Iaiama: The Pineapple

DID YOU KNOW - The pineapple was spread by Indigenous Peoples up through South and Central America to the Caribbean before Columbus arrived. It is suggested that the fruit was originally developed in southern Brazil and Paraguay where wild relatives occur. In 1493 Columbus encountered the fruit on the island of Guadaloupe and carried it back to Spain. The pineapple was soon distributed around the world on sailing ships that carried it for protection against scurvy. The Spanish introduced it into the Philippines and possibly to Hawaii and Guam early in the 16th Century. The pineapple reached England in 1660 and began to be grown in greenhouses around 1720. In the Taino language the pineapple is called Iaiama (Yayama). – UCTP Taino News © 2010

Flat Foreheads

Did You Know: A flat forehead was considered very attractive in many Taino communities. Mothers carried their newborn babies on their backs with a padded, wooden board. The board would lay across the child's head and flattened the impressionable forehead.- - UCTP Taino News © 2009

Taino Weaving

Did You Know - Weaving techniques for making haba (baskets), makuto (pack sacks), and hamaka (hammocks) formed an important part of ancient Taino culture. Even Christopher Columbus remarked on the finely woven cotton blankets made by the Taino during his early encounters with the island communities. Today, many of the same weaving techniques are still used by contemporary communities throughout the Caribbean. – - UCTP Taino News © 2008

Mayagüez

Did You Know - Local tradition holds that while the city of Mayagüez, Puerto Rico was originally named "Our Lady of the Candelaria of Mayagüez", the city’s name derives from a variation of the Taino Indian term iagües (yagüez) meaning “clear waters”. The city was eventually named just Mayagüez (pronounced Mah-yah-goo-ehz or Mah-yah-GWEHZ), a variation of the Taino term, said to mean "Land of the Clear Waters". – - UCTP Taino News © 2008

Taino Guayuko

DID YOU KNOW - The Spanish chronicler Gonzalo Fernandez de Oviedo y Valdez (1478-1507) recorded the word guayuko or guaiuko to refer to a type of breech cloth that was small and covered the genital area. A breechcloth (sometimes called Lioncloth) is a long rectangular piece of cloth. It is worn between the legs and tucked over a belt or cord, so that the flaps fell down in front and behind. In Boriken (Puerto Rico) the word was widely used in the rural areas and coastal cane fields and came to refer to an old pair of worn Khakis working pants up until around the 1950s. Although the term has largely fallen out of use some elders and language enthusiasts have kept the word alive. A similar term is nagua. Although the original Taíno term nagua referred to a breech cloth over the years it has come to refer to pantyhose and is sometimes also called enagua.- - UCTP Taino News © 2008