conflict
competing motives of conquest (church and state)
class (land owners, laborers, unemployed)
culture (Taino, Afro-Caribbean, Spanish, British, combination)
family structure (nuclear family and children born out of wedlock)
religion (Santeria, voodoo, Catholicism, Protestant faiths)

identity
language: Patois, french, English, Code switching
history: exploitation of indigenous (Taino peoples in Cuba and the Dominican Republic; Arawak)

individual versus community
insider versus outsider

mixture of cultures,
expression of multiple points of view
heroes and journeys
commonality of life experiences
"West Indies"
dual life (public, private)
resisting and/or submitting to the will of others