Unfortunately, the designation "personal testimonies" can sound like something one would expect of a cult, or commercial advertising. "Personal testimonies" in this case simply means the statements of actual individuals about their own knowledge of Amerindian survival as imprinted in their own life experience, their family history, and their preferred forms of self-identification. There is no one method or formula to follow in writing these statements, nor are authors in any way guided by the CAC on how to write or formulate their statements.

The purpose of these statements is to help reverse a centuries-old phenomenon of Amerindian descendants being relegated to the margins as mute or invisible onlookers of history, especially as found in the works of academics. However, now that more academics are paying attention to the Amerindian presence in the Caribbean, the CAC wanted to avoid  creating the false impression that this apparent "resurgence" of Amerindian identification is simply a figment of some academics' imaginations, or the result of assigning these identities to individuals who do not wish to possess them.

Maximilian C. Forte
Editor
Caribbean Amerindian Centrelink
27 May 2004