First, in response to the original poster: there has been for centuries a divide between North American and Latin American Native communities. This is due to geographical, linguistic, and national divisions. Our nation, announced “dead” for Spanish political necessity and presumption for hundreds of years, had has no political communication or organization with other Indigenous nations.
That is precisely why this blog was created, and we would have appreciated if you had messaged us further or that you had better accessed the resources on this and related blogs for explanation and evidence as to these assertions.
The so-called powwow “Drummers Along The Hudson” is actually an event hosted by and trafficked by groups of frauds, notably the UCTP and Mexica folks. Powwows are often open to the public; there’s nothing Indigenous about attending them.
Given that the picture you posted, of a public ceremony in a manner in which we do not engage and in plain cotton costume, we won’t repeat ourselves. You weren’t raised with anything Taino. None of that is Indigenous.
We’ve spoken at length about Operacion Serenidad, and how the nationalist rhetoric under Luis Muñoz and at the behest of the American government was propoganda to erase Black and Native islanders, and to pacify racial tensions for unification, despite there being high admixture on the island just as anywhere else in the Caribbean.
But despite that, we don’t and have never gone by percentages or any other blood crap. No one here has ever claimed to be “100%” anything so I’m not even sure how that’s germane: we do not and have never determined ourselves or who belong to our nation by “blood” or blood quantum or DNA. Furthermore, these DNA tests that you are referring to, that you yourself have taken and now feel insecure about apparently, and that scientists engage in, do not account for patrilineal DNA (Y sex chromosome) nor for autosomal DNA (the vast, vast majority of genetic material in an individual).
[https://twitter.com/princess_nokia/status/622599434967191552]
It is an easily verifiable fact that these studies look at the most easily studied and preserved genetic signatures, that of matrilineal mitochondrial DNA. Thus, even if these studies bore any importance on Indigeneity, and they do not, they are not by any stretch of the imagination an accurate measure of anything except that specific subset of DNA. However, these studied in fact did turn established narratives about initial and rapid Native depopulation of the island by showing there was heavy admixture: and in fact, our nation survived and we are speaking here to you now.
It is never easy to grapple with lies that people have told you, and we aren’t surprised that you are bothered. The Caribbean has faced an unique position in the Americas of having such a low Native population as to almost have complete ignorance of the historical violence, events, and power dynamics between mestizxs/Indigenous descendants that exists throughout Latin America.
However, it is not your heritage by sole virtue of ancestry. Throughout Latin America, mestizxs and Indigenous people have distinct cultures. This holds true for the Caribbean. You can be proud and celebrate your ancestry, however what you have been engaging in sadly is not that. We’re proud of you uplifiting Black, Caribbean, and Afrodescendant folks especially those in the diaspora.
[https://twitter.com/princess_nokia/status/225406950198878208]
But your song “Wavy Spice - YAYA” (YouTube. 29 October 2012.) isn’t an accurate representation of our music, culture, regalia, language, or really anything. The representation you provided however did make waves. Even now people around the world and even on Wikipedia, believe assertions to things like “’Yaya’ is the Taino word for Great Spirit”. But that’s not what this word means; even white scholars do not agree with this. Our most basic stories include this name, as it is an important part of our history and our beliefs, our spiritual reality.
[https://twitter.com/princess_nokia/status/263113480398323713]
This tell me again, that whatever you were told or raised in is not Taino. We could continue by examining the lyrics: the beginning is an excerpt from Edwin “Maguey” Cedenos’ album of revivalist music, ‘Taino Log Drumming’ and then is quickly followed by what is supposed to be the Lord’s Prayer in the Taino language. All this clearly was inspired by the video linked here (“The Lost Taino Tribe - a documentary”. YouTube, Indio Taino Aguadilla, Puerto Rico. Aug 30, 2009.), where you can here the above described within the first few seconds, before another fraud begins to speak without any knowledge of the culture either.
But this “prayer” is well-known because it was supposed to be an example of how the Taino language might have been like as conceived by a famed Puerto Rican historian and writer, Dr. Cayetano Coll y Toste, in his book ‘Prehistoria de Puerto Rico, 1493′, pg. 193.
[Translation: We will now attempt, by way of a work of imaginative linguistics, the formation of a religious Supplication [note: prayer], as we might say, an Indo-Antillean dominical oration, which, although still well away from the reality of what likely had existed, brings us to the mind of the sweet accent of that disgraced people. We utilize, of course, the words which are conserved of the extinguished Indo-Antillean language. Here follows said prayer … ]
In fact, to fill in a blank where he has no suitable term, he merely inserts the Spanish word ‘para’ “for”. However, a careful reading reveals that his scholarship, although extensive is not particularly accurate or precise; some of them appear to be straight-up made-up. Many of these words are completely inaccurate in meaning, if not at least misspelled. Actual knowledge of the language reveals quite a bit. The prayer above is created solely as an aural exercise; it has no grammatical substance whatsoever. Fraud groups regurgitate the old colonialist idea that our language was only a “dialect” of Lokono, and then variously appropriate from the language.
“In [the] Taino dialect” [https://twitter.com/princess_nokia/status/263106981206827008]
And then followed immediately by an exchange where you and another individual were “learning the language”. But why the inclusion in a piece, as a “Taino song” via your tweet if not accurate? Or at least conforming with the material that is being taught by revivalists. Often, revivalists play a long chain of telephone where things are distorted even more than they originally were, without any real concern. This “prayer” has been passed down, and examined by frauds from “linguistic content” for decades.
We didn’t even embroider, we wove. Do these groups ever stop to examine how tacky they look? [https://twitter.com/princess_nokia/status/263124896572399616]
You’re involved, quite clearly from the picture you posted, with one of the oldest extant revivalist groups: El Concilio Taíno Guatu-Ma-cu A Borikén, which I surmise is supposed to mean something like “The Taino Assembly ‘Big Sacred Fire of Puerto Rico’, which started off as something like a dance troupe and is now apparently a “tribe”. We’ve spoken with these individuals before. They’re quite concerned with “ceremonies” and “dances” which they perform quite often in ridiculous costumes.
[https://twitter.com/princess_nokia/status/225627378657923072]
“Hanhan” actually just means ‘yes’; “ka tu” was a Coll Y Toste invention. Is this what they’re teaching? I’m screaming. [https://twitter.com/princess_nokia/status/538091457245364225]
Just to pick a random selection, “matunheri” is an address meaning something equivalent to “sir” and “Bimini” is a geographical placename. So wow, it’s wild that people are taking these as names. But not surprising since you congratulated someone for having the word ‘leader’ as their name, apparently. [https://twitter.com/princess_nokia/status/559166408173846528]
This isn’t at all how our names work. Doesn’t this seems strange to any of you? [https://twitter.com/princess_nokia/status/251278491520204800]
That first word isn’t even an adjective? And the latter is horribly misspelled. But if you correct, this it actually just the words “sky” and mispelled Lokono for “man” next to each other. Yikes. [https://twitter.com/princess_nokia/status/263334031700148224]
And frankly it’s very concerning what kind of activities these revivalists are getting up to with children, if they’re letting literal children get smoked out by grown ass adults. I hope this wasn’t the voices of the ancestors you were talking about. [https://twitter.com/princess_nokia/status/579215243873677313]
This was actually the first tweet on your Twitter we saw. Concerned because this sounded culturally appropriative, and moreover fetishistic since no Indigenous nations actually refer to themselves as “Aztec”. [https://twitter.com/princess_nokia/status/505645714060607488]
We are quite familiar with fakes flocking with other fakes. And Mexican Indigenous people have repeated stated that danzantes are not Indigenous, and the “Mexica Movement“ is a violent group of culturally appropriative mestizx frauds. [https://twitter.com/princess_nokia/status/248604850240229377]
So, in conclusion. No, Taino is not the same as Puerto Rican, nor vice versa. A Taino person would be starkly aware of this. There is more than one culture in Puerto Rico, and claiming we’re all “Black” and “Taino” erases Afroindigenous boricuas too. [https://twitter.com/princess_nokia/status/243459518518939648]
But uh, yeah. Magic “Taino Indian” and ancestor spirits or something… [https://twitter.com/princess_nokia/status/253138698969956352]
The only tasteless thing here that shouldn’t believed is that people are doing this to children even now.
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