Puerto Rico has a rich culture whose origins can be traced back to native Taino, Spanish and West African roots. The Conquistadors explored Puerto Rico on Columbus' second voyage to the New World, November 19, 1493. At that time the Island was populated by hundreds of thousands of Tainos, a gentle, peaceful indigenous people who called the island Boriken, the Great Land of the Valiente and Noble Lord. Millions of Tainos lived in islands across the caribbean.
Tainos had a lively intelligence and a pure mind with a natural goodness that shined through. They lived in small yucayeques (villages) led by a Cacike (chief) and subsisted on hunting, fishing and gathering of native cassava root and fruits. At the center of a yucayeque was a batey (ceremonial plaza) surrounded by bohios, the bamboo and palm cylindrical-shaped homes of the people; on one end, the rectagular-shaped home of the Cacike. In the batey, ceremonial events were held including ballgames called batu' and ceremonial dances called areytos. The Tainos believed in one God and held a deep sense of spirituality that was present in every aspect of life.
The Tainos welcomed the Conquistadores, shared their homes and food and gave the Spaniards many gifts. The Spaniards treated the indigenous population severely, and the Taino population rapidly declined from the abuses of slavery, new European diseases, and the horrific numbers that were slaughtered. History recorded the decimation of the Taino people by the 16th century. In reality, petroglyphs in isolated mountain caves and restored ceremonial grounds testify that Tainos escaped high into the thick interior Cordillera Central mountain range. The 1514 census found that 40 percent of the officially recognized wives of Spanish men were Taina. The 1778 census recorded thousands of full-blood Natives still living in the remote mountain regions of "Las Indieras," until the 1800s when the Indian category was dropped from the census.
Because of this history, it's not surprising (in retrospect) to learn that in his year 2000 National Science Foundation research, Juan Carlos Martinez Cruzado, Professor of Genetics at the University of Puerto Rico-Mayaguez, found that 61 percent of all Puerto Ricans carry Amerindian mitochondrial DNA from their maternal lines. Tainos were not extinguished, they were assimilated! In Puerto Rico families of Native ancestry are revealing themselves. Taino traditions survived, handed down from mother to child to become a permanent part of our island's heritage. Maracas and guiros, hamaca (hammocks), tabaco (tabacco) and barbacoa (barbeque), our medicinal plant traditions are part of that legacy. We are not a complete people without the legacy of Taino traditions that we still enjoy today.
