Written by Robert Rosa, American Indian Movement Florida Chapter and VB53 African,Indigenous, Palestinian Brigade
My relatives, my friends,
We’ve been asked: how did being physically present in Cuba shift my understanding of U.S.–Cuba relations? And what responsibilities do I carry now that I did not recognize before?
When I first traveled to Cuba, I did not believe what we were taught about the relationship between Cuba and the United States. But I had to see it with my own eyes to remove any doubts that I may have had. Like many people raised in the United States, we were taught the familiar story: two nations locked in political conflict since the Cold War, divided by ideology (Communism vs. “Democracy”), economics, and power. However, standing on that island and talking with the people changed something fundamental in me.
When you are physically present in Cuba, the story you have been taught begins to fall apart like a deck of cards pyramid in a hurricane. What replaces it is not propaganda or slogans, but something much more powerful: the lived reality of a people whose history has been shaped by centuries of struggle against empires.
To understand that reality, we must go back to the beginning. My people’s beginning.
The First Resistance: Indigenous Caribbean Uprisings
In 1492, Cristobal Colon arrived in the Caribbean under the authority of Spain. That moment marked the beginning of one of the most devastating transformations in human history. Entire Indigenous civilizations were targeted for conquest, forced labor, and destruction. However, despite historical propaganda and erasure, the Caribbean did not submit quietly.
Hispaniola (Ayiti/Quisqueya)
- Destruction of La Navidad (1493): Led by cacique Caonabó, the Taíno killed the 39 men left by Columbus and burned their fort in response to the Spaniards’ brutalization of local villages.
- Revolt of 1495: A major uprising in the central mountains led by Caonabó; it was the first large-scale military confrontation after initial settlement.
- Guarionex’s Revolt (1498): Cacique Guarionex led a rebellion in the Maguá region near the northern gold fields after initially trying to cooperate with the Spanish.
- Higüey Uprisings (1502–1504): A series of clashes in eastern Hispaniola triggered by the Spanish killing of a local chief. Governor Nicolás de Ovando responded with a massacre of 700 Taíno.
- Xaragua Massacre (1503): While not a Taíno-initiated revolt, it was a preemptive Spanish strike against the western province. Over 80 district chiefs were burned alive; the leader Anacaona was captured and later hanged.
- Enriquillo’s War (1519–1533): The most successful Taíno rebellion. Enriquillo led over 3,000 people in a 14-year guerrilla war from the Bahoruco Mountains, eventually forcing the Spanish to sign a peace treaty granting his people autonomy and land.
Puerto Rico (Borikén)
- The Great Rebellion of 1511: Triggered by the drowning of a Spaniard named Diego Salcedo to test the theory of Spanish immortality. Led by Agüeybaná II (the Brave) and an alliance of caciques including Urayoán and Guarionex.
- In 1513, Taíno forces successfully burned the colonial capital, Caparra. The conflict shifted into a decade of guerrilla warfare involving attacks from exiled Taíno in the Lesser Antilles, which continued until 1529.
Cuba
- Hatuey’s Resistance (1511–1512): Cacique Hatuey fled Hispaniola with 400 followers to warn Cuban Taíno about the Spanish. He organized a guerrilla campaign until his capture and execution by burning in 1512.
Other Forms of Resistance
- Food Strikes (1495–1496): In a strategic act of rebellion, Taínos on Hispaniola refused to plant or harvest annual crops to starve the Spanish invaders. This “first food fight of the New World” led to widespread famine, resulting in approximately 50,000 deaths.
- Exile and Raids: Taínos often fled to lands like Florida, Cuba, Bahamas, Guadeloupe, or St. Croix, launching canoe-borne raids against Spanish settlements throughout the 1520s to liberate enslaved Taínos and Africans.
One of the first great leaders of anti-imperial resistance in the Caribbean was Hatuey, an Indigenous leader who fled Spanish conquest on the island of Hispaniola and organized resistance in Cuba. Hatuey understood what the empire meant long before the word “imperialism” was ever spoken. He understood that colonial powers did not come as guests. They came to control land, extract wealth, and dominate people.
Hatuey and the Taíno fought back. And though he was ultimately captured and executed, his resistance left a legacy that still echoes through the Caribbean today. Hatuey exclaimed, “Here is the God the Spaniards worship. For these they fight and kill; for these they persecute us and that is why we have to throw them into the sea… They tell us, these tyrants, that they adore a God of peace and equality, and yet they usurp our land and make us their slaves.”
For Indigenous people of the Caribbean, that moment matters deeply. It reminds us that the struggle for sovereignty on these islands did not begin in the twentieth century. It began the moment colonialism and imperialism first arrived.
The Spirit Continues: African Resistance in the Caribbean
Later, the Caribbean would again shake the foundations of empire during the many slave revolts:
- 1532 Jobabo Revolt: One of the earliest, led by slaves in a gold mine, ending in the execution of its leaders.
- 1812 Aponte Rebellion: A widespread, organized conspiracy led by free black man José Antonio Aponte, targeting multiple plantations to end slavery.
- 1825 Great African Slave Revolt: Highlighted the intense violence, resistance, and fear within the expanding plantation economy.
- 1843 Triunvirato Rebellion: Led by a woman named Carlota and others, this revolt involved over 300 slaves who burned plantations before being brutally suppressed.
- 1841-1844 La Escalera: A broad, suspected conspiracy that led to massive, indiscriminate repression by colonial authorities, including the torture and execution of many enslaved people.
- Haitian Revolution: Enslaved Africans on the island of Haiti defeated the armies of the most powerful European empires and established the first Black republic in the modern world. Leaders such as Toussaint Louverture proved something that colonial powers feared more than anything: that oppressed people could overthrow the systems that controlled them.
And many more.
This spirit of resistance is part of the DNA of the Caribbean. It is the reason the region has so often stood at the center of global struggles over power, sovereignty, and liberation.
Cuba: Sovereignty in the Modern Era
In Cuba, that struggle took a new form in the twentieth century during the Cuban Revolution. Revolutionaries led by figures like Fidel Castro and Che Guevara overthrew the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista, a regime widely seen as aligned with outside economic and political interests.
From the perspective of many Cubans, the revolution was not only about changing a government. It was about reclaiming sovereignty: the ability of a people to control their own destiny.
That perspective is something you can feel when you walk through Cuban neighborhoods, talk to ordinary people, and listen to how history is remembered there.
You begin to see that the relationship between Cuba and the United States is not simply a disagreement over ideology. It is a struggle over power and control. It is about who has the authority to shape the future of a nation.
For more than sixty years, policies such as the United States embargo against Cuba have defined that relationship. In the United States, this policy is often discussed in strategic or political terms. But when you are in Cuba, you see its consequences in a very different way.
You see them in the daily challenges people face when resources are scarce. You see them in the creativity and resilience communities develop in order to survive under economic pressure.
And you see something else as well, something that surprised me.
You see dignity. You see pride. You see resilience.
You see a people who, despite enormous challenges, still believe strongly in the idea that their country should determine its own path without outside control.
An Indigenous Responsibility
As an Indigenous person of the Caribbean, witnessing that reality carried a special weight for me, because our ancestors understood the meaning of sovereignty long before modern states existed. They knew that land was not simply property to be bought and sold. It was the foundation of life, culture, and identity.
When colonial imperialist powers took control of Caribbean lands, they did not only take territory. They attempted to erase entire ways of understanding the world.
So when I stood in Cuba and reflected on the long history of resistance there, I realized that the story of Cuba is part of a much older story, the story of Caribbean peoples fighting to defend their autonomy against outside domination.
Once you see that history clearly, something changes inside of you, because witnessing it carries responsibility.
Before visiting Cuba, it was easy to talk about U.S.–Cuba relations as a distant political issue. But after being there, I can no longer see it that way.
Now I understand that policies, debates, and diplomatic conflicts affect real people whose lives are shaped by those decisions. And as someone who lives within the United States, that knowledge places a responsibility on my shoulders:
- The responsibility to speak honestly about what I have witnessed.
- The responsibility to challenge narratives that simplify complex histories.
- The responsibility to remind people that the Caribbean is not merely a strategic region for powerful nations. It is a home to millions of people with their own histories, their own cultures, and their own right to determine their future.
From an Indigenous perspective, this responsibility is even deeper, stronger, and etched in our spirits for eternity. It’s part of our DNA.
Our ancestors resisted the empire at a time when resistance seemed impossible. They defended their land even when defeat appeared certain.
Their courage teaches us something essential: silence in the face of domination is not neutrality. It is complicity.
Carrying the Legacy Forward
So today, the responsibility we carry is not to repeat the narratives of the empire. It is to remember the lessons of the Caribbean:
- The lesson of the Taíno, who chose resistance over submission.
- The lesson of Haiti, where enslaved people proved that the empire could be defeated.
- The lessons of Albizu Campos, Lolita Lebrón – we will die for our people!
- And the lesson of Cuba, where a small island continues to assert its sovereignty despite enormous pressure.
These histories remind us that the Caribbean has never simply been a place where global power is exercised. It has also been a place where global power is challenged.
And that challenge continues today.
Because the struggle for dignity, sovereignty, and self-determination is not finished.
As long as Caribbean peoples continue to defend those principles, the legacy of resistance will live on. And those of us who have witnessed that legacy firsthand carry the responsibility to honor it.
Bo’matum Seneko Kakona kena ansihi.