ok, so. in clearing out my myspace page so that i could delete it (don’t judge me for having one to begin with), i found this essay-blog type joint that i’d written probably in 2006. it’s definitely a throwback, but no less relevant today. especially after the sammy sosa skin lightening debacle, and so on.

sorry this is soooo long guys! I have some steam to let off…I was talking to a Puerto Rican “brother” the other day, who asked me “why would you call yourself black, you’re Puerto Rican?!” and then went on to say, “don’t degrade your self like that, you are a Latina, not a Ni*&$@”. This appalled me coming from a very- I mean, very- brown skinned man. who, if he were walking down the street, would be racially profiled just like any other black man. I tried to teach him his history, reminding him that: The history of Puerto Rico begins much like the history of the rest of the Caribbean and the “new world,” with the original inhabitants of the island being the Arawak Indians, the indigenous people of many of the Caribbean Islands. In Puerto Rico, they were also, often called the Taino Indians. I’m gave him the ill history lesson. and it goes a little something like this:

In 1492, Christopher Columbus landed on the Island of Puerto Rico and claimed it for the Spanish crown. By 1503, The Spanish Crown granted permission for the Spanish to take the Tainos into captivity as slaves. The Tainos were not accustomed to the severe treatment from the Spanish, as they were a very peaceful group of people. And as a result, many of them died in the first twenty years of Spanish occupation. So, in the footsteps of their Portuguese counterparts (who had begun stealing blacks from Africa, and taking them to Portugal, and to the Cape Verde islands as slaves as early as 1456) the Spanish introduced slavery to Puerto Rico, in 1513, approximately 113 years before American slavery began. The first slaves were actually brought to Puerto Rico from Spain herself, where they were already in bondage, however when the demand grew for more slaves, spain granted permission for slaves to be taken directly from the coast of Africa.

of course, it wasn’t long before the indigenous and african folks said “yo, spain is tripping” and started to run for the hills,  quite literally. these fugitive slaves were called cimmarones (maroons). then to make things worse, a terrible hurricane ravaged the land in 1513. It’s within this context that in 1514 the African slaves revolted. Thus, the first uprising of Africans in the Americas occurred in Puerto Rico. Historians have always maintained that the first uprising of Blacks took place in Hispaniola in 1522. pero, why has history ignored the revolts of 1514 in the island of Puerto Rico? According to Jalil Sued Badillo, in his book Puerto Rico Negro, the reasons were many. One of the main reasons was that the population of African slaves in Puerto Rico was still small in numbers-about 1OO-and wasn’t considered a threat to the colony. Besides, at the time of the uprising the Spaniards had their hands full fighting the Tainos who had begun to revolt in 1511. The Tainos were considered a real threat. Also, the authorities kept news of the rebellion quiet because they feared the Spanish crown would consider the Africans too dangerous and stop shipment of them to Puerto Rico. The conquerors noticed the high mortality rate of the Tainos (due to war and disease) and foresaw Africa as a new source of labor power for their gold mines.

Starting in 1560, Puerto Rico began branding slaves on the forehead with a stamp to signify that they were brought over “legally” and they could not be “kidnapped”, and this cruelty did not end until 1784. By 1857, there were 44,308 slaves on the island, and 193,059 free blacks, who had bought their freedom, or perhaps been freed by their masters. These numbers combined, exceeded the number of whites, or pure European descendants by about 1,000. (In Cuba, the numbers are even more distant; in 1846 there were 823,772 slaves, 146,246 freed blacks, and 428,723 whites on the island, so that the numbers of blacks in total was more than double the amount of whites.) DO YOU HEAR ME, YO? DOUBLE THE AMOUNT!?

However, when ALL these facts didn’t work, I said “well, when people look at you, what do they see?” and he said “I don’t care what they see, because I’m not black not matter what”. I reasoned with him, believing that maybe he was confusing the term black with African-American, which can sometimes cause confusion for those who consider themselves of African descent, but not American.

It was more than that though. We as Afro Latinos have such an influential History, and Legacy! Do you think Columbus (who was not only European, but Italian!) created bomba, Plena, or Salsa y Merengue? Hell no!! We did it! Yet with all of our insight and knowledge, we are so often slighted, just like much of the Diaspora. We are taught to assimilate, and de-emphasize our African Roots! We ignore slavery, and put so much weight on the fact that we were a Spanish colony, as if it makes us better than American blacks, or other carribean countries, who had European Colonizers. You don’t hear American black folks hollering “I’m not black, I’m british” or Hatians saying, “I’m not black, I’m french”. Hispanic is a cultural term basd on language (and some share cultural/religious customs) but, not a race!  and we could say we are “mixed race” but no more mixed race than most african americans. and for the people who say “there is no racism in puerto rico,” well…aye, that’s a whole’nother ball game. but i will say this. let’s just be reasonable. one could not really think that after over 350 years of african people being enslaved, that black puerto ricans would walk off sugar plantations, shake hands with slave owners and say, “ok. now that that’s all done, let’s inter-marry, and hey, let’s just pretend like this whole thing never happened.” um…no. obviously, dismantling structures, policies and views about black people that took more than 350 years to create (not to mention reinforcement throughout usa’s continued colonization) cannot be undone in 100 years. especially when denial of race-issues is so fervent.

In a report done in 2003, called “How race affects Latin Americans”, They used info from the 2000 census, to affirm the racism that is so apparent, yet we deny. The report declared that although hispanics who identified their race as “black” on the census, on average had 1 more year (12yrs) of education than those who classified their race as “white(11yrs)” or “some other race/mixed(10yrs)”, they still made less money than both groups in the us. How much more obvious could it be that racism exists in latin america, and of course in the US? especially considering that black folks make up 30% of latin american and only 14% of the us.

let’s not let Western standards of beauty, history of hispanidad, misconceptions about race and ignorance, keep us from moving forward with a revolution, to expose to dishonesty in history, and the racism that still exists. Nobody is going to undo the ignorance until we accept the facts, Reconcile, and educate…anybody with me?

ps- for all my resources(scholarly journals/essays/or websites)- send me an email, there are like a million! aliciasanchezgill@gmail.com oh, and this pic is my aunt, my uncle, who died this year and me. at 4 years old. it was the 80s in miami. hence the gaudy foil decorations.