A Legacy of Strife: Rebellious Slaves in Sixteenth-Century Panamá

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Notes

¹ Providing a possible etymology of the term cimarrón, Guillot (1961, 38) posits the importance of the word ‘cima,’ a mountain's highest point. Cimarrones would be translated as ‘men of the high mountain.’

² The sources render the name as ‘Vallano,’ ‘Ballano,’ ‘Bayano,’ and ‘Bayamo.’ In this article I shall refer to him as ‘Vallano.’

³ Transculturation is developed in Ortiz (1947), and cultural change and heterogeneity are explored by Taussig (1992) and Bhabha (1994).

⁴ This portion of Panamá's history is explored in Romoli (1953). Also of interest for the period of discovery are Sauer, The Early Spanish Main (1966) and Helms (1979).

⁵ The camino real is well described in Hussey (1939).

⁶ The lengths taken by Spanish officials to improve the defenses of the isthmus are documented in Ward (1988, 1993).

⁷ For a recent study of sixteenth-century pirate activity that makes use of English, French, Dutch, and Spanish sources, see Kelsey (1998, esp. 40–68; 240–80; and 367–92).

⁸ Jos (1927) provides a bibliographic guide to the accounts of the fateful expedition.

⁹ The cimarrones are given a central place in the colonial portion of Juan B. Sosa and Enrique J. Arce's seminal Compendio de Historia de Panamá (1911); for the place this text holds in the Panamanian educational curriculum, see Carlos Manuel Gasteazoro's introduction to Compendio de historia de Panamá: Edición facsímil de la de 1911 (1971).

¹⁰ For informative studies of the Afro-Panamanian successor community, see Lipski (1986), Drolet (1980), Smith (1979), and Franceschi (1960).

¹¹ Armando Fortune is an exception to this pervasive problem in the historiography. See his thought-provoking essays (1970, 1975).

¹² This trait mars Guillot's novelistic and informative Negros Rebeldes (1961), as well as Romero (1943) and Díez Castillo (1981).

¹³ This is most prevalent in Guillot (1961); while sympathetic to the cimarrones, he errs in this regard.

¹⁴ In an endnote explaining his choice of terms, Minter divulged some revealing information when he stated: ‘[f]or want of a better word, I have violated my Southern raising by the indiscriminate use … of the word “Yankee” to distinguish United States citizens …’ (392).

¹⁵ For a nuanced discussion of the interaction of culture, language, history, and geography in the creation of a distinctly African-American culture, see Mintz and Price (1992). Price (1996) provides a groundbreaking collection of essays with a broad geographical range. Of equal importance are Price's two monographs (1983, 1990).

¹⁶ The term ‘palenque’ is discussed by Franco (1996).

¹⁷ Mena García (1984, 422–26) provides a useful corrective treatment.

¹⁸ Brading (1986, 3) categorizes the chroniclers into two broad groups based upon how the authors judge the indigenous peoples’ capacity for ‘civilization,’ finding almost all negatively disposed to the Indians.

¹⁹ Pastor places portions of Columbus's and Cortez's letters in this group, along with Bernal Díaz's History of New Spain.

²⁰ Pastor categorizes Cabeza de Vaca's narrative as a member of this group, as well as the accounts of the mutiny of Lope de Aguirre during the Amazonian expedition. However, she also sees Cortez's fifth letter as transitional, and finds the beginnings of the rhetoric of travail and failure in Columbus's first letter.

²¹ The Recopilación represents material written by at least three different hands, with the Ursúa material standing aside as distinct from the others. For information on Aguado and the censorship of the manuscript, see Fals-Borda (1955) and Friede (1964).

²² Cañizares-Esguerra (2006) treats the question of the typologies that Europeans used to order and describe their experiences.

²³ In light of the conquest of indigenous realms and lands, one might consider this a dangerous position for a Spaniard to take. However, the Indians were thought to have forfeited their natural rights to the lands due to their state or through their actions.

²⁴ This text was drafted in the early seventeenth century, and was published after the author's death. Part Two, Book Eight, Chapter Three is titled ‘The Election of the Marquis of Cañete as Viceroy of Peru; his arrival at Tierra Firme; the fugitive Negroes are recaptured …’ (1421).

²⁵ This argument is incorporated into his The first America (1991, esp. 255–73). For sensitive explorations of Garcilaso's narratological methods and motivations, see also Heid (1999) and Mazzotti (2000).

²⁶ Francis Drake, operating in the region in the 1570s, coordinated his activities with a band of free blacks. See Kelsey (1998, 40–68) and the Spanish documents transcribed in Wright (1932). I am preparing an article for publication titled ‘Drake's Allies in Panama: Symerons/Cimarrones’ that examines Drake's expeditions of the 1570s.

²⁷ For a selection of archival material relevant to the cimarrones in the 1580–1600 period, see Jopling (1994).

²⁸ I discuss this form of necessary colonial double-speak in Gallup-Díaz (2005, chaps. 2–6).

²⁹ Jopling (1994, 347–428) transcribes nearly seventy documents relating to the pacification and resettlement of several cimarron bands between 1575 and 1600; see also Vila Vilar (1987).

³⁰ For a discussion of the process, see Gallup-Díaz (2003).