Today's brunch meeting of the Mayaguez International Friendship Club was devoted to Puerto Rico's heritage: Taino Indians.
Sebastian Acosta from Cabo Rojo presents Taino Indian's cultureIt was a double treat: Sebastian Acosta from Cabo Rojo, a devoted Taino culture enthusiast prepared an exhibition of Taino artifacts and gave a presentation on Taino's life and customs.
And a dance and music group Raices Sagradas brought the very sad Taino history to life playing and dancing it.
If you want to see a Raices Sagradas performance by yourself, you can: there will be two performances in Yauco on November 28 and 29.
4 comments:
It's very interesting that for at least part of the show they dress in all white--outfits associated with Santería and the African-influenced religions of the island. I'd be interested in knowing if they professed any particular reason for dressing the way they did.
I don't think they did, although I might have missed it. I read it as a symbol of Taino's innocence before they got mixed with black dressed strangers (Spaniards, I presume: nota bene all dancers dressed in black were fair skinned), who killed them. In the presentation about their culture it was mentioned that cloth used for young girls was white - but once girls became women they wore colored cloth. As far as I could understand there was no mention of African influence whatsoever... interesting.
The white dresses do not represent anything. The Taino people were nudist, they used to walk naked with body paintings.
If you want to know more about them you can look at the following link: http://ponce.inter.edu/tibes/ingles/conozca.html and visit the Tibes Ceremonial Park in Ponce.
Thsnks for the informative comment and for the link. I am eager to learn more about Tainos.
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