Sacred Bonds: Kinship Networks and Baptismal Sponsorship in El Cobre, Cuba, during the 17th Century

The copper mines of El Cobre are bound to the history and culture of Cuba. In the mines, African, European, and Indigenous peoples generated an entangled past with lasting consequences for the present. Traditionally, scholars have approached El Cobre from different perspectives but mainly focusing on enslaved African resistance and the cult of the Marian apparition of the Virgen de la Caridad. These approaches place the mines at the center of the development of creole identities and the emergence of syncretic beliefs. Using archival documents from the Archivo General de Indias and parish records from the Archivo del Arzobipado de Santiago de Cuba, I explore different connections between individuals and families in the mining town during the seventeenth century. Recent studies have emerged using parish records to uncover previously hidden social and demographic dynamics in the Caribbean. For example, scholars noted that god-parentage was a way to prepare adolescents for adult responsibilities. Also, electing free or freed godparents enabled the enslaved to develop broader social networks and ties of kinship. And, it was not uncommon for white members of the community to serve as godparents, for children born to slaves or former slaves. Other scholars have noted differences in linguistic and textual patterns between baptismal records of slaves and the rest of population in Santiago de Cuba. By looking closely at these records, I aim to reveal networks of god-parentage or compadrazgo choices and links of association or ties of kinship among the crown-owned slaves and with free people. This can give us a glimpse to social dynamics in this unusual colonial copper mining town.