Disaster and Local Government in the Hispanic Caribbean

The primary responsibility to respond to natural disaster in the Hispanic Caribbean was generally assumed by local government, especially by the cabildos or municipal councils.  Although the crown assumed a paternalistic responsibility and expressed itself in those terms, it was the cabildos that offered first response and afterwards sought relief from taxes or from restrictive laws that limited their ability to respond to the results of natural disasters such as famines and epidemic illness.  Under the Bourbons, a more active imperial governmental role was advocated, but also a stricter enforcement of royal restrictive legislation.  Such restrictions, especially those aimed at controlling contraband were especially ignored by the cabildos in moments of crisis following natural disasters such as hurricanes.  Using evidence drawn primarily from the cabildo records of San Juan, this paper will examine the role of municipal government in dealing with crises following natural disasters, and how they developed a growing sense of self-sufficiency and self-consciousness (“conciencia de si”) in the period from 1770 to 1870 that contributed to eventual movements for autonomy or independence.