Late June Ramblings

Since we at the blog have not contributed a new post in 2 weeks, we decided to give an update about the various projects and readings we have conducted privately or in the comfort of our own space. So, while still juggling some additional Asimov and science fiction readings, we have mostly engaged in reading various texts pertinent to Puerto Rico and the Spanish Caribbean. Specifically, we are trying to find sources on "indios" and "mestizos" in Puerto Rico from 1600 to  1800, a period in which direct sources seem quite thing or inaccessible. 

We thought it might be an interesting project to conduct some research and form some theories about the reappearance of "indios" in and near San German in the late 1700s and their disappearance again in the 19th century. The Taino revivalist movement has made much of La Indiera and enumerated "indios" of 18th century Puerto Rico, so it would make for an intriguing historical project to endeavor some analysis of "indios" within Puerto Rico after their alleged disappearance in the second half of the 16th century.

For instance, were the "indios" of San German really direct descendants of the native population of the island? Was Abbad correct about their gradual intermarriage with peoples of European and African descent in the 1700s causing their final disappearance as a distinct group? What caused the sex ratio imbalance around San German in the late 1700s? Male outmigration to other parts of the island? Redefinitions of caste and "race" that made it far easier to lump together the small "indio" population into the free people of color population?

Some of the few sources we have perused and contain useful nuggets of information are Catholic Church records. Sometimes, "indios" and "mestizos" appear in baptismal, marriage, or death records from San Juan, Caguas and, presumably, the undigitized San German and Añasco church records.Scholars like Haslip-Viera are definitely correct when pointing to the foreign provenance of many of the 18th century "indios" who appear in some of these records, but clearly there was a something of the native population that survived and manifested in a socially recognized distinct population in the hills of San German. 

So, in order to pursue this fanciful project, we have perused various general histories of Puerto Rico, studies of the aboriginal population in the first century, analyses of the socio-economic conditions of the island in the 1500s, demographic analysis of the population from 1765-1815, and, to the extent they are scholarly or with scholarly pretenses, publications by Taino revivalists. Clearly, if the average genetic profile of the Puerto Rican population is reliable, they seem to have more of a direct link with the inhabitants of the Greater Antilles than other modern populations in the region. How does that narrative fit with the claims of Taino revivalism and its alternative triracial construct for Puerto Rican identity? We hope to return to these questions soon.