Unity, Ethnic Contestation and The Point Galera Possibility
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Abstract
On December 1st, 1699 the Amerindians at the Mission of San Francisco de los Arenales rose up and killed their European slave masters, who happened to be Capuchin priests. They then went to kill the Spanish Governor of the island (Trinidad). Tragically but inevitably, they were tracked down. A group was cornered by the Spanish at Point Galera. Here, rather than surrender, they jumped to their deaths off the cliffs of the "Iron Coast" - women, men and children.
Perhaps it is here that we may locate the basis of real unity. These Amerindians, whom we call "Caribs," are the primordial tribe, the red ancestors of all "Trinbagonians." They are the first children of our earth. Yet this possibility is conceived in an act of "original violence." In this act of violence the Spanish were laying the foundation of that Eurocentric hegemony which we will call the modern world, a global social, political, economic, technological system.
Perhaps it is here that we may locate the basis of real unity. These Amerindians, whom we call "Caribs," are the primordial tribe, the red ancestors of all "Trinbagonians." They are the first children of our earth. Yet this possibility is conceived in an act of "original violence." In this act of violence the Spanish were laying the foundation of that Eurocentric hegemony which we will call the modern world, a global social, political, economic, technological system.
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Copyright Sir Arthur Lewis Institute of Social and Economic Studies