Caribbean History : The Cruel Fate of the Tainos

Who Were the Taínos? Freelance writer Ivan Castro, former writer for the Miami Herald, a South Florida newspaper, publishes a variety of articles on history and archaeology.

"TheTaínos were the people Christopher Columbus and his men encountered when they first set foot in the New World. Taínos greeted the Spaniards when the voyagers landed in the Bahamas, Cuba, Hispaniola, Jamaica, Puerto Rico and other islands. They were were doomed the moment the Europeans came ashore."  Read more at: **

European Colonization and the Cruel Fate of the Taínos

Sharing a link to an excellent article by Ivan Castro, Suite.io Contributor, a former reporter for The Miami Herald. He is an excellent writer and has written several articles on various historical events such as - reign of Nero, an emperor of ancient Rome; World War I and II; and slave rebellions in the Caribbean. To view his complete list of contributed articles, click here. You will indeed learn some things you never knew you never knew!!

(* Link also shared via my Pinterest board on The Bahamas.)

** Note: Articles or other paged links on the suite.io site are not available.  I have been unable to find archived or cached copies.  Here are alternate links:

The Taino genocide | Agabond

What Became of the Taíno?

The Indians who greeted Columbus were long believed to have died out. But a journalist's search for their descendants turned up surprising results

 
Christoper Columbus arrives in America (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

 
Dujo, a wooden chair crafted by Taínos. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Using Loose Ends to Tie Up a True Story

The Europeans, the folks from England in particular, are such gifted musicians. I am so glad the USA was invaded by all of these artists. When much younger, there was hardly any place that I would go without my transistor radio. If it was my turn to do the dishes, I would make this household chore last and last and last, while listening to the latest tunes. There were also lots of music shows on TV – American Bandstand and Soul Train – but they were only broadcast at certain times, Saturdays. Can you imagine what a tough childhood I had? Having to wait an entire week to hear good music!!

But then cable TV came along with the music channels and my husband learned how to work a VCR. Later on YouTube was invented. Did you know that YouTube was created to handle my “mood swings”? OK. That’s a stretch. No doubt the inventors had other things on their mind. But we all know that music is so very necessary to the human psyche. Isn’t it awesome that the people from my generation who remember the music, kept their vinyl records and figured out how to upload those great songs and share them on the Internet via YouTube or Vimeo or wherever? I figure whoever is uploading the music has to be somebody about my age because most kids probably wouldn’t know who “The Impressions” are, let alone what kind of music they made, and even if they did, they probably wouldn’t want to upload that stuff!

So I’m sharing two links in this post.

The first video – “Slow Down” – I shared over a year ago in my Google Plus post stream. I only remembered it today because as I was checking my Notifications, I saw that someone had given it a Plus One. This group of 3, called “Loose Ends” – 2 guys and a doll – are out of England. I’m not sure what they are up to these days, but their sound – though it came out in the 80s – is still fresh. There’s a article about them on Wikipedia, if you’re interested. 
 ( en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loose_Ends_(band) )

The second one is “Keep on Pushing”; an oldie but a goodie. Here’s my story behind this song. I usually DO NOT keep up with the political conventions. If my TV is turned on while the convention is being televised, I may hear some sounds but won’t pay close attention. So years back, the Democratic convention was on television, and all I could hear was a cheering crowd and music in the background. A speaker was being introduced. I don’t know who. Some tall slender black guy. Evidently he was senator. They say his name by way of introduction and this song is playing as background music. The Senator turned out to be Barack Obama. I don’t know what his speech was about because I had only stopped to hear the music! Besides, he was representing from Chi-town (Chicago) and why listen to what he has to say? It’s not like he’s ever gonna be President! True story.

Clearly, I have no psychic capabilities and can not predict the future.