The Need to Expand: US Imperialism and Colonial Erasure and within the Hiker

Theodore Roosevelt's imperial desires for the United States were realized through the Spanish-American War. The Hiker features a bronze cross stating “Cuba,” “Porto-Rico,” “U.S.A.,” and “Philippines Islands.” In placing Cuba and the USA on the North and South cardinals of the cross, with the ability to be read horizontally, there is a greater implication: both countries were independent at this time. Cuba was already in the middle of an independence movement and managed to attain freedom with the signing of the Treaty of Paris that declared the end of the Spanish-American War. The Philippines (also amidst an independence movement) and Puerto Rico, tilted vertically on the West and East cardinals, had to continue under US colonial rule until the former eventually achieved its independence in 1946. The placement of these remaining colonies within a cross signals ‘Red Cross imagery’ as if the United States had brought aid to these remaining colonies that would otherwise have been unable to provide for themselves. The cross grounds colonial history within a mythos of saviorism that entirely misrepresents the economic, societal, and political subjugation cemented by colonial rule.

The monument fails to mention that Guam and Hawai‘i were also acquired as a consequence of the Spanish-American war. [14] It is through this erasure and the veneration of US soldiers in colonial conquest that the United States has been able to shield and justify its acquisition of territories. It is a process of positioning these people as second-class American citizens yet claiming that they are bringing them unprecedented aid. When you see land as territory, you see people as property.

If you look closer into the cross, you will see the words “Spanish War Veterans 1898-1902” that encircle the medallion featuring two army men: a soldier and a sailor. [15] In between them is a barefooted kneeling woman with both arms extending toward the Rough Rider. This woman, whom I assume to be non-white, represents US territories (since land is often gendered female) thanking the United States for ‘saving them’ from Spain. She, in the subjugated physical position of kneeling, is forced to embrace their countenance in Godly reverence as they threaten her by refusing to put their weapons down. Their aggression, coupled with the gunboat looming in the distance, signals that these countries—represented by the woman—have been forced into submission, into colonies. The monument’s design does not retaliate against colonial subordination, it portrays a reality in the characterization of colonies, not in a way that identifies these injustices but accepts them.