A reminder as we approach Columbus Day
that Columbus first landed on the island known as Ayiti, Quisqueya, or Hispaniola. The indigenous people there, the Taino, faced horrible consequences as a result of this and the earliest colonization of the Americas. But many Taino survived and often intermarried with Africans brought to the island as slaves and retain their knowledge of indigenous identity to this day. While Columbus Day is of enormous significance to all indigenous people in the Americas, it is unacceptable to ignore the fact that the indigeneity of the descendants of those most affected by Columbus is frequently denied because of their Blackness.
I want to recognize the voices of people like bad-dominicana, triguenaista, and the many other people on tumblr who rep the indigenous Caribbean, who I have come to value so, so much. It is for them before all others that this day should be for.
