Island Narrations, Imperial Dramas and Vieques, Puerto Rico
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INHABITING ISLA NENA, 1514-2003: ISLAND NARRATIONS, IMPERIAL DRAMAS AND VIEQUES, PUERTO RICO by Marie Cruz Soto A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (History) in The University of Michigan 2008 Doctoral Committee: Associate Professor Fernando Coronil, Co-Chair Assistant Professor Jesse E. Hoffnung-Garskof, Co-Chair Professor Rebecca J. Scott Assistant Professor Lawrence M. La Fountain-Stokes “Isla Nena” by Silverio Pérez …Hay miles de pedazos de esta tierra Con miles de ocasiones de injusticia Hay una isla chica en que la guerra Roba tiempo al amor y a la caricia. Un día que mi canción se hizo oleaje Un día que reposé en la blanca arena Le dí mi corazón y mi coraje Al pueblo y al sentir de la Isla Nena. Hay una Isla Nena en lontananza. © Marie Cruz Soto 2008 To Abuela Paca, who endured displacement, abandonment, hunger… and expressed her political claims through the pro-statehood party. Her stories silenced by cancer are not written in history books. Yet they survive in the memory of those she touched and nurtured. To my father and my mother, for keeping the stories alive while weaving new, and for believing in the infinite possibilities of the real-maravilloso, even when it might be less painful not to believe. To their combined memories, which I have made mine or that have made me theirs, that I hope to incorporate into my histories. ii Acknowledgements I owe the completion of this dissertation to many people who have helped and inspired me throughout my personal and academic life, and to the support of different educational institutions. I was introduced to the world of humanities and Latin American state universities when I entered the History Department of the University of Puerto Rico. The intellectual stimulus and friendship I received from professors like María del Carmen Baerga, Mayra Rosario, Astrid Cubano, Carlos Pabón, Manuel Alvarado and María Barceló and staff members like Carmen Gloria Ortiz, Mayra Álvarez, Marie Carmen Ramos and Yilda Luciano encouraged and more than justified my deep love for the institution that not only sparked my intellectual concerns but made me, I think, a more conscientious citizen. There I also met three of my dearest friends. Lenny, thank you for infusing me with your endless energy and your passion for history. Juan, thank you for your intelligent friendship and for always being there when I need you. Without you two I would not have survived graduate school. And Yarín, thank you for a strong friendship that inspires me to be a better person. Once in Ann Arbor, amidst the coldness of its winters, I also experienced the warmth and kindness of many people like Lorna Altstetter and Sheila Coley who welcomed the three Puerto Ricans to the History Department of The University of Michigan, and of Kathleen King who guided me, always with a smile, through the late iii dissertation process. The vibrant intellectual community helped me to pose myself those hard questions I hope to address with my work. Professors like Fernando Coronil, Jesse Hoffnung-Garskof and Rebecca Scott, besides offering me their friendship, helped to shape my intellectual concerns and to transform them into this dissertation. I thank them for their encouragement and guidance throughout this seemingly endless and very rewarding project. I also thank Lawrence La Fountain-Stokes for accepting to be part of my project and for sharing his thoughtful comments and wonderful poetry with me. I feel honored for his generosity. Finally, I wish to thank Jesse in particular for his patience and understanding, and for helping me pull through at some of my worst moments. For this, I am deeply grateful. The History Department and Rackham Graduate School helped make my dissertation project a reality through their generous financial support. While the librarians and staff at the Centro de Investigaciones Históricas and at the Colección Puertorriqueña of the University of Puerto Rico and the staff at the Museum and Archive Fortín Conde de Mirasol helped make the research process a more fruitful and enjoyable experience. Finally, I want to thank the Viequenses, for they are a living example of resistance however contradictory, my family, as extended as it can be, and Anthony, for simultaneously complicating the myths in my life while making the journey infinitely better. They are my inspiration. iv Table of Contents Dedication………………………………………………………………………..……….ii Acknowledgements………………………………………………………………………iii List of Figures…………………………………………………………………………….vi List of Appendices……………………………………………………………………….vii List of Abbreviations……………………………………………………………………viii Abstract…………………………………………………………………………………...ix Chapter 1: Introduction……………………………………………………………………1 Chapter 2: Myths of Origin and Foundational Figures, 1514……………………………25 Chapter 3: Claims to the Labyrinthine Island, 16th-19th Centuries………………………71 Chapter 4: The Spanish Colony of Vieques, 19th Century……………………………...109 Chapter 5: The Sugar Baptism of Isla Nena, Late 1800s-1930………………………...149 Chapter 6: The Arrival of the U.S. Navy, 1930-1950…………………………………..187 Chapter 7: Isla Nena, Island of Memories and the Dead, 1953-2003…………......……223 Chapter 8: Conclusion…………………………………………………………….….…277 Appendices…………………………………………………………………………...…291 Bibliography………………………………………………………………………...….308 v List of Figures 2.1 Indigenous amulet of condor holding a human head, La Hueca, Vieques.…..….32 2.2 Charles Plumier’s 1693 sketch of a Carib woman……………………………….49 3.1 Abraham Ortelius’ 1588 “Hispaniolae, Cubae, Aliarumque Insularum Circumiacientium, Delinetio. Culicanae, Americae Regionis, Descriptio.”.……96 4.1 British mid 19th century sketch of Isabel II, Vieques…………………………..141 5.1 Passport belonging to Luis Charles, dated April 14, 1888, authorizing passage to Guadeloupe………………………………………………………………..……153 5.2 Catholic and Protestant cemeteries in the outskirts of Isabel II, Vieques………159 5.3 Map of Vieques produced in 1943 by the Committee for the Investigation of the Conditions in the Island of Vieques…………………………………….………168 5.4 Municipal Hospital José Benítez Guzmán built in 1912 in the outskirts of Isabel II, Vieques…………………………………………….....…………..………….181 6.1 Navy aerial photograph of western Vieques taken in March 18, 1941, framing photograph of the Arkadia Colony ……………………………………...…..…189 6.2 Plaza Hijos Ausentes, Isabel II………………………………………..………..217 6.3 Contemporary photograph of Manuelquí, Vieques…………………………….219 6.4 Photograph of Manuelquí during 1950s military maneuvers………...……...…219 7.1 Military personnel drinking outside the Ocean View Hotel in 1942, Isabel II, Vieques……………………………………………………………...………….228 7.2 Military Policeman, young lady and Municipal Policeman in the Ocean View Hotel in 1942, Isabel II, Vieques.…..…………………………………………..229 7.3 Viequense fisherman and woman at sea……………………………………..…256 7.4 Fisherman Carlos Zenón at sea, Vieques……………………………………….259 7.5 Viequense fishermen at sea, Vieques………………………………………...…260 7.6 “Warning” sign in former Navy-owned land in Vieques………………….……262 7.7 Tourist brochure produced by the Vieques Chamber of Commerce…………...266 7.8 Mount David in the former Camp García, Vieques…………………………….269 7.9 Viequense landscape inscribed with white crosses……………………..………269 7.10 Rustic chapel in former Navy-owned land in Vieques……………..…..………269 7.11 Rusted military junk in former Navy-owned land in Vieques………….………270 7.12 Civil disobedients hanging in hammocks from an abandoned tank……………270 7.13 Symbolic cemetery established in the entrance of Camp García…….…………271 7.14 Poster with drawing of Milivy’s face in the entrance of Camp García...………271 vi List of Appendices 1 Map of Vieques 1941…………………………………………………...………292 2 Map of Vieques 1940s-2003……………………………………………………292 3 Map of Vieques’ Population Distribution before 1941 and after 1943, as proposed by César Ayala………………………………………………………….………293 4 Map of the Caribbean……………………………………………...……………293 5 Map of Vieques since 2003………………………………….…….……………294 6 Outline of the Indigenous Caribbean Cultures, as proposed by Sebastián Robiou Lamarche………………………………………..………………………………295 7 Outline of the Indigenous Caribbean Cultures, as proposed by Luis Chanlatte Baik and Yvonne Narganes Storde……………………………..…………………….296 8 Population of Puerto Rico 1765-1897, as proposed by José L. Vázquez Calzada………………………………………………………………………….297 9 Slave Population in Puerto Rico 1531-1873, as proposed by Francisco Moscoso, José L. Vázquez Calzada and the 1899 Census………………………...………298 10 Population of Puerto Rico 1899-2000, as proposed by José L. Vázquez Calzada and the U.S. Census Bureau…………………………………………….………299 11 Commercial Traffic between Puerto Rico and Seville 1512-1699, as proposed by Fernando Picó…………………………………………………….….…………300 12 Puerto Rican Sugar Exported to Seville 1568-1594 and 1650-1670, as proposed by Fernando Picó……………………………………………………….………300 13 Vieques’ Population Census of September 14, 1828…………………...………301 14 Haciendas, Crops and Breeds in Vieques 1834, Government Statistics…..……303 15 Population of Vieques 1839, Government Statistics…………………...………303 16 Vieques’ Population Census of August 4, 1845………………….…….………304 17 Vieques’ Population and Finances around the Year 1851, as proposed by Marqués de España…………………………………………………..…………………...305 18 Population of Vieques 1838-2000, as proposed by Juan Bonnet Benítez and the U.S. Census Bureau……………………………………..……………………...305 19 Governors and Mayors of Vieques 1811-2003…………………………...…….306 20 Tons of sugar produced by three centrales in Vieques 1913-1922, as proposed