Cuentos de los dioses taínos: como se creó el Mar Caribe es una divertida fantasía profusamente ilustrada basada en el misterioso mundo mitológico de los indios taínos de Puerto Rico y las Antillas Mayores. La trama está inspirada en la obra de Fray Ramón Pané Relación Acerca de las Antigüedades de los indios (1494-98), que formó parte del diario de Cristobal Colón. Las ilustraciones del cuento, por el fenecido joven pintor puertorriqueño Juan Negrón, fueron elaboradas mediante un guión visual del autor. Incluye además el autor un educativo glosario ilustrado. Tales of the Taíno Gods: How The Caribbean Sea Was Born, is an entertaining fantasy, based on the mysterious mythological world of the Taíno Indians of Puerto Rico and the Greater Antilles. The plot is inspired by the writings of Friar Ramón Pané’s An Account of the Antiquities of the Indians (1494-98), which was part of Christopher Columbus’ diary. The illustrations of the tale were painted using a visual script by the author, who directed the skillful brush of the late young puertorrican painter Juan Negrón. The author also includes an illustrated educational glossary.

This collection examines the Taino revival movement, a grassroots conglomeration of Puerto Ricans and other Latinos who promote or have adopted the culture and pedigree of the pre-Columbian Taino Indian population of Puerto Rico and the western Caribbean.

Applying the legend of the "stranger king" to Caonabo, the mythologized Taino chief of the Hispaniola settlement Columbus invaded in 1492, Keegan examines how myths come to resonate as history--created by the chaotic interactions of the individuals who lived the events of the past as well as those who write and read about them. The "stranger king" story told in many cultures is that of a foreigner who comes from across the water, marries the king's daughter, and deposes the king. In this story, Caonabo, the most important Taíno chief at the time of European conquest, claimed to be imbued with Taino divinity, while Columbus, determined to establish a settlement called La Navidad, described himself as the "Christbearer." Keegan's ambitious historical analysis--knitting evidence from Spanish colonial documents together with data gathered from the archaeological record--provides a new perspective on the encounters between the two men as they vied for control of the settlement, a survey of the early interactions of the Tainos and Spanish people, and a complex view of the interpretive role played by historians and archaeologists. Presenting a new theoretical framework based on chaos and complexity theories, this book argues for a more comprehensive philosophy of archaeology in which oral myths, primary source texts, and archaeological studies can work together to reconstruct a particularly rich view of the past.  A volume in the Florida Museum of Natural History: Ripley P. Bullen Series

The gourd containing the bow and arrow of the great departed hunter Yayael produces a torrent of water that becomes the world's ocean.

Takes a close look at the relationship between humans and other (non-human) beings that are imbued with cemí power, specifically within the Taíno inter-island cultural sphere encompassing Puerto Rico and Hispaniola Cemís are both portable artifacts and embodiments of persons or spirit, which the Taínos and other natives of the Greater Antilles (ca. AD 1000-1550) regarded as numinous beings with supernatural or magic powers. This volume takes a close look at the relationship between humans and other (non-human) beings that are imbued with cemí power, specifically within the Taíno inter-island cultural sphere encompassing Puerto Rico and Hispaniola. The relationships address the important questions of identity and personhood of the cemí icons and their human “owners” and the implications of cemí gift-giving and gift-taking that sustains a complex web of relationships between caciques (chiefs) of Puerto Rico and Hispaniola. Oliver provides a careful analysis of the four major forms of cemís—three-pointed stones, large stone heads, stone collars, and elbow stones—as well as face masks, which provide an interesting contrast to the stone heads. He finds evidence for his interpretation of human and cemí interactions from a critical review of 16th-century Spanish ethnohistoric documents, especially the Relación Acerca de las Antigüedades de los Indios written by Friar Ramón Pané in 1497–1498 under orders from Christopher Columbus. Buttressed by examples of native resistance and syncretism, the volume discusses the iconoclastic conflicts and the relationship between the icons and the human beings. Focusing on this and on the various contexts in which the relationships were enacted, Oliver reveals how the cemís were central to the exercise of native political power. Such cemís were considered a direct threat to the hegemony of the Spanish conquerors, as these potent objects were seen as allies in the native resistance to the onslaught of Christendom with its icons of saints and virgins.

"JosÉ [Barreiro] writes the true story in TaÍno—the Native view of what Columbus brought. Across the Americas, invasion, and resistance, the TaÍno story repeated many times over." – Chief Oren Lyons (Joagquisho), Turtle Clan, Onondaga Nation The story of what really happened when Columbus arrived in the "New World," as told by the TaÍno people who were impacted In 1532, an elderly TaÍno man named GuaikÁn sits down to write his story—an in-depth account of what happened when Columbus landed on Caribbean shores in 1492. As a boy, GuaikÁn was adopted by Columbus, uniquely positioning him to tell the story of Columbus's "discovery," directing our gaze where it rightfully belongs—on the Indigenous people for whom this land had long been home. Revised and updated by author JosÉ Barreiro (himself a descendant of the TaÍno people) with new information and a new introduction, this richly imagined novel updates GuaikÁn's carefully crafted narrative, chronicling what happened to the TaÍno people when Columbus arrived and how their lives and culture were ruptured. Through GuaikÁn's story, Barreiro penetrates the veil that still clouds the "discovery" of the Americas and in turn gives