It comes down to who is doing the telling. In North America, Native peoples have made some progress challenging the inaccurate histories written by European colonizers and their descendants. But in the Caribbean, the Tainos are, at least according to the official history books, extinct. Spanish and French colonizers asserted as early as the mid-16th century that the millions of Tainos who inhabited Puerto Rico, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Barbados and other islands, and Florida completely disappeared. Thousands of history books carry the assertion as millions of references to these books have since been made. 

In the meantime, people like myself noticed that my abuelo, or grandfather, Juan T. Morales from Puerto Rico, looked 'Indian' and so did his sisters, my tias, or aunts, who were all born in this century. And then there was the matter of the many Indian-looking people of Puerto Rican descent on the island and up here in North America. Many also mention the Indian ways in the farming communities and the belief system known as Espiritismo or Spiritism. Then, too, in the mountains of eastern Cuba, substantial documentation speaks of small communities of Indians, Taino Indians and of wide mestizaje (mixing.) 

How could this be? Well, I had already learned about lies told in other cultural and ethnic histories, so I assumed the full story had yet to be told. My own Taino blood became a sort of an open secret. Something I didn't mention to many people. Then, I started hearing about Tainos in Manhattan. They were getting together, demonstrating old ways and telling their own stories within the last few years. I, like many others, began to feel that it was time to reclaim the truth about our heritage. We call our effort the Taino Restoration and it will be a long process.  

"The political systems, the chiefdoms, the leadership, were persecuted and killed right from the beginning," Barreiro explains. "The intent was to destroy the power centers and formal structures and the extinction stories enter the picture from that. But small communities survived. The blending or mestizaje survived along with great pieces of the culture...even the ones that use the word 'extinction' will concede that there was genetic and cultural survival." 

The noted activist also pointed to how many North American tribal systems were destroyed and yet the people were able to rebuild. More than a few contemporary tribes are conglomerates of old tribes that came together after the killing of the leaderships, he added. 

And now there are Tainos from various places coming together and seeking to rebuild. They come from the islands and throughout the diaspora in the United States. Barreiro and others have estimated that a few thousand people are openly proclaiming their Taino ancestry. But the total number of people with Taino blood runs into the millions--Puerto Rican anthropologist Ricardo Alegria estimated that about one third of all Puerto Ricans have Taino blood, Cuban scholars have identified whole communities with large percentages of Taino ancestry and recent scholarship has acknowledged that a majority of all Dominicans have the blood connection.  

"We looked around and gave ourselves permission to explore the Taino in our culture, our history and our beings. The Taino lives," says Barreiro. "In some respects, I've known about our Taino heritage all my life because of the Guajiro stories of my childhood in eastern Cuba," Barreiro says. 'Guajiro' refers to the people of the countryside and the mountains, he explains. 

"Through the stories of my Guajiro elders, I developed a keen attachment to that Guajiro indigenous voice emerging from the interior of the island and, in the mountains, there are many manifestations of Taino culture in the everyday material life; in the belief systems that come to rest in the concept of Guajiro, which is prevalent in Cuba but deepens as you go eastward," he says.  

The activist's insight applies to the other islands as well. No one refers to the lunar planting or the herbal healing or other activities and beliefs as being Taino. They call it 'guajiro' in Cuba or 'jibaro' in Puerto Rico. Both terms refer to the rural people of their islands and are the central, symbolic culture-bearers of each place as they contain a mixture of Taino, African and Spanish bloodlines and traditions. 

For instance, Barreiro has conducted extensive narrative work with recognized Indian farmers in La Rancheria, Cuba. These farmers plant yucca--a main staple of Taino diet for centuries--and other vegetables using the same methods of cultivation handed down from the Taino ancestors. In Cuba, Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic however, the news media refers only to 'campesinos'--another term meaning country person or farm laborer--but almost never to the indigenous root. 

The same holds true for farmers in Quisqueya, the Dominican Republic, according to Jorge Estevez, a Taino from Quisqueya. Estevez is a public programs assistant in the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of the American Indian in Manhattan. 

"I am Taino and I always knew that," says Estevez, who for years has collected and disseminated information on the tribe's culture and history. He also has gathered personal stories of Tainos in the United States and the Caribbean. 

" . . . We've been told for so long that we don't exist that it's harder for us to prove who we are," Estevez says. "But I've gathered a lot of data, like dissertations and other accounts and our message is, Yes, we did survive," he says. "Now, there are even Tainos dancing at many powwows [in the eastern United States], and we're getting support from some other Native peoples." 

Nacion Taina (Taino Nation) is one entity that has gained widespread support. The Nacion is a New York-based tribe founded by Tainos mostly from Boriken, Puerto Rico. Starting in the late 1980s, Nacion Taina has grown from a handful of New York Tainos to several hundred people from the United States, Puerto Rico and Caribbean islands. Nacion members gather bimonthly to discuss traditions handed down in some families, to conduct research on Taino history, language and customs, to plan for future gatherings and to produce a monthly newsletter. (Anyone interested in receiving their bilingual bulletin can write to: Nacion Taina de las Antillas, P.O. Box 883, New York, NY, 10025.) 

Kacike (Chief) Cibanakan says the Nacion has been working with Tainos from Cuba, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, Trinidad, Tobago and elsewhere. 

"When the Tainos in Cuba heard that we had begun the restoration, they were so happy. . . . That community knew they were Taino and they didn't challenge it," Cibanakan says. "Kacike Francisco (of Caridad de los Indios Cuba) welcomed the news of the Nacion with open arms." Cibanakan says, "We are friends especially with the Ramapaughs of the Lenape peoples, they are great supporters. There are tribes from North, South, Central America and Mexico who signed letters of support on behalf of the restoration (in 1992). . . . We also received a visit from one of the chiefs of the Oneida Nation and we are now linked with ten tribes of the Amazon and, of course, our alliance with the Caribs in Trinidad. . . ." 

Cibanakan, along with elders in Manhattan, Cuba and Puerto Rico, work together on larger decisions. "Our general goal is to help restore the culture and, towards that end, we want to acquire lands and develop culturally, agriculturally and work towards reforestation, re-introduce animals that once were there, set up artesan shops, so many things," Cibanakan says. 

While the Nacion continues with its activities, other groups such as the Taino del Norte in New York focus on small gatherings and school presentations featuring poets, like Magda Marta. Caciba Jagua conducts dance and cultural presentations. Another of Caciba Jagua's members, Melanio Gonzalez, builds traditional musical instruments at his shop in Meriden, Connecticut. One of the most popular instruments Gonzalez makes is the mayohuacan, a traditional ceremonial drum made from tree trunks and usually measuring around three feet long with a 14 inch diameter. The trunks are hollowed out and elongated cuts through the surface mark the different tonal areas. He also creates maracas and guiros (a hollowed gourd with ridges on top) that long ago became standard percussion instruments in what is known as Latin music. Artist Roberto Mukaro Borrero focuses on Taino dances and music. Then there's the Nacion's Cultural Center in Long Island where Miguel Macanabo is working on indigenous forms of martial arts. Maisit Yukaeke Taino works on developing the ancient oral traditions and Valerie NanaTurey Vargas-Stehney of the Taino Tribal Circle in New Mexico also states that she "concentrates on sharing information." There are still more Taino gatherings in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Puerto Rico, Cuba, the Dominican Republic and . . . We're everywhere, and we're staying. Taino ti, Good Spirits Be With You! 

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