> From Northeast Indian Quarterly, Fall, 1990, pp. 66-77.
World History Archives (Public Domain files)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hatuey was a cacique from Espaflola, who had seen the cruelty of the Spanish
system in his own land.
The story of Hatuey's execution, recorded by Bartolomo de Las Casas, is still
told to children in eastern Cuba.
A Spanish friar attempted to convert this first Cuban national hero, tied
and ready as soldiers with lit torches approached. The friar explained about
conversion, baptism and the Catholic concept of heaven and hell. He offered
to baptize Hatuey, thus cleansing all of his sins against the Christian God.
Hatucy is said to have requested time to think on the offer. In the Taino
culture, the dead are carried by the living and ongoing generations. They
live in a parallel world and must be recognized and fed. A great deal of
ceremonial attention is given this fundamental human responsibility by the
Caribbean and Meso-American Indian cultures. No doubt a traditionalist such
as Hatuey carried his own peoples' medicines and song into his final
moment.
Hatuey finally responded: "And the baptized, where do they go after death?"
"To Heaven," said the friar.
Hatuey: "And the Spanish, where do they go?"
Friar: "If baptized, of course, they go to heaven."
"So the Spaniards go to heaven," Hatuey responded. "Then I don't want to go
there. Don't baptize me. I prefer to go to hell."
The story of Hatucy's execution is a persistent oral telling in Camaguey and
Oriente provinces in Cuba. There is a tradition of pilgrimage to the site of
the deed, a place called Yara, near the city of Bayamo. The tradition refers
to the "light of Yara" that appears to visitors. The power of physical vigor
is associated with this belief. Indeed, a major Cuban rebellion against the
Spanish, called the Cry of Yara, started in the same area near the City of
Bayamo in 1868.