The Liberation of Puerto Rico-Religious Background

                                             The Liberation of Puerto Rico-Religious Background


So far, I have attempted to present the history of the colony of Puerto Rico by focusing specifically on the peoples' struggle for their self-determination.  Now I wish to briefly trace the role of religion throughout Puerto Rican history. In many respects, the religious history has been blended with the colonial history, but for purposes of clarity, I have separated them. I have done this, realizing that it is difficult to differentiate in an absolute way the colonization and the Christianization of Puerto Rico. This is especially true because ever since Spain established the occupation of Puerto Rico, the religious activity has gone hand in hand with the colonization of the island.

Since the Spanish invaders were Christians, they could not accept the religion of the natives of Boriquen as valid.  They believed that they had the obligation to save the souls of the natives for Christ. It must not have been easy for the natives to throw their traditional beliefs away in order to embrace an unknown religion.  It would not be surprising to find an element of resistance among the natives, especially since the preachers of the new religion had the intention of overthrowing the sovereignty  of the country of the future converts (Loida Figueroa, History of Puerto Rico, New York: Anaya Book Company, 1974, p. 60).

In the initial stages of the colonization of the island, the Roman Catholic Church made an alliance with the Spanish invaders, and thereby fulfilled a very important legitimizing function in the establishment of the new socio-political and economic order.  The cross came with the sword establishing a very intimate and peculiar alliance that still exists to larger or lesser degrees in most of Latin America (Idris Hamid, ed., Out of the Depths, San Fernando Trinidad: St. Andrews Theological College, 1977, p. 164). When Juan Ponce de Leon took control of Boriquen, he distributed lands and indigenous people among the colonists, and the work mining and cultivation began.  The natives had to work for the Spanish overlords in the gold mines and in the fields, and in the construction or roads and houses. In return, they were to receive food and lodging, clothing, and above all, Christian teaching (Tovar, p. 15).

The ethical aspect of colonization became a matter of concern, even in Spain.  The matter was raised in the Spanish dominions by the clergy.  This was to be expected in light of the fact that the majority of the conquerors would not have raised the issue. Fray Antonio de Montesinos raised his voice against the servitude of the natives.  As early as 1511, he preached to the colonists who surely believed that they were not sinning when they arrived in Boriquen and forced the natives to serve them according to the law of conquest.  He questioned this presumed right, especially since the conclusion had been reached that the natives were rational beings who were susceptible to Christianization.  The issue produced a storm of protest from the colonists, who viewed his invective as an attack on their interests.  They immediately sent a proctor to the King to refute Montesinos's charges.  The King, perturbed at the narration of the offences against the natives, established a board of theologians and officials charged with the study of this question and the rendering of a verdict (Figueroa, p. 70). The board recognized the right of the natives to liberty and humane treatment.  It also declared that for the purposes of religious instruction, the natives were to be subject to Spanish dominion.  The debate did not resolve the question of whether the Christian princes had legal title to the natives of the conquered land.  Once again, the Spanish crown ordered various theologians and jurists to present their written opinions.  The decision was that the natives could not be held slaves unless they refused to accept Christianity (Figueroa, p. 71).

Fray Bartolome de las Casas is also remembered in Latin American history as one that raised his voice against the inhumane treatment of the slaves. He affirmed the humanity of all people.  Ironically, however, when faced with the question of how to avoid the sinking of the colonial economy, he recommended that black slaves should be imported to replace the indigenous slaves, since they were not considered to be fully human. Before dying, de las Casas perfected his ideas to include all people as equal, and repented of having accepted black slavery as a good thing (Figueroa, p. 71).

It is rather obvious from what has been said, that religion was another phase of the colonization of Boriquen. One of the principal characteristics of the colonization of Boriquen by the Spanish was their desire to convert the conquered people to Christianity.  The fact that the cross went hand in hand with the sword caused disputes in the conquest.  In some respects, Christianity served to soften the hardships caused by the sword, and to an extent, restrained the cruelty of the Spanish invaders. Due to the insistence of the Church, the natives and the black slaves were converted, and conquerors and conquered were alike in the sight of God (Figureoa, p. 76). However, the notion still existed that the natives and the blacks, politically speaking, were to remain subservient and loyal to the Spanish crown.  In general, the period from the sixteenth to the nineteenth centuries was marked by the alliance between the Catholic Church and the Spanish government. To be Spanish was considered the same as being Catholic.  This was very true in Puerto Rico.  In spite of the fact that there were some voices raised in protest against the inhumane aspect of colonization, the Catholic Church, as a whole, served to sanction the dominion which Spain was exercising over Puerto Rico. There was no attempt on the part of the Church to either construct "a theology of liberation," that would advocate for the self-determination of the Puerto Rican people, or to become immersed in the struggle of the Puerto Rican people for autonomy.  If the Church did do anything, it was to discourage any attempts that may have been made to decolonize the island.

The takeover of Puerto Rico by the United States in 1898 did not put an end to the religious side of what we can justly call "neo-colonization."  In fact, there appears to be a similarity between the colonizing aspect of religion in both the period of the Spanish invasion and the North American takeover. The one basic difference was that Spanish colonialism was accompanied by Roman Catholicism, and American neo-colonialism was accompanied by Protestantism. In both cases, religion served to legitimize the colonization of Puerto Rico by external powers.

Prior to the annexation of Puerto Rico by the United States in 1898, Protestantism was considered a heresy. In the latter part of the nineteenth century, the Spanish crown permitted Protestant churches to be built in Ponce and in Vieques.  This was in response to a plea from Queen Victoria which she made on behalf of some English families who had settled in Puerto Rico.  The request was for Episcopalian churches to be established in order to minister to the needs of the English settlers. Soon thereafter, Presbyterian, Congregationalist, Methodist, and Baptist missions were established in different parts of the island to be followed by diverse sectarian groups. The Pentecostal movement, which was introduced in Puerto Rico shortly after the beginning of the twentieth century, appears to have had the greatest success in recruiting members and organizing churches.  Today the various Pentecostal organizations claim the largest proportion of churches and the greatest membership of all Protestant denominations in Puerto Rico (Vivian Garrison, Sectarianism and Psychosocial Adjustment: A Controlled Comparison of Puerto Rican Pentecostals and Catholics, n.p., n.d., p. 301).

In the initial period of the arrival of Protestantism in Puerto Rico, there was an agreement (Comity Agreement) among the various groups to attempt to avoid to the extent possible,  overlapping with the efforts of other groups in evangelizing the people of the island.  To avoid needless rivalry, these groups "divided up the cake" beforehand and created exclusive territories for proselytizing.  By 1919, a Protestant Council was formed, and some Puerto Rican ministers were trained.  But little impact was made on the rural, poverty-stricken island.  By 1942, the American Protestant hierarchy reported with some chagrin that its ministry was middle class in its orientation and alien to Puerto Rican society, and to the economic structure and life of the community.  Sunday collections were so scanty that the American parent-body was obliged to pay large subsidies (Francesco Cordasco and Eugene Bucchioni, The Puerto Rican Experience , Totowa: Littlefield, Adams, and Co., 1973, p. 99).

At no time during the initial introduction of Protestantism in Puerto Rico can we find attempts on the part of the Protestant churches to become involved in the struggle for the self-determination of Puerto Rico. Quite the contrary was true.  As was the case with the Spanish colonization of the island, Protestantism lent itself to the neo-colonization of Puerto Rico by the United States.  In addition, the nationalistic struggle for self-determination in the early part of the twentieth century has come to be identified with Roman Catholicism. I suspect that the main reason for this is that the chief spokesperson for Puerto Rican nationalism in this period was Pedro Albizu Campos, who himself was a Roman Catholic.  In addition, the Protestants that went to Puerto Rico did so with the intent of "civilizing"its inhabitants.  This, at least, was the thinking of the Protestant missionaries.  The concept of "Manifest Destiny" was in my judgment, the main factor in some slight resistance against the American missionary enterprise.  As a whole, Protestantism as served to "sacralize an imperialist process of political, economic, and cultural penetration rooted in a capitalistic ideology that preaches a gospel of development, democracy, individual progress and well-being at the expense of the exploited masses" (Hamid, p. 164).  In many respects, this version of Christianity has served the same purpose in Latin America as a whole.  It has been only in recent times that, in some sectors of Protestantism, there has been an attempt on the part of some Protestant individuals to articulate a theology that deals with the nature of capitalism and imperialism in Puerto Rico from an ethical and theological standpoint. Those who have been bold enough to do so, have had to do it in such a way as to avoid being called "communists," or false prophets by their more conservative fellow Protestants.  In fact,many of them have made an honest and sincere attempt to integrate a "theology of liberation," including a condemnation of the present political and economic structure of Puerto Rico with a commitment to the historic Christian faith. It is fair to say, then, that generally speaking, religion during the colonial and neo-colonial periods in Puerto Rico has served to preserve the "status quo."  In spite of some of the positive contributions which may have been made, religion as a whole has been a detriment to progress.