Tainos at the National Puerto Rican Day Parade 2009

Tainos representing at the Nat'l Puerto Rican Day Parade, June 14, 2009

Category:

Travel & Events

Tags:

• Taino
• Puerto
• Rican
• Parade
• Raul
• Kahayarix
• Rios
• Olga
• Ayala
• Boricua

[SebastianQuinsella]

Question...How come there are more Tainos in the Bronx than ever existed in Puerto Rico? Could it be because of all the costume stores near Broadway? Or is it because Americans have Halloween and Disneyland?

What's up wit the Hopi warpaint and the Apache raindances? Are they "real" Taino too? Que verguenza son estos acomplejados sin identidad verdadera y con MENOS integridad!

[oayala25]

@SebastianQuinsella

By your comment, I take it that you don't travel much out of the Bronx. In answer to some of your questions, you may want to check out this link to The Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian on the Taino issue at nmai.si.edu/exhibitions/the_ne­w_old_world

[NativeNewYorkGuy]

unfortunately NO ONE can claim any purity of t he Indigenous Arawak people of Puerto Rico and what remains are scant traces of the culture.

Some DNA has survived by way of intermixing in the early days......this is a sad reality of one of Spain's many invasions, disrespect and destruction everywhere it went.

However if the culture is to revive, Taina in 1:01 will be The Queen of the Taino Nation!

God bless Taina, la Reina y Senora del Barrio!

[oayala25]

Yes Spain brought destruction and plague in their travels but indigenous people and cultures survived. In the case of Puerto Rico, Tainos escaped into the mountainside, where today you can still find families with strong Taino bloodlines. No need for a revival....Taino people and culture has always been with us, and very much alive! People just have to open their eyes to see it.

[NativeNewYorkGuy]

@oayala25 What survive are traces and fragments. I've been in the Puerto Rican remote mountain areas as I've also been in the Mexican highlands in Oaxaca where Spanish is a foreign language & Indigenous traditions are strong. No one disputes the bloodlines but the identity was lost centuries ago. The dress & rituals are I see are quite imaginative & creative. Even "Taino" is a misnomer Arawak (Arauco) is more accurate.

These were a people who migrated from Northern South America.

[oayala25]

To believe people of Taino heritage have ever lost their identity is rather presumptuous to say the least. As I stated before, it's alive & well within everyday language, food, customs, etc.

It is also well known that they originated in the South American basin & traveled up throughout the Antilles. The Taino along with the Caribes (where we get the name of the Caribbean Ocean) are tribes that fall under the umbrella name of Arawak. Anyway NativeNewYorkGuy, our chat was interesting.

[NativeNewYorkGuy]

@Outlaw2791 It is a very good thing to revive the Indigenous legacy, no matter what the debate or the theories, one thing is for certain they were on the Island in 1493 and some DNA remains. We must acknowledge and honor their memory. In Mexico there millions of speakers of native languages. There are schools to study Nahuatl. In Peru , Quechua is one of the official languages..In Puerto Rico we can honor their memory, celebrate the heritage, and revive the culture.

[kilo9161]

todavia estamo vivo asta las profecia[ yukaye]de las cueva de misterio, [mitakuye,oyasin taino ti ] pero de la tierra de borinke  los primero honble que viero el fuego de esta mundo mas viejo que la biblia de israel

[NativeNewYorkGuy]

By the way in Guyana and in a Caribbean island (can't remember which one) you still have people with a Carib identity who still live in their communities and speak their language.  BTW Puerto Ricans overwhelmingly are of Canary Island decent ...and therefore descendants as well from another people Los Guanches defeated by Spain in 1402. Though part of Spain, the Canary dialect down to the slangs is identical to Puerto Rican Spanish & we share much in common, this is also one of our many roots.

[NativeNewYorkGuy]

I was making a comparative reference...comparing to say Mexico what we have is more a Mestizaje. An ethnic Identity as say in ritual, dress, language, customs....I have to disagree, we have fragments...fragments that added to the others make the mosaic of Puerto Rican culture.

Yes, many Jibaros lived in Bohios and cooked their yautia & yucca out in the batey. They feared a guaraguao would eat their chickens.

And danced to the music of el guiro and maracas...yes soem things did remain.

[oayala25]

Indigenous "PURITY" is not the claim here. What IS claimed & demonstrated at this parade is racial recognition, pride, and cultural identification of a surviving & living culture. Contrary to popular belief, the Taino culture is very much alive & well. It survives in the bloodline of Caribbean people and in a wide array of words, customs, foods, cooking techniques, etc. that are widely used around the world every day.