Random notes on Chris and the Tainos

[darragh]

Columbus signed his name "Cristobal Colon". That he was born in Genoa is not denied, but his origins are still obscure. He was as much a Spaniard as Henry Kissinger is an American. In the 19th Century, the Italians resurrected his image as "Cristoforo Colombo" to gain acceptance among Americans, as they were then the new immigrants.

Columbus may have been the agent, but the process that created Puerto RIco was the emergence of Europe's first modern state, Spain. The Castile that COlombus sailed for became Spain with the death of Ferdinand (the crowns united under his grandson, Karl Von Hapsbourg, a German who did not even speak Spanish until after 1521, when he decided that Spain was a better home for the Holy Roman Emperor than northern Germany.)

It's easy to be politically correct these days, praising the Tainos (who did not even call themselves that), and putting down everything Spanish, but the world was a different place in 1508, and the island of San Juan Batista was the place where three of its cultures and races collided.

In throwing out the Moslems, Spain had developed the first modern national army (the last had been the roman legions). They developed the sailing ship, mobile artillery, infantry regiments (then called tercios), firearms, and a whole lot of other military developments. 800 years of war had also created a warrior caste, and if Colon hadn't discovered the new world, there is a good chance that Spain would have exploded in a series of civil wars. The so-called "conquistador's helmet" by the way, is the "morion", worn only by riflemen (arquebuceros), and not the other branches of infantry or cavalry. But I digress. The important point is that, at that time in SPain's military development, ability and skill is what counted. Thus many of the soldeirs who trooped to the new world could neither read nor write, but they darned sure new how to fight. And the Caribbean at the time was a place where such skills were needed for survival.

The so-called Tainos (strange that we don't even know the word that they used to collectively refer to themselves, such as "meshica" among the Mexicans of the central plateau)were neolithic. THere was no way they could stand up to Spanish arms. Worse, while they gave the world syphlis, the diseases they got in return were far more deadly. Of course they were a civilization, and proof of that is the fact that they maintained so homogenous a culture across the Caribbean. No, they weren't up to Mexica, Peruvian, or Chibcha standards, but a civilization all the same. And one that deserves respect given its artistic legacy.

19th Century romanticism, whose roots were in Europe, also gave us an idealized vision of the Taino, as well as just about every other group of "native americans". Instead of real human beings who lived, loved, sinned, lied, cheated, stole, told the truth, helped needy neighbors, stood up for what is right, beat their wives, in short all the other common positive and negative characteristics of real human beings, they became noble savages living in a lost Eden, corrupted by the dirty rotten SPaniards who stole their land and taught them evil ways. (Marx' buddy Engels was one of these romantics, and authored books praising the primitive socialism of peoples he had never even seen, based on sources who hadn't seen them either.)

Well, the first is true, so what, those were OUR ancestors, they were risking death, disease, and maiming in battle to make Puerto Rico spanish, but the second is quite untrue and goes against common sense of human nature.

Everyone has a God given (or natural, for those who wish to leave god out) right to define themselves. If Fulano Detal, with 1/1000th a drop of "Taino" blood wishes to define himself as a Taino, then good. Let's accept him as that. But if he thinks that this 1/1000th percentage is intrinsically "better" than the 99/1000ths African, 200/1000th Corsican, and 666/1000th "Spanish" (Castilian, Catalan, Gallego, Basque, Converso, or Morisco) blood that runs in his veins, then he is indulging in reverse Racism.

Let's not judge 16th century ancestors by 21st century standards. Spain's work, for both good and bad, is indelible. We live it's results today. More than that, all Hispanics of whatever race ARE its results. ANd if that seems a minor "so what", remember this. Unlike your north-american fellow citizens, any one of you could start out in Texas or California, and walk all the way to Tierra del Fuego or Patagonia and, with few exceptions, talk to virtually anyone and everyone you meet along the way. Spain covered all that territory, on foot, in just under 50 years.
No mean achievement, however personally sorry some of those involved may have been.

To paraphrase the KGB general in "Doctor Zhivago":

Ah, it's a gift.