Studying the history of the United States has caused Yanuell to think about the history of Puerto Rico. He decided that we should dedicate the next class or so to reading and researching this topic. We began with Puerto Rico’s native Taino population, whose hunter-gatherer ancestors settled the island more than 1,000 years before the Spanish arrived and called it Borinquén. The native people referred to themselves as Boricua (a term that is still used today and one that Yanuell is extremely proud of). The second expedition of Christopher Columbus took place in 1493 and was the beginning of some dark days for the native Taino population. Columbus claimed the island for Spain, calling it San Juan Bautista. Yanuell found a letter that Columbus had written to King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain where he was quoted as saying, "...There I found very many islands, filled with innumerable people, and I have taken possession of them all for their Highnesses, done by proclamation and with the royal standard unfurled, and no opposition was offered to me." Being that Yanuell has already done extensive research on Christopher Columbus and understands that he was not a kind person, the "taking" of the Taino population did not surprise him. Sadly, Spaniards removed men from villages to work in gold mines and colonial plantations. This kept the Taino from planting the crops that had fed them for centuries. They began to starve; many thousands fell prey to smallpox, measles and other European diseases for which they had no immunity; some committed suicide to avoid subjugation; hundreds fell in fighting with the Spaniards, while untold numbers fled to remote regions beyond colonial control. Yanuell took all of the information that he learned today and compared it to what he knows about the treatment of the Native Americans here in the US.