Language, Power, and Identity on the Island of Borikén

COMM 4404W Final Project

December 21, 2020

P FKN R - Bad Bunny x Kendo Kaponi x Arcangel | YHLQMDLG

Bad Bunny's P FKN R, released February 29th, 2020, illustrates many of the cultural influences that have catalyzed Puerto Rico's unique ethnolinguistic structure. The song has become a prideful anthem to many Puerto Ricans and has topped global charts.

Puerto Rico’s complex colonial and imperial history is interwoven into the lingual fabric of their society, where threads from each moment of the island’s past exist in the present, creating a unique phenomenological perspective of reality. In this essay, I will conduct a ethnolinguistic and historical analysis of the Puerto Rican nation by analyzing three critical cultural influences, and their relation to the paradigmatic use of the institution of language as an apparatus for hegemony and nation building. Through researching the Jatibonicu indigenous nation that controlled the island when Columbus arrived, as well as assimilation of African cultures during the slave trade, and lastly the lingual pressures from modern United States’ imperialism, I will illustrate how language on the island was both used for malign exploitation as well as a means for state resistance and nation building.

01 / 03

Jatibonicu Taíno

* I chose Aguada as the location for this slide because it is believed that this is where Christopher Columbus first landed onto the island of Borikén and made contact with the Jatibonicu.

When Christopher Columbus first arrived to the shores of Puerto Rico in 1492, the island was occupied by the Jatibonicu nation. At that time, the island was called Borikén, which in Jatibonicu means “Land of the Valiant and Noble Lord,” referring to their Great Spirit and Creator (Guanikeyu Torres, 2020). While the nation's true name was Jatibonicu, which means "The Great People of the Sacred High Waters," they are more commonly referred to, in both academic and colloquial situations, as the Taíno. The reason for this stems from a translation error from when the Spaniards first asked who they are and they responded, “Taíno,” which means “good and noble people,” as a means to differentiate themselves from their more aggressive neighbors, the Caribe. After the arrival of the Spanish, Columbus removed the sacred name of the island and renamed it after the catholic saint “San Juan Bautista.” This act of replacing the sacred name given by the Jatibonicu with that of a Catholic saint illustrates the way that colonial powers utilized the institutions of language and religion in tandem for hegemonic dominion.

The Jatibonicu language was an oratory institution that stemmed from the Arawaken language family of northern South America (Taino Museum, 2020). There was no gradual cultural assimilation for the Jatibonicu with the Spaniards, because in a matter of decades they were largely wiped out by Spanish colonizers from genocide, forced labor conditions, and disease. Due to the oral nature of the Jatibonicu, when the nation was lost the majority of their language was too. Certain words, however, were documented and adopted by the Spaniards, which later were picked up by the English, and continue to be utilized to this day. These words include, canoa (canoe), hamaca (hammock), papaya, iguana, maíz (corn), tiburón (shark), huracán (hurricane), yuca, guanábana (soursop), colibrí (hummingbird), and tobacco. These words survived due to their commercial agency and because there was no Spanish equivalent for their denotation, therefore they are all nouns. Another word that continues to be utilized today is Boricua which comes from the original name for the island “Borikén.” Boricua is a synonym that commonly replaces puertoriqueño (Puerto Rican), that is utilized by Puerto Ricans (Borinqueños) to denote Puerto Ricans that were born on the island. Due to its native roots, the use of the term Boricua, as well as its connotation, reveals a collective resistance to colonial hegemony that has galvanized a sense of national pride. Further, it acts as a case study in the importance of reviving indigenous languages in modern times as a means to fight cultural genocide by imperial powers.

Afro-Borinqueños

*This slide is located in Loiza because this region was known to have the largest settlement of enslave people from Africa. The image, painted by the famous Borinqueño artist, Francisco Oller, is of Rafael Cordero, who founded the first school on the island for formerly enslaved and the children of the enslaved.

To continue colonial mercantilism, after the massacre of the Jatibonicu in the 1500’s, Spaniards were eventually forced to replace the indigenous supply of labor with enslaved people from different regions of the African continent. The influx of people from distinguished African nations, such as the Yoruba and the Bantu from the West Coast, onto the island catalyzed a cultural amalgamation that enriched the ethnolinguistic structure of the island (Martinez, 2014). Some of the most salient aspects of the island's vernacular have African roots. For example, “mofongo,” which is perhaps the most cherished Boricua dish, “cheveré,” which means cool or great, “guineo,” a word for banana that is only used on the island, and myriad more. However, it was not just words that were conjoined into Boricua language, as Dr. Robert Martinez illustrates in his article “African Aspects of the Puerto Rican Personality” but the phonetic and gramatic dimensions of African languages as well.

“The up and down speech intonations in Puerto Rican Spanish are typically African as well as the grammatical practice of cutting endings (para nada becomes pa’na), transforming or dropping consonants and various phonetic implications in the vernacular.” (Martinez, 2014).

These oral qualities that were brought to Puerto Rico from Africa, grew and spread through socialization and nation building, alongside the criollo and indigenous inhabitants, and catalyzed the unique and internationally distinguished Puerto Rican accent, intonation, grammar, and vocabulary.

U.S. English

*As portrayed in the drawing above, Guánica was the location where the United States Army first invaded Puerto Rico.

In February 1898, Spain declared Puerto Rico an independent part of the Spanish empire, granted Puerto Ricans voting rights, and permitted the island to create its own constitution. However, less than a year later, at the close of the Spanish-American War, the United States military invaded the island, and coerced it into the non-voting territory that it exists as today (Little, 2017). As part of its colonial project, the U.S. declared English the official language of Puerto Rico in 1902, and utilized the language as apparatus to gain ideological dominion over the island. In Solsiree’s Del Moral article “Language and Empire: Elizabeth Kneipple's Colonial History of Puerto Rico,” the author illustrates how the English language texts taught in schools at this time portrayed an appropriated version of Puerto Rican history, and heritage, that lacked historicity and served U.S. interests.

“They learned that whiteness, assimilation, and submission to colonialism were fundamental aspects of island history. Meanwhile, the texts also taught that indigenous heritage was cultural, not biological, while black heritage was minimal and irrelevant” (Del Moral 2019).

These narratives were designed to Americanize the Puerto Rican nation and erase any previous concepts of independent nationalism. However, due to strong resistance and a collective fight by Borinqueños to withhold their cultural identity, English never became the dominant language. Finally, in 1991, Spanish was once again made an official language of the island.

While Spanish remains the dominant language, and less than 20% of Puerto Ricans speak English fluently according to a U.S. census, some English words were remolded as anglicisms, with Spanish lexical items and pronunciation, to be utilized in Puerto Rican vernacular (Beyond Language, 2020). These words include; “parquear,” which stems from the word “park,” “jangear,” which comes from the expression “to hang out,” "bitcha," stemming from "bitch," and “goofear” which was adapted from the word “goofy.” Through this transformation of linguistic boundaries, and creating new meaning through the benign appropriation of their colonizers language, the Borinqueño nation demonstrates an elastic ability to relieve and resist hegemonic linguistic pressures.

Introduction:

Puerto Rico, or “Rich Port” as it would be translated in English, is only a 110 miles long and 35 miles wide island in the Atlantic Ocean, and yet it was recognized for centuries by colonial powers as one of the most important pieces of territory to control in the world. Due to its strategic location at the edge of Carribean, the island was seen as the doorway to the “new world,” and therefore whoever occupied Puerto Rico, had control over the riches of all of the America’s. For this reason, since Christopher Columbus first sailed to Puerto Rico in 1493, this small island has been the victim of centuries of bloodshed and exploitation, while colonial powers and pirates fought for domination over this strategic territory. This malign paradigm continues to this day, where Puerto Rico remains one of the few remaining colonies in the world.

Jatibonicu Taíno

When Christopher Columbus first arrived to the shores of Puerto Rico in 1492, the island was occupied by the Jatibonicu nation. At that time, the island was called Borikén, which in Jatibonicu means “Land of the Valiant and Noble Lord,” referring to their Great Spirit and Creator (Guanikeyu Torres, 2020). While the nation's true name was Jatibonicu, which means "The Great People of the Sacred High Waters," they are more commonly referred to, in both academic and colloquial situations, as the Taíno. The reason for this stems from a translation error from when the Spaniards first asked who they are and they responded, “Taíno,” which means “good and noble people,” as a means to differentiate themselves from their more aggressive neighbors, the Caribe [1]. After the arrival of the Spanish, Columbus removed the sacred name of the island and renamed it after the catholic saint “San Juan Bautista.” This act of replacing the sacred name given by the Jatibonicu with that of a Catholic saint illustrates the way that colonial powers utilized the institutions of language and religion in tandem for hegemonic dominion.

[1: The malign paradigm of incorrect names that continue to be utilized for indigenous nations, such as “Indians,” which stem from Columbus’ confusion centuries ago, should not be overlooked.]

Afro-Borinqueños

To continue colonial mercantilism, after the massacre of the Jatibonicu in the 1500’s, Spaniards were eventually forced to replace the indigenous supply of labor with enslaved people [2] from different regions of the African continent. The influx of people from distinguished African nations, such as the Yoruba and the Bantu from the West Coast, onto the island catalyzed a cultural amalgamation that enriched the ethnolinguistic structure of the island (Martinez, 2014). Some of the most salient aspects of the island's vernacular have African roots. For example, “mofongo,” which is perhaps the most cherished Boricua dish, “cheveré,” which means cool or great, “guineo,” a word for banana that is only used on the island, and myriad more. However, it was not just words that were conjoined into Boricua language, as Dr. Robert Martinez illustrates in his article “African Aspects of the Puerto Rican Personality” but the phonetic and gramatic dimensions of African languages as well.

[2: I utilize the term “enslaved people” in place of “slaves” to emphasize that these people were humans first and commodities second, which should not be reversed. This important differentiation is an example of the marginalizing ideological power that is embedded within the languages of colonial powers.]

“The up and down speech intonations in Puerto Rican Spanish are typically African as well as the grammatical practice of cutting endings (para nada becomes pa’na), transforming or dropping consonants and various phonetic implications in the vernacular.” (Martinez, 2014).

U.S. English

In February 1898, Spain declared Puerto Rico an independent part of the Spanish empire, granted Borinqueños voting rights, and permitted the island to create its own constitution. However, less than a year later, at the close of the Spanish-American War, the United States military invaded the island, and coerced it into the non-voting territory that it exists as today (Little, 2017). As part of its colonial project, the U.S. declared English the official language of Puerto Rico in 1902, and utilized the language as apparatus to gain ideological dominion over the island. In Solsiree’s Del Moral article “Language and Empire: Elizabeth Kneipple's Colonial History of Puerto Rico,” the author illustrates how the English language texts taught in schools at this time portrayed an appropriated version of Puerto Rican history, and heritage, that lacked historicity and served U.S. interests.

“They learned that whiteness, assimilation, and submission to colonialism were fundamental aspects of island history. Meanwhile, the texts also taught that indigenous heritage was cultural, not biological, while black heritage was minimal and irrelevant” (Del Moral 2019).

These narratives were designed to Americanize the Puerto Rican nation and erase any previous concepts of independent nationalism. However, due to strong resistance through collective fight by Borinqueños to withhold their cultural identity, English never became the dominant language and Spanish was once again made an official language of the island in 1991.

Conclusion

Borinqueños often joke that their culture and language is a mofongo--the beloved national dish made with plantains, meat, seafood, as well as a variety of vegetables and seasoning--because it is made by mashing together a little bit of everything. With vocabulary, grammar, intonations, and phonetic dimensions stemming from the Jatibonicu, Spanish colonizers, enslaved people from the west coast of Africa, United States imperial pressure, as well as myriad other influences that I have not addressed in the paper, the small island of Puerto Rico has navigated complex linguistic borderlands with the entire globe. In doing so, the nation has demonstrated how it has in certain moments opened this border for cultural enrichment, and how it has closed it at times closed this border as a means to resist hegemony and preserve national identity. While Boricua language is often the victim of acts of linguistic terrorism, where it is pejoratively described as a “bad” or “incorrect” dialect of Spanish, this unique and non-static vernacular is an institution that reflects and reifies the islands self-concept, culture, story, and national pride.

Bibliography

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Anzaldua, G. (2016). Borderlands = la frontera. Madrid: Coleccin? Ensayo.

Beyond Language. (n.d.). Retrieved December 19, 2020, from https://welcome.topuertorico.org/culture/language.shtml

Del Moral, S. (2019, April 01). Language and Empire: Elizabeth Kneipple's Colonial History of Puerto Rico. Retrieved December 19, 2020, from https://www.questia.com/library/journal/1P4-2230819019/language-and-empire-elizabeth-kneipple-s-colonial

Dr. Martinez, R. (2020, November 16). The African Roots of Puerto Rico: Puerto Rican Black History. Retrieved December 19, 2020, from https://caribbeantrading.com/african-roots-puerto-rico/

Guanikeyu Torres, C., Principal Chief. (n.d.). The Flag of The Jatibonicu Taino Tribal Nation of Borikén (Puerto Rico). Retrieved December 19, 2020, from https://www.taino-tribe.org/jatibonicu-flagstory.htm

Johnson, K. (2015, October 01). Francisco Oller, Core of 'Impressionism and the Caribbean,' at the Brooklyn Museum. Retrieved December 20, 2020, from https://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/02/arts/design/francisco-oller-core-of-impressionism-and-the-caribbean-at-the-brooklyn-museum.html

July 25, 1898: U.S. Invades Puerto Rico. (n.d.). Retrieved December 20, 2020, from https://www.zinnedproject.org/news/tdih/us-invades-puerto-rico/

Little, B. (2017, September 22). Puerto Rico's Complicated History with the United States. Retrieved December 19, 2020, from https://www.history.com/news/puerto-ricos-complicated-history-with-the-united-states

Taíno. (2020, February 20). Retrieved December 19, 2020, from https://tainomuseum.org/taino/