Colibri | Themes
Language
One of the primary ways that colonizing powers subjugate a people is through language. The colonizer’s act of naming and renaming the world of the colonized forces the less powerful to see themselves through the eyes of the occupiers, rather than through their own eyes. Espada foregrounds the diabolical nature of this practice by listing it along with guns as the primary weapon the Spanish used on the native Borinquens.
Espada provides two examples of renaming, “colibrí” and “Taino.” The Spaniards called the native Arawak Taino, and they...
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