The Voice of the Taino People Online: October 2013

10/28/2013

AIA Pow Wow in Orlando, Florida

The AIA Pow Wow In Orlando will be held at The Central Florida Fairgrounds, starting Friday, November 1st (afternoon) through Sunday, November 3rd, 2013.

The United Confederation of Taíno People will have a booth. Join us for a beautiful inter-tribal weekend!

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Taino Identity Beyond Columbus

10/23/2013

Nuestras Raices Tainas II: Introducción al Lenguaje Taíno por Tai Pelli Hosted by Arte Borikua Galeria

Tambien en Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/171984786337076/

10/14/2013

A MESSAGE FROM THE GRANDMOTHERS COUNCIL BOHIO ATABEI...

FAMILIA, Today celebrate our people and let the world know ...We the Taino people are still here...

Remember that OVER 512 years ago COLUMBUS on behalf of the Spanish Crown and the Church of the Inquisition, Columbus invaded our homelands, killed,tortured and enslaved our people...

Remember that he changed the names of our homelands to reflect the greed and religious injustice that motivated the doctrines of discovery. These doctrines were engineered to put in place the greatest holocaust on earth.

Today this legacy of death is celebrated by governments across this continent. These are the very governments that continue to impose policies against our people that strip us of our rights and continue to destroy and steal our lands.

So today while racist,colonized minds and leaders of the modern day inquisition celebrate the sick legacy of injustice and hate while they celebrate the Hitler of the Spanish crown and all of the sick inhumane polices of the doctrines of discovery...

WE WILL CELEBRATE THE COURAGE, WISDOM AND NOBLE SPIRIT OF OUR NATIVE NATIONS.

WE WILL CELEBRATE OUR ANCESTORS FOR WE WILL NOT SURRENDER IN FACT WE WILL NEVER SURRENDER TO THE IDEOLOGIES OF THE CONQUEST, WE WILL CONTINUE TO FIGHT BACK AND DEFEND OUR RIGHTS TO SELF DETERMINATION WE WILL STAND STRONG.

SO RAISE STRAIGHT FROM YOUR HEART YOUR FIST IN THE AIR AND SAY WE ARE TAINO!!! AND WE ARE STILL HERE!!! TAINO YABAHO.

WE WILL NEVER NEVER SURRENDER!!!

10/09/2013

A matter of choice; Columbus Day vs. Native Resistance Day or Indigenous Day of Remembrance

On October 12^th, people throughout this side of the World may celebrate one of the above. It is a matter of choice, since those who hold power and continue to oppress, are the ones who have monopolized the history taught in our schools.

The timing of the Federal Government shutdown is exemplary of the many faces of Columbus. Think about it, the majority of people in the United States disagree with the shutdown, yet it seems that the people have no say! The positive element of this, is that now it is out in the open; how much disregard is given and/or held for the wants of “the people” vs. the interests of a few, who manage and manipulate the system affecting directly or indirectly the lives of millions of people. This shall show you who’s who and what they truly stand for!

When I was a young teenager in Borikén (Puerto Rico), The Real Spanish Academy (Real Academia Española), an organization that determines which words one can use and consider “valid and proper” in the Spanish language, decided to create the word “aparcar” (to park), when the anglicism “parkear” was used to such an extent that everyone knew what it referred to (as opposed to using the word “estacionar”).

I make the correlation, because I think that if we continue calling October 12^th, Native Resistance Day or Indigenous Day of Remembrance, eventually calling it “Columbus Day” will become obsolete, and hopefully it will be changed officially.

This Federal Holiday was implemented 76 years ago , by the efforts of Italian immigrants. They had started celebrating it earlier in the state of Colorado.

In my opinion, to celebrate Columbus is to celebrate Greed, Abuse (of all types), Rape (indistinctively, meaning women, men, and children), Slavery, Land grabbing, Exploitation, and injustice, just to name a few.

We have been subjected to a bunch of lies and romanticized stories at school and our children continue to be taught the same.

One cannot say, that is all for Justice while celebrating INJUSTICE!

On this October 12^th, you have a choice, and that includes the choice of not choosing.

What will it be for you? Your choice defines you!

Author: Tai Pelli

Source: http://taipelli.blogspot.com/2013/10/a-matter-of-choice-columbus-day-vs.html

10/08/2013

Dynamics of Culture and Race Identification

By Domingo Turey Hernandez

Writing about “race” can be a very sensitive topic and while on many people's mind, very few will speak on it. What is interesting is that many persons are under the mistaken perception that “race” is a scientific fact.[i] Race and “concepts of race” are social constructs, and therefore, some argue that “races” are created to protect the interest of the group in power. Racial definitions are impacted by religious and social mores. In short, concepts of race are shaped in large by the powerful defenders of the dominant culture. Across many of the World's cultures, identification of race is linked to the social construct of “hyperdescent.”

Hyperdescent is the practice of classifying a child of “mixed race” heritage as belonging to the race that is the more socially dominant of the parent's races.[ii] In early colonial era Latin America, for example, the Spanish would classify their children with indigenous women as Spanish. These children would not be counted as “Indians” in any census. Another example would be when these children of mix heritage would be classified as something all together different, something always socially above the conquered or dominated race or group. Examples of “racial classifications” under the early Spanish, Portuguese, and French include Mulattos, Ladinos, Mestizos, Zambos, Lobos, etc. More often then not, these persons were given better opportunities to own land get an education and eventually marry into an ever “Whiter” level of Society. Australia, for instance, practiced this form of hyperdescent up to the 20th century. Under the Aborigines Act, children of mixed “blood” were taken away from their Aboriginal families and put into White foster homes in an effort re-educate them into the White Race.[iii] Those promoting this system claimed this strategy would better prepare them for jobs under White employers and lead them to eventual marriage to Whites.

Today, in most if not all of Latin America, classifying race via hyperdescent continues to be the social norm. This is the opposite of “hypodescent” where a mixed race person would be seen as belonging to the least socially powerful group of the parent's race.[iv] An example of this social classification is the "One drop rule" with regard to “Black” ancestry. In essence, this U.S. born social classification promot the view that any person with "one drop of Negro blood" was considered black.[v] The "One drop rule" was a legal norm in parts of the 20th century United States.[vi] Before that time there were many examples in the U.S. of Blacks being accepted as Whites if they were less than 1/8th or 1/16th Black.

Today, many of the people who criticize Taino affirmation do so because they come from an education that embraces the concept of hypodescent. To these folks it doesn't matter how much European or Indigenous ancestry we may have, if we have any African ancestry then we are Black by default. Any effort to identify according to our family culture or even by the rules of hyperdescent is seen as an attack on “Blackness.” This view disregards the basic human right of self-determination. From a Taino perspective, self-determination is linked to self-identity.

Self-determination is about recognizing that many communities identify “race or ethnicity” using older and more traditional ways. These views need to be respected by the more dominant society.

Hyperdescent and hypodescent both exist despite their flaws. Both views are designed to dominate an oppressed group. One is designed to push the oppressed group into extinction. The other keeps the oppressed group always visible but always the "other" - never really equal. Both systems seek to control.

The traditional Taino Jibaro way was and is the acceptance of another as relative by the Family leader. This ideal made one family and family were those related by blood, marriage, and relation to our extended family members. Taino is not just blood, it is also culture and world view. It is traditions that refuse to die even to this day.

Domingo Turey Hernandez is a Taino Jibaro elder from Borikén (Puerto Rico). He is a member of the Caney Indigenous Spiritual Circle, the United Confederation of Taino People, and iukaieke Guainia.

Endnotes

[i] Conrad P. Kottak, "FAQ", Human Diversity and "Race", Cultural Anthropology, Online Learning, McGraw Hill, accessed 30 Sept 2012.

[ii] Eviatar Zerubavel, “Ancestors and Relatives: Genealogy, Identity, and Community,” Oxford University Press, 2012

[iii] Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission's "Bringing Them Home: Report of the National Inquiry into the Separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children from Their Families" (1997)

[iv] See Conrad P. Kottak’s "FAQ"

[v] James Davis "Who is Black? One Nation's Definition," Frontline, WGBH, accessed 30 Sept 2012.

[vi] For examples, see the 1924 Racial Integrity Act or the Laws of the State of Florida, First Session of the Fourteenth General Assembly Under the Amended Constitution 1865–'6. Chapter 1, 468 Sec.(1)-(3).