“Load your magazines, boys!” Hernán Darío López shouts. Five of the seven students immediately raise theirs to the sky, seven bullets inserted at lightning speed. The other two jam. “Every second is precious. When you’re part of a security detail, you won’t have time to think,” the instructor insists. Their hands tremble. They wipe the sweat from their palms on their military-patterned cargo pants and nervously readjust their earmuffs. “Oh, man. instructor López is giving you a hard time here, but out on the street, you’ll face a real threat,” he presses. “Okay!” the last one in line shouts with relief.

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He grew up under the name Guarocuya. This Taíno Indigenous man, born in 1498 in Santo Domingo, married Mencía, the daughter of the Spaniard Hernando de Guevara, and together they became one of the first examples of mixed-race marriage on the continent. This highly intelligent young man converted to Catholicism and was baptized as Enrique Bejo (“Enriquillo”), but he never stopped denouncing the abuses committed by his “master,” exhausting all available legal channels.

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