Any examination of Roque's story must therefore look beyond the familiar image of an exceptionally tall man.
It must make room for the people whose names were not preserved.
There is also a deeper historical issue.
When a story describes an enslaved man as having been used for reproduction, it can unintentionally create the impression that he was acting freely or exercising power over the women involved.
That interpretation may obscure the central problem: the system of enslavement itself.
Both men and women could be placed under coercive pressures that fundamentally restricted their autonomy.
The responsibility for such coercion lay with the institution and those who enforced it, not simply with the people whose bodies were exploited.
Understanding this distinction makes the story more difficult, but also more truthful.
It reminds us that slavery did not merely exploit labor.
It interfered with the fundamental human right to determine the course of one's own life.
