Worlds Collide on Vieques: An Intimate Portrait from the Time of Columbus

Worlds Collide on Vieques An Intimate Portrait from the Time of Columbus Author: Elizabeth Langhorne The Taino Indians of the Caribbean were another casualty of the Spanish exploration and eventual conquest of much of the Americas. In well documented detail, the author describes Indian life, and how the conflict between the natives and the Spaniards arose. Gold was certainly a culprit, but the vanity and greed of Columbus and those who followed combined with the desire for the precious metal to destroy completely this Indian culture. Columbus was the first to chart these tiny islands such as Vieques and Borinquen (Puerto Rico), but the cruelties inflicted upon the native residents were intensified by Ponce de Leon and other Conquistadores. Although the Franciscan Fathers speak out against cruelty of the Spanish conquerors, we see the end on Vieques, where the Chiefs Cacimar and Yaureibo both fall in battle with the invaders. The book closes with the total destruction of the native population of the little island of Vieques. This work is one of the first popular accounts that is also a documented history of the time. In it we can see how the conflict progresses and worsens between the Spaniards and the natives of Vieques. We mourn their loss; but we understand it better, and, by extension, we understand better the history of the period of colonization