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20 The Virgin Mary Icons and Native Cemís Two Cases of Religious Syncretism in Cuba Antonio Curet reminded me of yet another case of a clash of idols, but this time involving two native actors in Cuba: one wielding a native cemí and the other a Catholic image of the “Virgin Mother of God.” A witness relayed the events to Pedro Mártir de Anglería in Spain. Mártir included the account in his famous De Orbe Novo Decades, in the sixth book of his Second Decade (Mártir 1989 [1514]:249–265), an epistle written to Pope Leo X. The informant of the key event was Martín Fernández de Enciso—or bachiller Anciso, as Mártir identified him. (Here I use the former spelling, Enciso, except when quoting Mártir.) He was a firsthand informant. In Pedro Mártir’s (1989 [1514]:255–256) own words: “I wanted, Beatific Father [Pope Leo X], to refer to You these details regarding the religion of the natives that I have learned not only from Anciso but also many other persons of authority so that Your Beatitude [may] understand how docile is this race of men and how easily is the road to instruct them in the rites of our religion.” It is possible that when Mártir wrote the epistle, the story had been embellished so as to highlight the triumph of Christianity over paganism and to affirm to Pope Leo X that the native souls of Cuba were primed for conversion—a fact refuted later by Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo y Valdés (1944 [3]:244–245). The privileges of Christopher Columbus’s son Don Diego were partly restored in 1509. Upon returning that year to Hispaniola, Don Diego named Alonso de Hojeda (also spelled Ojeda) and Diego de Nicuesa as governors of the fledgling Spanish dominions of Urabá and Veraguas in the Isthmus of Panamá-Colombia, respectively (Thomas 2003:243). The fame of Martín Fernández de Enciso was in connection to his involvement in the penetration and conquest of the Darién and the establishment in 1510 of Nuestra Señora de la Antigüa, located next to the Atrarto River, Gulf of Urabá, in what is now Colombia (Thomas 2003:246). Because of factional competition, Vasco Núñez de Balboa expelled Enciso in the spring of 1511, because Enciso “had never been a friend since he had threatened to have Balboa placed on a desert island when he was discovered as a stowaway on his vessel to flee from creditors in Santo Domingo” (Thomas (2003:246–247). As 222 Chapter 20 a result, Enciso set sail for Santo Domingo that spring of 1511 but unknowingly veered into Cuba. Around the time Martín Fernández de Enciso arrived, the situation in Cuba was taking a turn for the worse. In 1509 Sebastián Ocampo circumnavigated the area, confirming what most sailors in Hispaniola already knew: Cuba was an island (Thomas 2003:275).The conquest of Cuba began early in 1511 and was led, as well as financed, by Diego Velázquez de Cuéllar, a hidalgo. He was accompanied , among others, by his secretary, Hernán Cortéz (future conqueror of the Aztec empire); Fray Bartolomé de Las Casas (already ordained in 1508); and Juan Gonçález, the son of Juan Ponce de León, who had just left the battlefield of the 1511 Rebellion of Caciques of Puerto Rico. Velázquez set out to conquer Cuba from the makeshift wooden fortress in Baracoa, northeastern Cuba (see Figure 28). He cruelly defeated the local native resistance led by cacique Hatuey.This cacique had fled from what is today Haiti, where Velázquez had his estates, and organized the resistance in Baracoa. Legend has it that the captive Hatuey was burned alive at the stake for refusing Christianity: “he is supposed to have said that if Christianity meant that he had to spend eternity in the company of Spaniards, he would prefer not to be baptized” (Thomas 2003:277, using information from Las Casas 1929 [2]:469–488). Velázquez was then joined by Pánfilo de Narváez, just arrived from the conquest of Jamaica led by Juan de Esquivel—the same Esquivel who led the battle of Higüey, Hispaniola. As Velázquez moved across the Oriente Province, Narváez had already defeated the native resistance in Bayamo (claiming one hundred dead) led by a cacique named Caguax, who had...

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