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EL MORRO: SPANISH FORT IN HAVANA CUBA
Historical Perspective
Going back into the future
The Caribbean experience is dominated by two opposite but not necessary contradictory vectors.
One, seemingly going backward, is the fidelity to historical and ethnical traditions which are the root of the search by the Caribbean people for their national and regional identity.
This vector is deeply rooted in the Caribbean history of struggle against slavery and in the affirmation of the African ancestry of the majority of the people. It is the syntactic base of all the literary, artistic, cultural expressions of the region. The Caribbean mind uses this syntactic base as a mold in which it generates a wonderful
Trans Caribbean Textual Fusion between the various human cultures (Arawacks, Carib, West African, English, French,
Spanish, Dutch, East Indian, Arab and even Chinese). The resulting rich mixture could be called a
Metacreole Fusion
The other is the trend toward modernization which is fueled by two factors: the need for amelioration of the living conditions of the people and the necessity of integration of the Caribbean in the world economy
Contrary to appearances those two vectors reinforce each other, because by going back into its roots and solidifying its identity the Caribbean will be
capable to sustain an integrated, peaceful and gradual economic development that will rest on the existential affirmation and the intellectual development of its most important resource which is its people
By taking those two vectors into consideration the impartial observer realizes that the synthetic model which seems to represent most closely the Caribbean experience is one that sees it as going backward toward a better future
The Arrival of Columbus
The portion of the history of the Caribbean that we know about the most,
started with the arrival of Christopher Columbus to the shores of an island in the Bahamas which he renamed San Salvador on October 12 1492, 70 days after traveling west from Palos. Upon landing on the island he took possession of it in the name of the Crown of Spain.
Columbus landing
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The arrival of Christopher Columbus was the beginning of the end of the
indigenous people of the Caribbean on the region and beginning of the European domination/conquest. The Caribbean became the most precious jewel on the crown of
Spain. The Arawak/Karibs population was vanquished in an undeclared war and decimated by mass murder, epidemies and slavery. As a direct consequence of the
disappearance of the Indians who were not fit technically to fight the
European invasion and had no
immunological defense
against European diseases, the colonial power turned their eyes toward Africa as a source of slave labor. The first African slave arrived in the Caribbean around 1502 in the Island of Hispagnola or la Espagnola as it was named by Columbus. (Hispagnola or La Espagnola whose original name was Kyskeya, Bohio (Habitat, House) or Haiti
(mountainous land) is now shared by two
independent countries: Haiti and the Dominican Republic. )
The constant influx of slaves brought from Africa tilted rapidly the demographic balance in favor of the people of African descent. They are today the dominant ethnic group of the
Caribbean
Christopher Columbus wanted to go to Asia but he discovered the American Continent by accident. He did not know that he had just discovered a new continent.
His catastrophic mistake about the inhabitants of the New World which he
believed, until his death, to be Indians from India was not his alone but a geographic error of the Europeans of his time. As a matter of fact all the lands discovered by the Vikings were thought to be part of Asia and recognized as such by the Vatican.
From the Bahamas he traveled south and discovered Cuba on October 26. The inhabitants of Cuba told Columbus about another Island where he could find lots of gold. He followed their advice and went further south to discover
another island on December 6. He came to a magnificent bay which he named St. Nicholas. The island was named Kyskeya, Bohio( habitat, house, country), Haiti (mountainous land) by its Tainos/Carib inhabitants. He fell in love with the Island and renamed it Hispagnola or Espagnola (little Spain). Most of his future voyages involved the island which is also his
alleged final resting place in the Dominican Republic.
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Columbus picture
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Christopher
Columbus: The riddle
In his
English translation of the log of Columbus, Robert H. Fusion paraphrasing Winston
Churchill called him a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma. Lots of things about Columbus and his actions are the
subject of hot debates. and speculations.
Some celebrate him as a man of courage who was able to accomplish something extraordinary. Others think mainly of him as a gritty oppressor and
murderer who could be considered as the Father of slavery in the New World. Through the Americas, North, Central/Caribbean and South, the myth and the moral values of Columbus was heavily debated during the 500 anniversary of its discovery. Lots of books and newspaper articles were published. Some espousing the traditional view other adopting the point of view of the
"Indians" the inhabitants of the Caribbean, which Columbus in his log thought were
ready to be servants. Columbus is still an object of great admiration in most places of the Caribbean but several countries have stopped celebrating the day of the discovery of their land by the Admiral.
The most dramatic instance of Columbus' reversal of fortune happened in Haiti in 1986. After the fall of Baby Doc Duvalier, demonstrators went to the seaport of Port-au-Prince, the capital, uprooted the statue of Columbus and
tossed it in the sea: telling him to "go back where he came from" The statue was placed back by the, then, military junta, but it was tossed back again in the sea. The impressive statue of Columbus which presents the admiral dressed in full regalia, kneeling on his right knee and planting a cross with his left hand was then placed behind a bunch of unused material behind the city hall building.
When it was last seen, two years ago, by the chief editor of KWABS.COM,
the cross was broken and Columbus was still there kneeling in a muddy area.
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Deconstructing Columbus
The deconstruction of the man name Christo Ferens Columbus is not easy. There are so many textual treads in his behavior and any attempt to follow one of them to the core of the man leads most of the time to a dead end.
To understand this very complex historical figure, we have to place him in the context of his time, of the culture that supported his travels and particularly
within the political agenda of the Crown of Spain. We must also consider the textual content of his personal ambitions. His key motivation was undoubtedly fame and fortune, and the mean to achieve them was the discovery of a new route to the east by traveling westward.
The fusion of those two elements, one contextual and the other textual, creates a set.
The general governing element was the catholic crown of Spain embedded in the
euro centric, colonialist, cultural imperialist context of the 15th century. The impartial investigator can understand the cultural and political atmosphere of Spain circa 1492 by learning that the Spanish Crown expelled the Jews
from Spain around the time of Columbus Travel.
The personal agenda, the religious beliefs and the emotions of the man named Christopher Columbus were a textual subset of the general set called: Spain Circa 1492
Once we put the key elements in place we are capable to links all the
apparently contradictory facts about Columbus to a single complex root. We become suddenly able to understand why Columbus appears to be an angel and a demon at the same time. We stop being part of the pro or the anti Columbus
crowd..
For instance, in his travel log Columbus talk with love and admiration about the inhabitants of the Caribbean. One cannot help but being moved by his
description of one of the Arawacks chieftain and of their friendship. Basing our opinion on this entry on his log, we are tempted to say, like some of the literati and cognoscenti of the Columbus issue, that he was a wonderful man who loved the Indians.
We can also, by looking into other historical facts , realize that shortly after his arrivals the (Indian) population was enslaved and forced to work in the gold
mines. Those who follow this perspective can conclude that he was father of slavery in the new world.
Christopher Columbus certainly had personal ambitions but he was nothing but an instrument, a subset, all be it important, of a governing reality. By placing Columbus, Admiral the sea and Spanish Vice King, in the context of colonial Spain circa 1492, we realize that considering him as an angel or a demon is historically irrelevant. The Spanish crown had an agenda of colonial
expansion which was motivated by a desire to appropriate the riches of the other parts of the world and bring them to Spain. Columbus had no choice but to be an efficient textual representative of the interest of the Crown. As a matter of fact, once he became obsolete, he was replaced by more efficient military leaders. In order to help you form your own opinion about the context of the relationship betwen the Crown of Spain and the Karib/Tainos people, read the
Text of a letter given by King Ferdinand to Christopher Columbus on his second voyage
Reference and Articles about Columbus: Read and Decide for your self
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Columbus Coat of Arms
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