Who Are Cuba’s Native People?

Dmitri Prieto

HAVANA TIMES — On October 20th – Cuban Culture Day – there was a very interesting event held at the Cuban Writers and Artists Association (UNEAC) headquarters, which was dedicated to Cuba’s native peoples.

This forum, organized by UNEAC’s social-historical literature department, dealt with a relatively unknown subject in Cuba which -for those who know about it- is controversial.

Almost every national history text used in schools and universities across all grades, establish the fact that the native population who lived in Cuba when the Spanish arrived, disappeared almost in its entirety over the course of a few decades, due to them being wiped out by killings, disease, suicide, overexploitation and abuse, which were all the result of the Spanish Empire’s colonization of the island.  These native communities shouldn’t be confused with the Yucateco Indians who were brought to Cuba, from Mexico, by the colonial government in subsequent centuries, nor with the presence of native American tribes from Florida and the South.

The most interesting thing about this event was that it exposed evidence publicly, in a truly exceptional manner even today, proving that there are some communities still living here that not only trace back their “biological” family trees to prehispanic indigenous ancestors, but still define themselves as such.

One of these tribes has elected a chief in charge of the group’s traditional leadership, according to what Havana University professor, Antonio Martinez, explained showing the audience many photos.

It is widely accepted that Cuba’s native Indians, Indigenous people (these are the names they use to call themselves) have provided many place names, and agricultural, botanical, zoological and architectural terms still used today.

We also owe farming practices, typical dishes (such as casabe) and some cultivated plants to them, the most famous being tobacco. Linguist Sergio Valdes Bernal spoke about the presence of these aspects of indigenous culture at the event.

When the Spanish Conquest took place, Cuba was mainly populated by the Aruacos, tribes from the West Indies who belonged to the tupi-guarani language family (which grouped together ethnic groups covering the vast space between the Caribbean and Paraguay), who were known by the conquistadores and their descendents as “tainos”. There are witness accounts of the presence of other ethnic native groups on the island (siboneyes, guanahatabeyes), but today, their differences with the Aruaco people are being questioned.

When the Conquest suddenly took place, the native population declined greatly. And the most widespread version accepted up until today is that the indigenous tribes that remained, mixed with Iberian colonizers and African slaves, brought to Cuba as a labor force.

Recent genetic studies, which were mentioned by the event’s speakers, suggest that a large percentage of Cubans today have inherited via their native American mitochondrial DNA from the female line (which is only passed down from mothers to their children, and never from fathers). And it’s very much the case that it was native women who were the mothers of the first creole people on this island: it was mainly with men who came from Spain and we can only imagine how violent these kinds of relations were here back then…

There were rebellious acts, a real war of irregular guerrilla fighters, with formidable leaders, not just men like Hatuey and Guama, but women too, like Anacaona. Historian Rolando Rensoli spoke about this forgotten war of resistance.

Today’s problem with indigenous legacy boils down to the following question: is there only one native Indian cultural legacy that exists here in Cuba, in the country’s transcultural mix or are there also Cuban people who – like Afrodescendents, Hispanic, or Cuban slaves – have their own traits, which they’ve directly inherited from their Aruaco ancesters? Anthropologists Jesus Guanche, Ivette Garcia and Avelino Couceiro explained that the first part of this question can be answered with a great big yes, and is no longer being debated. Jose Matos also confirmed this finding, showing us evidence of the presence of indigenous traits in the Virgen de la Caridad del Cobre cult.

Cuba’s Catholic Patron. However, the second part of the question has yet to be answered.

Many Cuban archaeologists, such as Gerardo Izquierdo and his colleagues at the National Anthropology Institute, have defended this opinion and have written books about how, in reality, these native peoples on the island didn’t disappear in the space of a few years, and shouldn’t be dealt with as if they were an exotic past, but as a part of our history of struggles and a cultural reality that should be respected. For example, on November 27th 1492, the first act of anticolonial resistance in the Americas took place in front of Cuba’s eastern shores: a group of nonconformist Indians fired arrows at Colon’s fleet.

However, the proposition that “these Indians” are still here, now, with their own identity and living among us has always remained an anomaly and news for most of us who live in Cuba today. While many American countries have indigenous movements demanding their cultural rights and civil dignity, Cuba has traditionally considered itself distanced from all of this, as “everybody knows that Cuban Indians were wiped out”…

And then, Chief Panchito and his daughter appeared recently in front of their tribe in Cuba’s far east and claimed their indigneous ancenstry and the right to establish themselves as their people’s rightful leaders. And activists from the Kagueiro group have also popped up, people who study indigenous roots in our Americas and who defend today’s presence of native tribes here in Cuba.

I was grateful to hear all of this at UNEAC at a respectful event. An interesting opinion was voiced during this discussion: if those who practice rumba or Afrodescendent religions or Spanish dance, and who identify themselves with their Iberian or African ancestors, aren’t made to present proof of the continuity of this cultural transmission over the centuries – if it isn’t strange to see people return to the cultural practice of going back “to their roots” after generations of “modern” parents and grandparents, without any interest in tradition, then why is it now that people are asking those people who define themselves as “indigenous” in Cuba, to certify their ancestry in detail? Why are some people considering this redemption as a threat to “being Cuban”?

A new form of censorship was knocked down. At the end of the day, nobody can deny the fact that “Cuba”, the name of this beautiful land, comes from the language of our Aruaca tribes.