The second chapter of the book 'Puerto Rico: A National History' goes deeper into the consolidation of the Spanish Colonial Project. As we previously discussed, the Europeans needed labor as the Indigenous workforce started to decrease (slain by the colonizers, facing epidemics and exploitation). The Spaniards forced them to work in the dangerous mines to obtain the metals they so much coveted, and that were also found in abundance in the river-banks. When the population of Boricuas started to ebb, the transatlantic trade began, taking millions of Africans away from their homeland to a life sentence in a whole new world for them, working for the white colonizers.

Just like the Indigenous, enslaved Africans, started revolts all over the island, not so distant from the organized rebellions also happening in the rest of the Caribbean. But this, will be discussed in further chapters, with an important independentist movement starting to cook in the different European colonies, motivated by the first revolution of free and enslaved people of color in Saint-Domingue (modern Haiti).

In this chapter, the author presents many of the different challenges the Spaniards started to face, with multiple attacks from foreign powers, and looting from pirates and corsairs. It is also mentioned, how when the colonization of Mexico and Peru started at the beginning of the 16th century, a potential exodus of vecinos (the civil population of white settlers) was causing fear among the higher authorities. This exodus was also caused by a decline in the economic importance of Puerto Rico.

On other notes, a name sticks out among many others in this chapter: Miguel Enríquez, son of a former enslaved black woman, and a white Spaniard. Enriquez was a corsair and contrabandist who became the richest person on the island, accruing ships, houses, and many other properties. It is also worth noting, that like many other rich and power-holders, he owned enslaved people, and enjoyed the benefits of his wealth, drinking wine, and eating meats and cheeses. However, despite the immense wealth he accumulated and the political position he once reached as a defendant of the island against foreign powers, being granted the greatest title of Royal Effigy, he died penniless in an unmarked grave. The elite conspired against him, and once the Crown consolidated its control over the Caribbean, he was no longer considered an asset to them and lost all Royal protection. The white Spaniards made sure this was the fate of an illegitimate pardo (a term used for a person of mixed African, European, and Indigenous ancestry), not allowing him to forget he was a descendant of enslaved people.

In this chapter, it is also mentioned that in the 1700s the term puertoriqueño was starting to be used in reference to those born on the island.

It is very interesting the way Jorell retells these stories. When he starts to introduce the character of Enríquez, it is mentioned he found a job in a shoe-making workshop with the help of a white clergyman, who was his guardian, and who turns out to be his biological father. Following historical events has never been easier to access for anyone who seeks a simple but also detailed narration of the episodes that led to the current situation of a country like Puerto Rico, and the construction of its national identity.

🕮 Puerto Rico: A National History. Author: Jorell Meléndez-Badillo