Technologies: Caribbean Knowledges, Imperial Critiques 1860–1900s

Abstract

In the short story “El tramo de la Muda” (The Trail of La Muda), Puerto Rican writer Ana Lydia Vega tackles the relationship between revolution, secrecy, and politics in the Puerto Rican nineteenth century. The year is 1868. The protagonist of the story, a well-spoken mulatto, based on the figure of Ramón E. Betances, accompanies various passengers in a horse carriage. Each passenger represents a pro-Spanish, conservative area of government. Crossing the trail of La Muda, he entertains them with a series of riddles that are telling them clues on where, where, when, and how the revolution will begin. Every time they fail a riddle, they need to pay him. As the game progresses, and the passengers fail to read all the clues they end up loosing their money. When the passenger exits the carriage, some words, written with his tobacco-stump, appear on the door: “¡GRACIAS POR CONTRIBUIR! CAPÁ PRIETO y PORVENIR!” (Thanks for your contribution! Capá Prieto for the Future!). It is from these words that the group discovers that there is obviously a Creole plan to revolt and that they were tricked to pay for it. Capá Prieto was one of the few secret societies involved in the Lares Revolt of 1868. To plan a revolution, secrecy and the “open

Acogieron con igual beneplácito aunque con cierta extrañeza, la condición expuesta por su autor de que se respetara el derecho al secreto y no se revelaran las respuestas a menos que fuesen descubiertas... Vagamente alarmado, el cura no pudo dejar de pensar que aquello empezaba a parecerse a una ceremonia de masones.

—Ana Lydia Vega, “El tramo de la Muda”1

[They happily supported, although uncomfortably, the condition given by the author of the riddle game, to respect the right to secrecy, and that answers should not be revealed unless they were discovered. Vaguely alarmed, the priest could not stop thinking that this riddle game started to look like a Masonic ritual].