Borinquen MadePeriod
1600-1699
The entries in this magazine that fall in these years, in the order the events occurred. Freeze 2026-08-22. Not current events in these History essays; News is. Not original historical research.
The situado, an annual subsidy
San Juan's cannons were paid for from Mexico, not out of the island's thin purse.
Loíza and the African coastal towns
Black coastal towns, not a costume stop.
Santiago in Loíza
A festival of drums and saints, not a tourism calendar.
The hornwork of El Morro, 1602-1625
After the English came overland, Spain rebuilt the land front in the shape of bull's horns.
The Dutch burn San Juan, 1625
Boudewijn Hendricksz took the town and could not take the fort. He left a blackened island behind.
San Cristóbal and the eighteenth-century fortification boom
After repeated sieges, Spain doubled down: it built the largest fortification the empire raised anywhere in the New World.
San Cristóbal begun, 1634
After the Dutch fire, Spain began a land fort on the eastern hill and named it for the patron saint of travelers.
Bomba
A Puerto Rican conversation of drum and dance, not a party ad.