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Our Natives Our aborigines, after the "Guaytiau" pact was carried out,
were treated more as mere objects, then as actual human beings; their
human needs were neither met nor respected by the invaders. The
Spaniards broke the Guaytiau pact, the peace treaty. They carried
out a series of activities which, were nefastous in their consequences
to the aboriginal peoples. Among these was enslavement of the people.
Even though a proclamation went forth, as established by the Spanish
Court in 1500, which prohibited the enslavement of Natives, this law was
not absolute in its character. The same did not include our Natives.
This then means that, the aborigines who would not allow the Spanish
to enslave them and took up arms against the Spaniards could be enslaved.
Also, the Caribs were left out of the Royal Decree of 30 October
1503. The legal documents of the epoch presented another thing,
but for all practical purposes, we see reality as otherwise, which we
will try to explain in the following text. When the Spaniards first arrived at Borinken, AKA Puerto Rico, (Obao
Moin or Carib) in the year 1493 there was found there an aboriginal population,
which had a very definite lifestyle. Borinken was full of rich gold
reserves and of abundant vegetation. Following the model of the
expansionist governments, the Spaniards made the Tainos work to benefit
them and imposed slavery upon them. One of the first signs of expansionism
is that the Natives were treated as objects, not as human beings. It
was Juan Ponce de Leon's action in which the Chiefs of all the villages
on the Island were "commended", along with their people,
to other conquistadors to work their farmland and gold mines. (8) Forced labor imposed upon the Tainos ensured the Spaniards' food and
economic power. This we must frame within a natural system of production
of our aborigines, upon whom a labor system is imposed which, in the first
place, they did not understand and, in the second place was inhuman, because
they were not physically equipped to handle such labor. They resisted
this system imposed upon them by the Spaniards. (This is where the
saying that we are lazy begins.) This brought about as a direct
consequence the resistance with its many variations such as: disease,
pacific resistance, armed uprising, the exodus and suicide on part of
the Tainos. The tyranny against the aborigines was of such magnitude
that, the various religious leaders of the time who were sensible to the
situation raised up their voices in protest. Among them was father
Antonio Montesino, a Dominican priest. He was put in charge
of delivering the advent sermon for the year of 1511. (Religious
feast which, takes place four Sundays prior to Christmas.) In his
sermon, father Antonio denounced the abused perpetrated upon the aborigines
by the Spaniards in the following manner: "Under whose authority - thundered out the preacher - have you
unleashed such a detestable war against this people who were in peaceful
possession of their lands? How can you oppress and work them
without feeding them or healing them of their sickness, making them die
and, killing them under such excessive work, so that you can obtain gold?
Are they not men? Don't they have a soul? Aren't you
under the obligation of loving them as your own selves? Don't you
understand this? Don't you feel it? On such lethargic ground
you sleep…Rest assured that, in the present state you are in, there's
no salvation for you, the same as there is none for those who reject Jesus'
law. (9) Just the same as father Montesino, there were other religious people
of the time who opposed enslavement of the Natives, such as Fray Bartolome
de Las Casas. It was then practically impossible to keep passive under such conditions
as stated by father Montesino. This is why the aborigines rose up
in protest, even though there had been a pact made between Ponce de Leon
and Agueybana. It is obvious that the same was not kept by the invaders;
having in this manner forced the aborigines to take up arms to defend
themselves. For all practical purposes, the Natives as a race of people or ethnic
group we reduced in numbers dramatically in Puerto Rico, due to the abuse
perpetrated upon them by the colonizers. There were also other factors,
which accelerated this process, mass suicide, the exodus from our Island
and from other places and not having the antibodies to fight off the diseases
brought by the invading Europeans. The uprisings that took place
in the years of 1511 and 1513, as carried out by the leaders of the aborigines
was another element which, greatly reduced the number of Natives on the
Island.
The Chiefs who were "reduced" were Caguax, who inhabited
the region fertilized by the Turabo river, South-East of Caparra and another
one known as Don Alonso (12) During the uprising, of the other villages, Caguax stayed loyal to
Ponce de Leon. After the defeat of Guaybana, Ponce offered amnesty
to the Chiefs, but only Caguax and the Chief of Otoao, Don Alonso accepted
the same. The other Chiefs, even though at the moment they
put down their weapon, chose to adopt an attitude of civil disobedience,
even though they accepted as unavoidable the fact that they'd have to
live around the Spaniards. (13) This quote by Don Oscar Bunker was taken from Don Salvador Brau the
same as: · Arturo Morales Carrion in his book History of the Puerto Rican People,
from It's Beginnings until the XVIII Century, written in 175, p. 104. · Blanca Silvestrini, in her book History of Puerto Rico, the Path
of a People. This book was written in 1991, p. 82. · Francisco Moscoso, summarizes all of the above presentations by
supporting his position in his book Caguas During the Spanish Conquest
of the XVI Century, page 6 (14) This fact here stated gives us a perspective regarding our own Chief
Caguax. Brau points out: "In the meantime, some who were of lesser spirit, believed futile
to resist the conquistadors, of whom they said that many could do as much
harm as a few, the bellicose legion having had decided to self-impose
exile rather than surrender". (15) These factual statements made here leave us with some data, which
must be analyzed. For instance, the fact that there was amnesty
offered and accepted, Don Salvador Brau continues pointing out: This is done by Ceron to give continuity to the domain, carried out
by the Spaniards, but we consider that in this case, Caguax had no need
to continue to be loyal, since the pact was made with Ponce de Leon, not
with Ceron. This is why we uphold that at this opportunity Caguax
did not feel he was any longer under the obligation to continue to obey
the Island's governor. Pretty soon Caguax dies or disappears out of view, according to Brau: These facts lead us to conclude that, Caguax and Baguanamey did not
stay in the Valley after the uprising of 1513. There are documents
in existence quoted by Vicente Murga Sanz, Don Francisco Moscoso and Don
Victor Torres Lizardi, which attest to the fact that Caguax had been at
the King's Farm, at Utuado. (18). After the imposition of the Spanish peace on the Island
and, coming on board governor Juan Ceron, the difficulties between the
aborigines and the Spaniards continued. The communication between
the natives of the Islands also continued. There are facts which, have been corroborated by several
sources such as Salvador Brau and Aurelio Tio that: the fight continued
on the side of our Chiefs, conspiring against the Spaniards These
historians speak of sixteen Chiefs being Extradited to Hispaniola, for
conspiracy. One of the Chiefs was our own Caguax. This is
presented by Aurelio Tio on Juan Gonzalez Ponce de Leon's cross examination;
which we will present ahead. Brau point out the following in
pages 230-231 of his book; The Colonization of Puerto Rico: "besides these three groups, which communication with the islanders
of the leeward Island was easy and presented serious care, there were
dispersed through the central mountains some of the people, in caves,
hiding from which they came out at night, marauding, falling then into
the hands of onlookers and carrying these out unto them the order of putting
them to work in the mines as slaved. Don Diego disposed of sixteen
of these captives, having been had for Chiefs having had among them, they
were put in chains and sent to Santo Domingo, making the punishment be
harsh by extraditing them out of their mother land, this was done so the
that there would terrible consequence, unless for the intervention of
Juan Gonzalez Ponce de Leon, the interpreter and leader who in his employ
continued being more to his credit, as his masquerade as a native was
very effective to discover the renegades' hiding places. Now, while the
sixteen Chiefs were sent on their way to Hispaniola, the admiral moved
to San German, wishing to see for himself that area which he, himself
had named, and since this was necessary for him, to cross the mountain
pass, having found out about his trip several of the natives, they decided
to prepare an ambush in which they could entrap the governor and his entourage
upon his return. In this manner they hoped to avenge the extradition
of their Chiefs. Juan Gonzalez having discovered their plans, quickly
prevented don Diego of the danger by guiding him and his entourage over
areas which were more accessible to the flat land near the sea until he
left them in Caparra".(19) The punishment was planned ahead since, by July 25 1511, as a result
of the native uprising, they wanted to make a public example of the Chiefs
who conspired against the Spaniards. The king, through S. A. Lopez
de Conchillos stated the kind of punishment imposed upon the renegades: These events are corroborated during the cross-examination of Juan
Gonzalez Ponce de Leon, which has been presented in Aurelio Tio's book,
New Sources on the History of Puerto Rico , pages 37-39: |