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Legacy Of The Taino: The History And Diversity Of The Dominican Republic

Peter Greenberg Worldwide

Dominican Republic beachIf all you know about the Dominican Republic are its beautiful beaches and affordable resorts, pay attention.

Peter recently sat down with historian and long-time resident Dr. Lynne Guitar to get a little history lesson and a glimpse into the cultural diversity within this island destination.

Peter Greenberg: Most of the people who come to the Dominican Republic never leave the resort: they’re at the pool, they’re drinking, they go back to their plane. That’s not what you are all about, is it?

Lynne Guitar: That’s definitely not what I am all about, and they miss some of the most incredibly wonderful parts of the Dominican Republic. I became fascinated by the Dominican Republic when I went back to school as a 42-year-old sophomore in 1989.

This is the island that has the oldest permanent settlement in all the Americas. It’s the island where all of the patterns that were taken to the Americas, especially to Spanish America, were born. The patterns of how we see or construct it and all the cultural patterns. It’s an island just full of history starting with Christopher Columbus when he landed here in 1492.

PG: Everybody forgets about Christopher Columbus.

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LG: He baptized it Hispaniola. We don’t know what the original indigenous name was. It had several because there were at least seven to nine indigenous tribes and nations, and they each have their own different word for it.

Dominican Republic beachesThere’s controversy whether the Taíno Indians islands, who were the most advanced of all the groups on the island, ever called it Quisqueya. A lot of people did believe they call it Quisqueya, but they also called it Ayiti. And it seemed to have several other names, including Bohio, which means “home.”

PG: You mentioned the Taíno population. When Christopher Columbus came here it was estimated there were a million of them, and now it is down to what, 500?

LG: Well, nobody knows how many there really were. In 1492 the original Spaniards thought there were only maybe 200,000. Every time we do more archaeological, demographic and mitochondrial DNA research, we get different numbers.

Probably, we’re somewhere around 4 million in the 1490s. But because it’s tropical the bacteria and viruses that came with the Spaniards and their animals wiped out probably 80 percent, maybe even 90 percent.

Today, there is nobody who still walks around wearing arm bands and leg bands speaking Taíno. So there are no pure Taínos left as far as we know, but almost all Dominicans have some Taíno DNA in their multiple genetic structure. They are basically tripartite: indigenous people with African and European genes on top.

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PG: If you look at the history of this country, at one point it was all part of the Republic of Haiti until about 1822, right?

LG: No, it was actually two separate countries, or two separate colonies. There was a French colony that occupied the western third of the island, called Saint-Domingue. Then the Spanish side, which was called then Santo Domingo. Then the Haitian side, what is called the Republic of Haiti today, began to rebel. They wanted that liberty, freedom, and brotherhood that the French were getting in their French Revolution. That was in 1804.

It took the Haitians a while to get their act together. Then Toussaint Louverture, who had been here already, declared there was no more slavery across the island. Then he got involved in a dispute with André Rigaud and Jean-Jacques Dessalines before he was actually  going to be the president of the new Republic of Haiti. Once they got their act settled in 1822, that’s when the Haitians unified the island.

For more information on the history of the Dominican Republic from Dr. Lynne Guitar, visit www.hispaniola.com.

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