RESTORATION OF THE TAÍNO NATION

1. HISTORICAL BRIEFING

OUR ANCESTORS DID NOT DISAPPEAR FROM THE FACE OF THE EARTH! WE ARE THEIR DESCENDANTS. WE TAÍNOS STEM FROM THE GREAT ARAWAK AND COLLANO PEOPLE OF SOUTH AMERICA. SEVERAL CENTURIES AGO OUR ANCESTORS ARRIVED IN THE ANTILLES, INTERMARRYING WITH AND SHARING THEIR CULTURE WITH PEOPLES OF OTHER TRIBES THAT ALREADY INHABITED THE ISLANDS. IT WAS IN THE CARIBBEAN THAT THE GREAT ARAWAK AND COLLANO CULTURE REACHED ITS PEAK. CULTURAL AND COMMERCIAL EXCHANGES TOOK PLACE BY WAY OF THE SEA WITH THE YUCATÁN AND CENTRAL AMERICA.

THE ARRIVAL OF THE SPANIARDS 500 YEARS AGO INTERRUPTED THAT PROCESS OF DEVELOPMENT AND ADVERSELY AFFECTED OUR PEOPLE. OPPRESSION, CRUELTY AND SLAVERY BECAME RAMPANT. GENOCIDE WAS SO FEROCIOUS THAT TO THIS DAY MANY PEOPLE STILL BELIEVE WE BECAME TOTALLY ?EXTINCT?.

OUR ABORIGINAL WAY OF LIFE FELL UNDER THE WEIGHT OF THE NEW INSTITUTIONS PUT INTO MOTION BY THE COLONIZERS. WE AS AN IDENTIFIABLE PEOPLE BECAME SO AFFECTED THAT INDEED WE DID ALMOST BECOME EXTINCT. IN SPITE OF ALL, THE INDIAN PRESENCE WAS STILL A RECOGNIZED FACT AS ATTESTED TO BY THE CENSUS FIGURES UP UNTIL THE YEAR 1800.

FROM THAT YEAR ON UNTIL THE PRESENT AN INDIAN PRESENCE CEASES TO BE MENTIONED, BUT, FORTUNATELY WITH OR WITHOUT SUCH A MENTION, WE HAVE SURVIVED!

DESPITE RACIAL MIXING, OUR IDENTITY HAS NOT BEEN DESTROYED. WE ARE TAÍNO AND IN THE PAST THE FEW YEARS WE HAVE PROUDLY FELT THE NEED TO RESCUE, RESTORE AND REAFFIRM OUR ABORIGINAL IDENTITY BY COMING TOGETHER.

IN THIS YEAR OF THE QUINCENTENNIAL OF THE ARRIVAL TO OUR CONTINENT OF THE SPANIARDS WE THE TAÍNO PEOPLE TOGETHER WITH THE REST OF THE ABORIGINAL PEOPLES OF THE CONTINENT FEEL THAT WE DON?T HAVE MUCH TO CELEBRATE. WE WERE AND STILL ARE VICTIMS OF A SYSTEM OF OPPRESSION WHICH BEGAN 500 YEARS AGO! TO US THE ABORIGINAL PEOPLES OF THIS CONTINENT THERE WAS NO SUCH ?DISCOVERY?, FOR OUR ANCESTORS WHO WERE HUMAN BEINGS, LIVED HERE IN DIFFERENT STAGES OF CULTURAL DEVELOPMENT AND CIVILIZATION. IT WAS NOT AN ENCOUNTER OF TWO ?CULTURES?, FOR THERE WERE MANY AND DIVERSE CULTURES! IT WAS NOT THE ENCOUNTER OF ?TWO WORLDS? BUT THE OPPRESSION AND SUBJUGATION OF ONE BY THE OTHER! FOR THE INDIGENOUS PEOPLES IT HAS BEEN 500 YEARS OF RESISTANCE TO SURVIVE!