Taino (45 page)

Taíno.
(Caribbean Indian) The aboriginal inhabitants of Cuba, Hispaniola, Puerto Rico, Jamaica, and other lesser islands; self-descriptive, meaning “noble” or “good” people

Tamayo.
Enriquillo's principal captain

Turey.
(Taíno) Sky; also a type of medallion worn by chiefs

Urayoán.
Boricua
cacique
, sometimes written as Broyoan, who drowned a Spaniard to test whether in fact the covered men were immortal

xaiba.
(Taíno) Antillean freshwater crab (
Callinectes diacanthus
)

Xamayca.
(Taíno) Present-day Jamaica

Xaraguá.
Territory of
cacique
Bohechio, in southwestern Española

xiba.
(Taíno) Stone and woody mountain

xikí.
(Taíno) A tree that has a very hard wood

Ya.
(Taíno) Strong or vital spirit

yaguasa.
(Taíno) An indigenous Cuban duck

Yara.
Place near Cuban city of Bayamo, where Hatuey was immolated

Yaquimo.
Port town in southern Española; also, Puerto Brazil

Yoruba.
Tribal people from eastern Africa, many of whom were brought to the Caribbean as slaves

yuán.
A reconstructed Taíno word for “penis,” from
iu
, “yucca,” the form of the tuber, and
ia
or
an
, “vital force”

Yucahuguama Bagua Maórocoti.
Supreme being in the Taíno cosmology. A triple name meaning “One who brings the
yucca
,” “rules the sea,” and “is without ancestral grandfathers,” born of woman only

yucca.
(Taíno) Manioc, a primary tropical root crop

yukaieke.
(Taíno) Village or settlement

Yunque.
A flat-peaked promontory form found near the ocean in Cuba and in Borikén

About the Author

Presently a senior scholar at the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian,
José Barreiro
is a novelist, essayist, and activist of nearly four decades on American indigenous hemispheric themes. Barreiro is a member of the Taíno Nation of the Antilles.