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T AÍNO RESUR GENCE


an expansive and competitive quest among European powers to dominate and restruc- ture the planet according to their ambitions, worldviews and value systems. As the first victims of this perfect storm, Taíno came to be written off as the world’s paradigmatic extinct Native. One of the many ways Taíno have sur-


Artesanía Guillén, a shop and studio in Yamasá, Dominican Republic, displays the renowned craftsman- ship of “los Hermanos Guillén” (the Guillén Brothers), who specialize in reproductions of pre-Columbian Taíno cultural and religious materials.


“When you pick something


you must always give some- thing back. You must explain to the plant why you need from it. You pick it this way, at this time of the day so that you don’t hurt it. You tell her or him why you need it.” Later as an adult, Hernán- dez came to identify these family practices as reflecting an inherited Indigenous value system, especially when learning from his Na- tive North American friends of similar traditional plant ceremonies they practiced in their communities.


vived, however, is through words like hurakan (hurricane). From an ancient Taíno perspec- tive, the hurakan was an expression of the fury of Guabancex, mistress of violent churnings of wind and rain, and one of the manifesta- tions of Atabey (the consciousness of Mother Earth). Guabancex is chaos incarnate; yet, her power was not seen as merely a destructive force of death, but part of a transformational cycle leading to new life and balance.


“Prepárate, mi gente. Algo viene.”


After centuries of purported extinction, the Taíno resurgence movement emerged around the time of the quincentennial celebrations of Columbus’ so-called discovery of the “New World” by people proclaiming themselves the survivors of the Caribbean’s colonial tempest. The movement developed as a collective effort mostly by diasporic Caribbeans from the is- lands of Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic and Cuba, to explore and illuminate Native Caribbean survivals, and to organize around and assert Taíno identity and worldviews. Around the same time, Panchito Ramírez, hereditary cacique (chief) of Caridad de los Indios, Cuba, issued a mandate to “let the world know of our existence,” ending his com- munity’s isolation, which, along with other unique geographic, political and historical factors had enabled them to maintain their Indigenous culture and identity throughout the post-Columbian era. Taíno: Native Heritage and Identity in the


Caribbean running at the George Gustav Heye Center of the National Museum of the American Indian – Smithsonian in New York City until October 2019, is a first-of-its-kind exhibit that contextualizes this movement and highlights the Native legacies that persist in the Hispanophone Caribbean. These range from material cultural practices like magüey hammock-weaving; toponymy and retention of Native words; foodways and staple crops like yuca; and the continued application of Native agronomical and piscatorial technolo- gies and knowledge.


20 AMERICAN INDIAN FALL 2018 Beyond material legacies and identity as-


sertions, Taíno resurgence revolves around living in the world in a Native Caribbean way. Many in the movement call upon em- bodied memories of traditions and values disseminated across generations, often by family matriarchs, which espoused mind- ful relations in a world where all things have life, from plants, stones, rivers, forests, caves, sun and moon, to deceased relatives and disincarnate beings inhabiting their is- lands. Marilyn Balana’ni Díaz, Puerto Rican Taíno and principal abuela (grandmother) of the Taíno community Concilio Taíno Guatu-ma-cu a Borikén, emphasizes this relational sense of belonging: “You are part of nature. You’re not outside of it…. We are part of the plants. We are part of the cos- mos.” What anthropologists might describe as “animism,” Cuban Taíno scholar-activist José Barreiro calls “world alive”; that is, en- gaging everything in the natural world, hu- mans included, as conscious, agential and connected within a shared ecosystem. He illustrates this with the Smoking of Macuyo, an ancient tobacco ceremony inherited and sustained by Cacique Panchito Ramírez: “The ceremony is conducted in a commu- nity circle, smoking rolled tobacco to invoke the four directions and express appreciation to the natural and cosmic family that sur- rounds humans,” says Barreiro. Domingo Hernández, Puerto Rican Taíno


and elder of the movement, speaks of invalu- able lessons he carries from his great-grand- mother, Mama Manuela, whom he says was india and a practitioner of santiguar (a folk medicinal tradition in rural Puerto Rico used to diagnose and heal through a combination of prayer, plants and massage). Raising him in Puerto Rico, she taught that everything in nature has a consciousness, a language and requires specific methods of communica- tion. Of plants she explained: “When you pick something you must always give something back. You must explain to the plant why you need from it. You pick it this way, at this time of the day so that you don’t hurt it. You tell her or him why you need it.” Later as an adult, Hernández came to identify these family practices as reflecting an inherited Indigenous value system, especially when learning from his Native North American friends of similar traditional plant ceremonies they practiced in their communities.


PHOTO BY LYNNE GUITAR


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