AFRO-ANTILLANO

 
           Being Afro-Antillean implies many things, like the mixture of Aboriginal Taino, African slave and European bourgeoisie, as part of a long and sad history. The protagonists of the overseas expansion were mainly Spain, Portugal, England, France and Holland; the Western Europeans landed on the West Indies like a epidemic, more terrible that the black plague, forever extinguishing the flame of Aboriginal people.
 
           In the social chaos that ensued, the Indians were forced to learn the way of life of the new masters. The impact of cultures was terrible. In Puerto Rico, as well as the other Antillean islands, the rapid extinction of the indigenous population meant a dangerous depletion of labor, for centuries the law and customs had defined the relations between Christians and infidels in the Iberian peninsula. The issue was raised again in the West Indies.

         The Islands became a huge laboratory of ideas, instructions and practices that ultimately cost the life of many and erased an entire race from the face of the earth.  Only a vague memory of what was is reflected in the faces, culture and vocabulary of  the Afro-Antillean.

          Chieftains, Called Caciques head of the social taino structure, Bohiques, (shamans, priests or healers) that directed the ceremonies as the Areito (singing and ritual dance of the aborigines). Naborias, common working-class or servant, The beautiful Batey, plaza de Areitos ,Taino centers for rituals and games. All this was consigned to be the past because of the greed of the conqueror.

            "The colony of Puerto Rico": the indigenous people fighting for its existence, suffering from the depredations of the Spaniards and the forced integration of Africans all for the sugar industry that was forged with blood and sweat, suffering and cries of Caribbean culture.

         The black slave trade became a source of much profit to Spain and very valuable property for exporters and smugglers, using them as labor in the exploitation of the mining and agricultural holdings of the Islands.  The West Indies were the center of the global industry of sugar, white and Brown and of the highest concentration of black slaves and of facilities for agro - manufacturing of the 17TH century.

          The cultivation of the sugar cane would leave its indelible mark on all the Caribbean Islands, supporting a heavy load on its shoulders on those who are my Afro Antillean people. Capitalists profited from the wealth of the Islands and depopulated it of the indigenous peoples. Between battles and attacks from the French, Portuguese and Corsairs, the Caribbean would never be same.

           In our faces, our food, our music and language is where we see the traces of our notorious past, and that is what defines us as people of the Afro-Antillean Caribbean...


I am proud to be Afro-Antillean
Gypsy red