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Roberto Cofresí — Puerto Rico’s Legendary Pirate · D-constructing Topics

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  What's going on, everybody, and what's going on, folks? My name is David, and I'm your
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  legendary, legendary host of this legendary podcast, the Deconstructing Topic
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  Podcast, where we grab a topic, and we kind of deconstruct it the way,
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  because we talk about a little bit of everything, life, politics, history,
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  all in between, whatever the case might be, we're talking about it,
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  and today we got a Good little historical episode for those people out there
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  that for some reason have always envisioned themselves being one of the greatest pirates of time.
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  You know, it is an odd thing. I don't know where that came from, but it is what it is.
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  But listen, I know a lot of people who have, if we know for many years,
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  the serious Pirates of the Caribbean, the movie series, Jack Sparrow, Jack Sparrow.
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  Trying to do my Jack Sparrow thing. I should have watched that movie before,
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  but, you know, the movie does depict, I cannot say, you know,
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  some characters there that day.
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  Listen, some pirates there were known pirates.
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  So, but today we're talking about something different, a pirate that many people
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  and many people might not know if you're into the whole situations where,
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  again, pirates of the Caribbean know that good stuff.
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  Hey, listen, you just came to the right place, right spot, and we're going to
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  take you on a little bit of the journey of pirates and all that good stuff.
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  And keep in mind, you know, when you are listening to this podcast,
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  you're going to learn something. I'm pretty sure, and I'm hopeful that you're
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  going to learn, you're going to share.
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  Feel free to comment and let me know if, you know, who's your favorite pirate,
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  you know, from reading, from watching a movie, from whatever the case, because we do have this.
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  But you see, today we're going to talk about a pirate from my beautiful home country of Puerto Rico.
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  I'm just going to say his short name is, I don't know if you want to say the
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  famous or infamous, Robert Cofresi.
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  Let's get it and uh you know what that's a short name he does have a last,
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  long name i think he got like 10 000 last name but i think it's oriana ramirez
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  if i'm not mistaken and this gentleman,
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  robert very known pirates and the most famous pirate in puerto rico as you Everybody,
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  know we got the little Pirates of the Caribbean thing going on here. Let's go.
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  Born in 1791 and was executed in 1825. Because sadly, a pirate's life, it's a pirate's life.
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  And I'm just going to say is this. Because we have heard so many stories of
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  pirates from Blackbeard, which is a world teach.
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  Edward teach. English pirate. From a Chinese female pirate. For those people
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  that might know, Xing Shi. Black Bart is one of those people that came out.
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  You already know Captain Morgan.
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  Yeah, it was not a drink. It was actually a pirate. I'm just saying, you know, from Welsh.
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  One of the famous more female pirates from Ireland and Irish, Bonnie or Bonnie.
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  You know, once again, alongside with Calico Jack.
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  For those people who also might say, hey, wait a minute, that's a drink too.
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  A lot of these pirates, actually, you got to keep in mind is this,
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  that a lot of, you know, and I'm going to go on a limb.
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  That rum is the most drank spirit. So a lot of these companies have actually,
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  if you look at Captain Morgan, Calico Jack, and other assortments of good adult beverage.
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  Because, hey, my understanding is that being a pirate and drinking goes hand
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  to hand. Shout out to Sea of Thieves. That's why I enjoy Sea of Thieves.
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  When I do play it, it's a video game in the Xbox, now PlayStation 5.
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  It is a game that you play with your friends. I'll be honest,
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  it's a little difficult to play by myself or play alone.
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  So if you got some friends that you want to take along with and you download
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  Sea of Thieves, beautiful game.
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  And, you know, that's the reason why I'm doing this episode,
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  because one of my brothers in arms, he have kind of like, OK.
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  He did not know about this story.
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  So shout out to him about Robert Cofresci. So let's talk a little bit because,
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  hey, listen, I did kind of mention, you know, Calico Jack, which is John Rackman, English pirate.
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  It's one of those situations where Jolly Roger flag, you know,
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  and then the scores and all that.
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  You know, every pirate that have existed or at least have people know,
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  whether it's Henry, whether it's also William Kidd or one of the most famous Sir Francis Drake.
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  The fact that a lot of these pirates in the modern world, I always been talking
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  about because they are good stories, crazy stories.
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  Because you've got to keep money in the Caribbean, which consists of many,
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  many countries, many islands,
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  you know, from my island, my beautiful country of Puerto Rico,
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  to the Espanol, which is, you know, Dominican Republic and Haiti,
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  Cuba, Jamaica, and so on and so forth.
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  Trust me, that just area is just full of wealth when it comes to pirates.
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  Cofresi, Robert Cofresi, from 1725, is very notorious for aliens and fighting
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  the English, the French, doing that.
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  And one of the things that why Coral Cofresi has been known is because a lot
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  of people have kind of said you know he's somewhat of a
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  Robin Hood you know story and if you look at the kind of you know pirate version
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  of Robin Hood if those people out there that know Robin Hood is a story that
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  is based on you know a selection of things that they just made a character called
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  Robin Hood is that basically
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  you got this person with tremendous skills tremendous talent the world means
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  and he happened to just be like stealing from the rich,
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  to get back to the poor so you can see that this pirate purse or the pirate version and.
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  So, well, imagine, I'm over here like, damn, what does that mean?
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  So keep a modest, too. He was stealing from the navies, you know,
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  Spanish, French, America.
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  We're talking about 1760s and so on and so forth.
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  So you got to keep, and I apologize for that.
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  He would be talking about a little bit later on in that. In the 1800s and so
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  on and so forth, you know, we live in a dynamic because America was not the
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  America that we have known now.
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  You know, the powers that be at that time was the French, the Spain,
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  especially Spain with the Armada.
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  So, Cofresi and this person, it's not only traveled to Puerto Rico,
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  but traveled to Dominican Republic.
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  But the fact is that, you know, he made his thing going on. He made his thing.
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  And sadly, he died at a young age. And my understanding is that he did have a daughter.
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  And there is some type of lineage in Puerto Rico, in Cabojo.
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  So, this, you know, kind of Robin Hood tale. And people, you know,
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  it's interesting because he is one that was very targeted.
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  Especially with the United States, Spain, and, you know, some of these European
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  countries, the French, the English, and so on and so forth.
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  And because I like to think that because he came from Puerto Rico,
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  he's in Puerto Rico, it was a little bit different because you could do that in and out, in and out.
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  My understanding is that he had a small fleet, you know. He had the sloop,
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  the sloop, it's basically two or three or four people, you know.
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  He's not with the big ships, you know, these known pirate ship,
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  you know, the perv you know in pirates of the caribbean people know that it
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  got like 10 000 cannons they probably had like two or three cannons they're
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  best around probably less i don't know,
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  but the fact that a slew is able to maneuver a little bit faster you know a
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  little bit quicker and it's able to
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  you know wait listen let's just throw a little rope here just to do do do just
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  grab something and just be out give my sometimes he did that kind of ninja type
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  of thing because hey, listen, if you are in the high seas and you're a pirate, you know, my.
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  Imagination is that when you're in a big ship, and this have happened,
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  you know, in current times when it comes to Somalian, you know, pirates,
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  to all, you know, respect to the situation that occurred at that time.
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  But hey, listen, you call it what it is.
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  You got a little boat with, you know, 10 Somalian pirates that could just overrun
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  a big ship because, hey, listen, you just don't know what's out there and you
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  cannot see what's small. So it was easier for them.
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  Roberto Cofresi to just kind of like, you know, stealing, you know,
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  stealing from the Spanish,
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  you know, the French and all that and other European countries,
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  you know, the Dutch and all that, you know, sadly, it's kind of like,
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  all right, everybody kind of like decided, I mean, we're talking about,
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  you know, obviously there was no internet back then.
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  If there was internet, I think Cofresi would have been caught real quick. Maybe not.
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  You know, he was a little bit swifty. But the fact is this, that,
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  you know, United States and all that, and United States Navy was It's not as,
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  you know, my understanding, that's a good story. Hear me out.
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  My understanding, the United States actually hired a lot of these,
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  what they call privateers.
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  Because the Navy, the United States Navy was not, you know, United States is
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  a young country. I mean, really, you know, we just got out of our independence and so on.
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  And in reality, we just, America is just America at this point in this era.
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  And so it's one of those situations that is basically like, okay, we need help.
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  Everybody's kind of like hitting up each other, like sending birds,
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  like, hey, let's unite because we need to end these pirates,
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  you know, not just Confessy, but the other pirates as well.
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  Interesting story. And I do recall somebody saying that Haiti at one point,
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  the country of Haiti that we know of, that we kind of like struggling at one
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  point was perhaps if not one of the richest countries in the world.
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  And due part to that is that there were a lot of pirates that were stationed in Haiti.
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  You know, obviously, you know, whatever was going on, whatever was going on, was going on.
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  And it's definitely an interesting story. And, you know, I'll talk spaces with
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  the, there was an earthquake. I think it was Port Royale or something to that
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  effect. You know, this is where everybody was kind of like stationed in and
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  all these pirates were just landing. This is all whatever it is.
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  But the fact that, you know, some, you know, some of these countries,
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  they decided to be like, okay,
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  Kofresi, we need to catch you. And Kofresi, you know, he's one,
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  and my understanding is that him and his crew.
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  You know, small, small crew, that is basically one of those things where,
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  you know, they decided that, you know, what's better speed over firepower?
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  You know, that's a type of deal. He was one to avoid the, you know,
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  the direct artillery battles. I mean, you know, imagine you were in a sloop, again, a sloop.
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  A sloop, it's one of the smaller vessels. You got a brinkanthine. You got the big one.
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  I forgot what's the name of that. I was playing Pirates of the Caribbean the other day.
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  But the fact is the Sloop. The Sloop Anist, one of his vessels,
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  they call it, how can I say, cannons. They had more than two.
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  Obviously, I believe it was like five or six, you know, from the little research
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  that I did. But you could only do so much when it comes to Cofresi.
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  And, you know, being that he was this dude, you know, and the world just got
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  around that, you know, despite that, some of the locals in Puerto Rico.
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  And even in my understanding, and there might be some people,
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  even locals that might have prep and pop in Dominican Republic,
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  but it was mostly Puerto Rico.
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  I was trying to dig in if there was a connection. Again, you're in the Caribbean.
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  It's, it's the Caribbean is an interesting place because there's so many islands,
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  so many countries and, you know, whatever you maneuver, you're going to come
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  across the country. You're going to come across something. But,
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  you know, people kind of say, Hey, listen, as much as this person has a.
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  Reputation somebody be like you know what this is a son of a gun and he's not
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  to be trusted when i was doing my research you know they supposedly he saw himself
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  to the devil get some extra superpowers okay what does that mean caprese perhaps
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  it sounds to me like it's not only just a robber story sounds like to me it's a,
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  pirate version of david took a life where this little small thing is doing their
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  thing thing you know and when the spanish kind of like hey hey hey like And
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  we're talking about this time that Puerto Rico is under the colony of Spain. Keep that in mind.
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  That basically anywhere he's going to land, and landing even on his shore,
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  on his home country that he was born, the fact is that he is in the Spanish
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  territory, the colony, you know, Puerto Rico colony of Spain.
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  So basically, you know, the word spread real quick.
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  I could only imagine if he was in a bigger place. And this was,
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  I guess, where I mentioned a little bit early that he being in Puerto Rico helped,
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  but then it didn't because there's only so much space, so much land,
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  so much that you want to do.
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  Cofresi might have escaped to Dominican Republic or even Cuba.
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  Now, trying to think if at this time, Dominican Republic, I believe it was not independent.
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  There was stuff going on, you know, between Dominican Republic and Haiti.
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  Cuba, you know, would have been an ideal place. Even Dan Kuo at that time was
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  under the Spanish, you know, colony or the Spanish, you know,
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  power, whatever it is. So wherever he was going, but I'm just thinking here.
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  That perhaps if he would have been in another land, that maybe he would have
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  more territory to be kind of not caught. And where he was captured, lo and behold.
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  It's funny because I am from, you know, I was born in Puerto Rico.
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  And it's a casual kind of fort. Or it is a fort. You know, it no longer is. It's called El Morro.
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  El Morro, I've been, you know, there so many times, even as a young kid.
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  And by the fact that me as a kid didn't know the story of Robert Cofrenzi,
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  I've learned about the pirate growing up. And I'm like, whoa,
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  wait a minute. And the fact that, you know, he got caught and he was executed there, firing squad.
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  There's a story that he kind of said, you know what? Go ahead.
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  Whatever. Don't blindfold me. You know, I've done my own thing.
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  I took a couple of people.
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  Hey, why not? I got you. Do your thing. Go ahead. Fire. Boom.
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  So we don't know where conference he's at. At the moment, we don't know his body.
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  It's always kind of a little bit rumor or a corner, like a folklore that he's
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  in Santa Maria cemetery in San Juan.
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  A cemetery. I mean, one, a lot of people pass by there, but because it is a
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  cemetery, people like to either expect, because you can go there and not be that tourist.
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  If I'm not mistaken, I believe it's just that, you know, they're no longer burying people there.
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  But there was just no, you know, cemetery at that time. But because it was a
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  Catholic cemetery and this is a person that did, you know, these crimes that
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  they, you know, well, kind of put them somewhere, somewhere else.
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  And that's where, for those Cofresi intuices out there that want to know,
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  that it's somewhere around there, you know, somewhere in San Juan.
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  But we don't know. But we don't know. He could be all over the island.
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  He could be in another island. We don't know. He could be under the sea.
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  Under the sea who knows but there is a statue of uh in cabo rojo because my understanding,
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  cabo rojo in puerto rico is that the fact is that he still have lineage there
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  now here's the interesting story some people say that because he did kind of
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  sew himself to the devil that his soul is still somewhere haunting,
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  people you know and one of the the ones that they're talking about because my
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  understanding that supposedly he had hidden treasure and it would be like uh
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  la isla de la Mona on one island off Puerto Rico that mean he might have hidden
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  treasure there now I try to stay away from certain information here but just the fact that hey listen,
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  some people have said hey that they just felt like hey I saw something and sing
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  it you know Spanish hymns at that time and you know some people feel like hey
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  that that's that's that guy that's that him that's him and you know there are
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  people out there that do have how can I say.
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  There's interest and perhaps now they used to look for some of his hidden treasure
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  because there's not really much information out there one again build some of
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  these folklore are done by uh.
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  How can i say kind of word word of mouth if you put it a rate of stories so
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  it's a situation where if you look at the cofresi is that if you might not pinpoint something
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  and i hope that this is like a not a situation of oak island i i for some reason
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  i used to watch that show i am i know the story of Oak Island for those people out there.
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  It's an island with a hidden treasure, but it's like, oh, somebody found something.
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  It's like saying, oh, somebody found a quarter. Now let's go and find two quarters.
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  Get off. Or something to that effect. You know, like somebody found gold.
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  They found a nugget of gold. That means they got to be a fortress of gold.
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  So we don't know about that, the situation in regards to where the hidden treasure wants to say that.
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  I'm hoping that maybe they could make a movie or show, maybe perhaps something out there.
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  I, I, me personally, I try to avoid to watch some documentaries or things to
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  that effect, because, you know, again, and I'm just picking a couple of things
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  from different sources so that I could just bring it together.
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  And in the fact, if one probably wants to do something and find out on your own, if you're into.
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  Hunting stories or anything like that, or Red Book of Fresi,
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  you could go to Cabo Rojo or Isla Mona, or do some research on your own and all that good stuff.
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  Again, for those people out there, hit the like button, share all that good
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  stuff that if you did not know this story, hey, listen, hit that like button, wherever you at.
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  It's a definitely interesting story because, again, me coming from Puerto Rico,
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  I might be at least have a little bit more knowledge of the pirate in itself.
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  But once, like, again, I was living in Puerto Rico, I would take a lot that.
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  Scholars and the historians would know but i would also take that these are
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  one of those stories even in a small island of puerto rico they kind of stay uh.
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  Like a regional kind of type of story. So that's why it's not known like that.
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  So we cannot keep it as is or whatever, but definitely an interesting, interesting story.
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  And one that I could probably, you know, take a little bit pride because,
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  hey, listen, sometimes these, Puerto Rico got stories just like any other bigger
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  country, just like England has their pirates, just like these people got their
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  pirates because at the end of the day, guess what?
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  You know, one of the biggest blockbuster movie series is Pirates of the Caribbean.
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  I say, why not? Let's add flavor to that and let's add some Caribbeans,
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  some real Caribbeans into the story. But anyways, we already know.
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  Hit up the kid. Feel free to, you know, reach out to me any given time.
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  I'm over here doing my thing, talking about wonderful stories and I'm out of
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  here. Much love. Peace. I'm out.