brothers and sisters who helped her with her work. Her family's nickname for her, as said by Elish, was “Minta” (9). She was born into a slave family which meant one thing: she was going to have a difficult life. She was abused and beaten by hard-hearted white people even when she was little. Her most difficult injury to overcome happened when she was only thirteen. A slave started to escape, so her master picked up a brick and threw it at him. Harriet stepped in front of the brick, trying to give the slave a chance to escape, and, in doing so, was hit in the head, knocking her out. Because of this injury, she had seizures and extremely painful headaches her entire life. When she was old enough, she was rented out to the Cook family. They disregarded her as a person or as an equal, making her sleep and share food with the dogs. The Cooks did not have enough money to keep her, so they gave her back. She was then rented to a woman named Miss Susan, who beat her mercilessly with a whip over the tiniest mistake. When she got the chance, she ran away from her, but ended up almost starving. She was returned to the plantation and started to work in the fields, gathering strength. Her father, hearing about her almost ...
Harriet Tubman’s work as part of the Underground Railroad was ended by the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861. However, her determined opposition and resistance to slavery did not end there. She assisted the Union throughout the war in a variety of roles. Her practice of partaking in the Underground Railroad meant that she had an understanding and ability to take part in secretive missions and this, in combination with her devotion to helping other people, made her a useful resource for the Union army
Harriet Tubman is probably the most famous “conductor” of all the Underground Railroads. Throughout a 10-year span, Tubman made more than 20 trips down to the South and lead over 300 slaves from bondage to freedom. Perhaps the most shocking fact about Tubman’s journeys back and forth from the South was that she “never lost a single passenger.”
Harriet Tubman was a selfless woman, who devoted her life to save others. Many other slaves from the South escaped to freedom in the North like Tubman. Many of these people stayed where they were free, frightened to go anywhere near the South again. However, that was not Tubman, she was different. She wanted everyone to have the feeling of freedom that she had newly discovered. Harriet was known “to bring people of her race from bondage to liberty,” (S Bradford et al 1869). Harriet Tubman was known as a hero to lots of people during the Civil War.
The numerous historical, economical, social, and political circumstances of Puerto Rico as a colony has affected identity formation of its people. In 1508, Ponce de Leon led the arrival of Spanish into Puerto Rico. Between the years of 1511-1513, Taínos fought against the Spaniards because they were taking away the Taíno culture. An outright rebellion with guerrilla warfare occurred in 1511 and then 1513-1514 experienced a lessening of this overt manner of rebellion and a conversion to more evasive and passive forms of resistance (Figueroa, Sept. 22).
Tubman grew up in a large, Christian family in the Antebellum south, under a very oppressive master. Between working long hours without rest or pay, and often being maltreated by her masters, Harriet developed sustained injuries that would follow her for the rest of her days. As Harriet began to grow older, her siblings were being sold off into slavery, and every day she lived in fear that she too would be ripped from her family to be taken to another master for only a few dollars. One feverish, August day, their master came to the ‘slave quarters’ to try to sell their son Moses, but Tubman’s mother, who was also named Harriet, threatened to kill the first man to touch her son. It is believed that this is where Tubman attained her rebellious soul. Nevertheless, the Tubman family was in constant fear of their family being torn apart, but through it all they kept their faith close and each other closer. After Harriet sustained a life changing injury, now known as temporal lobe epilepsy as a result of her owner throwing a rock at her head, her value as a slave went down and the beatings intensified. Tubman realized this wasn't an acceptable life style, she decided she needed a change. At the young age of 29, in the midst of the night, Harriet packed her few belongings and ran away, running by night all the way to Philadelphia,
The author structures the short story according to several shifts to portray the uncertainty we inevitably experience daily. Jinny, the main character, suffers from cancer. She manages to come to terms with this news, but now she has to experience another shift. Through a three-part flashback narrative technique, the author introduces to readers late in the story what the latest news is regarding her health. Jinny remembers that the doctor said, “I do not mean the battle is over, just that this is a favorable sign…we do not know that there may not be more trouble in the future but we can say we are cautiously optimistic” (76). Jinny remembers this crucial shift during a casual conversation. While the readers would expect this shift towards a positive side to bring her joy, Jinny in fact reacts negatively, fact shown by her inner reflection: “It was too much. What he had said made everything harder. It made her have to go back and start this year all over again” (77). Jinny had finally grown used to knowing that she could die soon due to cancer, and now she had to deal with the probability that she would survive.