Taino Spirituality Found In Modern Day Caribbean Santeria
In this article, I will be giving you a brief background on me, my up bringing, and a comparison of classic Taino culture And Santeria. If you don’t know what Santeria is, it’s a spiritual practice that has a mix of Spanish African and Taino within it. So, you’re either reading this article for three reasons. Either you’re 1) someone who is Taino 2) a Taino descendant or 3) you’re someone who has never heard about Taino and is now curious to learn about us. If you’ve never heard of our tribe I will briefly introduce you to who we are and where we come from. We are a Maipurean Arawakan tribe and the first people contacted in 1492 by Christopher Columbus. Most people when they hear about our history they think about other natives in North America but we are a nomadic tribe that came from South America and The Caribbean.
If you’ve read my website you may be a little confused on why my bio says that I’m “Quechua”. That’s because I am Huaylas Quechua and grew up as such. My mothers lineage is from Peru and we come from a village called Yungay in Ancash Peru. I grew up with my tribal ways, language, and culture. My Father has mixed lineage (Borikwa) being one of them. I say Borikwa instead of Boricua because It is the correct spelling. The spanish hispanicized the spelling. Long story short, I grew up in Brooklyn and Queens, New York City. Like most people where I come from, I grew up with one parent (my mother). I did know my grandparents and one uncle on my fathers side, but not to the point that I could ask questions. I was too little, and as a matter of fact I grew up never asking about my father, or where he came from. I genuinely assumed he was from Peru as well. My father wasn’t really a good guy to my mother, so it was normal for his name not to be mentioned as I was growing up.
Fast forward in time I’m about 17/18 years old when my uncle decided to tell me I was mixed. It was such a shock for me I was waiting for him to tell me that he was joking but he was serious. My uncle told me my fathers side was very Native just like my mothers side , so I began to have a curiosity. I was never in contact with my father and then I later got in contact with him (that’s a long story) and I asked him questions. I asked him what we were? and what my uncle told me, and he quickly responded to me that we were “We are Taino” “We’re Indian” “We’re Native American”. What’s funny is where I’m from in Brooklyn (East New York) there were a lot of African Americans and Borikwa’no (Borikwa). So all though I was not raised Borikwa in my home, I was surrounded them and the culture. Be it food or spirituality, I was immersed in it where I came from. So it’s as if I was raised that way, but just not in my home. I even knew people all my life who identified as Taino. My grandmothers best friend was Borikwa and she was like an aunt to me. My mother had friends who were present all my life who were Borikwa and so on. Being in NYC its very common to be raised around and adopt other cultures.
Growing up my mother raised me spiritual, and she knew many spiritual people of different walks of life. Being in East New York, Brooklyn it was common to be around spiritual practices such as Muslim, Hindu, Catholic, Christian, Voodoo, Santeria, Palo Mayombe, and Espiritismo. You could find a botanica on almost every other block. If you don’t know what a botanica is it’s a small store that sells herbal and other traditional remedies. Inside you can purchase charms, incense, candles, and other items used for religious or spiritual purposes. In other cases there was a curanderx/santerx (a healer , medicine carrier, or medium) who if you wished to use their services you would walk to the back of the store and speak to them in private. I grew up in an entirely different world than most people but not too different than Borikwa’no.
As someone who was raised Quechua I always saw a lot in common with my peoples ways, and the Borikwa way. There were things within Santeria that I witnessed that were similar to my peoples ways, and it use to always catch my attention, thats a different comparison that I will write about another day. However, I entered the Taino community 10 or 11 years ago. I was still pretty young so its also as if I grew up in the Taino community as well, because there are elders who watched me turn into a man through out those years. In those years I’ve seen the Taino community change DRASTICALLY. Some for the better and some for the worst. I was there to witness all the beef between other yukayekes (tribes) and all the other drama. The yukayeke I am a part of is called Higuayagua. For those who may be wondering, Yes I have danced and did ceremony in Boriken (Puerto Rico) before.
Before the pandemic, I was interviewed by a Borikwa anthropologist by the name of Christina Gonzales. She interviewed many people in the Taino community in hope of creating a book on her research about us for her PHD. While interviewing me, she said I was one of the more unique interviews that she did, because she said I was someone who was raised already with an indigenous identity. I really never saw myself completely different, but it dawned on me that she was right. Early into the community I used to be able to see the bullshit v.s the reality very quickly. And when someone couldn’t manipulate me they would get frustrated. This was never in my yukayeke but other people from different yukayekes. With that being said, being in this community for many years I have seen many types of research and observations, but the one I will begin to share. I will be sharing what Ramon Pane ( A poor friar of the Order of Saint Jerome who accompanied Columbus on his voyage to the Antilles) says about Behike’s (medicine men) and comparing it to what I’ve seen modern day Caribbean people do within Santeria in East New York Brooklyn. To purchase this book click here.
Ramon Pane documented this and you can read this in “An account of the antiquities of the Indians” (The English E-Book Version:
“When one of them is sick, they take him to the behique, who is the aforesaid physician” p. 72
“The Behike stands up and goes toward the sick man, who is seated alone in the middle of the house, as has been said and he walks around him twice, as he deems appropriate; and then he stands in front of him and takes him by the legs, touching him on the thighs and continuing down to the feet; then he pulls hard on him as if he wished to pull something out. from where he goes to the exist of the house and closes the door, he speaks saying “go away to the forest or to the sea or wherever you wish” and with a puff like one who blows into a straw he turns one more time, put his hands together and closes his mouth and his hands tremble like when one is very cold and he blows on his hands”. p. 74
“ And sometimes they believe it is true that those stones are good and they help women give birth, and they keep them very carefully wrapped in cotton putting them into small baskets. they feed them some of what they eat and they do the same with the zemi they have at home. On a solemn occasion when they have an abundance of food fish meat or bread whatever else they put some of everything into the house of the zemi” p.75
“If someone feel ill, they would call the behike and ask him where his illness came from and he would answer the baibrama had sent it to him because they had not sent those who were in charge of caring for his house with anything for him to eat” p.85
“I have not succeeded in discerning among them either idolatry or other sect, although all their kinds and there are many of them on Hispaniola as well as on the other islands not he mainland, have a house for each one of them , separate from the population, in which there is nothing other than images of wood, carved in relief, that they call Zemis (Cemi)” p.114
Caribbeans Today Or Santeria Practitioners:
When someone is sick they will bring them into a botanica to see a santero (a healer) to this day just like our ancestors.
Santeria practitioners or Caribbean people blow tobacco on a persons body they are cleansing and then begin to wipe or pull on the body part of someone being cleansed in order to remove the negative energy. Another thing I have seen is they blow into their hands or into a fish bowl of water. In many cases they talk to the spirit or the person it was removed from begins to ask it questions like where it came from.
I have witnessed several times someone Caribbean tell someone else in a botanica that something happened to them either due to witch craft or due to not worshipping their ancestors or saint properly.
Caribbean people dedicate entire closets for their statues of catholic saints (this is what evolved from the practice of cemism). Cemism is the Taino practice which involved carving stone into ancestral images and praying to them. Ancestrally we would create an entire bohio (home) for them, which later down the line obviously became a closet in todays Caribbean culture. In the closet or outside alters you will see multiple plates of food offerings to these statues of saints.