VIEQUES: FIVE CENTURIES OF STRUGGLE AND RESISTANCE

-credited to Robert Rabin, Coordinador at Museo Fuerte Conde de Mirasol, Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqueña

The history of Vieques, like that of most Caribbean peoples, is the history of five centuries of struggle: struggle of the indigenous Taino Indians against the imposition of Spanish colonialism and slavery in the 16th century; struggle of hundreds of African slaves who lived, worked and died on Vieques during the 19th century; struggle of thousands of free black men and women who came to Vieques as wage laborers in the second half of the past century from nearby British and Danish islands; it’s the history of thousands of salaried workers struggling against horrendous living and working conditions in the sugar industry at the end of the nineteenth and in the beginning decades of the twentieth century; and the last sixty years of our island’s history is the struggle to regain control over 3/4 of Vieques territory expropriated by the US military in the 1940’s.

Vieques is the site of some of the most important archaeological work in the Caribbean region. The Center for Archaeological Investigation at the University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras, directed by Luis Chanlatte and Yvonne Narganes, based upon findings at Vieques’ excavations, has developed a series of new theories about migration patterns of pre-Colombian settlers on Vieques and the rest of the region. Amulets featuring the Andean condor, crafted in Vieques around 2,000 years ago, represent one of the principle distinguishing elements of a new cultural complex first recognized on the south coast of the island. 

Vieques last Taino chiefs, Cacimar and Yaureibo, led a series of raids against Spanish positions on the east coast of Puerto Rico in 1514. These attacks, coordinated with Taino groups on “Borikén” (Taino name for the main island of Puerto Rico) and other nearby islands, represented a final attempt to defend Taino culture and autonomy. Many elements of indigenous life and culture are present on Vieques today – names of places, foods, use of medicinal plants, in the faces of the people and in the spirit of struggle against foreign domination that has become an important part of the collective mentality of our population.