Taíno Heritage

The Taíno were the people living across Hispaniola when Europeans arrived, and within fifty years disease, forced labour and violence had reduced them to almost nothing as a distinct population. What did not disappear is the trace they left everywhere else: words absorbed into Spanish and then into English, hurricane, canoe, barbecue, hammock, tobacco and maize among them; foods that remain staples, cassava bread still baked in the northwest, and the technique of processing bitter yuca to remove its toxin; and elements of belief that merged into rural religious practice. The objects are in the museums, the rock art is in the caves, and genetic studies have found Taíno ancestry persisting in the modern population.

What you actually see

• Museo del Hombre Dominicano - the largest Taíno collection anywhere.
• Cave rock art - El Pomier, Las Maravillas and Los Haitises.
• Casabe - cassava bread, still made and eaten, particularly in the northwest.
• The vocabulary - Taíno words that entered Spanish and then English.

When to go

Year-round for museums; November to April is easier for the cave sites and their access tracks. Cassava bread makers in Monción in the northwest can be visited, and the town holds a casabe festival.

Honest expectations

Popular presentation of the Taíno leans heavily on a romantic image, and hotel folklore shows and souvenir carvings have little to do with the archaeology. Nothing survives as a continuous living Taíno community, and claims otherwise should be treated carefully. The rock art sites are fragile and underfunded, and some have been damaged by visitors.

Nearby

The museums are in Santo Domingo; the caves are within two hours of it.