Taino Revival: Critical Perspectives on Puerto Rican Identity and Cultural Politics [Paperback]

Gabriel Haslip-Viera (Editor)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1558762590 | ISBN-13: 978-1558762596 | Publication Date: July 2001 | Edition: 1ST

This stimulating and timely collection examines the Taíno revival movement, a grassroots conglomeration of Puerto Ricans and other Latinos who promote or have adopted the culture and pedigree of the pre-Columbian Taíno Indian population of Puerto Rico and the western Caribbean. The Taínos became a symbol of Puerto Rican identity in the 19th century, when local governments and intellectuals began to appropriate the Taínos for the conception of a socially and racially balanced Puerto Rican society.

Modern critics now claim that the Taíno heritage has been canonized through state-sponsored institutions, such as festivals, museums, and textbooks, at the expense of blacks. In the past, officials, alarmed at the black majorities on other Caribbean Islands, tried to "whiten" Puerto Rican society by calling all people of color Taínos. Others complain that the Taíno revival lost its fervor, evolving from an anti-colonialist movement to a mere fashionable trend over the years.

Editorial Reviews

Review

" Its elegant embrace of diverse approaches makes it an exciting and unique contribution to Caribbean studies more broadly." -- HISPANIC AMERICAN HISTORICAL REVIEW

The strength of an anthology often lies in its contributors' efforts to create a har-monious exchange of ideas that builds toward a singular, if complex, argument. Taino Revival takes a deliberately different tack; here, a cacophony of voices engages in contradictory and sometimes heated debates over questions of Puerto Rican identity. Contributors seek to explain the recent phenomenon of "Taino resur-gence": that is, the assumption of a precolumbian indigenous identity by a growing number of Puerto Ricans, most of whom were born and raised in the United States. Based on papers originally presented at a 1998 symposium in New York's El Museo del Barrio, the book explores a fundamental question best posed by the sympo-sium's organizer, anthropologist Arlene Davila: "[Does] the Taino resurgence rep-resent a daring oppositional blow to the canons of the [racial] blending myth of Puerto Rican nationality, or is it better seen as yet another example of Puerto Ricans' inability to deal with their long subordinate African legacy?" (p. 35). The Spanish Conquest decimated Puerto Rico's indigenous people by the mid-sixteenth century, and official records declared die Indian extinct by the late eighteenth century. Nonetheless, today's "Tainos" assert that they are both biolog-ical and cultural survivors of this process, and they have successfully negotiated for official recognition by federal agencies and international indigenous rights groups. Given the paucity of information on Puerto Rico's indigenous people, membership is largely based on "natural," rather than social, criteria (p. 104). For example, New Jersey's Taino Inter-Tribal Council requires the submission of 1 x 1 head shots to determine applicants' suitability for two different membership categories, based on approximation of the proper Indian "look": natiao ("blood brothers") or guatiao ("adoptive brothers") (p. 45). The contributors differ greatly in their perspectives, depending on the impli-cations that each believes the Taino movement holds for contesting or confirming the legitimacy of Puerto Rico's continuing colonial condition vis-a-vis the United States and mainland Puerto Ricans' experience as "colonized racial minorities" (p. 117). With the exception of Roberto Mucaro Borrero (who is a Taino leader himself), all argue that Taino resurgence reproduces the values of the European-imposed system of power based on racial purity. However, Gabriel Haslip-Viera and Peter Roberts see the movement as a reaction to marginality that offers little more than short-term, self-serving empowerment. Roberts regards Taino revival-ism as an outgrowth of the tendency among Caribbean groups to morph into new racial identities when faced with social adversity and the enduring appeal of the white ideal. Haslip-Viera equates today's Tainos with other U.S. minority move-ments that claim similarly essentialist identities, such as the Latino Israelites, Black Muslims, and Afrocentrists. In evaluating the political reach of Taino resurgence, Davila and Duany adopt polar views. Focusing on the U.S. context, Davila interprets the Tainos' quest for an alternative memory (that is admittedly based on "hunches") as a discursive inver-sion of formerly oppressive values. However, Duany views Taino resurgence as an "invented tradition" whose greatest impact may be felt on the island. There, claims of Taino heritage advance the idea that nationality exists independent of nation-hood. Despite their differences, Duany and Davila analyze the uses of Taino claims but avoid any interpretation of their content; Miriam Jimenez, however, proves that it is possible to do both. Providing the richest historical analysis of the collection, she brilliantly interprets Taino resurgence against the backdrop of Native Ameri-can movements, as well as internal struggles among island and diaspora Puerto Ricans over questions of race. On the one hand, Tainos seek to "whiten" themselves by silencing blackness as irrelevant to Puerto Ricanness, while simultaneously claim-ing a nonwhite" identity that is not only inherently resistant to the realities of con-quest but also elitist and self-serving. Rather than confront divisions among Puerto 'Ricans that obscure their common cause with other marginalized groups, claimants to Taino identity choose to adopt a Hollywood-style image whose exoticism appeals to mainstream society. Playing Indian on a U.S.-controlled stage, Jimenez con-cludes, allows Tainos to avoid the struggle and the pain of confronting the living legacies of Puerto Ricans' dual colonization, as well as those of slavery and preju-dice against blackness. Finally, Taino leader Mucaro Borrero recaps all these essays through the lens of Taino thought, reflecting in the process the very views and arguments that other contributors question and in some cases, rebuke. He points out that, with the exception of Davila, none of the contributors interviewed real-life Tainos. Although doing so may not have changed much, his remark reveals the poignancy of the problem faced by the scholar-activists whose works make up this volume. In short, this book addresses some of the hardest political and scholarly issues relevant to diaspora societies today. Its elegant embrace of diverse approaches makes it an exciting and unique contribution to Caribbean studies more broadly." -- -- HISPANIC AMERICAN HISTORICAL REVIEW

About the Author

Professor of Political Science at City University of New York

Product Details

• Paperback: 140 pages
• Publisher: Markus Wiener Pub; 1ST edition (July 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1558762590
• ISBN-13: 978-1558762596
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.9 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,196,656 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Polemics detract from volume, July 14, 2005

By 

Laurence Daley (Corvallis, OR USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Taino Revival: Critical Perspectives on Puerto Rican Identity and Cultural Politics (Paperback)

Haslip-Viera, Gabriel (editor) 2001. Taíno Revival. Critical perspectives on Puerto Rican identity and cultural politics. Marcus Wiener Publishers, Princeton, New Jersey.


It is an interesting book. However, as a biological scientist much of what is stated and especially what is omitted rings a little odd. For example:


p. 5 and following The condemnation of the politics of "Africoid centrism" appear justified. However, the editor does not discuss the apparent reality of a pre-Columbian African presence in the Americas, such as the Olmec "heads" and the apparent African origins of some approximately 10,000 year old human remains in Brazil. Thus the presentation lacks balance.


p. 18 Notes second paragraph the almost total rejection of the mitochondrial DNA data supporting partial Taína inheritance in present day populations appears odd as it is seemingly based on spurious arguments for "pureza de sangre" that are familiar to me from Cuba. The editor here ignores the social and promotional needs to self-servingly and falsely demonstrate "pureza de sangre" in Colonial Spanish-America. It was common to demonstrate "pureza de sangre" by having the neighbors who most probably were related by marriage swear that this was so.


p. 89 and following In support of this volume the arguments against previous point are presented by in Dr. Peter Roberts contribution and his most interesting discussion of the Siboneyista movement. Yet, reader notes that the designation of Guajiro as a foreign term seems improper, since this word is clearly, as many scholars have noted, derived from Guaoxerí an indigenous Taíno title of nobility. Such statements by Dr. Roberts could readily be taken to imply, falsely I feel sure, anachronistic views of the seafaring Taíno (Island Arawak) culture which was not limited to present political boundaries in the Caribbean but was at least semi-contiguous with continental Arawaks.


p. 120 and following. This is an example of the polemics which distract from genuine contributions of this volume. Thus I find it jarring and unprofessional when contributor Dr. Miriam Jiménez Roman attacks the rather naive, but apparently well meaning individuals by name. Dr Jiménez statement on the extinction of the Taíno, is contrary to the data of others and my personal experience growing up in the Sierra Maestra of Cuba.


This plus this author's concentration on introduced crop practices and her complete lack of mention of the vastly complex Taíno rural technology and crop germplasm still in use in the Caribbean might appear to be disingenuous.


All this suggests that this volume although the material offered is very useful, offers far too many polemic and readily refuted arguments and thus the conclusions reached, but not the compendium of materials presented, have considerably diminished credibility.


Thus this work will remain on my bookshelves as a companion to similarly useful, but flawed and opinionated volumes as:
D' Estéfano Pisani, Miguel A. 1943. La Delincuencia de los Indios de Cuba. Jesus Montero (Editor), La Habana. (Note: this book shows a strong biased against the Taínos, and yet it provides useful insights into Taino word usage).

3.0 out of 5 stars Good (though flawed) Introduction to Neo-Taino Movement & Exploration of Tainoness -- deserves expansion and republication!, November 20, 2011

By 

Dr. Ervin Nieves - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Taino Revival: Critical Perspectives on Puerto Rican Identity and Cultural Politics (Paperback)

I initially wrote a glowing 5-star review of this book, but after reading Tony Castanha's The Myth of Indigenous Carribean Extinction: Continuity and Reclamation of Borkiken (Puerto Rico), 2011, I have grown to believe Taino Revival has an overly biased polemic against the Taino Movement, despite one final essay by the only truly Neo-Taino contributing to the collection.

Embracing the myth that Castanha aptly shows is incorrect due to poor census records kept by Spaniards because they wanted to pretend Tainos were extinct so that they could (a) first take over Boriken and (b) avoid paying restitution to descendents of Tainos, the authors of most of the articles in Taino Revival ironically embrace the colonial "blood quantum" standard for ethnicity, by assuming that mestizaje invariably lead to the dilution of Taino culture. That is to say, most of the essays in Taino Revival, though incredibly informative and interesting, ironcially slant against the existence of Tainos today, implying that Africans comprised more of a presence in Puerto Rico than the Indigenous Indians, and ignoring scientific data showing that most Puerto Ricans in fact possess Taino mitochondrial DNA (over 60% in one study) than African DNA. The author who initially rejects the blood quantum standard, ironically ends up embracing it by assuming that Taino culture dilutes simply because the Spanish mixed with Tainos and brought African slaves to the Islands who also eventually mixed with some of the population. Most authors in Taino Revival also level very hostile attacks versus a genuine Taino movement without investigating their facts against the most contemporary research offered by scholars like Tony Castanha and Antonio M. Stevens-Arroyo (Cave of the Jagua).

As Castanha convincingly demonstrates, neither the Tainos (nor most other cultures) ever claim to be homogenous. Island-hopping, and absorbing new populations predates Spanish and African 15th Century entrance into the Antilles, and just as Tainos never stopped becoming Tainos culturally when they absorbed these other peoples, today's Tainos remain Tainos.

The articles in Taino Revival also fail to note that over 5,000 Puerto Rican Tainos travelled to Hawai'i in the 19th Century, and were indeed considered "Indians" in the travel records at the times. In addition, the Spanish in Boriken did not penetrate the mountains of Puerto Rico fully, where most Tainos fled to avoid slavery and retain their culture via oral transmission, which incidentally is the way Fray Pane' got the little tidbits some scholars claim are the only genuine facts we know about the Tainos. Again, Tony Castanha shows otherwise.

I won't summarize his entire book here, but I would say buy Castanha's book first, especially since he summarizes then dismisses many of the arguments in Taino Revival in his more current book. I do not regret buying Taino Revival, since it does introduce readers to the mistaken notions embraced by many scholars who have a hegemonic stranglehold -- and need I say outdated stranglehold -- on Taino discourse today. The solution is to read Castanha and Stevens-Arroyo (Cave of the Jagua) for a wonderfully update view on Taino culture, myths, and existence today. Castanha's bibliography is also extensive and relatively up to date. He also refers to Fewkes, Irving Rouse, and all of the key figures in the long-standing Taino dialogue, unlike Taino Revival.

Respectfully,
Dr. Ervin Nieves

2 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Taino Revival, January 26, 2005

By 

Markus "Mike" (Princeton) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Taino Revival: Critical Perspectives on Puerto Rican Identity and Cultural Politics (Paperback)

Taíno Revival
Reviewed in HAHR (May 2004?)

"this book addresses some of the hardest political and scholarly issues relevant to diaspora societies today. Its elegant embrace of diverse approaches makes it an exciting and unique contribution to Caribbean studies more broadly."

Hispanic American Historical Review