The Original Puerto Ricans
Today, Puerto Rico is considered a top vacation spot for people all over. It attracts visitors with its lush scenery, warm climate, and the peaceful sound of the coqui at night. Before Puerto Rico was viciously hit by hurricane Maria, it was ceded over to the United States from Spain under the Treaty of Paris of 1898. Before it was a major military outpost for the Spanish from the 15th century to the 19th century, Christopher Columbus arrived on the shores of Puerto Rico in 1493.
After Columbus arrived, he was welcomed and greeted by the island’s original inhabitants: the Taino Indians. Their endless hospitality resulted in their undoing. After his arrival, Columbus named the island “San Juan Bautista” for St. John Baptist, ignoring the name the indigenous people already had for their home: Boriken or Borinquen meaning “land of the valiant and noble Lord”. After being shown a river with vast amounts of gold flowing throughout it by the natives, Christopher Columbus named the town after the river “Puerto Rico” meaning rich port. Soon this beautiful island was ripped out of the hands of the Tainos, became a Spanish colony, began producing cattle, sugarcane, tobacco (tobaco), and coffee. With all the extra work, the Spaniards began bringing over African slaves to do it for them. These new arrivals resulted into the melting pot in Puerto Rico we know today. According to the study funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation, 61 percent of all Puerto Ricans have Amerindian mitochondrial DNA, 27 percent have African and 12 percent Caucasian. So many people on the island have Taino DNA within their blood, but not enough know the history and culture of the people who were there first.
The Taino society was a very gentle culture who spoke a dialect of the Arawak Indians. They resided throughout the Caribbean, but most in present-day Puerto Rico. However, the Tainos, are the descendants of the 300 B.C. migration from the Orinoco River Valley in South America. They developed a pyramid-like aristocracy, as many civilizations do. The point consisted of the tribal chief or cacique, followed closely by the shaman or bohique, and other members of the noble class called nitainos who were also warriors. The naborias, or common people established the base of the social pyramid. Bohiques were extolled for their healing powers and ability to speak with gods and as a result, they granted Tainos permission to engage in important tasks. Taino women walked around naked until they were married and then began wearing a skirt/ apron called a nagua to cover her genitals. Most men walked around naked or occasionally wore a nagua too. The natives often lived a polygamy life, with most men having 2 or 3 wives and chiefs having as many as 30.
A major threat to the natives were the people that were an inspiration of the naming of the Caribbean Sea: Carib Indians. These people were a vicious, sadistic, and war-like group that often kidnapped and raped the women and children of the Taino, occasionally using them to complete their cannibalistic ceremonies. There are stories of the Caribs kidnapping Taino children to fatten them up before a feast. Before Columbus arrived to Puerto Rico, the natives did not call themselves Tainos. They only went by the name of their home, calling themselves boriquen. Taino means good or noble, so when introducing themselves to Columbus they tried to tell him who they were by saying who they were not. They were Taino because they were not the Caribs. Although living in fear, the Taino Indians were inventive people who learned to strain cyanide from life-giving yucca, developed pepper gas for warfare, devised an extensive pharmacopeia from nature, and built ocean-going canoes large enough for more than 100 paddlers.
The indigenous peoples used two primary styles for their homes within their yucayeques, or villages. Naborias, common people, and the nitainos, noblemen and warriors, lived in circular buildings with wooden poles as their primary support. Named bohios, they were covered with woven straw and palm leaves. These hut-like structures resembled the North American teepees with the only large difference being bohios were not covered in animal skins to protect them from harsh climates. Caciques, chiefs, lived in rectangular based homes called caneyes and some even featured a small porch. Despite the difference in shape and the fact that caneyes were much larger than bohios, the same materials were used in construction. The home of a cacique only housed his own family. Although, considering that he may have up to 30 wives, the families were very large. Homes of the Tainos did not contain much furniture. People slept in cotton hammocks, named hamacas by the Tainos, or mats of banana leaves. Some homes had wooden stools or chairs in them called djuos. There were two types of dujos: low horizontal forms with concave seats, like the one pictured to the right (1000-1500 AD, taken by Justin Kerr) and stools with long curved backrests. Some believe they represented seats of authority. Others argue that the Taino peoples used them as ceremonial trays for making cohoba. In the center of Taino villages contained a flat court used for various festivals and ball games named batey. These games were held to settle conflicts and when the games was won it was prophesied for there to be a bountiful upcoming harvest.
The Taino diet was revolved around the harvest, meat, and fish. Because large animals were absent from the island, small animals such as hutias, earthworms, bats, snakes, various rodents, lizards, turtles, and and any other living thing with the exception of humans became food. The natives highly depended on fishing and ate their fish raw or partially cooked. With cotton growing on the island, they made nets of cotton for fishing. Taínos stored live animals until they were ready to be consumed—fish and turtles were stored in wires, and hutias and dogs were stored in corrals. Taino groups relied more on agriculture than anything. For important crops they used a procedure in which they "heaped up mounds of soil," called conucos, which improved drainage, delayed erosion, and allowed for a longer storage of crops in the ground; for less important crops such as corn they used the more common and rudimentary slash and burn technique. Women often used yuca roots, ground it into a flour, and baked an almost flatbread out of it, which many people still do today. Yuca, or cassava was one of the most important crops of the Taino, as potatoes were to the Irish. Some scholars suggest that three-pointed zemis, carved figures of worshiped gods, imitate the shape of cassava tubers: cassava, also known as manioc, was an essential food staple and an important symbolic element of Taino life.
Many things in the Taino culture relate to food, as the zemis imitate cassava. According to the Taino, in the beginning people lived on a single mountain. When a boy finds and plants seeds, a lush forest grows upon the mountain top. Two men fight over a calabaza (pumpkin), it rolls down the mountain, crashed on a rock and splits wide open. When the split happens, the ocean with all its creatures spill out. Thankfully the waters stop rising when they reach the forest. Thus, the island of Puerto Rico was born. Puerto Rico has a pumpkin to thank for its existence.
All Taino religion is centered on the worship of zemis or cemis. These were either gods, spirits, or ancestors. The Taino were polytheistic and their gods all held different roles, such as the Greek gods do. Zemis, example pictured to the left, were also carved figures meant to represent the gods like religious icons in Christianity. These carvings of mostly wood often included a small table or tray which is believed to be a receptacle for hallucinogenic snuff called cohoba which allowed for the Taino to communicate with the gods, particularly the shamans. In addition to the game of batey, many other ceremonies were held in those flat courts. Ceremonies often included everyone from the village. Women would hand out cassava bread first to the Zemis, then the shaman, the chiefs, and finally everyone else. Before ceremonies it was common to either fast or induce vomiting with a spatula to purge oneself before presenting themselves in front of their gods. The world today is accustomed to separate realms for religion and science, church and state, theology and philosophy. But for the Tainos, religion assumed all of these functions through an interlocking system of symbols, rites, and beliefs. In the Taino culture, religion was incorporated within all parts of life. Having the physical representation of the Zemis offered the natives a constant connection to the real world and spiritual one. A common ceremony of the Tainos was the areito. The conquistadors described areitos as rituals, celebrations, narrative stories, work songs, teaching songs, funeral observances, social dances, fertility rites, and/or drunken parties. To the Taino, areitos simply meant group activities with a blend of dance, music, and poetry. These ceremonies played a very important role in social, political, and religious life. Taino art in all its many expressions- music, dance, poetic myths, or pottery and sculptured objects fulfilled an essential function for society by helping explain and control nature by maintaining the Taino’s personal, social, and cosmic harmony.
Today, Taino culture is all around us. If you have ever used the words hurricane, canoe, hammock, or even barbeque, you are paying tribute to these lost people. Many practices of the Taino live on today. Many towns in Puerto Rico stay with their original Taino names such as Utuado, Mayaguez, Caguas, and Humacao just to name a few. While still living on the homeland, my mother and everyone in her family visited shamans or medicine men often. There they were greeted with teas and other herbal supplements meant to help improve their health. Many believe the Taino are extinct but it it simply not true. Many people today, identify as Taino. Despite the devastation of the early colonial era, the Taíno passed on their knowledge about their natural and cultural world to Europeans and Africans who arrived to the islands, and Native culture and people survive—and thrive—today. During the time of Columbus, Taino population dropped drastically as every other native tribe did after the arrival after the Europeans. But the Taino are not extinct, they are very much alive and celebrating their heritage. While I do not identify as Taino, it is apart if my family’s history. As Marc Anthony sings beautifully in his song “Preciosa”, a tribute to Puerto Rico: “Y tienes la noble hidalguia, de la Madre Espana. Y el fiero cantio del indio bravio, lo tienes también”. Which translates to, and you have the nobility of Mother Spain. And the fiery soul of the brave Indian, you have that too. Present-day Puerto Rico is a beautiful melting pot of Taino, African, and Spaniard, but the Taino lived on that land long before anyone else did.