A land of warriors and buried secrets. What if I told you that everything you know about this island is incomplete? Before Columbus and even before the Tainos, the first settlers of Boriquén left mysterious traces. Some believe that echoes of distant cultures such as those of the Andes reached these Caribbean shores. For the world, Puerto Rico is just a dot on the map, but for millions on the island and beyond it is the song of the coquí, the aroma of freshly brewed coffee and the sweet taste of a canoe. Behind that beauty lies an epic legacy of resistance, of struggles for freedom, and of an identity that refused to disappear. How a small Caribbean island became a giant town. And why does their political status remain the final piece of a centuries-old puzzle? Stay because what you are about to hear is not just a story, it is the voice of a people who never stopped fighting. This is the story of Puerto Rico, as it has never been told to you. When we think of pre-Columbus Puerto Rico , the Tainos immediately come to mind . But the true story is much older and more enigmatic. It all began more than 6,000 years ago with the arrival of archaic peoples, nomadic hunter-gatherers who arrived in canoes from the coasts of South America. They were expert survivors, but they did not leave behind large structures, only tools and shells that tell us about a distant past. But the real mystery is unearthed on Vieques in a legendary site known as the Hueca. Here archaeologists found something that didn't fit. ceramics with very fine lines and, most surprisingly, carved stone amulets with the figure of an Andean condor holding a trophy head. What does this mean? Some experts, such as Chanlatte and Narganes, believe that before the Taíno migration, a distinct cultural group, the Huecoids, arrived on the island, whose traditions suggest a surprising and unresolved connection. With the cultures of the South American Andes. The Hollowoids were the first farmers and potters on the island. They weren't just nomads. They built their villages by the sea and dominated the land and the ocean. They grew bitter cassava to make casabe, their daily bread, as well as corn, sweet potatoes and beans. and with nets and traps they took advantage of the wealth of the Caribbean, fish, clams, turtle eggs and the turtle itself, whose shell was a highly valued material. This is just the first chapter of a story made up of migrations and encounters of a people who began to forge their identity long before the first European set foot on these shores. The echoes of the first settlers still resonated on the coasts of Boriquén, when about 2,500 years ago new canoes arrived from the Orinoco. They were the Saladoids, master navigators and ceramists, who brought with them seeds, songs and an art that would transform the island. Their vessels, painted in vibrant reds and whites, told stories of gods and spirits. They built villages along rivers and mountains, erecting the first homes that would lay the foundations of the Antillean bohío, and with their small plots they made cassava and corn flourish, making agriculture the heart of Boriquén. From those roots, centuries later, between 500 and 1500 AD, emerged the culture we call Taíno, a people of warriors, poets and navigators who transformed the island into a vibrant world. The Tainos organized their society into chiefdoms, led by nitaino chiefs, counselors, and warriors , while behiques, shamans, and healers guided the spiritual. The majority were the naborias, workers of the land and sea, who sustained community life. They were not a simple society. In the most advanced phase of its development it already showed the outlines of an embryonic state, a system of incipient social classes , a centralized power that was beginning to unite the island under the main chieftains and an economy capable of producing surpluses thanks to organized agriculture and fishing. His spirituality permeated every aspect of life. The cemíes, carved in stone and wood, embodied gods and spirits such as Yúcahu, lord of yucca and fertility, or Atabey, mother of water and life. In the areítos, between music, dance and myths, the people united heaven and earth under the gaze of their ancestors. Fishing was also ingenious. They used nets, harpoons and even pens in the sea to raise fish. Practices that today we would call fish farming. They were masters at taking advantage of every resource of the Caribbean. By the 15th century, Boriquén vibrated with Taino life, the echo of the ball bouncing off the bateyes, the aroma of cassava cooking on the stoves, the sound of maracas and drums mixed with the eternal song of the coquí. But this full and expanding world was about to face its greatest test. In 1493, the Spanish caravels appeared on the horizon and with them came an irreversible change. Wars, unknown diseases and the encomienda decimated the Taino population in just a few generations. It was a painful and profound collapse, but not all was lost. The Tainos resisted, mingled with the newcomers and left indelible marks on the language, the food, the beliefs and even the blood of those who inhabit this island today. Words like hurricane, hammock or canoe survive time. Casabe is still served on tables and the strength of its spirit continues to beat in Puerto Rican identity. The Taino world changed forever, but it never disappeared. On September 25, 1493, Christopher Columbus set sail from Cadiz with a fleet of 17 ships and more than 1,000 men. Two months later, on November 19, he landed in Boriquén and took possession of the island in the name of the crown of Castile. He gave him a new name, San Juan Bautista, in honor of Prince Juan, heir to the Catholic Monarchs. A name that resonated in the faith and royalty of Castile and Aragon. 15 years later, in 1508, Juan Ponce de León founded the first Spanish settlement at Caparra, near a natural harbor that was soon named San Juan. In 1511 San Germán was founded and during the 1520s, due to a mapping or pen error, the island was renamed Puerto Rico, while the port adopted the name of San Juan. Initial contact with the Tainos, whose name means the good ones, was marked by diplomacy. Chief Agüeybaná El Viejo sealed an alliance with Ponce de León through the Guaytiao, a brotherhood ritual. For a time there was peace, but that peace did not last long. The encomienda system forced the Tainos to work in mines and ranches, uprooting them from their huts and conucos. Exploitation, epidemics and loss of land fueled discontent. In 1511, after the death of Agüeybaná the Elder, his brother Agüeybaná II, the Brave, assumed leadership. Far from being submissive, the Tainos were warriors who already faced the Kalinagos before Columbus. Agüeybaná called together a coalition of chieftains and, wielding spears and clubs, challenged the invaders. The rebellion began with the death of the soldier Diego Salcedo, drowned by order of the chief Urayoán to test whether the Spaniards were mortal. Shortly after, war broke out. The Tainos attacked settlements, killed the officer Cristóbal de Sotomayor and burned his village. At Yahuecas, thousands of Taino warriors faced fewer than 100 Spaniards in a decisive battle. According to the chronicles, Agüeybaná II died there, hit by an arquebus shot, although others do not confirm his death and speak only of a main chief. The truth is that after that battle, the resistance lost strength, although not its spirit. Over the next few years, the Taínos continued the fight using guerrilla tactics with allies from the Lesser Antilles and eventually burned the capital of Caparra in 1513. But firearms, horses, and reinforcements from the Spanish tipped the balance in favor of the conquistadors. By 1530, official Spanish records spoke of just over 1,000 Tainos on the island. It wasn't the whole truth. Many had fled to the mountains or were already living mixed with Spaniards and Africans and that is why they did not appear in the censuses. But in the crown's papers, the people who had filled Boriquén seemed reduced to an echo. And from that silence a new order began to rise, the island becoming a Spanish bastion in the Caribbean, a point of defense, trade and evangelization, where more Africans and new traditions would soon arrive . Puerto Rico as we know it began to be forged amidst iron, faith and the mixing of cultures. With the Austrians, San Juan left behind its fragility and rose as a key fortress of the empire in the Caribbean. The European powers smelled the gold of the Indies and the strategic value of the island. They came for the loot and the prestige. In 1528, the French strike first. Corsairs loot and burn San Germán and raze haciendas in Guánica, Daguao and Loíza. The Caribbean is no longer a calm sea, it is a war zone. The Spanish response was to turn the islet into a bastion. In the 1530s, the fortress was built, the governor's residence and guardian of the bay. In 1539 the first stones of El Morro were laid, the eternal sentinel of the maritime entrance. Towards the end of the century, engineers such as Juan Bautista Antonelli and Juan de Tejada redesigned its walls and planned a defensive system that would eventually include San Cristóbal and San Jerónimo. But while the cannons were aimed at the horizon, life on the island followed its own pulse. In the southern ranches they herded cattle. In the sugar mills on the coast, oxen turned the mill. In Loíza and in the eastern towns, African arms held sugarcane and ginger. As night fell, the city was illuminated with processions, lanterns, rosaries and banners. The brothers, white, black, mulatto, carried images on their floats. Faith united what war separated. On Sundays the square was a theater, bartering fish for cassava bread, bargaining, laughter, gossip. In the doorways, violas and tambourines sounded. In the bateyes of the coast, African drums marked the rhythm of new dances, seeds of what centuries later would flourish as "La Bomba." And in the kitchen, mofongo was born, mixing plantain and memories of Africa. As night fell, by the light of the fire, the grandparents spun stories that united three roots: Taino, African and Spanish. It was the living memory of a people in formation. Behind the walls grew a San Juan of craft and clay. Stonemasons raised bastions, carpenters from Ribera caulked helmets, seamstresses mended uniforms, nuns taught reading and writing. Outside the islet, the island was breathing. Wide rivers, green meadows, fields of yucca, yautia, corn and chili, huts thatched with palm, mud roads where muleteers passed by with baskets and hides. And although the Taino areitos no longer filled the bateyes, their echo survived in songs and words that traveled with the children of Boriquén, to the other side of the Atlantic. Around 1580, Puerto Rico became a general captaincy with greater military autonomy to respond to threats. The Mexican settler secures money, gunpowder and soldiers to sustain the walls and it was no wonder. In 1595, the English pirate Francis Drake arrives with 27 ships and fails under fire from the batteries. In 1598, George Clifford, Earl of Cumberland and English privateer, landed in Santurce and briefly occupied the city, but an epidemic forced him to re-embark. San Juan resists, the capital does not fall, the century closes with certainty. San Juan Bautista de Puerto Rico is no longer just a stopover, it is a bastion, a walled port where soldiers and merchants, friars and slaves, sailors and artisans coexist. Here, every stone of the hill tells a story of sieges, every cobblestone street, a mix of accents, every drum, a shared memory. And although the enemies will return, French, English and Dutch, the city has learned to resist. The empire has nailed its banner and its will to this rock. The 17th century begins and Puerto Rico awakens to the bustle of San Juan, with cries in the plaza and church bells, while in the towns life beats to the rhythm of harvests and bartering. In 1605 the governor received 78 accusations of corruption and the budget that was supposed to maintain the garrison was delayed or diverted. The island learns to survive between officialdom and smuggling. In 1616 Arecibo was founded, while new epidemics and hurricanes marked daily life. In 1625, the horizon is tinged with orange sails. The corsair Balduino Enrico enters the bay with his squadron. The Dutch occupy the city for 40 days. On October 21, Enrico demands surrender under threat of razing everything. Governor Juan de Haro responds firmly, "We have the wood and stone to rebuild it." The Dutch response is brutal. They set fire to temples and houses, the episcopal palace and even the archives. But the nose resists. From its walls Juan de Amézqueta directed sorties against the Dutch trenches. On the San Antonio bridge, local militias do the same. Between arquebuses and swords they force the enemy to flee towards their ships. The siege ends. The city is wounded, but not defeated. Shortly after, the Spanish counterattacked, razing the Dutch settlement on Tortola. Saint John learns his lesson. It was to be closed with walls and cannons. Years later, in 1638, the walls were completely closed with three gates: San Juan, San Justo y Pastor and Santiago. The island is no longer an open port, it is a stronghold, but the enemy is also called scarcity. The located one is delayed, sometimes it does not arrive. There are devaluations and bankruptcy of the crown and people are making do. Discreet boats in western coves, bartering and smuggling of fabrics, wines and tools. Tobacco is prohibited seasonally. Ginger loses its shine. The cane resists hurricane blows. In 1657, a storm knocked down the cocoa plantations. It starts again. In 1651, faith also left its mark on women. Thanks to the Creole widow Ana de Lansós, the Carmelite Monastery of San José, the first convent of nuns on the island, was founded in San Juan. With her fortune and her sugar mill, she opened the doors to women who could not marry or travel outside the island and became the first Puerto Rican nun. Thus, between crisis and scarcity, feminine spirituality found its space in Puerto Rico. The city gains trades and neighborhoods. Around 1673, a census in San Juan counts 1,794 souls, more than half of whom were brown or black. The mix is no longer a promise, it is a reality in the kitchens, in the workshops, in the urban guard. There is no shortage of surprises. Epidemics in 1648 and 1649, famines, soldiers mutinying over back pay in 1691. The Windward Fleet comes and goes. Coast Guards chase suspicious sails. Some pirate takes the ship, another runs aground and the shipwrecked people end up as neighbors. Families arrive from the Canary Islands with seeds and surnames. From the Lesser Antilles , French, English, and Danes emerge, sometimes with flags, sometimes with bundles. Meanwhile, the city sets its pulse. The cries in the square announce bread, fish and fruit. The workshops ring with blacksmiths' hammers and carpenters' gouges. In the corrals you can hear roosters and horses. And in the street circles, news of fleets and rumors of pirates cross paths. Power is also changing hands in Europe. Truces, wars, bankruptcies, treaties and with them contradictory orders that take months to cross the sea, between the Peace of Westphalia in 1648 and the Nine Years' War from 1688 to 1697, San Juan learns to manage scarcity and surveillance. Party militias, night patrols, new lieutenants at war in the villages. At the end of the century, Aguada, Arecibo, Coamo and Ponce were already towns in 1692. The island had grown internally. More people, more jobs, more mix. and higher walls. It is not wealth that is left over, it is resistance. A culture that, between sermon and watchtower, between loan and drum, refuses to give up. The 600 leaves Puerto Rico ready for another turn. The dynasty changes in Madrid. The Bourbons arrive and with them new plans for an island that has already learned to live under siege and on the move. At the dawn of the 18th century, Puerto Rico awakens under the scepter of the Bourbons to a new king. Philip V brings winds of change from Spain. In 1717, the sails of Cadiz replaced Seville and the island's ports opened to the world. San Juan Plaza Fuerte raises its highest walls with cisterns that fight thirst and cannons that look to the horizon. But in the sugarcane fields and hills, the Creoles, children of this land, no longer dream of the peninsula. They call this island their homeland, their home of sugar and sun. In the early years, the English attacked Arecibo and Loíza, but the neighbors repelled them with pikes and courage . There shines Antonio de los Reyes Correa, a Creole hero who defends his town against invaders. In San Germán, women and men challenge the governor over unfair fines, winning the king's voice. The Creoles, descendants of the first conquerors, amassed wealth with sugar and gold, forging an Indian nobility that claims its place. However, the crown looks down on them, denying them high ranks in the infantry, although their urban militias make their enemies tremble. Meanwhile, the women hold the island with their hands. In San Juan, the bakers knead bread for the troops until the men take up the trade. Washerwomen at springs and rivers struggle with drought and soap shortages, bringing sustenance to their homes. In the vegetable market, free women of color sell fresh fruit, bringing life to the market, while other slaves hawk their goods in the streets, defying the rules. Towards the end of the century, teachers like Paula Molinero and Juana Polanco opened schools for girls, sowing knowledge on an island that grew in silence. In the 1770s, Bourbon reforms transformed Puerto Rico. Trade is freed, ships bring coffee and tobacco, and disciplined militias organize the defense. The island is bustling with activity, although scarcity bites. There is a shortage of flour, meat, soap. On the cobblestone streets, painter José Campeche captures the Creole soul on canvas, while chroniclers such as Íñigo Abbad and Lasierra see in the town a unique spark woven by centuries of mixing. The new immigrants, Basques, Catalans, Irish, arrive in the trade competing with the Creoles who already call themselves Puerto Ricans, like a brig crossing the sea. In the war, Puerto Rico shines. In 1779, Puerto Rican troops joined Bernardo de Gálvez in the American Revolution, facing the British in Pensacola and other Gulf territories. In 1797, San Juan faced its greatest test. An English fleet with thousands of men and dozens of ships besieges the city. Under the command of Governor Ramón de Castro. The militias and the residents resist by defending the stronghold. The English flee and Saint John claims the title of very noble and very loyal, engraving his courage on the shield. At the end of the century, the French Revolution shook the world and its echoes reached Puerto Rico. The cession of Santo Domingo to France brings new people, while in Aguadilla a slave uprising breaks out demanding freedom, a disturbing echo of what happened in Haiti. The Creoles proudly call themselves Americans, not Spaniards, affirming a homeland forged in resistance. San Juan, with its canyons and markets, stands like the beacon of an island that sings its mixture and looks to the new century with a firm heart. At the dawn of the 19th century, Puerto Rico entered an era of twists and turns. In 1809, while Spain resisted Napoleon from Cadiz, the island gained its own voice for the first time. Ramón Power y Giralt, elected by the councils, sits in the Cortes and achieves the historic Power Law, which opens new ports and gives oxygen to the agricultural economy. In 1810 a luminous figure emerged, Rafael Cordero, the master. In a humble house on Luna Street, he teaches poor, white and black children to read, write and think. Between mending shoes and rolling cigars to earn a living, he trains future leaders such as Baldorioty de Castro, José Julián Acosta and Manuel Elzaburu. When he receives the reward for virtue, he distributes the money among his neediest students. Her sister Celestina Cordero continued that path by founding a school for girls in San Juan . A black woman in an unequal society, she challenged prejudices and opened horizons, bringing female education to the heart of the capital. In 1812, the Constitution of Cadiz was proclaimed, which made Puerto Rico a province with its own representation. That same year, San Juan schools began admitting black and mixed-race children, breaking down educational barriers. In 1815, the Royal Decree of Graces opened the island to European trade and immigration. Families arrive from Spain, Ireland, Germany and Corsica, bringing surnames and seeds that mix with the Puerto Rican soil. With coffee, sugar and tobacco, Puerto Rico becomes an agricultural hotbed. Daily life pulsed among the Haciendas. and cities. In the mountain coffee plantations, day laborers worked under strict rules while muleteers carried out sacks of grain toward the ports. In San Juan, the telegraph and the press brought news from Europe and America. And in the halls, couples twirled to the beat of Puerto Rican dance, a Creole waltz of mestizo elegance that became a symbol of urban life. Outside the city, the voice of the jíbaro rose in improvised tenths and the six marked the rhythm of the peasant festivals, guitars and cuatros accompanying verses of love, work and landscape, but the shadows weigh. In 1860 the census revealed half a million inhabitants, half of whom were people of color and 83% illiterate. Slavery crumbled and was finally abolished in 1873, albeit late and with conditions. The flame of change burned in 1868 with the Grito de Lares: Betances, Ruiz Belvis, Mariana Bracetti and Lola Rodríguez de Tió proclaimed independence. The insurrection fails, but its echo remains. Then came the political parties and in 1887 the Puerto Rican Autonomist Party called for deeper reforms. Education is expanding. New rural classrooms. The Civil Institute of Secondary Education in 1883, night classes for workers in 1888 and the teacher training colleges in 1890, which trained the island's first professional teachers. In 1897, the Autonomous Charter granted its own parliament and a Ministry of Public Education. Puerto Rico is close to autonomy, but the dream doesn't last long. In 1898, the Caribbean became an imperial chessboard. Following the explosion of the Maine in Havana, the United States declares war on Spain. The real objective is not only Cuba, but Puerto Rico, the key to the Gulf and a strategic piece for the future Panama Canal. On July 25, General Nelson Miles landed in Guánica promising freedom. But what is coming is the loss of a newly acquired autonomy, replaced by submission to another empire. US troops advance north, in Yauco Coamo and Asomante Hill in Aibonito, soldiers from the Spanish army and Puerto Rican militiamen. Some out of loyalty, others to defend their land, offer tenacious resistance. In Coamo, the battle of August 9th envelops the town in smoke and confusion. There, the infantry commander Rafael Martínez Illescas stars in one of the last heroic deeds of the empire. He charges alone, saber in hand, against an enemy far superior in men and cannons. His courage did not change the course of the war, but it remained engraved as a symbol of the last knight of Spain in America. And in the trenches of Asomante, on August 12, 1898, Spain's last battle on the American continent was fought. There the defenders, with heroic firmness, forced the invaders to retreat using fire, cannon fire and rifle fire. The United States never managed to take over Puerto Rico or occupy the island completely. What he did not achieve with weapons he obtained with the surrender of Spain. The last salvos of Puerto Ricans are lost in a war that had actually already ended far from the island. In Paris, Spain negotiates without strength, exhausted without a fleet and with the American threat of extending the war to the Canary Islands. On December 10, he signs the treaty. Cuba is placed under guardianship and Puerto Rico, the Philippines and Guam pass into the hands of the United States. The 19th century closes with a bitter blow. Puerto Rico, which had been a Spanish province with full representation and rights, becomes a territory occupied by US imperialism. The Spanish flag falls and with it the dreams of autonomy collapse. But there remains the legacy of a proud, mixed-race people, an island that already knew how to call itself Puerto Rican, but that enters the new century under someone else's shadow. The new century dawns with Puerto Rico under a different flag. Life, however, is still marked by poverty. Day laborers who barely earn cents during the harvest, children who do not go to school, and hurricanes that destroy crops and zinc roofs every decade. Federal support and aid alleviate hunger, but they also create dependency. Cities grow, San Juan is electrified, roads and aqueducts are born and radio, then cinema. They bring the world to the neighborhoods. Industrialization began in the 1940s. Shoe, glass and textile factories change the pace of work and soon the plane opens the air bridge that empties the fields and fills New York with Puerto Ricans. The great migration becomes a rite of passage for thousands of families. The people learn to see themselves in new institutions. In 1948 he elected his first governor, Luis Muñoz Marín, but the gag order weighed heavily. That same year, Law 53 came into force, banning Puerto Rican flags, imprisoning independence fighters and suppressing rebellions such as the one in Jayuya in 1950. In 1952, with the Constitution of the Commonwealth, the flag officially flew again and Puerto Rico launched a new political framework, a step towards autonomy, although always under the shadow of the United States. And while attempts are being made to de-Hispanize the island by imposing English in schools, a foreign mold of identity, and even prohibiting Puerto Rican holidays, the language, the music, and the popular memory resist. Puerto Rican identity is strengthening instead of being diluted. Despite everything, culture flourishes. Poets like Julia de Burgos weave verses of rebellion and roots, while playwrights and writers think about the country. From theater, music and television emerge voices that cross borders. The lyrics of Rafael Hernández and Pedro Flores travel with the emigrants and in my old San Juan they become a hymn of nostalgia in every suitcase. In the 60s, salsa born in the neighborhoods of New York brings the Puerto Rican soul to the world with Tito Puente rhythms that make the diaspora dance. From that century, a more urban and educated island remained, marked by migration and by the constant question of its identity. Between factories and hamlets, between censorship and songs, Puerto Ricans stubbornly affirmed their identity , learning to modernize without abandoning their roots. Thus, Puerto Rico ended the 20th century between progress and nostalgia, between the ebb and flow of the waves and that of history, with an open wound and the intact hope of a new change to come. Today, more than a century after that 1898 that changed flags and destinies, Puerto Rico continues to navigate between questions. Own country, State of the Union or the return to the Spain from which it never asked to separate. Movements like the reunificationist movement evoke that possibility. to become a Spanish autonomous community again , the 18th, protected by the argument that the island never fought against Spain, but was handed over by a treaty beyond its control. Be it utopia or desire. The truth is that this idea reflects a wound that is still open, that of a people who for centuries were part of a kingdom and then passed to another empire without deciding their destiny. And yet, beyond projects and flags, Puerto Rico remains an island of three roots and a thousand voices of coffee and songs, of memory and future. The land where people still dream of freedom and belonging. Because Puerto Rican identity is not dictated by any congress or treaty, it is written every day by the people of this island. If you enjoyed this video and want to discover more about the civilizations and historical moments that shaped the course of our world, don't forget to subscribe to the channel, activate the bell, leave your comment and share this fascinating journey with other history buffs. Because by exploring the past we understand our present and build the future. This is Fragments of History.