While researching Taino revivalism and read various sources on "Indian" survival and cultural legacies in the Caribbean after the conquest and demographic collapse, we came across a distant forebear who may have "indio" ancestry. It's impossible to say without confirmation from parochial books of San German and Añasco to recover his lineage, but other data suggest he was, in part, of "Indian" origin (as well as possibly African and/or European ancestry). Born ca. 1750 in Añasco to Martin Galarza and Ana Rivera, Antonio Galarza-Rivera ended up moving around to Toa Alta and, later on, San Lorenzo. According to historian and genealogist Luis Burset-Flores, he appeared in the list of soldiers in the militia list of San Lorenzo in 1811, a few times in the 1820s and possibly died in ca. 1840. Galarza-Rivera was indicated as "pardo" in the documents cited by Burset-Flores, and while residing in Toa Alta, served as a godfather to 2 pardos.
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Antonio Galarza-Rivera married twice. We are descendants of children of Galarza and his first wife, Lucia Alvarez. In fact, due to consanguinity and cousin marriages, we are descendants of Antonio Galarza-Rivera through two of our great-great-grandparents. One of them, had grandparents who were both descendants of Antonio Galarza-Rivera. Consanguinity was real, and connected us to Antonio Galarza Rivera through multiple lines. Our great-great-grandmother's grandfather and grandmother were grandchildren of Antonio Galarza-Rivera. Our great-great-grandfather's father was also, it seems, a grandchild of Antonio Galarza-Rivera.
Antonio Galarza appears in this militia list for San Lorenzo uploaded to FamilySearch.
Where circumstantial evidence starts to suggest possible "Indian" ancestry through Antonio Galarza-Rivera is the racial classification of some of his descendants. For instance, a brother of our great-great-grandfather was listed as "mestizo" on his death certificate. Another grandchild of Galarza-Rivera was classified as "mestiza" on her death certificate. While racial labels for the thoroughly mixed-race Puerto Rican population are ambiguous, fluctuating, and often vary for people in the same family (people from the same family can be white, pardo, mulato, mestizo, raza de color), it is interesting to think of the possible "Indian" (and African) ancestry that all these people could have inherited through Antonio Galarza-Rivera (not to mention the various other "pardo" forebears these people have, going back to 17th century San Juan and its environs).
A grandchild of Antonio Galarza-Rivera through his second wife, but her parents are listed as raza mestiza.
So, upon considering the "pardo" classification for Antonio Galarza-Rivera, as well as the "mestizo" categorization lumped upon some of his descendants, one begins to think Abbad y Lasierra was not off the mark when suggesting the high concentration of indigenous ancestry in the hills of Añasco and San German. Indeed, according to Abbad y Lasierra, the region was the last refuge for the indigenous population of the island. As he tells it, indigenous populations who fled to nearby islands in the 1500s to escape the repressive rule of Spain, later petitioned to return and were resettled in the areas of San German (especially today's Indiera) and Añasco. Brau, on the other hand, seems to think these "indios" were descendants of the "Indians" emancipated by Charles V, then settled in Cibuco. Somehow, the settlement or pueblo of Cibuco was abandoned and the "Indians" presumably moved into the hills of San German, establishing the nucleus of the future Indiera. There is some confusion about Cibuco and the origin of its "Indians." Juan Lopez de Velasco seems to think Cibuco was a pueblo founded for formerly enslaved "Indians" from other lands and not the indigenes of Puerto Rico. Despite this ambiguity, according to Abbad, it was not until much later these people (whether they were solely descendants of Tainos or descendants of Caribs and other Native peoples of the Americas brought to toil as slaves in the colony is not entirely clear) began to intermarry with people of African and European descent, in the 18th century.
Abbad on the origins of Añasco's "indios"
So, while is it hard to imagine the "indios" in the hills never intermarried with people of African and European origin before the 1700s, Abbad y Lasierra had the luxury of consulting the Church records and seeing for himself how so many of the "zambos" and "mulatos" and "mestizos" and even "whites" in Añasco by the late 18th century had "indio" ancestry. Clearly, there were "blancos de la tierra" in Puerto Rico, those who were socially accepted as "white" but who had "indio" and African ancestry. Furthermore, if Abbad y Lasierra is accurate, what happened in Añasco occurred throughout the island as whites married 'indios" and then blacks, mulatos, etc. This process must have begun early in the 16th century, when Europeans and Africans on the island experienced severe gender ratio imbalances and must have reproduced with indigenous and "Indian" women.
Abbad y Lasierra in his Viaje a la América, describing the once high 'indio' population in the mountains of Añasco that has intermarried with blacks and whites.
Thus, when one takes into consideration the descriptions of Añasco by Abbad y Lasierra, and the continued existence of "indios" around San German in the late 1700s, one can surmise Antonio Galarza Rivera likely had "indio" forebears who were intermarrying with blacks and/or whites by the time Añasco was founded in 1700s. Perhaps Galarza Rivera was a "zambo" of some sort, and Abbad y Lasierra would have not counted him as "indio" due to racial mixture with other castas. Of course, without access to parish records of Añasco and San German, one cannot confirm this theory. But it seems probable given the other evidence and the testimony of Abbad y Lasierra. And if true, it does point to more recent "Indian" ancestry among contemporary Puerto Ricans and the process in which "indios" became pardos through interracial marriage and outmigration.
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