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Get to know the Anacaona Museum in the Dominican Republic (April)
Did you know one of the best known cultural histories in Dominican Republic and Haiti is about the last princess of the Caribbean and protector of the Taino people known as Anacaona? She who was born in 1460 on the island of Hispaniola (now known as the Dominican Republic and Haiti). This time, we can know something more about her and the Anacaona Museum located in the village of Bayahibe, which is a beautiful Caribbean town in the Dominican Republic to the south of the island (embarkation for Saona sland in the main parking lot). https://www.museoanacaona.com/443512637 Cotubanamá National Park – Google Maps
Daniel Cacharanza is the director and owner of the museum, which is set to open about this April 15 after its opening was postponed due to COVID-19; Daniel previously had a dive school, during his time at sea and in its depths he would venture out in the island’s waters while enjoying the landscape offrered by mother nature and founding these treasures on land and sea, where you could see the history of its people many years ago.
When he discovered these important symbolic artifacts, he got a new goal in his life that was to show the culture and time many decades ago to locals and tourists. That is how the Anacaona Museum was created, its staff explain to us that each one of us will discover the history of this place and, in turn, the origins of the Dominican people, starting with this great, expressive, beautiful and important princess called Anacaona, who was the last leader and one of the main figures of Taino society and led her people when the encounter between cultures was given whith the arrival of the colonizers, especially the Spaniards.
The term Anacaona gathers meaning as it is separated, where the term “Ana” and “Caona” result in the final conjugation “Golden Flower”. She was born in 1460 and was the sister of Bahechio, cacique of Jaragua , whom she succeeded after his death, held the position of cacique in Jaragua (one of the five chiefdom in which the island was divided) and became noted for her intelligence and mental agility, with which she was beign handled. Her husband was the Casique of El Cibao Caonabo, with whom she had a daughter named Higuemota; she also seeded poetry in her people and was the author of many of the historical romances known by the name of areitos, which were sung by the indigenous people in their popular dances.
The Taino population was characterized by its unique purity, zero vanity or evil among them, their economy was based on the exchange of goods and everything within the community that was available to everyone. They did not know the value of gold or other jewels stolen by the invaders when they arrived. The Taino indians had never seen galleons and were not familiar with swords, mirrors and firearms brought by the invaders, this being the succession of the darkest history that they could live.
At the beginning, Queen Anacaona started to feel acceptance and a positive receptivity of foreigners (the Spaniards) to their lands and then admiration as they brought a lot of knowledge and objects that they did not possess and that they Spaniards used in their daily routines, but it took serious and repeated offenses to her people for Anacaona to change her feelings towards the Spaniards and/or foreigners, where her husband fell prisoner in one of his battles with them and died far from his country on the way to Spain in 1946.
After a long conflict against the rule of Spanish fleets that had looted and enslaved the entire Taino population until they remained in misery by the greed of colonization at the time of Christopher Columbus when he reached the new world, Anacaona was arrested and sentenced to death for her courage and courageous gestures in defense of the Taino population.
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Anacaona died by hanging in 1503 at the age of 29 on the orders of Spaniard Nicolas de Ovando, a very messy way in which the Spaniards paid pack the debt of gratitude they had with a queen from whom they had only received favors, and who had forgiven them the death of her husband and other tricks, so she was able to take revenge, but she did not. For several years, many Europeans who lived a quiet life in her State, ending her era and that of her people, as they were exterminated and enslaved.
This story is well known in the Dominican Republic and Haiti, becoming a symbol and history, so the Anacaona Museum was a way to live it or appreciate it. This place is the refuge and exhibition of the culture of the inhabitants of the island for approaching its people or tourists who visit it and traveling through time with the different architectural pieces discovered, but it does not explain how many of them got there and others were simply created on the island. However, it is not known how the Taino people managed to have them, as such instruments used must have been very sophisticated to create it as was the Shard sphere and the Egyptian pyramid whose creation could not be explained it in other museums, as happens in many cultures.
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For more information:In the museum, you will be able to carry you back to those times through their findings as they are unique and original pieces, dated as early as 1000 before Christ (BC) and the pre-Columbian era, You can hear and live the origins, history and life of this beautiful country through each piece and see you the caves that reveal true evidence, such as drawings, and the most reliable theory is that the entire National Park of the East was an authentic Taino settlement.
- WebSite: https://www.museoanacaona.com/443501785
- Social Networks: @MuseoAnacaona
Latin America – April 2021
Anacaona Areito de Anacaona ‘Golden Flower’
Anacaona was the last princess of the Caribbean and protector of the Taino people.
“Anacaona, areito de Anacaona”, sang Cheo Feliciano before a heated crowd at the Cheetah club in New York late on 26 August 26, 1971.
It has been more than 50 years have passed and the chorus from the pen of Tite Curet Alonso resounds as if it were yesterday. But who was Anacaona?
Anacaona or Anakaona. (1474-1503)1 was an aboriginal Taino chieftain of Bohío Island. She governed the Cacicazgo of Jaragua after the death of her brother Bohechío. She was condemned to be hanged by Governor Nicolás de Ovando.
Anacaona means ‘Golden Flower’ in the Taino language. She was a Haitian princess of Taino origin who was born in the year 1474 at Bohío, as it was dubbed by its inhabitants and then divided into two Caribbean countries: the Dominican Republic and Haiti.
After the death of her brother Bohechío, Anacaona would take over as cacique to rule the Chiefdom of Jaragua. She had a natural talent for poems, which she sang in the areitos, dances, and songs with which the Taino Indians celebrated their festivities and religious rites.
Anacaona received Christopher Columbus on his first voyage at Christmas 1492. She felt admiration for the new knowledge and skills of these people to solve day-to-day challenges.
Those led by Columbus established a settlement in the new territory, which they called Christmas Town. It is said that this was the first building of the Spaniards in America.
But harmony would not last for long. The abuse on the natives began, especially women who were mistreated and raped without hesitation.
Anacaona would not accept the oppressive tyranny and persuaded Caonabo, her husband, to destroy the settlement where the invaders were based.
Christopher Columbus left the territory and, upon return in November 1493, he found Christmas Town destroyed and its more than 43 men killed. It was an affront. Anacaona escaped and became an Indian of a captive race, as the song goes. But her freedom would not last long. After an intense search, she was captured and bound to hang in 1504.
The Tite Curet Alonso’s ‘Anacaona’
Tite Curet Alonso composed ‘Anacaona’ without knowing who she was. The song written from one day to the next would be included in the album “Cheo” (1971) of Vaya Records. The label sought to re-launch Feliciano’s musical career, who had stayed away from the stage as a result of the rehabilitation for his drug addiction.
In an interview posted on Youtube, Tite says that he was inspired by a Lecuona Cuban Boys orchestra’s song (recorded in the 1930s) and baptized it with that name in honor of the Cuban girl group Anacaona.
He says he tried to “make up a mystical story” about Spanish and Indian slaves. When composing, Curet did not know he was telling the true story of the Haitian princess who fought against the Spaniards in the early years of the discovery of America.
After the release of the album was released, which was well received by the public, Curet visited a priestess who knew the life of Anacaona and had heard the song in the voice of Cheo Feliciano. After knowing the story, Tite was greatly impressed.
The woman informed the composer that it was the Taíno ancestors who inspired his pen in each verse.
“But how is it possible that you wrote that song? Now you have to make a song for Caonabo and I will tell you why: because from a certain generation upwards, you are a descendant of Caonabo and Anacaona”, said the priestess.
It did not take long for Tire Curet to publish his tribute to ‘Caonabo’, the Indian fighter who, like his wife Anacaona, fought against Spanish oppression. The song was included in his production as a singer-songwriter entitled “Aquí estoy con un poco de algo” (1975).
The Cheetah concert on August 26, 1971, gave rise to the salsa boom and allowed several young talents to make history. Moreover, it opened the way for composers like Tire Curet Alonso, who with songs like ‘Anacaona’, created the soundtrack of Latin American soul.
Images courtesy of Museo Taino Anacaona
https://www.museoanacaona.com/
Dominican Republic
