How many Friends know of the cultural research supported by our Indian Committee’s grants? Last spring, this Committee funded a small project on Taino culture. The language and customs of these Native Americans are threaded through the culture of Puerto Rico, Cuba, Hispaniola and other Caribbean islands.
PYM’s Indian Committee awarded a $2,775 grant to Dr. Ana Maria Tekina-eiru Maynard. With this stipend, she traveled to Puerto Rico to gather oral histories from Taino elders, focusing on the slave rebellions. She used this material to collaborate on an original musical presented by the Puerto Rican Cultural Center (PRCC) in Austin, Texas in December 2017. It featured a cast of 30 and drew an inter-generational audience. Dr. Maynard is of Taino descent and a founding director of the PRCC.
