Early Groundings for a Circum-Caribbean Integrationist Thought

Abstract

archipelago: fragments: geological plate being crushed by the pacific's curve, cracking open yucatan; the arctic/north american monolith: hence cuba, hispaniola, puerto rico: continental outriders and the dust of the bahamas. atlantic africa pushing up the beaches of our eastern seawards1 does this America mean to us? What do we mean to it? Before its dense and multiple presence, we seem to fade into insignificance. Would we simply be several drops left by this immense river after it had broken up and slowed down? Could we in fact be the source, I mean the necessary stop where it gathers together its energy for the journey? In one way or another, the Caribbean is the outgrowth of America. The part that breaks free of the continent and yet is linked to the whole.2 Introduction From region, to nation, to region in a pendulum oscillation which privileges neither one side nor the other is how Margaret Shrimpton describes the territories of the Circum Caribbean. She continues [we need) to read the mainland region not as one single unit opposed in binary sense to the island Caribbean, but as differentiated area, with the similar one and diverse dynamics and migrant patterns that are evident in the islands3. Any theorization about the Circum-Caribbean as subregional entity is quite recent therefore comparative studies which embrace the area are still sparse. However, the last decade of the 20th Century heralds an important moment in the exploration of the relations, concepts and perceptions of what has been defined as the Circum or Wider Caribbean, space which includes the insular Caribbean, together with the northern coastal states of South America, Central America, and the Caribbean coast of Mexico. Trade, culture and political will have been explored as the main paths to pursue this integration. The establishment of organizations - though not yet comprising the totality of states - in order to articulate common strategies and consensus in key areas such as trade and education, gave birth to the CARICOM, and UNICA amongst others which paved the way for landmark achievement: the creation of the Association of Caribbean States (ACS) in 1994. ACS for the first time officially brought together island and continental territories for collaborative effort intending to strengthen the regional co-operation and integration as stated in its official document.4 It is surely no coincidence that the Convention establishing the Association of Caribbean States was signed in Cartagena, Colombia, on July 24, 1 994. This auspicious date is the anniversary of the birth of Simon Bolivar, regarded as the Liberator of South America and the Founding Father in the ground-breaking work on the articulation of regional integration. But where to find the theoretical grounds that facilitate the bridges between the island Caribbean and the continental one? To what extent is this notion new one? How has the pendulum been oscillating highlighting national or regional visions? This paper aims to show how the theoretical grounds that articulate an integrationist subregional thought bridging both the insular Caribbean and the Other America had its genealogy in the nineteenth century coming mostly from the territories colonised by Spain. It was grounded not only in the commonalities and connections of geography and history but on outstanding personalities of the region who were men of action as well as men of thought. The process was aided as well as by the dynamic role played by social actors who consistently blurred boundaries and frontiers contributing to forging links within the area.5 Commencing with the independence wars of the nineteenth century substantial corpus of ideas began to be articulated and disseminated in great variety of semi-literary forms which ranged from private letters, speeches, declarations, journals, to official government documents. The shaping of thought of difference, first from Europe and then from the northern part of the Western hemisphere (The recently established United States and the Province of Canada) originated in the midst of revolutions, battlefields, organization of wars and combative exile. …