The Venezuelan Caribbean, while being an expansive and influential space, has been one
of the least studied regions in Venezuelan historiography. Likewise, the myriad foreign
seafarers who traversed and visited the region during the eighteenth century have
been by and large overlooked. In this chapter I aim to bring the Venezuelan Caribbean
back por la puerta grande [through the main gate]. This detailed study of seafarers in
the region follows in their wake as they entered the Venezuelan Caribbean ...
The Venezuelan Caribbean, while being an expansive and influential space, has been one
of the least studied regions in Venezuelan historiography. Likewise, the myriad foreign
seafarers who traversed and visited the region during the eighteenth century have
been by and large overlooked. In this chapter I aim to bring the Venezuelan Caribbean
back por la puerta grande [through the main gate]. This detailed study of seafarers in
the region follows in their wake as they entered the Venezuelan Caribbean in search
of sea salt from the saltpans at its uninhabited islands and engaged in informal trade
(contraband to Spanish authorities) for cacao, hides, tobacco, and mules from Spanish
colonial Tierra Firme. By mobilizing archaeological and documentary evidence from
island campsites at the saltpan of the of La Tortuga, the saltpan and transshipment
point at Cayo Sal (Los Roques Archipelago) and the transshipment warehouse at Klein
Bonaire, I reveal what the seafarers camping at these islands did, who they were and
how they lived their everyday lives. The study of the material remains they left behind
paints a vivid picture of their senses of fashion, their diverse transimperial interactions
and their Caribbean and Atlantic maritime mobilities. In this way this contribution not
only eschews viewing the Venezuelan Caribbean as merely another imperial periphery
or frontier, but rather, seeks to reintegrate colonial Venezuela as a key player in the
wider Caribbean and Atlantic worlds of the eighteenth century.
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