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COLONIZATION
On Why I Prefer to Use Puerto Rico’s Indigenous Name in My Writing
Reflecting on ways to honor my ancestors
You cannot discover a place where our ancestors already lived.
— from the author’s poem, “When I Was Nuyorican”
As a child growing up in New York City, the word Borikén was so very far away. And I say this to mean more than physical proximity. I have zero recollection of being told about our ancestral Indigenous roots. Even as I type these words — jogging my brain’s memory bank — I come up blank as to my first introduction of where my people come from. This all comes down to one word:
Colonization.
In the case of Puerto Rico, we are twice colonized. First, by the Spaniards, then by the United States of America. The brief version of the history of the re-naming of our lands goes like this:
1493 — On his second voyage, the lost navigator commissioned by the Spanish Crown, Christopher Columbus arrived in Borikén, thinking he had landed in the Indies. He decreed it a Spanish colony, naming it San Juan Bautista after St. John the Baptist.
1508 —Granted permission by Nicolás de Ovando, the viceroy of Española (Hispaniola), Juan Ponce de León, a former lieutenant of Columbus, “explored” and subjugated the island of San Juan Bautista. On August 8, Ponce de León founded Caparra, the first European settlement in Borikén
1898 — in April, the U.S. declared war on Spain, intending to capture its colonies of Cuba, Puerto Rico, the Philippines, and Guam. In May, the U.S. attacked San Juan, then on July 25, they invaded via the southern area of Guánica Bay, heading to Ponce. With the December signing of the Treaty of Paris, Spain relinquished Guam, the Philippines, and Puerto Rico. Note: the Hawaiian Islands were “annexed by a joint resolution of Congress in July 1898.”
Being from a colonized people means you often question your identity
This is, of course, by design because as the colonizers settle Indigenous lands, they slowly (in some cases, not so slowly) begin to supplant their culture, values, and customs.
