The lovely lady that occupies the header of this new blog is Anacaona, the Taino Queen. While her origin is linked to Santo Domingo and NOT Puerto Rico, I claim her because we are also Taino. In fact, few people realize that the Tainos are part of the Arawak tribe. Indeed, I would argue that there are many facets of Boricua history that remain in obscurity for many reasons; the first and most important being the embarrassment of the U.S. and it’s role as the colonizer of Puerto Rico. The euphemism commonwealth exist more to alleviate their discomfort regarding our status than it does to accurately describe us. Ah…but this will be the mission of this blog-to bring to light the many things that our colonizers would like to keep safely in the dark. Welcome one and all women of color that understand the authentic meaning of colonialization and how it effects out identities, personhood, and gender.
Especially the Lokono people aka Pakuri Arawak people of the eagle clan from South America are happy to see Taino nations from ny city, Puerto Rico and Cuba people get together, and the Dominican Republic is next.
Yes, all of the upper Antilles share and are a part of the Taino culture. At one point in history, they were actually thinking of changing the name to the Antillean Confederation.
ah there were all one nation of Taino then scattered break off into different groups due to the debates about agreement or disagreement of chief positions and such (not king or queen but chief and chiefness) and other things like that some Taino nation from ny city are united with Gua’Tu’ma’Cu A Borike’n (from puerto rico) and other in cuba group….theres in pa,nj,hawai’i and more, wish they were all united as one nation but well:-\
Hello, I am looking for a good source of information about Anacaona. Is there a book or a website that anyone might recommend? Thank you so much. Any help is greatly appreciated.
she was actually born in the town we now call Leogane, Haiti
The real conquerors of the Taino and the assassins of Anacaona were the Spaniards seeking gold from the stories they had heard. In her “honor” she was hanged not burned by the Spaniards. They made slaves of her people and with great cruelty killed many as they did to the natives in Mexico and Peru.
The English sought land from Algonquins in “new England” that did not understand how land could be purchased. Many European diseases destroyed natives on Turtle’s back (i.e. North America) and in Mexico and South America. Many were killed as they defended their homeland from invasion.
In each case, conquerors took advantage of native people but the people were not destroyed. We are still here and still part of our homeland.
We remain.