The Caribbean has always been a region of dynamic convergence, where peoples, ideas, and technologies intermingled in complicated ways. In her talk, “Caribbean Kaleidoscope: Convergence and Transformation in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries,” Professor Ida Altman of the University of Florida explored this history on Thursday, October 17 at UCLA’s William Andrews Clark Memorial Library.
The post-contact period, particularly the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, saw rapid transformations. In Hispaniola in 1528, figures like Antonio Villasante connected with Indigenous communities by marrying local leaders, such as a cacica (female indigenous leader), and using their knowledge to exploit natural resources like balsam. His claim to understand Indigenous customs better than other Spaniards allowed him to leverage the labor of Indigenous workers under the colonial repartimiento system.
This period also marked the devastating decline of Indigenous populations from Spanish exploitation and disease, though these reductionist views often overlook Indigenous resistance and persistence. In Puerto Rico, for example, the Toa River region governed by Juan Ponce de León initially saw Indigenous and African-descended workers labor side by side. By 1516, the Spanish authorities had formalized categories like naborías for mine workers and agricultural laborers, yet many fled or perished due to harsh conditions. By the late 1520s, natural disasters and demographic shifts led to a near-complete displacement of the Indigenous population, replaced with African and African-descended workers.
As sugar production expanded in regions like La Trinidad, and later Jamaica after 1655, European rivals like the British and French aggressively challenged Spanish control in the Caribbean. The sixteenth-century raids by Sir Francis Drake were just one example of the violence that punctuated European competition for resources. By the seventeenth century, coerced labor systems became a defining feature across the Caribbean, relying on both indentured European servants and enslaved Africans to support its sugar economy.
Professor Altman’s lecture highlighted how these encounters—fraught with exploitation, subordination, and cultural entanglement—shaped the Caribbean as a constantly evolving crossroads of peoples, economies, and ideas.
–Rebeca Martínez, Ph.D.Candidate, UCLA Department of History