Aguada

Last night I was hunting around for something interesting to read and came upon this book: "Aguada: Panorama Historico Diccionario Biografio" by Ruben Arcelay Medina. This translates to: "Aguada: Panorama of History and Biografical Dictionary." My father was born in the town of Aguada, a rural area on the opposite side of Puerto Rico from the capital city of San Juan. He must have gotten this book on his last trip home, as I've never seen this book before.

This the first book I've ever seen about that small town, and what an incredible treasure. The writer is a social worker, organizer, trade unionist who writes about the "unwritten" history and people of the island. Arcelay has a definite Howard Zinn analysis of how things went down. Given that my people are from peasant (and slave) stock, I'm empowered to read their story (and not just that of the landowners and Spaniards).

Here are some facts about Aguada's history that left me thinking well after I had closed the book to sleep:

In 1511 there was rebellion of Taino Indians against their enslavers in Aguada. While the initial revolt was successful, Ponce de Leon came in with troops to quell it. The Tainos who remained were branded with hot irons, enslaved or murdered. The survivors fled to the mountains.

The same year African slaves were brought to the island and disembarked in Aguada, as the Tainos were being decimated by overwork and disease. These African workers came from the areas that are now Mali and Angola. I can't tell you the pleasure to know where some of my ancestors came from....The Aguada area was a big sugar plantation area, so many of these Africans remained to work the sugar cane fields for generations to come.

Finally I actually found a mention of my grandfather's death in the mining accident I've heard about my whole life in this book! In 1935 there was exploration of a manganese mine on the farm of Anselmo Villarrubio. The mine was closed after the accident that killed Walter Delrio (a USer) and 3 Aguadan men, my grandfather Hermenegildo Rivera Perez, Castulio Rivera, and Juan Mendoza. The author interviewed my uncle Mon for this entry.

I realize that it might seem strange to take pleasure in reading what is essentially the brutal legacy of colonization, even including the mining accident that claimed my grandfather, just as the Spanish gold mines claimed my Taino ancestors.

However I know that knowledge is power, and to know that my ancestors resisted oppression bravely(Tainos were famed for being extremely pacific and welcoming people), to know where my African ancestors come from (thus regaining knowledge of their culture and languages), and the accident that shaped my father's life is recorded for others to know about. It somehow validates what has happened in a small corner of the world where my father's family comes from.

Small corners of the planet matter as much as the great cities. The brave people who resisted colonization, the miners who died trying to feed their families....they merit their moment in our histories.

Thank you Ruben Arcelay Medina.