The first monastery in the Americas was built in 1556 on a hill overlooking the city.  All that remains of the monastery today are remnants of limestone exterior walls and an impressive Plateresque entryway, above it the belt worn by the Franciscan order carved in the stone relief.  From here, the monks proselytized and educated the native population in the Catholic faith – their most noted pupil, the Taino leader Guarocuya, who would grow up to direct a rebellion against oppressive Spanish rule.  Baptized Enriquillo, he and his struggle were later immortalized in an historical novel by the same name. 

The work, written by Dominican author Manuel de Jesús Galván in 1882, is widely considered one of the best literary works to come out of Latin America.  In 1954 UNESCO commissioned the noted English writer Robert Graves to translate the Spanish original into English, which he renamed The Cross and the Sword to better reflect the dominating theme of Spain’s unrelentingly harsh conquest of the Indies.

(Photos: Stephan Mallet)