THE HISTORICAL CREATION OF IDENTITIES IN PUERTO RICO By CARMEN ALONDRA LAGUER DÍAZ A DISSERTATION PRESENTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA 2014 © 2014 Carmen Alondra Laguer Díaz a todas las manos que hoy trabajan, porque ellas construyen y saldrá de ellas la nueva patria liberada ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I should start from the beginning. I thank my parents, Alma and Juan, for supporting me and cheering me on. To my sisters and brother, Yasmin, Juan and Alma, for letting me get away with most things. To my nieces and nephews: Juan, Edwin, Amariliz, Araceliz, Sofía, and Miriam Isabel. They are the light of my eyes. To Paul: my anchor throughout this ordeal and the reminder that it is okay for shop talk to stay in the shop. This work would not have been possible without the hard work and support of many colleagues. To start, my advisor, Bill Keegan has always been a sounding board for any crazy idea I come up with. He has been there when I need to rail it in, but also been there to remind me when I should put all of myself out there. To Susan deFrance, chair of the Department of Anthropology, she is a constant and stable source of calmness. To James Davidson who is always critical and always encouraging. To Efrain Barradas who always knew what to say and reminded me that something personal is still something viable. This project would have been next to impossible without the help of the archaeologist Juan Rivera and Laura del Olmo from the Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqueña. I deeply appreciate all the help provided and admire all the work they do for Borinquen. I would not be in this position, at all, if I had not received support from L. Antonio Curet and Edwin Crespo. Edwin always had an ear for me during my undergraduate years. Antonio took the risk in accepting me as a volunteer and mentored me through my early career. I thank you both for your guidance and trust. 4 Thanks to Will Pestle, Josh Torres, Geoff Duchemin and Reniel Rodríguez Ramos. They were role models (good ones!) to me, showing me the fun side of research and the importance of cooperation (not competition!) in the field. I thank Lisa Stringer for being so obsessed with making things right. It has rubbed off on me, and has made my life a lot easier. I greatly appreciate Lala Lisa and Angel’s willingness to follow me through the montes, going up roads we probably should have never gone through, and being by my side in our standoff with cattle. There are many others who I have had the opportunity to work with and I thank them all: Ricardo, Eduardo, Mayra, Natalia, Lina, Omar, Ernie, Mariela, Joe, and so many others. Special thanks to the office staff in the Anthropology office: Karen, Pat, Pam, and Nita. These ladies have made graduate school easier to bear. My thanks also go to Peter Collings and Allan Burns who treated me as one of their own. They always made sure I felt appreciated and challenged me to make sure I did my best. Many of my thanks go to the staff at the Florida Museum of Natural History, especially Gifford Waters for putting up with my barrage of questions. Many thanks go to Michael Dion, Sylvia Chappell, and Rhoda Bharath. They are wonderful women! Their hard work in and out of the field is something to emulate. I deeply appreciate my time spent with them and hope to work with them again soon. These years in graduate school would have been a lot harder without those who reminded me to get out and have fun: I cannot thank them enough. Michael, someone I strive to imitate: his perseverance, constancy and humor are a thing to behold! Meghann, who reminded me to take a breather and gave me two important gifts: my dog, Boston, and my cat, Chicago. Emily and Tatiana: two very strong, willful and 5 independent women. We have parted ways but I hope to continue cultivating my friendship with them. I deeply thank Ellen for the wine, cookies, and ice cream! Finally, I thank my cohort in the Department (and those associated): Gypsy, Randy, Anna, Joost, Zack, Val, Noelle, Meredith, Jon Simon, Alison, Joe, Eric, Tatiana, Ryan, Caitlin, Melissa, and so many others. I assure you, you are all in my thoughts. 6 TABLE OF CONTENTS page ACKNOWLEDGMENTS................................................................................................. 4 LIST OF TABLES........................................................................................................... 9 LIST OF FIGURES ...................................................................................................... 10 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS .......................................................................................... 12 ABSTRACT.................................................................................................................. 13 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................... 15 2 THEORETICAL CONSIDERATIONS..................................................................... 19 The Psychology of Social Identity .......................................................................... 20 Memories of a Frontierless Community ................................................................. 24 Transculturation as a Process ............................................................................... 29 Politics of Archaeology and Identities .................................................................... 32 Summary ............................................................................................................... 35 3 PUERTO RICO ..................................................................................................... 37 The Beginning ....................................................................................................... 37 The European Arrival ............................................................................................. 38 San Juan Bautista ................................................................................................. 40 First stage – Discovery of New Identities ............................................................... 41 Second Stage – Insular and Peninsular ................................................................. 44 Third stage – A 20th Century Colony ...................................................................... 49 Fourth Stage – Triad of Races: Taíno+Spanish+African = Puerto Rican?.............. 50 United Confederation of Taíno Peoples (UCTP) .............................................. 56 Jatibonuco ....................................................................................................... 57 Taíno Turabo Aymaco Tribe of Borikén (Turabo Aymaco) ............................... 57 Contemporary Issues: Racial Schizophrenia ........................................................ 59 Discussion ............................................................................................................. 62 4 RESEARCH SITES ............................................................................................... 63 Early Colonial Assemblage: Casa Blanca .............................................................. 63 19th Century Assemblage: PARA ........................................................................... 68 Field 24 ........................................................................................................... 72 Field 48 ........................................................................................................... 73 Field 60 ........................................................................................................... 74 7 Field 61 ........................................................................................................... 75 19th Century Assemblage: TASP ........................................................................... 76 SU-1 ................................................................................................................ 80 SU-3 ................................................................................................................ 80 SU-4 ................................................................................................................ 82 SU-8 ................................................................................................................ 83 Summary ............................................................................................................... 85 5 RESEARCH METHODS ........................................................................................ 86 Comparative Collections ........................................................................................ 86 Ceramic Assemblages ........................................................................................... 88 Dating ............................................................................................................. 88 Ceramic Classification ..................................................................................... 89 Early Colonial Period ............................................................................................. 94 19th Century Material ............................................................................................. 97 Summary ............................................................................................................. 100 6 DATA AND ANALYSIS: FIRST STAGE OF