{"id":106588,"date":"2026-04-07T18:26:33","date_gmt":"2026-04-07T23:26:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/?p=106588"},"modified":"2026-04-08T08:20:57","modified_gmt":"2026-04-08T13:20:57","slug":"the-sun-is-taino-despite-extinction-and-erasure-narratives-puerto-rico-honors-indigenous-heritage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/the-sun-is-taino-despite-extinction-and-erasure-narratives-puerto-rico-honors-indigenous-heritage\/","title":{"rendered":"The sun is Ta\u00edno: Despite extinction and erasure narratives, Puerto Rico honors Indigenous heritage"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Naisha Roy<\/span><\/b>
\n<\/span>Medill Reports<\/span><\/i>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

SALINAS, PUERTO RICO \u2014 In Puerto Rico, the symbols are everywhere.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Spirals and almost-cubist faces\u00a0representing\u00a0the sun, the\u00a0coqu\u00ed\u00a0frog\u00a0and other pieces of nature native to the island. They are preserved in rocks breaking up a cascading waterfall in the\u00a0central town of Jayuya, etched\u00a0on\u00a0handmade magnets in\u00a0Old San Juan\u00a0and graffitied onto bridges in\u00a0Salinas\u00a0on\u00a0the southern coast.\u00a0They\u00a0have\u00a0made their way across the ocean to Chicago\u2019s Humboldt Park, peeking through the neighborhood\u2019s dozens of colorful\u00a0murals.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

These symbols are Ta\u00edno \u2014 the most common name for the archipelago\u2019s\u00a0Indigenous population.\u00a0\u00a0While much\u00a0academic\u00a0literature\u00a0treats them like a long-lost piece of Puerto Rico\u2019s past, recent\u00a0scientific,\u00a0cultural\u00a0and archeological\u00a0discoveries have led to a\u00a0recent\u00a0resurgence in\u00a0Puerto Ricans\u00a0identifying as Ta\u00edno and practicing their ancestral\u00a0culture.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cTa\u00ednos continue to be present in Puerto Rico, even though there have been a lot of changes,\u201d says\u00a0Jos\u00e9 L\u00f3pez,\u00a0professor of\u00a0Latino Studies\u00a0at University of Illinois Chicago. \u201cIn our language, in our food, in our art \u2014 everything that\u2019s Puerto Rican \u2014 you will find incredible elements of the Ta\u00edno people.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The Ta\u00edno motifs are one example. Their origins are petroglyphs, drawings carved into rock, like the ones found on Jayuya\u2019s\u00a0La\u00a0Piedra\u00a0Escrita\u00a0(\u201cThe\u00a0Inscribed Stone\u201d).\u00a0Archeologists date them back to a pre-Columbian era, but\u00a0historians\u00a0don\u2019t\u00a0know exactly when the symbols were carved or who carved them.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cPeople find stones around their house, or sometimes it is like\u00a0finding a dinosaur treasure,\u201d said\u00a0Jordalys\u00a0Gonzalez, a staffer at Jayuya\u2019s\u00a0Museo El\u00a0Cem\u00ed\u00a0which\u00a0showcases\u00a0Ta\u00edno artifacts.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Elementary\u00a0students in Puerto Rico\u00a0learn about the Ta\u00ednos\u00a0in their textbooks: the triangular\u00a0<\/span>cem\u00eds<\/span><\/i>\u00a0representing\u00a0spiritual deities, the\u00a0<\/span>areytos\u00a0<\/span><\/i>or dancing celebrations of the villages and the meaning of the various petroglyphs.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

They also\u00a0learn\u00a0the Ta\u00ednos went extinct.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s a story that we don’t know,\u201d said Yari\u00a0Helfeld, the director of Y No\u00a0Hab\u00eda\u00a0Luz, a Puerto Rican theater company\u00a0based in San Juan. The company uses exaggerated faces\u00a0in\u00a0Ta\u00edno symbols as inspiration for some of their theatrical masks, but\u00a0Helfeld\u00a0admits most of their renditions are artistic interpretations. \u201cIt’s almost impossible to really understand the details because they erased it.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2013 \u2013<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The prevailing narrative used to be that within a few decades of Christopher Columbus\u2019s arrival\u00a0on the island in 1493, a combination of Spanish genocide and disease\u00a0nearly wiped out the Ta\u00ednos in Puerto Rico. According to estimates, there were around\u00a0100,000 to 500,000\u00a0Indigenous people in Puerto Rico before\u00a01493. By 1787,\u00a0<\/span>a Spanish census<\/span><\/a>\u00a0of the Caribbean Islands, including Puerto Rico, reported just 2,300 Ta\u00ednos; by 1802, this number had disappeared altogether. By\u00a0the\u00a0early\u00a0sixteenth century, Europeans\u00a0<\/span>claimed<\/span><\/a>\u00a090% of the tribe had disappeared.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Yet,\u00a0this story has always been disputed. Families passed down stories of Ta\u00edno\u00a0ancestry\u00a0and\u00a0rejected the extinction narrative, and\u00a0some\u00a0historians\u00a0labeled\u00a0it\u00a0a\u00a0<\/span>\u201cpaper genocide,\u201d<\/span><\/a>\u00a0referring to a phenomenon\u00a0through which\u00a0a group\u00a0is\u00a0deleted\u00a0from official records, effectively losing its history.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s part of the ideology of white supremacy all over the world where you declare the darker people of the world as less than human beings,\u201d L\u00f3pez said. \u201cBut increasingly, there is a greater awareness that the Ta\u00edno presence is still with us.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Groups like\u00a0Concilio Ta\u00edno\u00a0Guatu-Ma-cu A Borik\u00e9n\u00a0became dedicated to preserving the native\u00a0traditions they knew from oral history. Every other Saturday, the Ta\u00edno group and nonprofit gather in the\u00a0Indigenous Ceremonial Center in Caguana,\u00a0Utuado, for an\u00a0<\/span>ar\u00e9yto,\u00a0<\/span><\/i>a ceremonial song and dance<\/span>.\u00a0They dance in traditional loincloths called\u00a0<\/span>naguas<\/span><\/i>, wear face and body paint,\u00a0and play maracas amid the\u00a0horseshoe-shaped plaza,\u00a0a\u00a0<\/span>bayete<\/span><\/i>,\u00a0which is\u00a0surrounded by petroglyphs.\u00a0This\u00a0site is a\u00a0National Historic Landmark\u00a0that\u00a0was\u00a0most likely a\u00a0<\/span>practice field<\/span><\/a>\u00a0for an Indigenous ball game called\u00a0<\/span>batos<\/span><\/i>. Like the pre-Columbian Ta\u00edno villages,\u00a0this group\u00a0has\u00a0a\u00a0<\/span>cacique,<\/span><\/i>\u00a0or village leader.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cInitially, I thought they just lived in a community by themselves, still in villages where everybody spent time together there, but no,\u201d said\u00a0Sorin\u00a0Mihailovici, the host of\u00a0\u201c<\/span>Travel by Dart<\/span><\/a>,\u201d a travel\u00a0show\u00a0focused on undiscovered aspects of the world.\u00a0\u201cThey were actually all living separately in the modern city, and they would just get together and create \u2014 or recreate, if you will \u2014 parts of a lifetime that was a long time ago.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Early last year,\u00a0Mihailovici\u00a0attended a Concilio Ta\u00edno\u00a0areyto\u00a0ceremony,\u00a0participating\u00a0in the dance and\u00a0even getting\u00a0\u201cbaptized\u201d as an honorary member of Concilio\u00a0Ta\u00edno.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u00a0didn’t\u00a0do this for tourists, they\u00a0don’t\u00a0do it for the show, they\u00a0don’t\u00a0do it for Instagram.\u00a0They actually do it because that’s what they believe,\u201d he said.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

While Concilio Ta\u00edno recreates Ta\u00edno rituals and music, other groups like\u00a0<\/span>Casa Areyto<\/span><\/a>\u00a0are focused on\u00a0preserving\u00a0the\u00a0Ta\u00edno\u00a0language \u2014\u00a0a dialect of the Arawakan language family in the Caribbean and South America. Their founder,\u00a0Priscilla Col\u00f3n, spent 20 years developing language programs and is the\u00a0co-chair of the International Decade of Indigenous Languages, a preservation effort for Indigenous languages across the globe.\u00a0Casa Areyto hosts a \u201cTainona\u00edki\u00a0for Beginners\u201d online learning course, video lessons on different Ta\u00edno words and\u00a0children’s\u00a0books.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Colorful
Decorations inspired by the Ta\u00edno symbols are common pieces of art in Puerto Rican souvenir stores. (Naisha Roy\/MEDILL)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In some\u00a0<\/span>Puerto Rican schools<\/span><\/a>, Ta\u00edno words\u00a0<\/span>are taught alongside<\/span><\/a>\u00a0<\/span>Spanish, and\u00a0students\u00a0play<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>batos,<\/span><\/i>\u00a0the\u00a0Ta\u00edno\u00a0ball\u00a0game,\u00a0during recess.\u00a0People also run Ta\u00edno language classes on\u00a0<\/span>Facebook<\/span><\/a>, garnering thousands of followers.\u00a0Even though Puerto Ricans on the archipelago\u00a0do\u00a0not often refer to the technical term \u201cpaper genocide,\u201d the inclusion of Ta\u00edno culture everywhere \u2014\u00a0in\u00a0symbols,\u00a0words\u00a0and\u00a0art\u202f\u2014 reflect\u00a0an innate rejection of the extinction\u00a0narrative.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2013 \u2013<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Since 2017, Edgar Ares has worked at\u00a0Don Collins, an ornate cigar and rum shop on a narrow Old San Juan street,\u00a0Calle del Cristo. In the early years of his job, the phone would ring more often than usual \u2014 not\u00a0with\u00a0calls from potential whiskey customers, but from dozens of strangers wanting to put their name down in the \u201cTa\u00edno registry.\u201d These\u00a0callers\u00a0said they\u00a0had heard about a new study on Puerto Rican\u00a0DNA\u00a0and\u00a0turned in their own samples for testing. They had discovered they were\u00a0part\u00a0Ta\u00edno.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe\u00a0(shop\u2019s)\u00a0founder had the Ta\u00edno registry program where people called, and if they did ancestry tests and saw that they had Ta\u00edno roots, then they would call and they would be put down on a list that he had,\u201d Ares said. \u201cBut I\u00a0don’t\u00a0know how official that was. People called with their name and where they were born, and we put it down in a big notebook that we had.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Ares\u00a0doesn\u2019t\u00a0know where the notebook is\u00a0now, since\u00a0the original cigar shop owner\u00a0has\u00a0died. He does keep a print of a Ta\u00edno man smoking a cigar in the back\u00a0of the store, however \u2014 the group invented the modern-day cigar, he claims.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The\u00a0data\u00a0Ares\u2019 callers referred to came from a 2001\u00a0<\/span>study<\/span><\/a>\u00a0by\u00a0Jos\u00e9 Martinez Cruzado, a professor at the University of Puerto Rico\u00a0Mayag\u00fcez\u00a0with a Ph.D. in Biology from Harvard. Cruzado traced the mitochondrial DNA \u2014 passed down through\u00a0the maternal line\u00a0\u2014 of a sample of Puerto Ricans. He found\u00a061% possessed\u00a0mDNA\u00a0indigenous to Puerto Rico.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhat that actually means is that for 61% of Puerto Ricans, if they were to go through their strictly female ancestors \u2014 mother, grandmother, maternal grandmother and then maternal grandmother, everything female \u2014 and end up to the generation of 1493, by the time that the Spaniards arrived to Puerto Rico, that woman will be a Ta\u00edno,\u201d Cruzado said.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

This DNA reflects a very small part of the genome, overrepresenting native heritage in Puerto Ricans since most of the Spanish colonizers were men who reproduced with Ta\u00edno women. When Cruzado repeated the experiment for the Y chromosome, passed down only through male ancestors, Ta\u00edno DNA accounted for only 1%.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

This\u00a0study\u00a0initiated\u00a0conversations about Ta\u00edno erasure, and many Puerto Ricans began using Cruzado\u2019s study as validation of their oral traditions and confirmation of the paper genocide.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

After Cruzado\u2019s study \u2014 and\u00a0<\/span>a\u00a02018 paper<\/span><\/a>\u00a0that recreated the entire Ta\u00edno genome from a\u00a01,000-year-old\u00a0tooth \u2014\u00a0<\/span>more<\/span><\/a>\u00a0Puerto Ricans started ordering DNA tests from places like Ancestry.com and discovering\u00a0they had DNA indigenous to Puerto Rico.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

It became common to see\u00a0<\/span>Facebook groups<\/span><\/a>\u00a0with thousands of members posting their ancestry results and asking how they could be more involved in the Ta\u00edno community.\u00a0By the 2020 census,\u00a0more than\u00a050,000 people\u00a0<\/span>self\u2013identified<\/span><\/a>\u00a0as Ta\u00edno.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I saw that I was 20% Ta\u00edno, I thought, \u2018Wow,\u2019 because I had always liked making arrows and bows and fishing,\u201d said George Acosta, a Puerto Rican who completed a DNA test at his daughter\u2019s urging about a decade ago. \u201cI felt happy. I felt proud.\u00a0I’m\u00a0proud to have Ta\u00edno Indian blood, and I also have 11% African and Black ancestry.\u00a0It’s\u00a0a mix of\u00a0a mix. We are complete hybrids.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

When accounting for the\u00a0entire genome, Cruzado\u00a0said\u00a0the average Puerto Rican is 64% European, 21% African and 15% Indigenous, with the highest percentage his study found being 39% Indigenous.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Most\u00a0organized groups identifying as Ta\u00edno\u00a0actually\u00a0exist\u00a0in the continental U.S.\u00a0\u2014 not Puerto Rico,\u00a0Cruzado\u00a0said. The meaning of\u00a0<\/span>Ta\u00edno\u00a0<\/span><\/i>looks different for each person.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Tanya Rodriguez once identified as Ta\u00edno, having put together\u00a0in 2021\u00a0the\u00a0<\/span>Ta\u00edno Leadership Summit<\/span><\/a>, which brought together\u00a0<\/span>caciques<\/span><\/i>\u00a0from across the\u00a0Greater Antilles\u00a0and South America for a unified conversation. For\u00a0more than\u00a0four hours, they discussed how to make sure Ta\u00edno practices were passed down to future generations, how to\u00a0maintain\u00a0relationships with the\u00a0government,\u00a0and how to stay in communication in the future.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The\u00a0<\/span>experience<\/span><\/a>\u00a0of organizing that summit eventually led to Rodriguez\u2019s separation from the \u201cTa\u00edno\u201d\u00a0moniker. She argues that modern adaptations of organized Ta\u00edno culture can be more of an \u201cIndigenous identity business,\u201d and that focus should be given to the individual Puerto Rican identity \u2014\u00a0<\/span>boriqua<\/span><\/i>\u00a0\u2014 instead.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s mind boggling to imagine that there would be a people on the island who would want to separate themselves and claim a thing, instead of wanting to honor the legacy of what it means to be Puerto Rican and protect our Puerto Rican culture,\u201d she said. \u201cNot try to erase it with Ta\u00edno.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Because the name \u201cTa\u00edno\u201d has had so many competing narratives over time, it is difficult to extract historical evidence to support each of the various perspectives that exist. Cruzado\u2019s academic opinion is\u00a0the true story lies\u00a0somewhere in\u00a0between \u2014\u00a0the Ta\u00ednos\u00a0didn\u2019t\u00a0fully go extinct, but assimilated and intermarried with\u00a0Spanish\u00a0colonizers and later,\u00a0enslaved\u00a0people\u00a0from Africa \u2014\u00a0but this explanation\u00a0isn\u2019t\u00a0nearly as\u00a0satisfying.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2013 \u2013\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Jayuya is the only Puerto Rican town that still hosts an annual Indigenous festival. So,\u00a0Museo El\u00a0Cem\u00ed\u00a0became the natural place to keep all\u00a0the historical\u00a0Ta\u00edno artifacts, Gonzalez\u00a0said. But even the massive rounded gray museum\u00a0is a mix of\u00a0old\u00a0artifacts and contemporary\u00a0interpretations. The museum\u2019s centerpiece is a larger-than-life jute and cotton costume modeled for Hura, the Ta\u00edno goddess protector of the\u00a0<\/span>conuco<\/span><\/i>\u00a0plant.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The\u00a0Adri\u00e1n Torres\u00a0Torres\u00a0Elementary School in the neighborhood\u00a0hosts a fashion show every year, and the winner\u2019s\u00a0costume\u00a0is displayed front and center in the museum\u2019s main hall. Around the top floor of\u00a0Museo El\u00a0Cem\u00ed, photos from annual parades pepper the walls.\u00a0The museum is an archive of Indigenous findings, but also a collection of how modern understanding of \u201cTa\u00edno\u201d means\u00a0nearly as\u00a0much as its past.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Whether\u00a0Ta\u00edno or\u00a0Boriquen, the Indigenous Puerto Rican people have still left an indelible mark on the archipelago. Words like\u00a0\u201cbarbeque,\u201d \u201cguava,\u201d \u201ciguana\u201d and \u201ccanoe\u201d\u00a0come from\u00a0native Puerto Rican origin. At the 2026 Super Bowl, Bad Bunny sang \u201cEl sol es Ta\u00edno,\u201d\u00a0\u2014the sun is Ta\u00edno \u2014\u00a0from his song \u201cEl\u00a0Apag\u00f3n,\u201d\u00a0broadcasting the\u00a0Indigenous\u00a0identity to millions. Every day, hundreds of tourists who are unaware of the Ta\u00edno discourse leave the\u00a0archipelago\u00a0with tote bags, T-shirts and postcards marked with their symbols.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe say modern Puerto Ricans are a blend of three things: Ta\u00ednos, Africans and the Spanish,\u201d says Michelle Amador,\u00a0a worker at\u00a0an\u00a0Old San Juan shop\u00a0selling artisanal goods with Ta\u00edno symbols. \u201cSo, even though physically we don’t look like Ta\u00ednos, it’s still part of our blood and a part of our culture.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Naisha Roy is\u00a0an\u00a0investigative specialization graduate student at\u00a0Medill.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Naisha Roy Medill Reports\u00a0 SALINAS, PUERTO RICO \u2014 In Puerto Rico, the symbols are everywhere.\u00a0\u00a0 Spirals and almost-cubist faces\u00a0representing\u00a0the sun, the\u00a0coqu\u00ed\u00a0frog\u00a0and other pieces of nature native to the island. They are preserved in rocks breaking up a cascading waterfall in the\u00a0central town of Jayuya, etched\u00a0on\u00a0handmade magnets in\u00a0Old San Juan\u00a0and graffitied onto bridges in\u00a0Salinas\u00a0on\u00a0the southern […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1041,"featured_media":106589,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194,5545,5543,5556,675,5555],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-106588","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts-culture","category-medill-explores-2026","category-msj26","category-puerto-rico-2026","category-social-justice","category-spring-2026"],"yoast_head":"\nThe sun is Ta\u00edno: Despite extinction and erasure narratives, Puerto Rico honors Indigenous heritage - Medill Reports Chicago<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/the-sun-is-taino-despite-extinction-and-erasure-narratives-puerto-rico-honors-indigenous-heritage\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The sun is Ta\u00edno: Despite extinction and erasure narratives, Puerto Rico honors Indigenous heritage - Medill Reports Chicago\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Naisha Roy Medill Reports\u00a0 SALINAS, PUERTO RICO \u2014 In Puerto Rico, the symbols are everywhere.\u00a0\u00a0 Spirals and almost-cubist faces\u00a0representing\u00a0the sun, the\u00a0coqu\u00ed\u00a0frog\u00a0and other pieces of nature native to the island. 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