{"quotes":[{"text":"The war that killed my grandfather and great-uncles and thousands of other blacks is only a footnote in our history books.","author":"Cristina García","tags":["black-history","caribbean","cuba","history"],"id":29510,"author_id":"Cristina+Garc%C3%ADa"},{"text":"Some say that because the United States was wrong before, it cannot possibly be right now, or has not the right to be right. (The British Empire sent a fleet to Africa and the Caribbean to maintain the slave trade while the very same empire later sent another fleet to enforce abolition. I would not have opposed the second policy because of my objections to the first; rather it seems to me that the second policy was morally necessitated by its predecessor.).","author":"Christopher Hitchens","tags":["abolition","africa","american-imperialism","anti-americanism","britain","british-empire","caribbean","imperialism","iraq-war","morality","politics","slave-trade","united-states"],"id":40258,"author_id":"Christopher+Hitchens"},{"text":"Juan Ponce de LeónOn April 2, 1513, according to legend while searching for the Fountain of Youth, Ponce de León discovered Florida. In actual fact, it was more likely that he was out seeking the gold that the Indians were always talking about. The Indians encouraged this sort of talk, in the high hopes of keeping the conquistadors away from them as far as possible. Returning to Spain in 1514, Ponce de León was recognized for his service to the crown and was knighted. Given his own coat of arms, he became the first conquistador to be honored in this way.Although Ponce de León did bring back a substantial amount of gold, much of it had been stolen from the Indians that he had enslaved. In 1521 Ponce de León set out from Puerto Rico to colonize Florida. He commanded a flotilla of two ships containing about 200 men. In this case his exploratory party was peaceful and included farmers, priests and craftsmen. However he was attacked by Calusa braves, a tribe of Indians who lived on the coast and along the rivers and inner waterways of Florida’s southwestern coast.In the skirmish, Ponce de León was wounded when an arrow, believed to have been dipped into the sap of the “Manchineel Tree,” also called Poison Guava, pierced his thigh. After fending off this attack, he and the colonists retreated to Havana, where in July of 1521, he succumbed to his wound and died. In 1559 his body was moved from Cuba and taken to San Juan, Puerto Rico, where he was interred in the crypt of San José Church. In 1836, his remains were exhumed and transferred to the larger, more impressive Cathedral of San Juan Bautista in San Juan. They have remained at this urban, hillside church until this day.This information is from Captain Hank Bracker’s award winning book “The Exciting Story of Cuba” available from Amazon.Com and other fine book vendors. Follow, like and share Captain Hank Bracker’s daily blogs \u0026 commentaries.","author":"Hank Bracker","tags":["captain-bracker","caribbean","cuba","history","puerto-rico"],"id":76503,"author_id":"Hank+Bracker"},{"text":"You ain’t old yet but when you get old, all the women in the village start to look down on you when they find out you want to do something other than sweep the kitchen or cut up vegetables. Had this big starch mango tree when I was small. Anytime I set myself to climb it, there was always a woman passing by to yell at me and tell me to get down. Asked me why I leaving my poor mother to do all the housework. I never got to the top. It was like God was always watching, ready to send another hag to tell me down. Then, one day, they cut down the tree.","author":"Kevin Jared Hosein","tags":["caribbean","childhood","climb","little-girls","mango","mango-tree","trinidad","village"],"id":129114,"author_id":"Kevin+Jared+Hosein"},{"text":"Midnight Omen Deja vu' - Because everyone should experience love in the Caribbean...At least once in a lifetime.","author":"Marti Melville","tags":["caribbean","deja-vu","historical-fiction","historical-romance","paranormal-romance","pirates","romance"],"id":141499,"author_id":"Marti+Melville"},{"text":"For me, the sea was a great comfort, Pilar. But it made my children restless. It exists now so we can call and wave from opposite shores.","author":"Cristina García","tags":["caribbean","cuba","family","immigrants","migrants","ocean","sea","travel"],"id":173948,"author_id":"Cristina+Garc%C3%ADa"},{"text":"Frustrated, El Líder went home, rested his pitching arm, and started a revolution in the mountains.","author":"Cristina García","tags":["caribbean","cuba","revolution","rural"],"id":188989,"author_id":"Cristina+Garc%C3%ADa"},{"text":"My African roots made me what I am today. They’re the reason I’m from the Dominican Republic. They’re the reason I exist at all. To these roots I owe everything.","author":"Junot Díaz","tags":["africa","afro","black","caribbean","dominican","latino","republic"],"id":226988,"author_id":"Junot+D%C3%ADaz"},{"text":"As human beings we’ve certainly suffered the loss of awe, the loss of sacredness, and the loss of the fact that we’re not here— we’re not put on earth— to shape it anyway we want... You want something to happen with poetry, but it doesn’t make anything happen. So then somebody says, “What’s the use of poetry?” Then you say, “Well, what’s the use of a cloud? What’s the use of a river? What’s the use of a tree?” They don’t make anything happen.","author":"Derek Walcott","tags":["caribbean","nature","poetry","writing"],"id":241470,"author_id":"Derek+Walcott"},{"text":"Do your parents know you’re here?' asked the lady at social Services. ‘No,’ I said, ‘but I want to know about children’s homes.’ I had to stand on my toes to see over the reception desk.","author":"Constance Briscoe","tags":["black","british","caribbean","memoir"],"id":316741,"author_id":"Constance+Briscoe"}],"pagination":{"page":1,"page_size":10,"total":14,"pages":2,"next":"?page=2\u0026page_size=10"}}