Following the colonization of Hispaniola, the island that now contains the modern states of Haiti and the Dominican Republic, colonial ambitions by the newly united kingdoms of Aragon and Castile were turned towards a new island just north of their newly founded colony: the island of Cuba. Following the conquest of Cuba, for the following decades, a sense of a frontier-like society emerged in the region, allowing strong and violent men such as our subject today, Vasco Porcallo de Figueroa, to establish economic and social hegemonies over not only the indigenous communities that had existed on the island but also the Spaniards who had arrived to colonize it. Today we will explore the life of Vasco Porcallo who during his life played a role as one of the highest-ranking figures in colonial Cuba, and we will take a close look at this time of growth and development in the newly created colony of Cuba.