|
Nicaragua CARIBBEAN SOCIETY
Nicaragua's extensive Caribbean lowlands region,
comprising
the country's two autonomous regions and the department of
Río
San Juan, has never been fully incorporated into the
nation. This
area, known as the Costa de Mosquitos, is isolated from
western
Nicaragua by rugged mountains and dense tropical
rainforest. Communications across these barriers are poor.
In
1993, there was still no paved road between the cities of
the
Pacific region and the Caribbean littoral. Costeños
(the
indigenous and Creoles native to the Caribbean lowlands)
are also
divided by history and culture from the whites and
mestizos of
the west, whom they call "the Spanish."
The Caribbean lowlands were never part of the Spanish
empire
but were, in effect, a British protectorate beginning in
the
seventeenth century
(see Colonial Rule
, ch. 1). In the
mid-nineteenth century, the United States displaced
Britain as
the region's protecting power. Not until 1894 did the
entire
region come under direct Nicaraguan administration. Even
then,
continuing United States political weight, commercial
activity,
and missionary interest in the Caribbean lowlands eclipsed
the
weak influence of western Hispanic Nicaragua until World
War II.
As a result of this history, costeños have not
traditionally regarded themselves as Nicaraguans. Rather,
they
see Nicaraguan rule as an alien imposition and fondly
recall the
years of semisovereignty and intermittent prosperity they
enjoyed
under British and American tutelage. Costeños are
more
likely to speak English or an indigenous language at home
than
Spanish. Most are Protestants, generally Moravians; those
who
became Roman Catholics did so under the influence of
priests from
the United States rather than from Nicaragua.
The Caribbean lowlands are home to a decidedly
multiethnic
society. Miskito, Creoles, and mestizos account for most
of the
population of the region, but there are also small
populations of
Sumu, Rama, and Garifuna, an Afro-Carib group. The
Miskito, the
largest of the indigenous groups, themselves reflect the
region's
diverse ethnic history. Like the Sumu, they are
linguistically
related to the Chibcha of South America. Their culture
reflects
adaptations to contacts with Europeans that stretch back
to their
seventeenth-century collaboration with English, French,
and Dutch
pirates. Their genetic heritage is from indigenous,
European, and
African ancestors. During the colonial period, the
Miskito,
allied with Britain, became the dominant group in the
Caribbean
lowlands. A Miskito monarchy, established over the region
with
British support in 1687, endured into the nineteenth
century.
The Miskito population is concentrated in
northeasternmost
Nicaragua, around the interior mining areas of Siuna,
Rosita, and
Bonanza, and along the banks of several rivers that flow
east out
of the highlands to the Caribbean. Honduras also has a
large
Miskito population in territory adjoining Nicaragua. In
modern
times, the Miskito have survived by alternating
subsistence
activities with wage labor, often in foreign-controlled
extractive enterprises.
The black people of the Caribbean region, known as
Creoles,
are the descendants of colonial-era slaves, Jamaican
merchants,
and West Indian laborers who came to work for United
States lumber and banana companies. As British influence
receded
from the Caribbean lowlands in the nineteenth century, the
Creoles displaced the Miskito at the top of the region's
ethnic
hierarchy and became the key colonial intermediary.
Concentrated
in the coastal cities of Bluefields and Puerto Cabezas, on
the
Islas del Maíz, and around Laguna de Perlas, the
contemporary
Creoles are English-speaking, although many speak Miskito
or
Spanish as a second language. As a group, they are urban,
well
educated, and amply represented in skilled and
white-collar
occupations. The Creoles are disdainful of indigenous
groups,
over whom they maintain a distinct economic advantage. All
Caribbean groups, however, share the traditional
costeño
resentment of the western Hispanic elite.
The expanding mestizo population in the Caribbean
lowlands is
concentrated in the region's western areas, inland from
the
Caribbean littoral. Many live in mining areas. Since the
1950s,
the expansion of export agriculture in the western half of
the
country has forced many dispossessed peasants to seek new
land on
the agricultural frontiers. On the Caribbean side of the
central
highlands, this movement has produced bitter clashes
between
mestizo pioneers and Miskito and Sumu agriculturalists
over what
the indigenous people regard as communal lands.
Within contemporary Caribbean lowlands society, a clear
ethnic hierarchy exists. The indigenous groups--Miskito,
Sumu,
and Rama--occupy the bottom ranks. These groups are the
most
impoverished, least educated, and generally relegated to
the
least desirable jobs. Above them, at successively higher
ranks,
are recently arrived poor mestizos, Creoles, and a small
stratum
of middle-class mestizos. Prior to 1979, Europeans or
North
Americans, sent to manage foreign-owned enterprises, were
at the
top of the hierarchy. In the mines, Miskito and Sumu work
at the
dangerous, low-wage, underground jobs; mestizos and
Creoles hold
supervisory positions; and foreigners dominate in the top
positions. Also prior to 1979, a special niche was
occupied by a
small group of Chinese immigrants, who dominated the
commerce of
the main coastal towns.
The demography of the Caribbean lowlands is a subject
of
speculation and controversy. The last census data are from
1971.
Since then, the region has experienced rapid natural
increase and
heavy migration of mestizos from the west. Traditionally,
the
Miskito are recognized as the numerically dominant group,
but
that status has been challenged by the mestizo influx. In
the
early 1980s, armed conflict in the region drove thousands
of
Miskito over the Honduran border, but as the violence
ebbed in
the late 1980s, refugees returned. The most recent
government
estimates of the ethnic composition of the region are
based on
data from a 1981 housing survey.
Data as of December 1993
|
