https://www.culturalsurvival.org/

Cultural Survival Quarterly Magazine: https://www.culturalsurvival.org/csq

Maroons in the Ameicas (December 2001): https://www.culturalsurvival.org/publications/cultural-survival-quarterly/25-4-maroons-americas

Miners & Maroons: Freedom on the Pacific Coast of Colombia and Ecuador

https://www.culturalsurvival.org/publications/cultural-survival-quarterly/miners-maroons-freedom-pacific-coast-colombia-and-ecuador

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Perhaps the largest palenque formed in the Pacific Lowlands was El Castigo, in the foothills of the Western Cordillera between Barbacoas and the upper Patía valley. According to Zuluaga and Bermúdez (1997): "It was at some point in [the] period between 1635 and 1726 that the palenque of El Castigo arose." Around 1732 the palenque had grown and was made up of two settlements, each with a church: "one which the blacks now call Nachao, and a half-day's walk away another, called Nalgua." The former was said to be home to 200 residents, the latter 100. With time these towns acquired legitimacy and legality vis-à-vis Spanish civil and ecclesiastical authorities, demonstrating their capacity to negotiate formal integration into colonial society. It is apparent that the palenqueros of El Castigo were simply legalizing an established set of relationships, including commercial and godparentage ones, with neighboring slave and free communities in the Patía Valley.

On the Dagua River above Buenaventura the "free town" of Sombrerillo emerged in the 18(th)century. Sombrerillo's roughly 200 residents lived by the transport trade linking the coast to Cali. These free individuals, particularly canoe polers and overland carriers, were highly mobile and well-informed. Partly as a result, Sombrerillo came to be recognized as a refuge for escaped slaves, especially those coming from Cauca Valley haciendas. Fugitives were said to be well-received and some moved westward toward Buenaventura to form similar communities at La Vibora, Triana, and Magdalena.

Also in the 18(th)century, it appears that in the upper Patía Valley a sort of Maroon aid society developed, capable of protecting and absorbing slaves escaping both highland haciendas and lowland mines. Although no palenque as such was constructed, a variety of pueblos de libres served the same purpose. The best known example, recorded in 1749, is that of a group of free persons led by a certain Juan Tumba. Similar refuges appear to have been scattered throughout the huge and thinly populated Patía Basin. Such communities, the remnants of which still survive today, lived primarily by ranching and small-scale agriculture.

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