Taino Revival: Critical Perspectives on Puerto Rican Identity and Cultural Politics (review)

The strength of an anthology often lies in its contributors' efforts to create a harmonious exchange of ideas that builds toward a singular, if complex, argument. Taíno Revival takes a deliberately different tack; here, a cacophony of voices engages in contradictory and sometimes heated debates over questions of Puerto Rican identity. Contributors seek to explain the recent phenomenon of "Taíno resurgence": that is, the assumption of a precolumbian indigenous identity by a growing number of Puerto Ricans, most of whom were born and raised in the United States. Based on papers originally presented at a 1998 symposium in New York's El Museo del Barrio, the book explores a fundamental question best posed by the symposium's organizer, anthropologist Arlene Dávila: "[Does] the Taíno resurgence represent a daring oppositional blow to the canons of the [racial] blending myth of Puerto Rican nationality, or is it better seen as yet another example of Puerto Ricans' inability to deal with their long subordinate African legacy?" (p. 35).

The Spanish Conquest decimated Puerto Rico's indigenous people by the mid-sixteenth century, and official records declared the Indian extinct by the late eighteenth century. Nonetheless, today's "Taínos" assert that they are both biological and cultural survivors of this process, and they have successfully negotiated for official recognition by federal agencies and international indigenous rights groups. Given the paucity of information on Puerto Rico's indigenous people, membership is largely based on "natural," rather than social, criteria (p. 104). For example, New Jersey's Taíno Inter-Tribal Council requires the submission of 1 x 1 head shots to determine applicants' suitability for two different membership categories, based on approximation of the proper Indian "look": natiao ("blood brothers") or guatiao ("adoptive brothers") (p. 45).

The contributors differ greatly in their perspectives, depending on the implications that each believes the Taíno movement holds for contesting or confirming the legitimacy of Puerto Rico's continuing colonial condition vis-à-vis the United States and mainland Puerto Ricans' experience as "colonized racial minorities" (p. 117). With the exception of Roberto Mucaro Borrero (who is a Taíno leader himself), all argue that Taíno resurgence reproduces the values of the European-imposed system of power based on racial purity. However, Gabriel Haslip-Viera and Peter Roberts see the movement as a reaction to marginality that offers little more than short-term, self-serving empowerment. Roberts regards Taíno revivalism as an outgrowth of the tendency among Caribbean groups to morph into new racial identities when faced with social adversity and the enduring appeal of the white ideal. Haslip-Viera equates today's Taínos with other U.S. minority movements that claim similarly essentialist identities, such as the Latino Israelites, Black Muslims, and Afrocentrists.

In evaluating the political reach of Taíno resurgence, Dávila and Duany adopt polar views. Focusing on the U.S. context, Dávila interprets the Taínos' quest for an alternative memory (that is admittedly based on "hunches") as a discursive inversion of formerly oppressive values. However, Duany views Taíno resurgence as an "invented tradition" whose greatest impact may be felt on the island. There, claims of Taíno heritage advance the idea that nationality exists independent of nationhood. Despite their differences, Duany and Dávila analyze the uses of Taíno claims but avoid any interpretation of their content; Miriam Jiménez, however, proves that it is possible to do both. Providing the richest historical analysis of the collection, she brilliantly interprets Taíno resurgence against the backdrop of Native American movements, as well as internal struggles among island and diaspora Puerto Ricans over questions of race. On the one hand, Taínos seek to "whiten" themselves by silencing blackness as irrelevant to...