4031 Miskitu Coast

Introduction

Bernard Nietschmann spent his career documenting how the Mosquitia, or "Miskitu Coast" is a region "between land and water" (1973). Located in the Central American Caribbean lowlands, and long a frontier of colonial geopolitics, the Miskitu Coast is home to numerous indigenous groups, which make up distinct nations including the Miskitu, Kriole, Mayagna, Garifuna, and Rama among others. Over the course of the region's interactions with the outside world, which stretch back to the 1500s, many outsiders have settled along its Caribbean shores, often in solidarity with the indigenous population (Linebaugh and Rediker, 2000). While the Miskitu Coast was never a colony, it was a haven for pirates, smugglers, and anti-capitalists from Europe and later the United States, who used its barely navigable waterways to hide from persecution. A close analysis of the region's place names show some interesting patterns which reflect the distinct geography that makes the Miskitu Coast unlike the rest of Honduras and Nicaragua, where settler capitalism, piracy, and internal colonialism continue to leave its mark on modern settlements, infrastructure and natural landmarks across the region.

Syncretism, being the combination of different, previously unconnected elements into a new form, is a key concept to understanding settlement patterns in the Mosquitia. Earlier in 4031 we studied how religious sycretism in Mexico, which combined indigenous and Catholic toponyms, altered the settlement landscape of Tlaxcala.  Clawson and Tillman used the case of Santeria in Cuba, which is a mixture of Yoruba and Catholic relgious practices, to show how two very different religions and cultures created new types of being and belonging in the new world (2018). Tillman also did resarch on the Moravian settlement landscape of the Mosquitia, finding that the church's infilitration of traditional villages, rather than the establishment of new ones, had a direct impact on its importance to religious transformation in the region (2011). Charles Hale found the affinity for English and American culture and products among the Miskitu as a direct result of settler capitalist and neocolonial processes (1994). I proposed an investigation into the language origin of settlements in the Mosquitia, to see how the processes discussed above have influenced place names and their location.

Description of Project

To inquire into the impact of these processes on the settlement landscape, I developed the following research question: How is the Miskitu Coast's diverse history demonstrated in its place names, and have those place names changed over time? Before mapping the regions major settlements by language (Miskitu, English or Spanish), I consulted the earliest accounts and travel narratives of people who visited the region, in order to confirm the urban legends told to me during fieldwork on the origins of their largest towns and cities. I found that the historical record proves that the largest current settlements across the Miskitu Coast were indeed settled by pirates, including Bilwi, Bluefields, Brus Lagoon and the Pearl Lagoon among others (M.W., 1732; Dampier, 1906). Some of these place names have changed due to political decisions, war or settlement patterns, as in the case of Bilwi. The town was originally a tiny lumber settlement used by a pirate named Braggmann, who named the place "Bragmann's Bluff." The settlement was near a Miskitu village named Bilwi, which is now the city's recognized name. However, for decades the Nicaraguan state referred to the city as Puerto Cabezas, and often still calls the city by its settler-colonial toponym.

Results also show a lack of Spanish place names in comparison to English or Miskitu settlements. One exception to this finding is the route from Nicaragua's Pacific coast to Bilwi, which is the only road directly connecting the rest of Nicaragua to the Northern Autonomous Region. Overall, a few patterns are discernable from the results. We see an obvious pattern of English place names for coastal settlements throughout the region, with few even Miskitu toponyms until dozens of miles inland. Once reaching the upper Rio Coco region, we see an overall lack of English place names. Local residents refer to the Rio Coco settlements as the heartland of the Mosquitia, with a more "pure" Miskitu dialectic which uses less English words. There are a series of settlements around the town of Bilwi and on the Wawa River referring to logging operations. This is fascinating given the centuries-long history of logging pine and mahogany in the savannahs behind these coastal settlements. Religion plays a very minor yet foundational role in the place names of the Miskitu Coast. While only two settlements explicitly refer to religion, one of these is the earliest settlement in the region, which is now under the control of Colombia.

Conclusion

In conclusion, we see a clear impact from piracy, logging and indigenous presence in the place names of the Miskitu Coast. While technically within the nation-states of Honduras and Nicaragua, there is a lack of Spanish place names in comparison to English and Miskitu settlements. This paired with its outward mobility and trade with Belize and the Cayman islands highlight the Miskitu Coast as a Caribbean oriented polity, unlike the pan-mestizo hegemony of Nicaragua and Honduras. Unsurprisingly, we see more Spanish place names the further inland one travels, including in the southernmost part of the RAAS near the eastern side of Lago Cocibolca and the Costa Rican Frontier. Lastly, while the urban centers of the Miskitu Coast may share their origins with pirates and buccaneers, a majority of riverine settlements on the Rio Coco, Patuca and elsewhere reflect the strong presence of indigenous language. and the importance of swampy, riverine landscapes to the Miskitu people.

The ungovernable wetlands.

References

Bell, C. N. (1899). Tangweera: life, and adventures among gentle savages. London: E. Arnold.

Clawson, D. and Tillman, B. (2018). Latin America and the Caribbean: Lands and Peoples. 6th Edition. Oxford University Press.

Dampier, W. (1906). Dampier's voyages: Consisting of a new voyage round the world, a supplement to the voyage round the world. In J. Masefield (Ed.), Two voyages to Campeachy, a discourse of winds, a voyage to New Hollard, and a vindication, in answer to the Chimerical relation of William Funnell. London: E. G. Richards.

Exquemelin, A. O. (2010). In (Powell, H. Trans), The Buccaneers of America: A true account of the most remarkable assaults committed of late years upon the coasts of the West Indies by the Buccaneers of Jamaica and Tortuga. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Hale, C.. (1994). Resistance and Contradiction: Miskitu Indians and the Nicaraguan State, 1984-1987. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.

Linebaugh, Peter and Rediker, Marcus. (2000). The Many-Headed Hydra: Sailors, Slaves, Commoners, and the Hidden History of the Revolutionary Atlantic. Boston, MA: Beacon Press.

M.W. (1732). A familiar description of the Mosqueto Kingdom in America, with a Relation of the strange Customs, Religion, Wars, etc of the Heathen People. In A. Churchill (Ed.), A collection of voyages and travels, some now first printed from original manuscripts, others now first published in English: In six volumes with a general preface giving an account of the progress of navigation from its first beginning (Vol. VI) (pp. 285– 298). Retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/2027/aeu.ark:/13960/t81k04n86

Nietschmann, B. (1973). Between land and water: the subsistence ecology of the Miskito Indians, Eastern Nicaragua. Seminar Press.

Nietschmann, B. (1985). Fourth world nations: Conflicts and alternatives. Center for World Indigenous Studies, Olympia, WA.

Offen, K. (2007). Creating Mosquitia: Mapping Amerindian spatial practices in eastern Central America, 1629–1779. Journal of Historical Geography, 33 (2), 254– 282.

Tillman, B. (2011). Imprints on Native Lands: The Miskito-Moravian Settlement Landscape in Honduras. University of Arizona Press. 

Religious Syncretism

The above map demonstrates a case of how religious syncretism is predominate throughout Mexico. Defined as a mixture of different spiritual ideas and symbols, religious syncretism can most easily be seen in the combination of indigenous and religious words in the toponyms of inhabited spaces. San Simon Tlatlahuquitepec and San Andres Ahuashuatepec are two examples that combine indigenous and Catholic terms. Taking a wider view, we see that settlements with either Spanish, Catholic names or indigenous Tlaxcaltec terms covering the landscape, showing a combination of religious and secular toponyms across the state of Tlaxcala.

This combination of the religious and indigenous is an example of the impact of folk/nominal Christianity. When Spain arrived to colonize Mexico, the church allowed certain indigenous rites and symbols to be intergrated into religious practice, in order to encourage more indigenous communities to convert to Catholicism. The impact on the landscape can be seen in churches being built on top of indigenous infrastructure, and in the use of precolonial building methods employed in the construction of churches. However, as the above map demonstrates, the wider impact can be seen in the everyday place recognition of settlements in Tlaxcala, whose defining characteristic on the map goes back to the early colonial period.

US Interventions

The above map demonstrates some of the overt US military operations in Latin America and the Caribbean. Depending on the period and place, the US intervened in these countries in favor of US territorial expansion, protection of American business interests, or prevention of Marxist governments. Sometimes, as is the case of Nicaragua, the US military's excuse was both American business interests and Marxist ideology, as Sandino strived to remove American businesses and implement agrarian reform. You will notice that a number of the earlier invasions occurred during a time when the United States was following the Monroe Doctrine, which stated that no other foreign power could assert dominance or influence in the "backyard" of the United States. This ideology led to the Spanish American War, which saw the invasion's of Cuba and Puerto Rico to rid Spain from the hemisphere.
In later cases, we see a shift toward the protection of American business interests, namely banana, coffee, sugar and lumber companies which owned vast stretches of land across the greater Caribbean. You will see that the mapped invasions form a loose circle around the Circum Caribbean, due in part to the American led production facilities for resource exportation along the coasts of Central America and the Caribbean islands. Protection of business interests was the reason for invading Honduras in 1911, in order to install President Bonilla who promised to favor the interests of United Fruit Company.
The rationale behind the invasion of Panama is an interesting case. Following the doctrine of manifest destiny, the US had won the west and expanded into Hawaii and the Philippines, and there was a push to form a route though the Americas to link the pacific. After failed attempts to finance a canal that would cross Nicaragua, the US was determined to bring the Pacific and Atlantic oceans together in Panama, leading to the completion of the Panama Canal in 1914. Its success was celebrated at the 2015 Golden Gate Exposition, which was designed to show the world that the US had fulfilled its destiny as a major world power.

Mission accomplished

Mapping Human Development

The Human Development Index (HDI) uses the measurements of life expectancy, education and per capita income in an attempt to determine the level of human development at a global scale. It uses state boundaries and averages these three measurements at a national scale, providing a general idea of the standard of living in each country. However, critics find that this a very broad approach that does not consider vast inequalities within a nation's boundaries. For example, the map below, divided into four quartiles (a fifth in black signifies no data), shows that Brazil has a high level of human development. While this may be the case overall, the map itself if flawed as it shows this result as spread evenly across the nation's boundaries in green. In reality, Brazil has a notorious level of corruption and is very unevenly "developed." This can be seen in the various paramilitary or gang controlled favelas, or in the over-exploited mining regions which can no longer provide subsistence foods for rural communities. Even in Chile, which scores among the highest on the HDI, has within its borders an uneven distribution of livelihood, particularly in the northern Atacama desert.

In class we asked whether these results are a representation of reality. While they provide a general assumption of state function and aspiration, a more accurate expression of reality would show a distribution of these averages within each country, to show which countries suffer from concentrated pockets of poor HDI, as is certainly the case in Guatemala, Nicaragua and Honduras. While some residents in heavily commercial and industrial areas are benefiting from better services and schools, other regions are literally cut off from these districts. In the case of the Honduran Mosquitia, some Miskitu communities have to fly to the port city of La Ceiba if they require medical treatment, as there are no roads and few medical services outside of those provided by missionaries.

A Moravian hospital in the Miskitu town of Ahuas, Honduras.

Precolonial Cities

Precolonial cities greatly impressed the conquistadors in both its architecture and infrastructure. The city of Tenochtitlan used intricate fords and waterways, laying out some of the earliest paths in what today is Mexico City. In Cusco, the Incan Empire's crown jewel was the city of Cusco. Shaped like a puma, it linked urban centers with security fortresses and spiritual temples. At the head of the city of Cusco is the fortified fortress of Sacsayhuaman, which overlooks the city and was used to detect potential invaders.

While the Spanish were enamored by these cities, they greatly altered, and often destroyed, the precolonial infrastructure. In the case of Cusco, Spanish settlers set to deconstruct most Incan dwellings, sometimes building on top of them, or knocking them down and rebuilding in a Spanish colonial style. Teotihuacán, which was a huge Aztec urban center, was left comparatively untouched and has become a major tourist destination. The same goes for Machu Picchu, which was not rediscovered by Europeans until 1911. Between these examples of Aztec and Incan urban centers we see that indigenous peoples were not only capable of establishing empires and building cities envious of the old world, but that they invented their own ways of being, which included innovative building and irrigation techniques. These ancient ruins defy the conventional, essentialist narrative that indigenous people are only rural dwelling hunter-gatherers waiting for modernity. Instead, it suggests that indigenous groups had many thriving, cosmopolitan societies at the time of contact with Europeans, which would have continued to expand had disease not wiped out a majority of the indigenous population.

At Machu Picchu, 2012

Colonial Cities

Cities from the colonial era sometimes built on top infrastructure originally built by indigenous groups, as is the case in Mexico City. While this influences the layout of some major colonial cities, the actual planning was dictated from the Iberian Peninsula. Whether Spanish or Portuguese, a number of laws and regulations were implemented to ensure a standard quality was used throughout the Americas. These "City Planning Ordinances" included the width of streets, the location of commercial buildings, and the square or rectangular shape of the plaza. Therefore, while the shape and size of the plaza may differ, what is located within the plazas is largely the same. For example, whether you are in Santo Domingo or Lima, you will find the oldest church, government buildings and commercial spaces.

Colonial cities used as ports were required to have their plazas built "at the landing place of the port" unless the settlement was located inland. Inland planning can be seen in the example of Lima. While it was a major port during the colonial period, the plaza was constructed in the center of the settlement far from the coast. These plazas also shared architectural similarities, including porticos used for the convenience of commerce and use of government buildings. Residential areas then grew outward from these central plazas, creating the city centers of many of the Latin America's largest cities.


 

Landscapes and Hazards

Haiti lies between the North American and Caribbean Plates, which makes it subject to frequent and strong earthquakes which have transformed the natural and social environment. The 2010 earthquake largely destroyed the built environment of Haiti's capital, Port-a-Prince, including the Presidential Palace. The location of the palace now houses shipping containers, which is symbolic of the impact the earthquake had on the city and nation. The largest prison, The National Penitentiary, was also destroyed, which allowed for inmates to escape, causing an international panic. Lastly, the Place du Marron, was transformed into a housing area for Haitians who were forced to leave their homes, living in this public space to receive aid. The death toll was catastrophic, and the city's urban landscape was drastically effected.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010_Haiti_earthquake

Physical Landscapes Transect

This embedded map shows a route that a traveler would take from Lima, Peru to Brasilia, Brazil. Along the journey, you would pass varied landscapes that change with the altitude and climate. Starting on the coast of Peru, with its dry and desert-like conditions, you would begin to find a more humid climate as you near the Andes. These tropical conditions allow for crops such as sugarcane, mango and other fruits to grow. Once making headway into the Andes you will notice a stark difference in the climate, as the landscape becomes arid and the temperature begins to drop, especially at night. The roads are dry, bumpy and ruled by the surrounding mountains, which create many twists and turns as you head westward toward Cusco. The nearby ancient ruins of Machu Picchu lies within a subtropical highland climate, creating conditions that allow for more moisture and tropical foliage compared to the arid landscapes passed in route. Once reaching the altiplano, you will notice a flatlining of altitude as you traverse arid savannah, covered in salt mines and lakes. Further west you reach lower altitude, tropical hillsides where coca originates. Once reaching Brazil, you will pass through the savannah grasslands of the Mato Grosso Plateau, known for both its cattle raising and mining operations.

4031 Ex. 3 Colonial

The journey of Cortes to Mexico City from Veracruz shows the beginning process of colonization and its impact on the region that would become Latin America. Due to the conquering of indigenous groups, many languages disappeared or became subordinate to the dominate Spanish language. As the conquistadors settled and encouraged the establishment of colonies, they expanded power throughout the Americas, including what is now a part of the Southern United States.

Sub-regions

This is a map of sub-regions.
 My rationale for dividing these sub-regions is language. This is useful to see how wide-spoken a language is throughout a formal region. We can see where Spanish is widely Spoken, and where that becomes less dominant as other cultures have a stronger presence. In the Caribbean we see that numerous official languages co-exist, allowing for a unique sub-region not readily definable by language, as is the case for Brazil or most of mainland Latin America. While most of these boundaries coincide with the borders of nation-states, others, as in the case of the Caribbean and coastal areas are more fluid. Regardless, when demarcating these regions using official language only, we should consider that hundreds of other languages are spoken within these boundaries.

Why Latin America and the Caribbean?

I was first drawn to Latin America through literature, primarily through the work of Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Pablo Neruda. A year or two later, I spent some time traveling in Latin America, Europe and Southeast Asia, but it was the tropical lowlands of Ecuador, Honduras, and other parts of Latin America which fueled my interest to carry on into grad school and learn about the region. I have had the privilege to become more involved in the Caribbean, doing archival research in Cuba and fieldwork on the Caribbean, "Mosquito Coast" of Honduras and Nicaragua. I practice Spanish every day and love the sound of the language, particularly creative fiction. A highlight of my travels, besides the joys of doing fieldwork, was visiting Pablo Neruda's house in Chile, and visiting the port city of Valparaiso.  As my research interests became more narrow, I am increasingly interested in how indigenous groups in Latin America use cities to gain political advantage, and how urban landscapes are altered due to unrest, migration etc.