Tau (greetings) to all:

Many of the inquiries made by our brothers and sisters have to do with tracing their roots, especially in learning the name of the tribe or clan they belong to. Without intent to discourage the public in doing so, tracing the genealogical line of our ancestors is very difficult and more often than not this task is almost impossible. There are only about five families that we know of who have been fortunate enough to be able to do this. One of them is a direct descendant of the Cacique Caguax of Caguas, Puerto Rico. Our sister, Carmen Baguanamey, Chief of the Turabo/Aymaco Yukayeke, happens to be one of them. Her family history has been clearly documented by the town historian, Juan David.

To begin your research, you must start by gathering vital information regarding any and all of the family members that can help you in the search. Information such as dates and location of marriages, baptisms, births, deaths, social security numbers and such, will enable you to search in town churches, libraries and other places where many of the documents are generally kept in good condition, but don’t be discouraged if the place no longer exists.

Another source is the internet. Here, you can find historical documents and government census records including the 1910 U.S. Federal Census. Sites such as Census Transcript Project Index at http://www.rootsweb.com/~prsanjua/census3.htm and many other genealogy sites such as http://www.rootsweb.com/~prwgw/index.html
(geneolología puertoriqueña) where you can find other people doing there searches and maybe even find a relative or someone that knows some of the families that you’re looking for.

The search for our Taíno past is not only a challenge but and arduous task. From the moment that the conquistadores set foot on the lands of our ancestors, the once peaceful way of life was disrupted forever and the ways our Taíno people suppressed and controlled to the point of almost total annihilation. Our history has been passed down through oral history (mouth to ear) for they did not have a written language. So we are confronted with the way history was documented by the Spaniards. Unfortunately, many times reality was distorted in order to respond to personal and political agendas of individuals in positions of power. The stories told by the conquistadors were undoubtedly influenced by their world view, biases and economic interests. This is well documented in the “Devastation of the Indies”. Here, we can see how in the first years of the conquest, many of our ancestors died as a result of harsh labor, torture, burning of villages, illness and mass suicide. Though the Taínos where facing monumental odds, they resisted the odds through rebellions of which were not reported and escaping to the interior of the island of Boriken or traveling to other islands.

The Spaniards, guided by their lust of gold and a mission to Christianize where violating the most fundamental elemental principles of Christianity in doing so. The story told by the Spaniards spoke of “civilizing” and “converting” the Indians. If this story were to be told by our Taíno ancestors it would denounce enslavement and the violence on their families and the imposition of culture and religious beliefs.

As we search for our identity within the past we are confronted with many conflicting documents indicating the existence of Taíno through letters, reports, books and census reports that where manipulated for specific purposes. During 1520, Puerto Rico was producing more gold than Española. Thousands of Indians where brought to the island from south America, neighboring islands of the Caribbean and Mexico to labor as slaves until the 1540’s and official documents do not reflect this process and this fact minimizes the existence of indigenous people. The new laws of 1542 forbid slavery of the Indians and therefore underground traffic was not mentioned in the official correspondence. In the late 1520’s, the economy shifts from that of mining to the production of sugar and since the church received 10% of the income generated by the production of sugar, it was to their advantage to omit the existence of indigenous slaves in order to protect slave owners and at the same time protect their income from this industry. It is also at this time that African slaves are introduced to the island and some sources indicate that statistics regarding the existence of Taínos where minimized in order to justify bringing slaves from Africa. In spite of the efforts to suppress information regarding the Taíno Indians and other indigenous groups, in 1579 Juan Ponce de Leon was scandalized by the influence of indigenous religious practice among the Spanish. The church was not able to maintain absolute control over religious beliefs and practices as it would have liked. In many instances indigenous belief was intertwined with catholic practices, but at the same time indigenous practices where in turn linked to sorcery. In one account, a native was whipped for being able to predict the coming of a hurricane.

During the beginning of the 1600’s Taínos where counted only if they where pure. Numbers did not account for a mestizo or Taínos who intermarried with people of other ethnic background, even though both where able of transmitting Taíno culture and heritage and insuring its continuity. Nonetheless, this had serious legal implications. In Cuba, pure Indians where protected by laws that entitled them to land rights. These rights where not transferable unless their descendants where pure. It was in the interest of those who wanted these lands to reduce the amount of pure Indians and by these means take away the right of the indigenous people to own land.

Through the years 1705-1803, the first census of Puerto Rico reflected a significant number of Indians although their origin and particularities where not described. Abbad, a historian who wrote the first history book on Puerto Rico, does not include this information and without hesitation, he states that the Indians have disappeared. This, in spite of the official documents demonstrating the contrary.

In 1776, official numbers reflect 2.3 % of the population is indigenous and in 1779 4.5 % is indigenous and in 1803 this category disappears and it is hard to explain the increase in the number of Indians towards the end of the 18 th century.

We hope that this gives you and idea of the immense odds of tracing our roots back to their origins, but this should not discourage us in doing research and as time goes by, many more documents may surface that may help us all.

In recent years the field of science has given another way to seek our link with our Taíno past and that is through DNA testing, in recent years, testing has taken place and the evidence has upset established history. Read more about this at http://www.indio.net/taino/main/dna.htm so by looking for MTDNA transmitted by the mothers you may establish that you have indigenous DNA, but not 100% that it’s from the Taínos, this is a leap of faith. If you feel it in your heart and believe you have Taíno blood, seek and your ancestors will guide you. We hope this serves you as a guide and if you are interested on the DNA testing, you can have this done through the mail. You can find more information on DNA testing at the following site: http://www.genetree.com/product/mtdna-testing.asp