Btw L.A., did you know…?

J.T.Leave a comment

In 2020 the U.S. Census counted some 1.7 million Central-Americans in L.A. County. But from the Oaxacan Isthmus (!) to the Panama Canal—including the Caribbean islands—there are now over 100 million people who “hold the center” of the Americas, or who can identify as Central American or Caribbean.

And did you know that in 1823, after a decade of war for independence from Spain there was even a Central American Federation between Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama?! Even the U.S. recognized “CAF” in 1824!

4 Escudos from the CAF. 1835. Image courtesy of the National Numismatic Collection, National Museum of American History

Speaking of then, the largest influx of immigrants to the U.S. actually took place during the 1890s, when more than 10 million people fled wars and instability in Central, Eastern and Southern Europe to start over on Turtle Island; that year “foreign-born” people made about 15% of the national census, as opposed to 2020, when they made up 14%.

Discharge from Ellis Island. 1902. Image courtesy of the Library of Congress, Public Domain.

But what do I know? I’m just headed back to my father’s homeland to break bolillos with some Salvi pueblos and hear their thoughts on it all for Los Cuentos de Los Angeles. Please learn more at my fundraiser for the trip!

J.T.

This January 6th, salute Kojo and the Maroons of the Caribbean

J.T.Leave a comment

When you hear the word “Maroon,” do you think of the color? Or maybe you think of the band led by Adam Levine (+ Wiz Khalifa) on “Payphone” and other hits. It just so happens that the term was first used in the mid-1600s to describe runaway slaves in Jamaica who joined with Native Taino or “Arawaks” in the high forestry and established themselves as independent communities there. For Spanish speakers, the word may be reminiscent of “marron,” which describes the color Brown. However, the origin of “Maroon” can be traced back to the Spanish’s use of the term “cimarron,” which is how they referred to untamed animals, and eventually, untamed slaves.

The earliest groups of Maroons formed in what the Tainos referred to as “Xaymaca” in 1655, after a battle between the English and Spanish for control of the island left an estimated 1,500 former slaves with few choices: to serve the new British empire on the land, follow their former Spanish masters onto sugar plantations in Cuba, or join the Taino or Amerindian people on the island and fight for autonomy or self-rule. They chose the latter.

Maroons ambush British troops on the Dromilly Estate. Courtesy of the Jamaica/British Library, Public Domain

This did not please the British plantation masters, but can you imagine how they felt when the maroons raided their plantations for food and also freed other slaves while they were at it? By 1728, the maroon rebels were led by “Queen Nanny,” a woman of Ghanaian descent who was estimated to help free at least 1,000 slaves during her leadership of the Windward Maroons on the Eastern part of the island. Her brother Kojo (also Cudjoe) led the Leeward Maroons on the Western part of the island, and is said to have been born on January 6th circa 1660. Together but distinctly, they were central figures in two wars on the crown in Jamaica from 1728 – 1796.

Cudjoe making peace: Colonel John Guthrie, a Jamaican plantation owner, meets Cudjoe, the leader of the Jamaican Maroons. Courtesy of the British Library, Public Domain

Today, Kojo’s life is celebrated each year in Accompong Town, which is still a sovereign Maroon community in Xaymaca, while Queen Nanny is commemorated on the Jamaican $500 note. A total of four Maroon communities continue to live autonomously there in Charles Town, Moore Town, Accompong Town, and Scott’s Hall; they also continue to resist the legacy of colonization, now in the form of protest against bauxite mining and the deforestation it entails for their soil. Bauxite is used to create aluminum metal, and the U.S. maintains two bauxite refineries in Louisiana.

$500 note from the Bank of Jamaica. Courtesy of Public Domain

In any case, now you too can let the city know! You can also now always remember how the mezcla of Black and Red historically makes Maroon. Last but not least, below you can tune into a short film by UCLA Professor Jacqueline Cogdell DjeDje and Carol Merrill-Mirsky, Ph.D, courtesy of the UCLA Ethnomusicology Department + the invaluable Internet Archive: “In 1986, Professor Jacqueline Cogdell DjeDje and [Merrill-Mirsky] made a short field trip to Jamaica to observe and record the January Sixth celebration of the Maroons of the village of Accompong.”

J.T.