April 8, 1904: Jessie Walter Fewkes in Puerto Rico

Taino coa, stone collar

Jessie Walter Fewkes (1850-1930) was an American anthropologist, archaeologist and writer who worked in the Southwest US and the Caribbean. 

photo portrait of Jesse Walter Fewkes, American anthropologist, archaeologist and writer
Jesse Walter Fewkes, Wikipedia.com

I keep looking at Fewkes’ diary, parts of which read like a shopping list for Indigenous objects.  Little has been written on his time in Puerto Rico, which was a result of the ‘demand for more scientific literature on Porto Rico and the West Indies’, which led to field work in the islands and publication of the Report on the Aborigines of Porto Rico and Neighboring Islands.’ [1]

Here’s an excerpt from Fewkes’ handwritten diary, from April 1904:

“A man ploughing a few days ago found a fine collar in his field

I was too late to get it as it had been given to Mr. Fritsche who will present it to a Berlin Museum-

Mr Trujillo of Ponce has a fine tripointed idol and a spherical bowl which he found at Guayanilla. Evidently then are many other things in the barrio called Indios when there was formerly an Indian settlement. 

Nazario found many specimens in this region –“

Fotonachweis: Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Ethnologisches Museum /CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

I couldn’t find more on Mr. Trujillo or Mr. Fritsche, but I did find the ‘Porto Rico 6’ photograph of a coa (also called a stone collar) whose accession date at the Berlin Ethnologisches Museum means it very likely entered the collection close to when it photographed by Adolf Bastian, before 1905. Given the timing, it’s likely the same artifact.

Barrio Indios, Guayanilla

Map of Barrio Indios, Guayanilla
Location of Barrio Indios, Guayanilla. Wikipedia.com

So, what about this settlement? As  historian Rafael A. Torrech writes, Barrio Indios, Guayanilla, on the south of the island, is where the yukayeke of cacike Agueybana existed , where early wars of colonization took place. Eventually, sugar plantations covered the landscape and artifacts from ancestors emerged from the ground as it was prepared for planting. Collections were created by hacendados, and once the US had Puerto Rico as a colony, an international rush for artifacts intensified. Fewkes’ notebooks of his travels reveal a range of persons that he encountered while crossing the island from San Juan to Utuado, and then south to Ponce and the Indiera. Some people gift him objects like stone hatchets, buys others and inventories sites and the objects harvested from them.

As stone objects turned up across the island, anthropologists and archaeologists began to surmise their age and purpose. Taino people were framed as outside of time although they are acknowledged and described as present in Fewkes’ essay. Looking back, he is evidently troubled by the complexity of AfroIndigenous identity. The idea of the ‘pure Indian’ colors his commentary, and oral history is suspect; notice that Natives are the laborers hired to build the roads in Utuado and Comerio; the area is even called Indiera. Fewkes goes on and acknowledges the presence of Indian ancestry, then the diversity of the Indigenous slave trade defeats the idea of any contemporary Taino identity on Boriken. No surprise really, as this is the heyday of Eugenic thought, which communicated and structured the spectacles of the World’s Fair and Expositions.

Jesse Walter Fewkes, “The aborigines of Porto Rico and neighboring islands.” (1907)

Envisioning Porto Rico, 1899-1904

Here is an example of imperialist propaganda that circulated in the wake of the Spanish-American War that promoted the view of Indigenous people as incapable of self-governance and rule. Spain’s three colonies became US property. The Philippines, Puerto Rico and Cuba are here shown as 3 Black infants wrapped in a US flag on the back of a soldier who stands in for ‘Uncle Sam’. It’s a foto reenactment of the 1899 Victor Gilliam cartoon, “The White Man’s Burden” from Judge magazine. This anti-Native anti-Black perspective is part of the context for understanding the relationship of Native peoples to the US at the turn of the century, and at the 1904 St. Louis Exposition. Often the more offensive displays that underwrote white supremacy were in the entertainment areas of the fair, readily absorbed by millions under the rubric of ‘fun’.

9964.-Phillipines, Porto Rico and Cuba–Uncle Sam’s Burden. (With apologies to Mr. Kipling.) 1899. Keystone View Company stereo card. Collection of the author.
Victor Gilliam, “The White Man’s Burden.”, Judge magazine, 1899. Victor Gillam, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Fewkes’ Reference to Father Nazario

In the 1870s, Father Jose Maria Nazario Cancel  was brought by dona Juana Morales, a descendant of Agueybana to a cluster of some 800 stone pieces that she had protected over time.  Today the archaeologist Reniel Rodriguez (UPR- Utuado) is researching the stones, and considers them as objects that date from precolumbian contact- 900BC-900AD. Yet the stones are not Taino and were not among those purchased by Fewkes in 1902-1903.

Not far from Guayanilla is the Centro Ceremonial Caguana, “the largest ceremonial site of its kind, not only in Puerto Rico, but the entire West Indies” built between 1200-1500 AD in the La Cordillera Central, the central mountain range. In terms of DNA testing, people from here, on the western side of the island tend towards higher percentages of Indigenous ancestry. 

In terms of Caguana, it’s a ‘lived landscape’ a place where space, identity and heritage intersect and embodies group memory. It’s not static, but changes over time, and is “a locus for negotiating the dissonance between colonial and indigenous identities.” Despite years of neglect by the ICP (Instituto de Cultura Puertorriquena), it was a place vital for descendants to rediscover their cultural identity. Over five decades, Caguana has become a sacred site for Taino people, and in 2003-2005, the culture war between Taino activists and the ICP came to a head. (Diaz 232-233) Some still think Arawakan peoples, among them the Taino are extinct, and part of this thinking is the result of paper genocide.

The landscape in Puerto Rico is subject to constant disturbances from agriculture and development. The discovery of artifacts often means site destruction in order to avoid building delays as some have documented on video. There’s still much to learn from these archaeological sites, however for different audiences, namely Taino communities, the stakes are different. It’s about colonization and collections, and a difficult path to official recognition.  It’s about seeing that connection between the past and present, learning what we can from these moments in colonization. 

From ‘Elbow stone’ to Coa

As for the ‘elbow stone’ or ‘stone collar’ that Fewkes missed out on purchasing, this is called a coa, recognized as a sacred form by Taino peoples. It is based on the blending of two forms, the footrest of a hardwood digging stick for agriculture with that of the great serpent, whose head was carved into the foot rest. By bending the stick, using fire and water, the resulting form references the coiling of a snake and the form of human uterus, symbol of time and its passage as a  spiral. 

At some point, this wooden form was adapted into a stone carving with elements that reference the Taino worldview. You can read more about this on the Caney Circle webpage here

1904: St. Louis Exposition 

Louisiana Purchase Exposition Official Souvenir pamphlet. Smithsonian Institution

So what was some of the motivation for creating the collection? Fewkes brought together an assemblage of some 550 pieces of Indigenous / Arawakan stone artifacts exhibited at the 1904 St Louis Exposition. Our ancestors stone artifacts had a role at the fair, as a material assurance that primitive people were in the colonies. Here, representing ‘Porto Rico’ it suggests that Native people were extinct a part of something rapidly fading, a group no longer with us. How convenient. 

The roofless building of Puerto Rico’s two floor ‘pagoda’ within the Agricultural Building is surrounded by props, sawed off barrel tops and angled logs in front to suggest trade, and tradition through the structure’s French detailing. The first floor “was dedicated to agriculture, mines, forestry and a few of the manufactures exhibits.” The second floor held “liberal arts and manufactures exhibits”, and a needlework display by the Women’s Aid Society, San Juan and the Benevolent Society, Ponce. The focus was on exports of coffee, sugar, tobacco, cotton, liquor and pharmaceutical products. The Puerto Rican legislature appropriated $30,000 for “the purpose of representation at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition.” Yet it had no separate catalog, and no association with Fewkes’ collection.

I’ve searched collections for additional information on the stone artifacts at the Exposition, but the only mention of them is in Fewkes’ article in the Smithsonian papers. This collection wasn’t displayed here.

the Puerto Rico pavilion at the 1904 St Louis Exposition
Puerto Rico Pavilion, designed by Armando Morales, Agriculture Building, 1904 St Louis Exposition. St Louis Public Library Digital Collections.

Consuming the Primitive 

Advertisment, Philippine Exposition at World’s Fair St. Louis 1904. Wikimedia Commons.

What grabbed attention at the 1904 fair was the display of Indigenous people brought from Africa and the Philippines. These were literally human zoos that several million people visited at St. Louis. They were subjected to perform as living examples of primitive people, yet the barbaric genocidal behaviors of the US go unmentioned. So, it seems stone objects of a supposedly extinct people were reassuring for the colonizer’s frame of reference.

Over 1200 persons were exported to the Exposition for display, including the Bedonkohe Apache leader and medicine man Goyathlay, known as Geronimo. While a prisoner of the US Government, he was exhibited at the 1898 Trans-Mississippi Exposition in Omaha Nebraska, the 1901 Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, and at the 1905 inauguration of Theodore Roosevelt. He died imprisoned at Fort Sill in 1909. [3]

Goyathalay, known as Geronimo. (1829-1909) Wikimedia Commons.

Collection, collection….

Where were the stones shown? I still haven’t found a precise location at the 1904 Exposition.

And after 1904, the collection of Arawakan stone objects left St. Louis and were returned to the bowels of the Smithsonian, where they were eventually put into their storage facilities.   Back in 2004, I met Ricardo Alegria, QEPD, the Director of the ICP who told me he anticipated the day the objects at the Smithsonian would be repatriated to the island. At that time, I didn’t realize how different an idea of Nation would be for me today. One day, Taino people will have facilities ready for their welcome return.

Seneko kakona.

References

Biography and Bibliography of Jesse Walter Fewkes. (1850-1893). (Reprint of Walther Hough’s Biography, Biographical Memoirs, National Academy of Sciences, 1932. 232pp). https://ia800205.us.archive.org/27/items/biographybibliog00nichrich/biographybibliog00nichrich.pdf

Rafael A. Inocencio Torrech: “Según diversos historiadores, varios yucayeques taínos de importancia estaban ubicados en el área sur de Puerto Rico, incluyendo el del legendario Agueybaná. Reconocidos historiadores como Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo –contemporáneo a la temprana colonización– ubican la aldea de Agueybaná en la ribera del Río Coayuco (hoy Río Yauco), con una población estimada entre 1,000 y 5,000 habitantes. Fue en la boca del Río Coayuco, según el historiador Cayetano Coll y Toste, que las fuerzas de Ponce de León derrotaron por primera vez a los indígenas en la llamada rebelión de 1511. La ribera y la desembocadura de este río, hoy conocido como Río Yauco, es consistente con la localización actual del Barrio Indios. El Barrio Indios también nos legó la Biblioteca de Agueybaná: uno de los hallazgos arqueológicos más singulares y excepcionales del País…” Rafael A. Torrech Inocencio, Barrio Indios, Guayanilla. 80grados.net 21 Feb 2020. https://www.80grados.net/barrio-indios-guayanilla/

Renal Rodriguez Ramos, Los Piedras de Padre Nazario, CEAPRTV, Centro de Estudios Avanzados, 19 May 2016.

Jesse Walter Fewkes, “The aborigines of Porto Rico and neighboring islands.” Twenty-Fifth Annual Report of the Smithsonian Institution to the Secretary of the Smithsonian, 1903-1904. Washington DC: SI. (1907) 1-220. https://archive.org/details/annualreportofbo1906smitfo

“Porto Rico” The Final Report on the Louisiana Purchase Exposition. 331-332.

“Caguana Site.” National Historic Landmark Nomination. http://npshistory.com/publications/nr-forms/pr/caguana-site.pdf

Caguana, Puerto Rico: Sacred Land. 2007. Sacred Land Film Project. https://sacredland.org/caguana-puerto-rico/

Rosalina Diaz, “El Grito de Caguana: Identity Conflict in Puerto Rico.” in Diane F. George & Bernice Kurchin, Archaeology of Identity and Dissonance: contexts for a brave new world. U Press of Florida, 2019, 229-250.

“Geronimo.” Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geronimo. Accessed 18 Mar 2000.

Human Zoos: The Invention of the Savage. Exhibition Pamphlet. ACHAC & Fondation Lilian Thuram: Paris, 2015: https://www.achac.com/zoos-humains/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/zh-en-brochure.pdf

“‘Living Exhibits’ at 1904 World’s Fair Revisited: Igorot Natives Recall Controversial Display of Their Ancestors”, 31 May 2004, NPR.org https://www.npr.org/2004/05/31/1909651/living-exhibits-at-1904-worlds-fair-revisited

Appendix: Writings of Jesse Walter Fewkes on the Caribbean

On Zemes from Santo Domingo. Am. Anthrop., vol. iv, no. 2, pp. 167-175, Washington, 1891. 

Prehistoric Porto Rico. Address by the Vice President and Chairman of Section H, for 1901, at the Pittsburgh meeting of the Amer. Asso. Adv. Sci. Proc. Amer. Asso. Adv. Sci., vol. li, pp. 487-512, Pittsburg, 1902. Reprinted in Science, n. s. vol. xvi, no. 394, pp. 94-109, New York, 1902. Translated in Globus, Band Ixxxii, Nrs. 18 and 19, Braunschweig, 1902. 

Prehistoric Porto Rican pictographs. Am. Anthrop., n. s. vol. v, no. 3, pp. 441-467, Lancaster, 1903. 

Precolumbian West Indian amulets. Am. Anthrop., n. s. vol. v, no. 4, pp. 679-691, Lancaster, 1903. 

Preliminary report on an archaeological trip to the West Indies. Smithson. Misc. Colls., Quarterly Issue, vol. 45, pp. 112-133, Washington, 1903. Reprinted in Sci. Amer. Suppl., vol. Ivii, pp. 23796-99, 23812-14, New York, June 18-25, 1904. 

Porto Rico stone collars and tripointed idols. Smithson. Misc. Colls. 

Porto Rican elbow-stones in the Heye Museum, with discussion of similar objects elsewhere. Am. Anthrop., n. s. vol. xv, no. 3. pp. 435-459, Lancaster, 1913. Reprinted as Cont. Heye Mus., vol. i. no. 4. 

[Report on] Ethnological investigations in the West Indies. Explorations and Field-work of the Smithson. Inst, in 1912, Smithson. Misc. Colls., vol. 60, no. 30, pp. 32-33, Washington, 1913. lls., Quarterly Issue, vol. 47, pt. 2, pp. 163-186,  Washington. 1904. 

Prehistoric culture of Cuba. Am. Anthrop., n. s. vol. vi, no. 5, pp. 585-598, Lancaster, 1904. 

The aborigines of Porto Rico and neighboring islands. Twenty-fifth Ann. Rept. Bur. Amer. Ethn., pp. 3-220, Washington, 1907. 

Further notes on the archaeology of Porto Rico. Am. Anthrop., n. s. vol. x, no. 4, pp. 624-633, Lancaster, 1908. 

An Antillean statuette, with notes on West Indian religious beliefs.  Am. Anthrop., n. s. vol. xi, no. 3, pp. 348-358, Lancaster, 1909. 

Relations of aboriginal culture and environment in the Lesser Antilles. Bull. Am. Geog. Soc, vol. xlvi, no. 9, pp. 662-678, New York, 1914. Reprinted as Cont. Heye. Mus., vol. i. No. 8. 

A prehistoric stone collar from Porto Rico. Am. Anthrop., n. s. vol. xvi, no. 2, pp. 319-330, Lancaster, 1914. 

[Report on] Antiquities of the West Indies. Explorations and Field-work of the Smithson. Inst, in 1913,  Smithson. Misc. Colls., vol. 63, no. 8, pp. 58-61, Washington, 1914 

Vanished races of the Caribbean. Abstract of paper read before the Anthrop. Soc. Washington,  Nov. 3, 1914. Journ. Washington Acad. Sci., vol. v, no. 4, pp. 142-144, Baltimore, 1915. 

Prehistoric cultural centers in the West Indies. Journ. Washington Acad. Sci., vol. v, no. 12, pp. 436-443, Baltimore, 1915. 

Engraved celts from the Antilles. Cont. Heye Mus., vol. ii, no. 3, New York, 1915. 

Archaeology of Barbados. Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci., vol. i, pp. 47-51, Baltimore, 1915. 

Prehistoric island culture areas of America. Thirty-fourth Ann. Rept. Bur. Amer. Ethn., Washington, . [In press.] 

The Vote of 1960: Context, Challenge, NGS & James Dent Walker

Before I start: The view from here, some context

In trying to assemble a history of an organization from fragments, I’m grappling with slippage, the way that things unsaid haunt every space, how the unsaid is supposed to be gracious, but hides a different cruelty. It’s working with systems that require violence for its completion, a continuation of the machine of settler logics that seek to justify supremacy, enslavement, murder, and rape. Such details are often folded away until a familial connection is revealed.

Often the locations where such decisions are made are often comfortable offices or elaborate desert base locations for remote murder and assaults.  It is an awareness that hovers over the question of what a Nation is. And societies aim to define and redefine the boundaries. Such colonizing systems also precede the formation of the National Genealogical Society (NGS) at the cusp of the twentieth century, with its familial connections to the Trail of Tears, multiple plantations and governance.

Location Matters

Knowing my Taino ancestry and the creole blends of various ancestors offers a grounding space when faced with the history of organizations. I’m of Native American descent, honor that and study the various diasporas that structure my family tree. I also descend from the enslaved (Juan Josef Carrillo b. Guinea, 1736-1811) and the enslaver (Capt. Martin Lorenzo de Acevedo y Hernandez 1749-1828) within a larger context of colonization, as my family is from Boriken (Puerto Rico). Gaining this knowledge took time, research and service. 

The awareness of one’s history contrasts with the history of organizations, particularly those involved with issues such as eugenics, segregation and pushing the Lost Cause (an interpretation of the Civil War from the Confederate perspective). This is part of the National Genealogical Society’s early history. On the other side is the history of Federal employment, and the impact of segregationist policies in Washington DC and how James Dent Walker navigated this at NARA (National Archives and Records Association). Ultimately his knowledge and skills helped to broaden the institutional spaces for BIPOC (Black Indigenous People of Color) to do their own genealogical research.

I have talked to several Black genealogists about the other part of genealogical research– the emotional labor of dealing with findings, of telling the stories of ancestors who passed through to emancipation.  Of their encounters with people who made life difficult by blocking access to resources, often in a multiplicity of forms that reinforced segregation and at its essence denied a full humanity. This is the larger context of doing this work. This too is part of the genealogical journey. Change can feel glacial in its progress.

The Vote of 1960: Looking Back to Move Forward

Here I grapple with the silences and statements made by three white women who took it upon themselves in 1960 to mail over 700 members of the National Genealogical Society and encourage them to protest the changes to the language used to define membership. This happened sixty-two years ago, and it is worth a look back. 

During the 1960s the clamor for change, like now, was loudly expressed in civic gatherings across the nation. In some locations, anger ripped across cities in the form of buildings lit aflame, people marched.  The Civil Rights Movement began in 1954 to work against racial segregation and discrimination across the south and grew into multiple forms. In the south of 1960, many people in power were believers in the Lost Cause and used force to keep people down. And when the Freedom Riders groups arrived in different locations across the South, the use of violence against them by locals and police exploded. 

But back to this vote. 

This NGS committee, Virginia D. Crim, Bessie P Pryor and Katie-Prince Esker, made the old membership policy explicit: 

“the Referendum referred to was held on November [19] 1960. The membership voted on the following: 

SHOULD THE NATIONAL GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY SET ASIDE ITS GENERALLY RECOGNIZED PRACTICE, WHICH HAS BEEN IN FORCE SINCE ITS ORGANIZATION IN 1903, AND ADMIT MEMBERS OF THE NEGRO RACE.” [1]

Initially, the National Genealogical Society voted not to open their doors to Black genealogists, a policy held for over 50 years. The then new president, William H. Dumont realized this couldn’t last, and the language that defined who could be a member was changed after James Dent Walker, a NARA civil servant and genealogist applied for membership in 1960.  He wasn’t specifically named in newspaper coverage, although the Washington Post’s description leaves no doubt it was Walker. [2] Walker himself never discussed the challenge he set by applying for membership to NGS. He continued to forge an incredible path forward.

 Ultimately, Walker became part of NGS’ board, and a nationally recognized genealogist, researcher, lecturer and archivist in his own right, known for his work in African American genealogy. A little over a decade later, he founded the Afro-American Historical and Genealogical Society (Today the African American Historical and Genealogical Society), AAHGS.org that has chapters across the country. [3] This institution proved a necessary space for Black genealogical practice over the decades.

The Press & The Committee

The Washington Post’s article, “Genealogical Group Gets Racial Issue” of 4 November 1960 asked “Is a Negro to join the searchers for the Nation’s family trees? The National Genealogical Society is in a tizzy…about 50 members who felt “controversy threatened to engulf the NGS” proposed a racial restriction clause in their constitution.”  Those opposed to admission said “Negroes…have nothing in common with us, genealogically speaking.” Those who favored change in policy “point out the Society is national, educational and scientific; that it is not to be confused with patriotic organizations; that in the pursuit of science there is no room for discrimination…” [4]

Looking beyond the fight over NGS membership, this was a time when nationally, thousands took part in multiple Civil Rights actions in former slave and free states pushing for change.  The stakes were high, and some died while others were seriously injured in these actions that insisted on equality.  Don’t forget that Black women finally got the right to vote five years later, in 1965. 

While these NGS committee members didn’t go out and physically attack BIPOC [Black, Indigenous People Of Color], what actions did they take to maintain white supremacy beyond this administrative act, beyond the organization? Almost always, the families of those who owned forced labor camps from the founding to the third quarter of the nineteenth century are automatically absolved by the focus on the inhabitants of the big house, their genealogy. This telling of local histories goes together with gatekeeping and acts of genealogical segregation of the last century.  How far did this committee take their views? 

Virginia Crim was also a member of the DAR, where she served as a vice regent for the Columbia Chapter in 1956.[5] She was also a member of the United Daughters of the Confederacy, established in 1894, and served as a chapter delegate at their convention, held 9 November 1960.[6]  

The UDC, a Neoconfederate organization, pursued fundraising for monuments, lobbied legislatures and Congress for the reburial of Confederate dead, denied the violence of slavery, and shaped the content of history textbooks. They insisted on a Lost Cause framework that buttressed Jim Crow laws. They were supportive of the KKK. [7] This contributed to the structural racism that constricted the opportunities and lives of many BIPOC. This too is a legacy of harm linked to NGS’ history in the twentieth century. 

Why this history matters

How much does this history matter? In Richmond, Virginia, at 1:30AM on May 30, 2020, in response to the murder of George Floyd and police violence, the anger of some protesters focused on the headquarters of the United Daughters of the Confederacy, set the UDC facade on fire, and covered confederate monuments in graffiti. The process of removing these monuments across the South accelerated after the protests that erupted in so many locations in the wake of Floyd’s murder.[8]

It shows that representation matters, that there was so much more than what those statues and laws attempted to assert. The implications of this event was global.[9] The times had indeed changed, the demand for systemic change is beginning to be heard. It’s also here, with us, with the DEI Committee, to bring such connections forward, to heal.  I have stepped down in order to finish my projects. In the meantime, i’ve joined AAHGS.

And this sea of data generated by institutional conditions washes upon us as we write our microhistories, family histories, genealogies and record the voices of those with ties to these events.  Masinato (Peace)

References

[1] Virginia Crim, Bessie P. Pryor, Katie-Prince Esker, Committee Circular, November 30, 1961 [30 November 1960], NGS Archives. Thanks to Janet Bailey, NGS Board Member for locating this document and additional resources for research.

[2] Rasa Gustaitis, “Genealogical Group Gets Racial Issue” Washington Post, November 4, 1960.

[3] Gustaitis, “Genealogical Group Gets Racial Issue.”

[4] For a biography of James Dent Walker (1928-1993) and his oral history, see Jesse Kratz, “James D. Walker: Lone Messenger to International Genealogist.” Pieces of History, Prologue, 10 February 2016. https://prologue.blogs.archives.gov/2016/02/10/james-d-walker-lone-messenger-to-international-genealogist/ Accessed 16 July 2022. Has embedded link to Dent’s edited oral history interview by Rodney A. Ross, James Walker, Oral History Interview, NARA, 27 March 1985.

[4]“Elected Officers.” The Evening Star, Thursday August 30, 1956. 

[5]“At Convention.” The Evening Star, November 9, 1961.

[6] “The organization [UDC] was “strikingly successful at raising money to build monuments, lobbying legislatures and Congress for the reburial of Confederate dead, and working to shape the content of history textbooks.” Karen L. Cox, “Setting the Lost Cause on Fire: Protesters Target the United Daughters of the Confederacy Headquarters ,  Aug 6, 2020 https://www.historians.org/publications-and-directories/perspectives-on-history/summer-2020/setting-the-lost-cause-on-fire-protesters-target-the-united-daughters-of-the-confederacy-headquarters

[7] Ned Oliver & Sarah Vogelsong, “Confederate memorial hall burned as second night of outrage erupts in Richmond, Virginia.” Virginia Mercury, 31 May 2020. 

[8] Balthazar J Beckett, Salima K Hankins, “Until We Are First Recognized As Human: The Killing of George Floyd and the Case for Black Life at the United Nations.” International Journal of Human Rights Education, Vol 5:1. https://repository.usfca.edu/ijhre/vol5/iss1/4/

A Bonilla Family Tree: Context, Resistance & Reading Indigeneity

Barrios of Yauco: Red indicates Barrios where Bonillas were based

My latest blog post, is a Guest Post: A Bonilla Family Tree, is about the reading the larger context of Juan Eusebio Bonilla Salcedo’s life and family. This is one of my prima Teresa Vega’s ancestors, who was lynched in Yauco in 1890. Radiant Roots Boricua Branches is her blog. Appreciate this opportunity to delve into her Boricua branches!

Please read both posts at: Decolonizing My Family Tree: Revisting Juan Eusebio Bonilla Salcedo

Tree Climbing With DNA Cousins: Family Across Several Continents

My cousin distribution map on 23&Me, screenshot, 2015.  Can I see you on here?

If your Puerto Rican ancestor is on this list, then we’re related!

Since the mid-2000s, my digital family is expanding, and I’m enjoying some new connections. I tested my autosomal DNA on 23&Me, Ancestry and FamilyTree DNA, uploaded to MyHeritage, DNA.Land and am faced with hundreds, well, since the original blogpost, it’s now thousands of matches. I’m finding that some of the people i’ve known via social media are also distant relatives. I think back on when I lived in NYC as a child and how many times family have told me, wow, I used to live up there (Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan) too, and I wonder how many of those folks who passed me on the street were tied by blood. 

Thanks to my prima Teresa Vega, who has the Radiant Roots, Boricua Branches blog, I’ve been introduced to DNA, FB groups and i’ve been getting to know a lot of family and potential family. Our connection is through Rosa Maria Caban Mendez (2C4R), great granddaughter of my 5th GGP, Juan Cabal and Margarita Ruiz born sometime in the 1730s- 1740s in Aguada, Puerto Rico. Through Sociedad Ancestros Mocanos, we’ve found that quite a few people in our group have discovered DNA connections beyond the documents.  And let me tell you, the level of endogamy on some of these lines ‘te da mareo’! (just makes you dizzy)

TL Dixon, of the FB group Native American Ancestry Explorer and Roots & Recombinant DNA blog graciously reviewed my atDNA GEDmatch results and noted the distribution across several different populations from several continents.  There weren’t really surprises in there, as a lot matched what I was able to track via documents, contextual history and etymology of the Babilonia surname. 

More recently, I’ve had the good fortune to have Fonte Felipe who has the wonderful blog, Tracing African Roots: Exploring the Ethnic Origins of the Afro-Diaspora  look at my African results on  Ancestry.com and see what matches come up.  I’ll write more about discovering these ancestral roots in future posts, as I slowly learn to bring together local history, documents, trees and now, chromosome mapping and triangulation. However, knowing surnames can help point you in the right direction as to where that 3rd or 4th cousin might link up to you.

23&Me Ethnicity Map Screen Shot, 2017, pretty colorful, eh?

The Gift of Knowledge

Look, i’m related to two people on the panel on Black ProGen LIve, connections that we discovered much later. Perhaps some of you wonder why i’m on Black ProGen? It’s because one needs a space to speak to the realities of being POC and how one identifies, knowing what techniques and readings are helpful when nobody in your immediate family really has roots in New England, England or Ireland. There is definitely some up there in the mix, but it’s negligible, and my DNA looks like it went through a fan- ethnicities tossed in with no immediate connections to Europe outside of my dad’s grandfather. This is the face of the slave trade & mass migrations in your genes.

And this process never, ever stops.  It doesn’t necessarily include the life sustaining ties of kin, people who are the family you make.  Remember that there are ties that go beyond blood, or close ties, that make it possible for you to be here.  This floating community of family changes over the course of our lives, and I am proud to say that despite the challenges of time and space I have relationships that sustain and heal– yet my tree may not show it. This too is in part, a legacy of slavery.

Map of the Transatlantic Slave Trade and its reach from Slave Voyages.org

So, if your Puerto Rican ancestor is on this list, then we’re related!

Family Lines:  Those starred on the list below are tied to Haplogroup C1b2 on the maternal line, and C1b4 on the paternal line, which is the Taino DNA that is on both my X chromosomes. More than half of the people here are on my maternal line in the NW, Aguada-Moca-Aguadilla.  On the paternal line in the NE, San Juan-Santurce-Rio Grande, there is Haplogroup C1b4 via my paternal grandmother, Angelina Calo Vazquez. Y Haplogroup is European, R-L51, via my paternal grandfather, Ramon Fernandez Matos.  On my maternal line, my grandmother, Felicita Rodriguez Vale is the source of my C1b2, which I could fortunately trace back to Tomasa Mendez, born about 1740.

Angelina Calo Vazquez de Fernandez, NYC ca early 1950s.  She is the source of my father’s C1b4 mtDNA haplogroup. The tear down the center of the photograph tells a story I will never know.  Sadly, I have no photographs of my maternal grandparents, only the faces of their children,  my mother and her siblings.

These results fit with the resulting map of 1st to 3rd cousins on Puerto Rico as generated by 23&Me. While locations are self-reported, the results are consistent with family on both sides of my tree, and later generations may have moved south, as I don’t necessarily have specific ancestors in Yauco or Ponce areas.  Eventually some arrived in New York City among the thousands who came in the early decades of the 20th Century, many escaping conditions that stemmed from the hurricanes of 1899 and 1928 that mangled Puerto Rico.

There’s always so much more to learn!

The List of my known Great Grandparents:

ps. those born outside of Puerto Rico are noted.

GG Grandfathers –

maternal
BABILONIA ACEVEDO, Manuel Miguel Narciso (ca 1804- >1868) Moca
LOPEZ DE SEGURA Y DE SOSA, Buonaventura (ca1825 – <1895)
RODRIGUEZ SOTO, Jose Maria (1826 – <1906) Moca
VALE CORDERO, Miguel (ca1819 – <1885) Moca
paternal
CALO MEDERO, Sotero (1844 – 1902)  Carolina
FERNANDEZ, Joaquin (ca1842 – <1915) Galicia, Spain  R-L51
MATOS RAMOS, Telesforo (1835 – 1920) Rio Grande, Santurce

GG Grandmothers –

maternal
*CABAN HERNANDEZ de Vale, Juana (ca 1823 – <1885) Moca – C1b2
MORALES LOPEZ, Maria Santos (ca1829 -bef 1906) Moca
RAMIREZ JIMENEZ de Lopez, Olivia Antonia (ca 1830 – <1895)
TALAVERA Y HERNANDEZ, Rosa Carlina (1831 – 1880)
paternal
BIRRIEL FERNANDEZ de Calo, Ramona (1850 – &lt;1920) Carolina
*MALDONADO HERNANDEZ, Andrea (1846 – 1917) Rio Grande
QUINTA [FUENTES?], Maria (ca1847 – <1915)Galicia, Spain
VAZQUEZ RIVERA, Saturnina o Petronila (ca 1872 – 1911) Gurabo, Carolina – C1b4

Step GG Grandmothers –

maternal
DE ACEVEDO, Juana Teresa (ca 1809 – <1853) Aguada
MUNIZ, Juana Evangelista Francisca (ca 1835 – >1885) Moca

GGG Grandfathers –

maternal
BABILONIA POLANCO, Miguel (1743 – 1813) Mallorca, Spain
Tomas RODRIGUEZ (1794-1830) Moca, Aguadilla
Ramon MORALES (ca 1815)
*CABAN HERNANDEZ, Manuel (ca 1795 – ) Moca
LOPEZ DE SEGURA Y VIVES, Juan Jose Antonio (1791 – )
RAMIREZ TORRES, Manuel (1791 – ) Aguadilla
TALAVERA PONCE, Tomas Francisco (1798 – ) Aguadilla
VALES OTERO, Juan Jose (1777 – 1847)Galicia, Spain
paternal
BIRRIEL RODRIGUEZ, Dionisio (1827 – 1872) Carolina
CALO, Juan Bautista (ca1824 – 1887) Carolina
MALDONADO, Lucas (ca 1821 – ) Carolina
MATOS, Jose (ca1814 – <1919) Rio Grande

GGG Grandmothers –

maternal
DE SOTO, Tomasa (ca 1806-aft 1930) Moca
LOPEZ, Josefa (ca 1819) Moca
CORDERO ACEVEDO, Maria de la Paz (1783 – 1848) Moca
*HERNANDEZ AVILES de Caban, Maria Matias (1795 – <1843) Moca – C1b2
HERNANDEZ PORTALATIN de Talavera, Teresa de Jesus Domitila (ca 1803 – <1854)
LORENZO DE ACEVEDO Y GONZALEZ de Babilonia, Benita (1781 – 1861) Aguada
SOSA DE LAS CAJIGAS, Maria Ygnacia (ca 1796 – ) Aguada
XIMENEZ PEREZ DE ARCE de Ramirez, Maria Victoria (ca1786 – ) Aguadilla
paternal
CARRILLO RAMOS de Matos, Maria (ca 1819 – &lt;1919) Rio Grande
FERNANDEZ RODRIGUEZ, Estebania (ca 1832 – ) Carolina
HERNANDEZ de Maldonado, Maria (ca 1826 – ) Carolina
MEDERO MUQICA, Maria Andrea (1829 – 1904) Carolina

GGGG Grandfathers –

BABILONIA, Juan Amador (ca 1718 – <1797) Mallorca, Islas Balearicos
CABAL RUIZ, Francisco (ca1766 – ) Aguada
CORDERO GONZALEZ, Juan Francisco (ca1755 – ) Rincon
HERNANDEZ DE SOTO, Jose or Joseph (ca1760 – ) Aguada
LOPEZ DE SEGURA Y DE SOSA, Juan Antonio (1765 – <1822) Aguada
LORENZO DE ACEVEDO Y HERNANDEZ DEL RIO, Martin (1749 – 1828) Aguada
RAMIREZ, Manuel (ca 1760 – >1802) Aguada
DE SOSA Y OLAVARRIA, Manuel (1776 – 1847) Aguada
TALAVERA RODRIGUEZ, Sebastian Jose (1772 – 1819) Aguada
VALES, Juan (ca 1752 – )
XIMENEZ LORENZO DE ACEVEDO, Pablo Paulo (ca1761 – <1814) Aguada
paternal
BIRRIEL GILL, Domingo (1804 – 1854) Canary Islands
FERNANDEZ, Francisco (ca 1807 – ) Carolina
MEDERO, Francisco (ca1804 – ) Canary Islands

Spouse of GGGG Grandfather –

PEREZ DE MEDINA Y VELEZ GUEVARA, Agueda Francisca (ca 1774 – 1796) Venezuela
—-

Step GGGG Grandfather –

MIRALLES PASCUAL, Miguel (ca 1775)

5G Grandfathers –

DE AVILES, Jeronimo (ca 1736 ) Aguada
CABAL, Juan (ca 1737 – <1781) Aguada
DE LAS CAXIGAS CORUMEL, Francisco (ca 1740 – ) Leon, Spain
CORDERO, Juan (ca 1730 – ) Rincon
GONZALEZ Y VIVES, Andres (ca1710 – ) Aguada
HERNANDEZ, Domingo (ca1743 – <1848) Aguada (possibly Hernandez del Rio?)
LOPEZ DE SEGURA APARICIO, Juan Antonio (1735 – ) Aguada
LORENZO DE ACEVEDO, Antonio (1691 – 1795) Aguada
LORENZO DE ACEVEDO, Capt. d. Juan (ca 1735 – <1829) Aguada
PEREZ, Juan (ca 1706 – ) Aguada
PONCE MOLANO, Pedro (1743 – 1822) Mahon, Islas Balearicas
PORTALATIN CALDERON, Domingo (1747 – 1799) Aguada
DE SOSA Y DE LA ROSA, Francisco Antonio (1753 – 1835) Aguada
DE TALAVERA Y TALAVERA, Juan Lorenzo (ca 1747 – )  Islas Canarias
VIVES, Francisco Xavier (1739 – 1799) Palma, Mallorca
XIMENEZ, Capt. d. Pedro Antonio (ca 1733 – <1814) Aguada
paternal
BIRRIEL, Leandro (ca 1799 – ) Canary Islands, Spain
RODRIGUEZ, — (ca 1787 – ) Carolina

5G Grandmothers –

MENDEZ, Tomasa (ca 1745) Aguada  – C1b2
DE ARCE, Rosa (ca 1711 – ) Aguada
DE SOTO, Juana (ca 1740)
DIAZ DE LA CRUZ, da. Martina (ca 1740 – <1829)
GONZALEZ de Cordero, Estefana (ca 1735 – ) Rincon
HERNANDEZ DEL RIO Y GARCIA, Olaya (1716 – ) Aguada
HERNANDEZ DEL RIO Y RIVERA, Rosalia (ca 1748 – 1794)
HERNANDEZ NIEVES, Maria (ca 1755 – >1822)
LORENZO DE ACEVEDO Y HERNANDEZ DEL RIO, Maria Antonia (ca 1737 – )
MENDEZ de Hernandez, Juana (ca 1748 – <1848) Aguada
DE OLAVARRIA de Sosa, da Ana (ca 1754 – <1780) Aguada
PEREZ DE ARCE, da. Maria (ca 1748 – ) Aguadilla
RODRIGUEZ, Maria Josefa (ca 1752 – ) Islas Canarias
RUIZ de Cabal, Margarita (ca 1743 – ) Aguada
DE SANTIAGO de Gonzalez, Maria (ca 1714 – ) Aguada
DE SOSA Y DE LA ROSA, Maria Antonia (ca 1750 – ) Aguada
DE TORRES DEL RIO, Maria Valentina (ca 1745 – ) Aguada
paternal
GIL, Maria (ca 1784 – ) Carolina

Step 5G Grandmothers –

DE RIVERA, Águeda (ca 1744)  Aguada
VELEZ, Narcisa (ca 1746) Aguada

6G Grandfathers –

DE LAS CAXIGAS, d. Rodrigo (ca1695 – ) Leon, Spain
HERNANDEZ, Manuel (ca1730 – <1822) Aguada
HERNANDEZ DEL RIO, Andres (ca1700 – <1808) Aguada
HERNANDEZ Y DEL RIO, Diego (ca1691 – ) Aguada
PONS SERBERA, Juan (ca1718 – )Mahon, Menorca, Islas Baleares
PORTALATIN, Tomas (ca1722 – ) Aguada
DE SOSA, d. Juan Bernardo (1721 – 1796) Leon, Andalucia, Spain
DE TORRES, Domingo (ca 1720 – ) Aguada
XIMENEZ, unk. Aguada

6G Grandmothers –

CALDERON, Juana (ca 1727 – ) Aguada
CORUMEL, da. Maria (ca 1700 – ) Santander, Spain
GARCIA DE ESTRADA de Hernandez del Rio, Francisca (ca1696 – )
MOLANO BATLE, Juana (ca 1722 – ) Mahon, Menorca, Islas Baleares
DE NIEVES, Micaela (ca1735 – <1822) Aguada
DE RIVERA AVILES, Andrea (ca 1728 – ) Aguada
DE LA ROSA -VELASCO Y HERNANDEZ DEL RIO, da. Jacinta (1720 – 1784) Aguada
DEL RIO de Torres, Maria (ca 1725 – ) Aguada
Step 6G Grandmother –
DE LA CRUZ Y GOVEO, d. Ana Maria (ca 1766 – 1796) San Juan

7G Grandfather –

HERNANDEZ DE LA CRUZ, Andres (ca1644 – ) Santo Domingo
DE LA ROSA Y VELASCO, Juan (ca1690 – <1811) Santo Domingo

7G Grandmother –

HERNANDEZ DEL RIO Y TORRES, Jacinta (ca1690 – <1811) Aguada
DEL RIO (ca1649 – ) Santo Domingo

8G Grandfather –

HERNANDEZ Y DEL RIO, Manuel (1669 – ) Santo Domingo

8G Grandmother –

DE TORRES, Margarita (ca1674 – ) Aguada
QEPD
Yes it’s scant back here!
Are you related? Feel free to give a shout out!