  The Caribbean basin is home to some of the most complex interactions in
recent history among previously diverged human populations. Here, by making use
of genome-wide SNP array data, we characterize ancestral components of
Caribbean populations on a sub-continental level and unveil fine-scale patterns
of population structure distinguishing insular from mainland Caribbean
populations as well as from other Hispanic/Latino groups. We provide genetic
evidence for an inland South American origin of the Native American component
in island populations and for extensive pre-Columbian gene flow across the
Caribbean basin. The Caribbean-derived European component shows significant
differentiation from parental Iberian populations, presumably as a result of
founder effects during the colonization of the New World. Based on demographic
models, we reconstruct the complex population history of the Caribbean since
the onset of continental admixture. We find that insular populations are best
modeled as mixtures absorbing two pulses of African migrants, coinciding with
early and maximum activity stages of the transatlantic slave trade. These two
pulses appear to have originated in different regions within West Africa,
imprinting two distinguishable signatures in present day Afro-Caribbean genomes
and shedding light on the genetic impact of the dynamics occurring during the
slave trade in the Caribbean.
