Summary
To Nathan Lump, Editor and Chief of National Geographics Magazine,
My name is Melissa Santiago. I am a freelance journalist. I am working on a project to bring forth the history of Taino indigenous people from Puerto Rico. Decades ago Puerto Rico has fallen victim to some very serious oppressed issues. One issue that has been under looked has been the colonization of Puerto Rico from the Spanish empire. Where Puerto Rico is not the first nor the last to have been dominated by another country, nor is it the country in which the largest quantity of belongings and physical cultural artifacts have been taken away; this is not to say that culture was not lost within these events. What if I told you that what was taken away long ago still exists today better yet, what if I said it remain central to Puerto Rican history yet so few Puerto Ricans possess it? That something is the lost language of the Taino Indians. Before Spanish became Puerto Rico's primary language after the Spanish invasion, the people of Puerto Rico spoke an Arawakan language. This is an umbrella terminology that exists for multiple languages. For some, the Taino language is most closely related to the lakono language although some may prefer the Calinago or Arifuna language. The writing of the Taino people some may believe it’s in relation to hydrolytic however, it is in fact closer to Lakuno symbols. Unfortunately, with the colonization of Spain and the adoption of the U.S over Puerto Rico, the language of the Puerto Rican Tainos is so faded that very few Puerto Rican natives speak the language or even know the sound of the "Taino tongue" or mother language. The question of today is if the language will fade out of existence. I would this project to be conducted as a multimedia piece ideally presenting photography of the symbols and audio of the spoken language. Please let me know if you are interested.
Melissa Santiago
Empressed.wix.com/mysite/
The lost language of Puerto Rican Taino’s
