THE "JÍBARO," OR PUERTO RICAN PEASANT

Dr. Richard Rey, a historian, wrote about the inhabitants of Puerto Rico, who lived in marshes and fed on vegetables. He said that these people might disappear soon owing to the changing social and political conditions of the islands because they are familiar with the socio-political conditions of the past only. 

These people are referred to as “jibaros” and trace their descent from the settlers of the early days of Spanish colonization of Puerto Rico. These early settlers spread across the inner parts of the islands and started cultivating with the help of their Indian or African slaves. They lived in isolation from the rest of the islands and did not bother themselves with anything related to the outside world. 

The modern jibaro is no different. He builds his hut, which is called “bohio”, anywhere he wants, without taking into account the hygienic conditions of the locality. The building material used is the same as used by the aboriginal inhabitants. The bohio is oblong or square-shaped and is two to three feet above the ground. Cane, coco-palm trunks, and bark of yaguas, another palm species, are used in both the walls and roofing of the huts. Sometimes, the bohios are divided into two portions from inside: one portion serves as the sitting area of the family during the day and the other as the sleeping room. 

Since they are the descendants of the European settlers, therefore, the majority of the jibaros have white skin. Other communities or ethnicities also live on the island. However, our main focus is on the Jibaros for their inferior living conditions. 

This rural population has been divided into three groups by one of Puerto Rico’s accomplished academics, Francisco del Valle Atilés: the first group comprises jibaros who work as peons in the sugar and coffee estates, people of the second group are independent cultivators, and the last and financially better group has individuals who live far away from populated areas. 

A typical jibaro is a thin, delicate, and slow-moving individual who has a sickly appearance. However, a jibaro of pure Hispanic descent is different. Such people are physically fit and active even at the advanced phase of their age.  But, an average jibaro appears sick to the eyes. This is because of the inadequate supply of nutritious food and unhygienic living conditions. The usual diet of jibaros consists of maize, yams, fish, rice, and plantains. This food may work for the people of the Indian race but falls short of providing the required muscle energy to a jibaro.

The clothing is no different, either. There is no concept of shoes, and garments are dried on the body in case they get wet by rain. Tobacco and rum are the go-to foods to fill the stomach. Tobacco is both chewed and smoked, whereas the intake of rum does not go to the extent of intoxicating the individual.

These living conditions, coupled with complete disregard for personal hygiene, result in these Puerto Rican peasants falling ill to paludal fever. This fever is one of the most common diseases of the tropical regions. 

As of 1781, no cure for this fever had been found 1781, according to Friar Abbad. The fever kills the patient in four to six years. And those who manage to recover are killed by dropsy -  a condition in which fluid is built up in body tissues.

However, jibaros might not be as weak as they appear at first sight. A jibaro will display extraordinary strength while doing anything of his own interest or if fairly compensated for some job. And since the Spanish regime did not pay enough, a typical jibaro was slow at the time. 

According to Mr. Atilés, despite the high mortality rate, the jibaro population increased in number. Each family comprises six to ten children on average, underscoring the notable fertility of the women of this community. 

As for intellectual wealth, a jibaro is poor. He is illiterate, speech-wise incorrect, and his songs are anything but decent and poetic. The musician makes his own musical instrument, which is kind of guitar-like. A ribbed gourd is also added to this stringed instrument. The sound that this local guitar produces is more a noise than music and can be irritating for someone who is not used to it.

Catholicism mixed with fetichism - a belief that objects possess supernatural powers - is practiced as a religion by the Jibaro people. 

Colonel George Dawson Flinter, an ex-British army officer and an adventurer, describes jibaros as simple people. Although they dislike acts like robbery, they always try to deceive in their dealings, especially if the other person is not accustomed to their ways. They are both hospitable and susceptible to provocation, much like the peasants of Ireland. 

They like resting in their hammocks all day long and consider the plantain and coffee trees around their houses enough for subsistence. And if they have a horse and a cow to go with it then they are the happiest. They are unlike the people of northern regions, who often feel remorse over unachieved ambitions or daily needs. 

This completely materialistic concept of happiness has started to be influenced by different new factors. Education is slowly making its way in this community, and industrial activity means people can now see comfort within their reach, provided they work for it. In a nutshell, Puerto Rican jibaro will have vanished in ten years' time, replaced by a learned, well-mannered class of laborers who will have a more sophisticated conception of happiness than their predecessors. 

ORIGIN AND CHARACTER OF THE MODERN INHABITANTS OF PUERTO RICO

During the initial years of colonization, the Spaniards were soldiers, explorers, monks, and mariners did not bring their families with them. This gave rise to mestizos, people of mixed race having Spanish and indigenous descent. 

This new population, having mixed descent possessed the worst qualities of the races it was the product of. Only the later generations of this new race start exhibiting superior physiological traits. The reason behind this shift is the frequent crossings and recrossings. 

However, mestizos were not the only new race on the island. The negro slaves, which were introduced in Puerto Rico early in its colonization days, mated with the Indians, giving birth to the zambo. Mulatto was another race that started on the island after negro women were brought in from Santa Domingo.

Taking into account the social class of the initial Spanish settlers, the resultant social status could not be too superior to that of the status of Aboriginals. 

To counter this degradation of the status, in 1534, the king’s officers in Puerto Rico asked the government to send 50 white married couples to the islands. However, their request was not granted, and the crown sent 50 bachelors instead. This, quite obviously, further lowered the moral standard. 

It was in the later years that respectable foreigner families started spreading sophisticated tones among the creoles, the mixed-race descendants of Spaniards and the indigenous population. However, the daily interaction of soldiers of the garrison with the people of lower and middle classes did not improve the character and manners of the populace. 

The frequent crossings and recrossings among the negroes, Indians, and white races gave birth to a number of different races with time. There were so many that, at times, it was difficult to identify the race of a person just by his or her appearance. Since it was a rule that only pure-blood Spaniards and their descendants could get high-level military and civil jobs, therefore, the candidates were asked to present documentary evidence that they had white blood in their veins. The practice was eventually abolished in 1870 by Marshal Francisco Serrano, the Regent of Spain. 

Ethnologists have observed that the physical and ethical features of Indians still largely prevail in the rural areas of Puerto Rico. This is mainly attributed to the fact that the Indians did not go extinct around the time they are usually believed to have disappeared in the form of the races that emerged on the island. 

A new generation is on the horizon in Puerto Rico, and it contains the qualities of all three races they have descended from, says Salvador Brau, a Puerto Rican historian. According to him, the new generation gets sobriety and hospitality from their Indian ancestors; patriotism, devotion, and perseverance from their Spanish forefathers; and sensuality, endurance, and fatalism from their negro forbears.  Juan Damián López de Haro, the bishop of Puerto Rico, also sarcastically referred to the characteristics of Puerto Ricans. He mentioned it in a letter to his friend in 1644. 

It would be inappropriate to talk about the moral shortcomings of people. The lower classes of the islands do not know how to respect others’ property. Although Colonel Flinter, in their 1834 publication, “ An Account of the Present State of the Island of Puerto Rico”, is all praise for Puerto Ricans in his account of the island; however, he too acknowledges the moral defects in the people of lower class. There has been immense improvement in the social conditions ever since, but a lot is still left to be done with regard to morality.  

NEGRO SLAVERY IN PUERTO RICO

The black race appeared on the scene in Puerto Rico at the same time it was colonized by the white race. Soon, the native people were replaced with these two new races, and they have been present on the island ever since.

The institution of slavery became a permanent establishment as soon as African negroes were introduced in Puerto Rico. King Ferdinand, the king of Spain, did order in 1511 that only the rebellious Indians be kept as slaves. However, this order was short-lived and was taken back the following year. The black-skinned humans remained slaves because they were always looked upon as inferiors who came to the world to serve others. The slave trade was a routine matter for the Spanish people. 

In 1502, two men named Juan Sanchez and Alfonso Bravo were permitted by the Spanish crown to take slaves to the newly discovered Puerto Rico. This was the first time the Caribbean island saw African slaves. Former governor Nicolás de Ovando protested the move. The reason he stated was that these African slaves were escaping to the mountains and forests, where they joined hands with the rebellious natives and made it difficult for the authorities to subjugate them. The same issue arose in San Juan too, a while later. 

One had to seek special permission from the administration to bring negro slaves on the island. However, general permission was granted on introduction of slaves as long as the owner paid the government two ducats per slave. The ducat was a trade coin used in European trade.

Francisco Jiménez de Cisneros, the Cardinal of Spain, prohibited the export of slaves from Spain in the year 1516. However, Father Bartolomé de las Casas, a Spanish writer, activist, and clergyman, proposed that negro slaves were a necessity in Puerto Rico. The same was believed by the Jerome fathers, the governors of the Antilles in 1518. They requested royal permission to send ships to the African coast for negro slaves. The request was not granted; however, in 1528, a few Germans were given permission to bring 4000 slaves into the Carribean Islands. But they did not follow the terms of their contract.

San Juan did not have many negro slaves. Seeing the on-ground situation, the local authorities asked the emperor’s permission to allow, free of duty, two slaves per settler. Although the permission was granted, the settlers started abusing this privilege. It was noted that the special permits were being sold in Seville even though the permit holder was coming to the island. A new order saw only authorized traffickers bring slaves to the island. This gave these selected traffickers to raise the price of slaves to 60 or 70 Castilian dollars per slave. 

Seeing the high prices of slaves, the officers of the crown in Puerto Rico protested and requested permission to allow 10 to 12 negro slaves per settler at the previously imposed tax rate of 2 ducats per head.  This was the year 1533, the time when a new deposit of gold had been found. This discovery led to the colonists buying slaves from authorized traders on a credit basis, that too at very high prices. Gold was set as the payment currency since the colonists believed that other deposits of gold would also be found soon. However, no other deposits were discovered which led to non-payment to the traders. The result was imprisonment and confiscation of the properties of many colonists, which left them with nothing. Some even fled to the mountains to avoid going behind bars. 

The seventeen years between 1536 and 1553 saw the authorities of Puerto Rico incentivizing people to bring slaves to the islands. They complained that the slave owners had escaped to Mexico and Peru along with their slaves, and Germans, who had a monopoly over the trafficking business, were not bringing any slaves to the island. However, around 1500 negro slaves came to Puerto Rico during these years, and this number does not include the ones who were smuggled to the island illegally. 

Philip II, the King of Spain, ordered the reduction of the prices of slaves. But, this resulted in decreased importation of negro slaves by the German monopolists and forced Phillip to revoke his order. 

During the seventeenth century, different Genoese, Portuguese, Holland, French, and Spanish companies got contracts for the slave trade in the Caribbean Islands. This permission was profitable on two fronts: the high prices charged for the slaves and the illegal smuggling of merchandise in the guise of slave traffic. 

The slave traffic further increased in the eighteenth century. This was because the king of Spain in the first half 1700s, Philip V, allowed England to introduce 140,000 slaves in Spanish colonies across thirty years in return for abandoning the cause of the House of Austria. However, this contract kept getting disrupted due to war, and England stopped importing slaves before the contract term ended. The second half of the eighteenth century saw several other contracts given to different companies for the importation of slaves. 

The sun of the nineteenth century saw voices rising in favor of the emancipation of the slaves. This resulted in Great Britain abolishing slave trafficking in 1833 and the emancipation of more than twelve million slaves by paying more than a hundred million dollars as indemnity. In 1817, Spain also agreed to abolish the slave trade by 1820. However, the slaves in Puerto Rico did not get emancipation until 1873. 

The relationship between the slaves and their masters in Puerto Rico was the same as in other Spanish colonies. This saw whites and blacks fight the war of extermination in Santo Domingo. Moreover, a negro republic in Haiti made the tensions in Puerto Rico more severe. 

Governor General John Prim, in an attempt to suppress the negro insurrection, issued a draconian decree, which was signed on May 31, 1843.