Category: Family

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People & Property: Enslaved Ancestors sold by Rafael del Valle to Jose Genaro del Valle, Barrio Malezas, Aguadilla, 1854

foto shows landscape with houses and bay of Aguadilla in 1898
foto shows landscape with houses and bay of Aguadilla in 1898
View of Aguadilla, 1898, from Murat Halstead, Full Official HIstory of the War with Spain: The True Inwardness of the War. [HL Barber, 1898]

Slavery was a Family Business

Right now i’m looking over this entry for a property sale Aguadilla from February 1854⁠1. It’s a lock, stock and barrel sale between first cousins, and the order of importance for the details enumerated is very telling.

It begins with the layout of land in Barrio Malezas, Aguadilla, a 180 cuerda (174.6 acres) property, alongside several other plantation owners. D. Rafael del Valle y Ponce is selling this estate to his first cousin, D Jose Genaro del Valle y Arce. I have distant ties to these families, with Rafael del Valle being my 1C5R and Jose Genaro del Valle my 2C4R.  They were close and the relationship chart below outlines the cousin relationship between both men. Note that Rafael was also related to Jose Genaro’s mother, however, this set of relationships (via the Ponce line) is not included here.

Relationship chart for the del Valle cousins, E. Fernandez-Sacco, Reunion 13, 2022.

Rafael’s father, Nicolas del Valle y Perez de Arce served as Alcalde (Mayor) of Aguadilla three different times, in 1814, 1820-21 and in 1836. Rafael was one of his eight children with Eugenia II Ponce y Perez de Arce (b. abt. 1781).

Rafael’s cousin, Jose Genaro del Valle y Arce (bca 1819) was the son of Antonio del Valle y Perez de Arce (b.1783) and Maria Gregoria de Arce Ponce (1792-1842).

Jose Genaro’s father Antonio, served as Alcalde of Aguadilla just once, in 1837. Clearly, this family possessed a degree of political clout in the municipality. In addition, by having this sale occur within the family, they kept their wealth. As a business practice, endogamy helped to insure trust in partnerships at a time before banks existed on Puerto Rico.

An Arrangement

In January 1853, both Rafael del Valle and Jose Genaro del Valle went before the notary to record an arrangement that gave Jose Genaro del Valle the power to administer the cattle ranch in Barrio Malezas, including the enslaved persons, the animals there, and a house in town. By 11 February 1854, the situation had changed. Rafael’s contract which paid 400 pesos yearly to Jose Genaro, as he points out in the document, was now rescinded⁠3. Next on that same day, the sale of the property from Rafael del Valle to Jose Genaro del Valle was recorded. Jose Genaro del Valle was the new owner.

The Sale

The property transfer is just a few paragraphs long. Laid out are the names of the other property owners: Antonio Almeida & d. Manuel Badillo on the south along the Royal road of the mountain,  on the east with  Da. Rosa de Santiago and the Royal road that goes by the front to d. Patricio González, and on the west side, with Da.María Ponce and Da.Josefa Mirle. Wives could also own, manage businesses and inherit property independently of their husbands.  Each person ran their own hacienda or estancia that included enslaved ancestors.

Maria Ponce is most likely Maria Eugenia II Ponce y Perez, wife of Nicolas del Valle; Josefa Mirle is Josefa Mirle Gonzalez, wife of Francisco Almeida of Portugal. The baptism record for their daughter Manuela Almeida Mirle of 1817 mentions that she was born in Maleza Alta⁠4, which helps localize the family in a specific barrio. Both the Ponce and Mirle families, like the del Valle, held larger numbers of enslaved people to work their ranches, farms and plantations. 

The Valle plantation held some 100 head of cattle, 6 horses and two mares with foals. After the animals were enumerated in the deed, nineteen people held in bondage were listed.  The price for the estate was 14,000 pesos macuquina with 2,700 pesos of the total owed to Eugenio Alers, a hacendado who was building his holdings between Aguadilla and Isabela and lending money mid-century to property owners in the area.

Values for the nineteen enslaved persons, which may include at least two clusters of family, were not specified. Two persons on the list survived the Middle Passage, and another was from Costa Firme, Venezuela, pointing to the global connections of these transactions.  The rest were criollos, born in Puerto Rico; there were ten male and nine females of different ages, three of them too young to work. They were termed ‘siervos esclavos‘, enslaved servants, perhaps more concerned with running a household and raising livestock. There is no mention of specific duties in the deed.

Aside from two 40 year old men, these ancestors were young, and perhaps some of them made it into the pages of the Registro Civil. If they did, it seems unlikely they used their former enslaver’s surname after freedom.

Say Their Names

Here are the names, ages and approximate dates of birth for these ancestors in Aguadilla in February 1854. 

I plan to look back to records from 1822 and then to the cedulas of 1868-70 of the Registro de Esclavos to see if any of these ancestors remained under the control of del Valle family members. Hopefully there is more to learn about them. 

Related:

For a background on the history of Aguadilla and another sale see “Stories in a Box: Caja 1289, Slavery and the Hernandez Family.”, 13 Feb 2018: https://latinogenealogyandbeyond.com/blog/tag/aguadilla/

References

1 Haydee E. Reichard de Cardona, Haciendas agrícolas del triángulo noroeste de Puerto Rico, sus dueños e historias. Jose A Amador Acosta, Ed. Editorial HER Historias y Escritos Riquenos, 2020.

2Carlos Encarnacion Navarro, Fondo de Protocolos Notariales, Caja 1289, Serie Aguadilla, Pueblo Aguadilla, Escribano Lcdo. Manuel Garcia, 1854. AGPR.  En Aguadilla 2-11-1854 fol.74 a 76 ante el insfrascripto escribano Real y público y testigos que se   expresaran compareció D.Rafael del Valle de este vecindario y dijo que otorga venta Real y absoluta a favor de  D.José Genaro del Valle también vecino una estancia en esta juridicción en el barrio de Malezas compuesta de 180 cuerdas colindantes al norte con Antonio Almeida y D.Manuel Badillo, por el sur con el camino Real de la montaña, al este con  Da.Rosa de Santiago y el camino Real que pasa por   el frente a D.Patricio González, al este con Da.María Ponce y Da.Josefa Mirle incluidas las plantaciones en ellas, 100 cabezas  de ganado,6 caballos,2 yeguas con crías y los siervos esclavos Luis natural de áfrica de 30 años,Juana María de 25 años y su hija de un año,Tomasa de 40 años, Luisa de 25 años, Carmen de 25 años con una hija de un año,Demetrio de 12 años, Hermenegildo de 16 años,Paulina de   61   30 años, José de 20 años, José María de 40 años,Tomás de 40 años,Tomasa de 30 años,Antonio de 12 años, Juan José de 16 años,Isabel de 2 años,Manuel natural de costa firme  de 4 años,Andrés de 25 años natural de áfrica, una casa de madera y tejemani en la calle principal de este partido con solar de 16 varas de frente colindante al norte con Da.Paula Giménez, por el sur con el comprador, al oeste la calle y al este con otro solar del mismo comprador cuyos bienes le pertenecen por compra hecha a D.José Genaro del Valle según escritura otorgada en Enero 12 de 1853 por la cantidad de 14,000 pesos maququinos y 2,700 pesos quedan en poder del comprador hasta satisfacer la cantidad que el mismo adeuda a D.Eugenio Alers a cuya responsabilidad está gravada la estancia.Fueron testigos D.Ricardo Diez, D.José Trinidad Veray D.Ramón Esteban Martínez. 

3 Carlos Encarnacion Navarro, Fondo de Protocolos Notariales, Caja 1289, Serie Aguadilla, Pueblo Aguadilla, Escribano Lcdo. Manuel Garcia, AGPR fol.78 a 78-v, 11 Feb 1854.  En Aguadilla 2-11-1854 fol.78 a 78-v  ante el insfrascripto escribano Real y público y testigos que se expresaran comparecieron D.Rafael del Valle y D.José Genaro del Valle de este vecindad y dijeron que en Enero 12 de 1853 concedio el primero al segundo poder para administrar la estancia que tenía en el barrio de Malezas de esta juridicción, los esclavos y animales que tenía y una casa en este pueblo señalándole el salario de 400 pesos anuales y rescinden dicho contrato. Fueron testigos D.Ricardo Diez,D.Rafael Esteban Martínez y D.Francisco de Paula Vergara.

4 Acta de Bautismo, Manuela Almeida Mirle, APSCB Libro 5 #944,17 June 1817.

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Gente 1868-1872: Enslaved persons held by Felipe Yturrino y Arzua

1893 Map of Cerro Gordo, Anasco

Events on the way to freedom

In my recent blog post Yturrino: Looking at a collateral line, I had questions about what kind of business Felipe Iturrino Arzua (1811 -1894) of Anasco was in. While I was able to follow some notary documents that described a  string of land purchases in different municipalities, it really wasn’t clear what he had invested in. 

These land purchases now make more sense after finding him listed in the 1872 Registro de Esclavos.  Yvonne Santana Rios’ transcription of Anasco and Cabo Rojo portions of the 1872 volume led me back to searching the FamilySearch database ‘Slave Registers, Puerto Rico, 1863  – 1879 ‘. I still have no name for the hacienda that these individuals worked, and know more or less where it was located, in barrio Cerro Gordo, Anasco. Yturrino and his family lived in barrio Corcobada to the east of Cerro Gordo, and later in a house in barrio Pueblo.

Anasco, Puerto Rico. Barrio Cerro Gordo is where formerly enslaved by Yturrino lived; he & his family lived in Barrio Corcobada.

In barrio Cerro Gordo, Anasco, Yturrino enslaved over 20 people, whose cedulas are receipts for the transfer of ownership from the individual slave holders to the colonial government, and they received 120 pesetas per document. The status change to libertos (freedmen or freedwomen) meant rights were established over time.

According to the terms of the Moret Law, these men, women and children entered a contract to work for their former enslavers or for a different plantation owner. They received no pay, but their freedom at the end of three years. For the youngest, this process of manumission lasted until 1886.

Labor: de Esclava/o a Liberta/o

There were a range of tasks, however few were dependent on women becoming domestics in elite households, or took in laundry, or were dress makers. The majority of enslaved women worked as Labradoras, field laborers alongside men. This ran contrary to the ideal of an enslaved person that circulated in prints and paintings, often depicted as male. Men worked as cooks, carpenters and mostly as field laborers in the sugar centrales that grew after the Spanish American war, and women’s labor shifted to the domestic.

While the categories for labor in the documents for the Registro de Esclavos are few, these do not give a precise idea of the range of tasks that a person had, nor how expert they had become. Cerro Gordo was elevated land, better suited for coffee cultivation, and this is likely the crop that Yturrino’s enslaved workers were raising. Given the patterns of inheritance, there is a high probability that the Hacienda de Iturrino in the 1893 Military Map for Anasco to San Sebastian is the same location as in 1870, situated near the streams in the hills that ran between Anasco and Moca.

Location: Hacienda de Iturrino, Barrio Cerro Gordo, Anasco. Mapa Militar, Itinerario de Añasco a San Sebastián, 1893. ADNPR

Say Their Names: Enslaved families, children, locations

Below is a list of 20 persons listed on cedulas from 1868 on which D. Felipe Yturrino y Arzua appears as dueno (owner). The oldest was Agustin an 80 year old man born in Africa; the youngest was 2 year old Josefa, born in Cerro Gordo, one of the children of Evangelista and Vicenta. Nearly half of those enslaved were children.

The few families I could trace to the Registro Civil opted to take a different surname; not one kept Iturrino as a surname. Some moved to Mayaguez in the years that followed. With the collapse of coffee prices after the 1870s, sugar plantations soon dominated the landscape.

Should these names be familiar to you, please feel free to reach out.

FolioNameAgeParentsOriginimage no.Link
7465Josefa2Evangelista & VicentaP.R.2773https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CSK3-C3QX-V?i=2772&cc=3755445
7462Ceverino6Evangelista & VicentaP.R.2770https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CSK3-C34X-W?i=2769&cc=3755445
7464Paula6Evaristo & EduvigesP.R.2772https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CSK3-C34J-M?i=2771&cc=3755445
7454Amelia7Ma. Luisa 2aP.R. 2762https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CSK3-C347-G?i=2761&cc=3755445
7463Salustiano7P.R. 2771https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CSK3-C37C-K?i=2770&cc=3755445
7466Francisco7VicentaP.R.2774https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CSK3-C3Q5-B?i=2773&cc=3755445
7452Maria 8Ma. LuisaP.R.2769https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CSK3-C3QC-T?cc=3755445&personaUrl=%2Fark%3A%2F61903%2F1%3A1%3A6ZGF-WYNJ
7461Antonio9EduvigesP.R.2769https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CSK3-C34Y-C?i=2768&cc=3755445
7451Maria Francisca19Antonio & Ma. Luisa 1aP.R.2760https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CSK3-C3QK-L?i=2758&cc=3755445
7457Jose Domingo19Ma. YnesP.R. 2759https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CSK3-C3QQ-8?i=2764&cc=3755445
7448Maria Luisa 2a24Antonio & Ma. Luisa 1a. P.R.2756https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CSK3-C34P-C?i=2756&cc=3755445
7449Maria de los Angeles26Simon & NarcisaP.R.2757https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CSK3-C346-5?i=2760&cc=3755445
7453Vicenta28–Santo Domingo2761https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CSK3-C37C-W?=2762&cc=3755445
7455Eduviges32Jose Maria & CatalinaP.R.2754https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CSK3-C3WW-Y?i=2753&cc=3755445
7447Ceferina32GenaraP.R.2763
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CSK3-C37K-W?i=2757&cc=3755445
7450Saturnino38–Africa2758https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CSK3-C37K-W?i=2757&cc=3755445
7447Maria Luisa 1a42JovitaP.R.2755https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CSK3-C34Y-7?i=2754&cc=3755445
7456Mariano43Ma. ReyesP.R. 2764https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CSK3-C3WH-T?i=2763&cc=3755445
7458Evaristo45Mateo & JuanaP.R.2766https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CSK3-C34M-P?i=2765&cc=3755445
7459Evangelista50Mateo & JuanaP.R.2767https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CSK3-C34T-3?i=2766&cc=3755445
7460Agustin 80–Africa2768https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CSK3-C373-3?i=2767&cc=3755445
FolioNombreEdadHijo deOrigenNo. ImagenLink
Persons Enslaved by Felipe Yturrino, Barrio Cerro Gordo, Anasco, 14 October 1868. Caja 2, Registro de Esclavos, AGPR, Gob. Españoles, FS Film 008138868
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Allen Acevedo (1955-2022)

Our cousin Allen passed this Monday 17 October, leaving us shocked that he is gone. Allen was funny, kind and generous, someone with a big heart. 

His funeral will be held next Monday, 24 October at Blount & Curry Funeral Home at Garden of Memories, 4207 E Lake Ave in Tampa, FL 33610. Visitation 1-2PM, Funeral Service 2-3PM.

Born in the Bronx to Vivian Fernandez and Manuel Acevedo, Allen was the second of two sons. He leaves Nancy his wife of 42 years, daughter Ileana and a grandson, his brothers Manny, Javier, Papo, Rachel, their children. The network of family who loved him are saddened by his dying. 

Allen was just a year older and in my life since I was born. Thanks to the tenements and cheap rents of the 1950s and 1960s, our extended family was just blocks away from each other in the South Bronx. This was a tough landscape, different from what is in Mott Haven today. 

A birthday party ca 1964, Bronx, NY. L to R: Orlando, John, Rachel and Allen.

There are some fotos of early birthday parties, the apartments full of children at birthdays and Christmas holidays. By the 1960s we visited Vivian and Manuel in their apartment in the new high rise projects on Westchester Blvd, where Manny played basketball and protected Allen, his skinnier, paler brother. 

Allen loved Bruce Lee and Kung fu movies, a love shared with my brother Orlando, figuring out the kicks and moves that sent people flying.  Another love was watching Soul Train. Allen also told corny jokes, loved to laugh and was easy to get along with.

I remember Allen telling me about his first jobs in the Bronx, during the 1970s. Once he worked at an Alexander’s on Third Ave. where leather jackets hung with thin chains down one sleeve as an anti theft device. Addicts floated in looking for an easy item to shoplift. One man was so out of it, he slipped a jacket on and proceeded to drag the enormous rack behind him, wondering why he was only able to move a short distance before being swept off the floor by security.  Working in department stores had its moments, so Allen got into computer programming very early.

Eventually he met Nancy, the woman he would spend the rest of his life with. His job sent them to Tampa. They were a perfect couple as her grounded strength balanced whatever doubts he faced. Allen could be a nervous guy, but Nancy affirmed him. He was a father to Ileana and a grandfather to her son, a granduncle, a brother and cousin to others.

Family meant a deep connection to Puerto Rico, Florida and other places. Allen was generous to a fault, helping out whenever he could. As other family did, we stayed with them when we visited Tampa, and when we first moved here. His mother Vivian lived with Allen and Nancy until the end of her life. He was a pallbearer for my father when he passed a few months later in 2017.  This too is part of a migration south that went from the colony of Boriken a century ago, then north to the Bronx and New York metropolitan area and then south to Tampa Bay. Allen, Nancy, Dolly, Vivian, Tony, Papo, Margie, Armando, Orlando, Luddy, Rachel and myself made their way here, all of us descendants of Ramon Fernandez and Angelina Calo and Carmen Dorios-Picon, born 100+ years ago.

The past week has been intense, to stand with family and be there for his passing. We hoped he would get through 3 weeks of an induced coma for acute pancreatitis, and then witnessed a series of complications erode the possibility of his return. We prayed and asked for him to stay, in some ways I held a childlike hope that this would change. Instead, a part of my life has calved and fallen away, and he becomes an ancestor, someone I will see when my transition comes. 

Allen in 1956

Much peace and love to all who knew Allen. 

Seneko kakona 

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Luddy Fernandez Babilonia (1935-30 Aug 2021)

Luddy Fernandez Babilonia

In remembrance

Luddy Fernandez Babilonia
Earliest foto of Luddy Fernandez.

My mother has made the transition, completing her life on earth. She was 85 years old, almost making it to her 86th; if she had lived just a little longer, she would have welcomed another great-grandchild into the world. Losing her is devastating, and comfort that her suffering has ended. She was my connection to Puerto Rico, madre, madre tierra. She brought me and my siblings into the world, a feat that leaves me in awe of mothers everywhere. It was she who taught me to read by the time I was 3, yet she herself had little schooling, only making it to 4th or 5th grade, and few days in the classroom. She felt the loss of her mother profoundly at age 6, she and her siblings placed with relatives; she then lost her father at age 13. With the money from a settlement that came after being hit by a car, she was sent to New York City. She was part of the post-war diaspora out of Puerto Rico, people streaming to cities for factory work, encouraged by recruiters or family to find opportunities. Her siblings, Alex, Fredy and Maria preceded her arrival, and their lives intertwined against the backdrop of NYC and her 60 year marriage to my father. We are bereft and in grief at her passing, and we send her love, across time and space. Seneko kakona, QEPD

Funeral Details for Luddy Fernandez Babilonia

Merritt Funeral Home

Tuesday, 7 September 
Visitation, 10:30am to 11:30am
Chapel service, 11:30am

Merritt Funeral Home : 4095 Mariner Blvd, Spring Hill Chapel  (352)686-6649

Interment at Florida National Cemetery at 1:30pm 
Florida National Cemetery: 6502 SW 102nd Ave, Bushnell, FL 33513

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Seven Key Principles of AfroIndigenous Genealogy

family photographs
Three photo postcards from Mayaguez Puerto Rico from the early 1900s, two toddlers flank a young girl.
Three photo postcards from Mayaguez, ca 1910. Postcard collection, EFS.

It seems almost weekly, we see articles describing tone deaf and racist approaches to the teaching of slavery, on which the foundation of this country rests, and maintains today. Part of the problems rests on the disconnect between this history and how and what we learn, together with where and who delivers a particular narrative about the past. The Southern Poverty Law Center, in response to the recent spate of incidences in schools across the country, issued a report with seven common problems in teaching about slavery, which I rewrote here to apply to genealogy.

1. We understand that slavery is not a universal experience for AfroIndigenous peoples, but it is the fact of how this nation was founded. We seek to research, learn and understand the roles and experiences of families and communities within these systems.

2. We acknowledge that flaws are embedded in particular understandings of American history, and that by understanding their role in impacting family history, we can also work towards change.

3. Enslavement is an American institution that crosses time and place. It existed in all colonies and states at the time of the signing of Declaration of Independence, and its principles continue to be bound with the economic fate of the nation today.

4. We speak to the ideology of white supremacy, and point to its outline and role of eugenics within the formation of genealogical practice. We also consider the perpetuation of slavery within forms of structural racism today, that connects past and present.

5. We deal with traumatic experiences as part of our history; the focus within our approach is on resilience and survival.

6. Genealogy and family history are contextual practices- we seek to incorporate the scope of POC experience by not divorcing it from the cultural currents and practices of the time.

7. Our focus on the lives of AfroIndigenous ancestors decenters white experience, and instead references a framework of relevant political and economic impacts in the time leading up to and beyond the Civil War. African American institutions provided structure and opportunity, thereby affording a way out of no way.

These two quotes, from a speech made by James Baldwin in 1980 still resonate today when thinking about family histories, genealogy and their use in interpreting the larger context of living and understanding the past:

“I want to suggest that history is not the past. It is the present. We carry our history with us. We are our history.”

“You got to find out the reality which surrounds you. You got to be able to describe it. You got to be able to describe your mother and your father and your uncles and your junkie cousin. If you aren’t able to describe it, you will not be able to survive it.” “Black English: A Dishonest Argument.” Randall Kenan, ed. James Baldwin,  The Cross of Redemption, Uncollected Writings. 2010. 

Resources

Teaching Hard History: American Slavery. Tolerance.org PDF. SPLC, 2018. https://www.tolerance.org/sites/default/files/2018-02/TT-Teaching-Hard-History-American-Slavery-Report-WEB-February2018.pdf

Teaching Hard History: Podcast – Seasons 1 & 2 https://www.tolerance.org/podcasts/teaching-hard-history/american-slavery

Ellen Fernandez-Sacco, “Can Genealogy Be Racist? Identity, Roots & the Question of Proof.” Blogpost, 22 March 2018, Latino Genealogy & Beyond.com. https://latinogenealogyandbeyond.com/blog/can-genealogy-be-racist/

Cite this post: Ellen Fernandez-Sacco, “Seven Key Principles of AfroIndigenous Genealogy.” 27 September 2019, Latino Genealogy & Beyond.com

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