The last possessions of the Spanish Empire in America and freed from metropolitan of the domination in 1898. The territories of Puerto Rico and Cuba were the first to have contact with Europeans. Both were discovered by Christopher Puerto Rico -Contemporary Columbus: the island of Cuba in 1492. During his first voyage to the New World. And Puerto Rico a year later. During the navigator’s second expedition.
Located in the Caribbean With an Puerto Rico -Contemporary
Economy historically of the based on the production of the same export crops – sugar cane. Coffee and tobacco – they were. Along with Brazil . The last American territories to eradicate the slavery system. They were also the first Latin American puerto rico phone number list countries to experience direct military occupation by the United States and to be incorporated. In a comprehensive manner. Outside its economic. Political and cultural power.
In fact. Over the course of more of the
Than 450 years. The two islands have shared numerous historical processes. To the point that the verses of the 19th century Puerto Rican poet Lola Rodríguez Tió became popular in both: Cuba and Puerto Rico are/The two wings of a bird/Receive flowers and bullets/In the same heart
Today. The wings of the Latin American of the Puerto Rico -Contemporary
Bird move in opposite directions. In other words. It is surprising that during the last half of the 20th century. Cuba and Puerto Rico have become opposite models of economic development and sociopolitical structuring for the region: Cuba. With the first attempt at a socialist revolution. And Puerto Rico. With the reformism of the “invitation-based industrialization” model (growth based on foreign capitalist investment); Cuba. Which of the defines itself as the first free territory in the Americas (in the anti-imperialist sense. That is. Free from the domination of the northern colossus). And Puerto Rico. Which proudly displays its North American citizenship; Cuba. Under the rule of the same ruler since 1959. And Puerto Rico. With uninterrupted general elections every four years. Presenting the world. In that period. With eight governors and six party changes. Despite the predominantly two-party model of Western Liberal Democracy.
This type of colonization by flight was
Combined with the retreat of indigenous people to the interior. Since the chiefdoms were the first to be subjugated. Furthermore. The demographic concentration in yucayeques (villages) facilitated the capture of natives for forced labor or sexual exploitation by a military and. Therefore. Especially virile colonialism. “Living like an Indian” came to mean living far away. And the term bohío bohío (indigenous house) became synonymous with peasant homes and mountain settlements.
The inward retreats were combined
With the presence of the maroons—runaway slaves who came mostly from the Lesser Antilles. Where the two rival metropolises (France and England) had early on developed sugar plantations. Every slave from non-Spanish plantations was declared cell phone number database free upon arrival in Puerto Rico. Thus. In contrast to the non-Hispanic Caribbean. Every Puerto Rican census since the seventeenth century has recorded a markedly higher proportion of free blacks and mulattos than enslaved people.
Especially after the experience of
La Hispaniola – in which Spain lost almost the entire western half of the island to French pirates – it became convenient for urban military colonialism to distribute loyal subjects throughout the territory. Thus. A kind of tacit agreement developed between the urban colonial power and the ethnic amalgamation resulting from the flight. Faced with the controlled rural colonial model. Represented by British and French plantations. The slaves defended. Tooth and nail. Urban colonialism. Which allowed the free distribution of peasants throughout the island of Puerto Rico.
In order for the military stronghold to guarantee of the
The right to free occupation of the territory. The Quilombola ethnic amalgam DT Data could not be part of the foreigners; it had to manifest itself as “Hispanic”. During the period of affirmation of the Spanish National State – both in its “cleansing” or internal homogeneity and in its external rivalry – this meant above all manifesting a Catholic identity. Expressed in practices such as eating pork (an act forbidden among Jews and Moors) and venerating the Virgin and the saints. In contrast to the monotheistic dogmas of Protestantism.
