In 1508 Juan Ponce de Leon, a soldier who had traveled with Christopher Columbus in 1493, invaded Puerto Rico with a small army of soldiers and became Puerto Rico's first governor.  The Tainos natives (about 30,000) who lived on the island in small tribes were not physically prepared to resist the Spaniards goal to conquer the island.  Their primitive weapons were no match for the Spanish swords and fire arms. The Tainos were turned into slaves and used to do heavy work.  One night the Tainos revolted and took arms and fought a bloody battle.  Unfortunately, when the tribes fought against the Spaniards who had better weapons, they were forced to retreat and fled deep into the mountains. The lack of slaves prompted Ponce de Leon to bring slaves from Africa.  All slaves were given Spanish names by their captors.  My research tells me that our African ancestors came from either Congo or Mali, Africa......

Fast forward to the 1800s.The U.S. invaded the island, sent the Spaniards packing and freed the slaves.  Cachetano Santiago, a free slave (1836-1922) met Soledad Ortiz, a Taino Indian(1841-1942). They had two children, Maria and Bernardo Santiago.  Maria Santiago (1908-1981) met and married Vicente Rosario (1905-1949). They had five children; Luz, Josefina, Angel Luis, Tito, Guin and Norberto Santiago Rosario.  After Vicente had passed away Maria met Emiterio Rosario a brother of Vicente and had a daughter Carmen Rosario.  Back then it was custom to carry both mother and father's last names. Most people dropped one last name.  There is a margin of error of give or take a few years. 

I received most of this story from my aunt Luz. She is in her '70's.  She wont tell her age.  She said that when she was very young they lived in huts made out of straw, they sat on tree stomps and listened to the old ones tell these stories.  That's why we should continue telling it to our children, so our children can tell their children and so forth.  My aunt told me that she rememebers what Soledad looked like.  She had very long black hair, like an Indian princess and when she died she still had all her teeth.  I don't know much about my mothers side. except to say her name was Juanita Lopez and her mothers name was Fautina Huerta. We have an uncle in Rochester from my mother's. He's very old and carry a lot of information about our history (mother's side). If we can get somebody from Rochester to interview him that would be great!

Angel Luis Santiago (1928-1980) was a well known musician.  He played guitar with a good number of bands. In 1951 at a dance he met and fell in love with Juanita Lopez (1930-7/17/2000).   They had nine children Miguel, Noelia, Jenny, Angelina( twins), Orlando, Edward, Michael, Marian and Robert.  Juanita Lopez had two boys before she met Angel Luis Santiago.  Joel and Sammuel Galarza. Angel Luis Santiago was also The father of Ulisis "Hanson" Santiago and Penelope "Tootsie" Santiago.......