TAINO DNA RESEARCH!!

TAINO DNA IN PUERTO RICO

By Jose TureyCu Lopez

In our pursuit to putting together the missing pieces of our Taino Culture and  To further confirm the findings of the article (“MtDNA and Race in PR Henry Quirindongo : Sunday, August 29, 1999 mtDNA and Race in PR -- EL NUEVO DIA (Edited and clarified by Henry Quirindongo) By Gladys Nieves Ramirez –MAYAGUEZ”) I did a little research came up with some of my own findings:

According to Author: Kal Wagenheim in page 50 of his Book entitled: "Puerto Rico" A profile:  he states:  "A large Spanish trading house, La Real Factoria Mercantil, opened a prosperous tobacco export business.  And a census in 1787, which showed 103,000 inhabitants (compared with 45,000 in 1765) revealed the rather surprising fact  that there still remained over 2,000 pure-blooded Indians in Puerto Rico (Some of these however, may have been imported from other nearby islands)."

I find it interesting that the above excerpt seems to confirm the stories of families in which one family can retrace their Taino ancestors (Pure Blooded Taino-Arawak) just before 1878.  ---- Source:  Puerto Rico, A Profile. Kal Wagenheim. 1975 Preager Publishers, New York.

More on the Taino DNA from the website of the Delaware Review of Latin American Studies (http://www.udel.edu/LASP/index.html) . With articles and excerpts like these and more along with personal communications we have had through family members and other people who will remain nameless, there is very little questions in my mind or in the minds of the members of our people!, that are people still exist as pure bloods and mestizos (mixed blood) as we are.

TAINO DNA INFORMATION AND LINKS

http://www.dnaancestryproject.com/

http://www.familytreedna.com/

http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/41/308.html

ASK FOR 

Doctor Juan Martinez-Cruzado of the Mayaguez Campus,

Department of Biology of the University of Puerto Rico,

University of Puerto Rico 

Mayaguez Campus 

DEPARTMENT OF BIOLOGY P.R.

P.O.BOX 9012

MAYAGUEZ P.R.00601-9012

TEL 787 832 4040 EXT 3900

FAX 787 834 3673

MESSAGE FROM

Jose TureyCu (Sacred Sky) Lopez 

I wish to express to you a short story that has forever deeply touched my heart.

One day many years ago while attending the Puerto Rican Day Parade, I was sitting on the curb of a street surrounded by hundreds of spectators for the parade, the sun was scorching my back and I was playing a small Taino bamboo log tongue drum called a Mayahuacan. While I was playing and the festivities were in full swing an elderly man approached me.  I did not know this man but he said he knew me. He was very gray with hair tied in a pony tail, very slim frail framed, small stature and kind of hunched over but had a very friendly smile that could out shine the sun. He was dressed in a simple white cloth that covered his body, sandals and a small brown leather medicine pouch around his chest and shoulder. With a scraggly Spanish voice he grabbed my shoulder and said:

"I wish to share something with you that I want you to share with others, but I will only tell you this on the condition that you promise to tell others".

 Which of course I did. He said

"Never let anyone tell you that you are not Taino, because truth be known that even if you have a drop of Taino blood in you, you ARE Taino."

 He continued on.

"Also know this that being Taino is not just about having the blood, but it is also a way of life, so it is also the truth that even if you are not Taino but you adopt our way of life and culture, you are also Taino." 

After this elder made his statement he simply smiled, gently patted my cheeks as if I were his son and walked away. I still till this day never got the chance to know him or his name, but what he said impacted my heart and soul. I was always told by my grandparents of my Taino roots and the statement that this man made only confirmed what my parents and grandparents had been saying for many years. It made me understand that personal identity and understanding the roots of that identity is vital to understanding who I will be and seek to be in the today and the future. I never knew that old man but I will remember him and my grandparents and what they imparted to me about my Taino culture and history forever.

Puerto Ricans are of Taino Blood In Riverside Webster's II New College Dictionary, The word Taino is defined as:

1. a member of an extinct Arawakan people of the West Indies. The following is an article from a Puerto Rican newspaper that reports that many Puerto Ricans are indeed of Taino blood despite the many arguments that there are no Tainos left in Puerto Rico or in Puerto Ricans themselves. MtDNA and Race in PR Henry Quirindongo : Sunday, August 29, 1999 mtDNA and Race in PR -- EL NUEVO DIA (Edited and clarified by Henry Quirindongo) By Gladys Nieves Ramirez -MAYAGUEZ - Two short studies revealing that a considerable percentage of Puerto Ricans have indigenous American Indian blood have persuaded doctor Juan C. Cruzado Martinez to make a sample experiment with the purpose of measuring genetic contributions through the maternal lineage of the three ethnic groups that predominate in Puerto Rico. In addition to the native American Indian, the study will identify the percentage of Puerto Ricans that have black and Caucasian (white) heritage. In the study, which (began) in August, (1999.) Martinez (received) a scholarship grant of $270.000 from the National Foundation of Sciences of the United States. Martinez, who is a professor of Biology of the Recinto University of Mayaguez (RUM), explained that the experiment will examine the deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) of the mitochondria (mtDNA) that is transmitted solely through the mother. From the volunteers, six roots of hair are taken that are treated in the laboratory so that the DNA is released. Each ethnic group has an mtDNA distinguishing, marker indicated. The professor maintained that for the first study, taken in the past academic year, he examined mtDNA of 56 people, 23 of residents of districts who have an indigenous known background, like Indiera Alta and Indiera Baja, of Maricao, and Miraflores, of Anasco. The other volunteers were workers of the RUM that affirmed to have Indian ancestry on the part of the mother or a grandmother. 70% of the examined registered mtDNA of indigenous origin. As that study was skewed, since they only looked for people who could possibly have indigenous ancestry, Martinez said he had made an additional study in which he examined 38 people selected (scientifically) at random. Of that group, 53% was positive for indigenous mtDNA. Surprising results "The results surprised us by the high indigenous percentage, because it says in history that the Indians were quickly exterminated by diseases. We are finding that, but more true, that they were assimilated and that can have many implications. For example, one can eliminate a race without exterminating it. It can be eliminated (to a large degree culturally as well as genetically), when assimilating", the professor expounded. He stated that the experiments examine the history of the bloodline of Puerto Rico solely through the maternal lineage. It added that furthermore, he intends to study the genetic contribution through the paternal lineage, which can take over the chromosome and since the Spanish colonization was mainly of men, it expects that the Caucasian contribution to the genetics of the Puerto Ricans is greater than the native by paternal lineage. (This also applies to the Black slave men who were introduced there.) "Now we are going to make a study much more complete because the study will be representative of all Puerto Rico and we will gather from the different social strata," Martinez said. The statistical error is going to be relatively low," affirmed Martinez. For that study Martinez and a group of Biology students will visit 800 homes in different zones of Puerto Rico. For the sample volunteers of eight towns of larger populations will be selected. They are San Juan, Bayamón, Ponce, Carolina, Caguas, Mayaguez, Arecibo and Guaynabo. In addition, they will look for samples in Cayey, Corozal and Barranquitas, in the central zone; in Aguadilla, San Sebastián, Moca and Hormigueros in the west; in Yauco, Juana Diaz and Penuelas in the south; in Toa Baja, Vega Baja and Vega Alta in the north; and in Humacao, San Lorenzo and Loíza in the east. The towns were (scientifically) chosen at random, pointed Martinez. He emphasized that it will be the first time that an experiment of this nature in Puerto Rico (or anywhere else) has been made.