Cuban history and culture is almost exclusively recounted as a struggle between the European colonialists and the African slaves that were brought to the island and the cultural mix that has resulted from this heritage. Few debates even from musicological perspectives centre around the influences that the original inhabitants of Cuba had on the culture as we see it today.
This is partly because within few years of the Spanish colonialising the island the Taíno as well as other aboriginal groups were brought to the brink of extinction such that their rich culture had little time to mix with the Europeans who showed little interest in documenting their culture in any way. It is especially surprising against the backdrop of this short and violent history of the Taíno people in the New World to see how much of their culture has nonetheless survived to this day.
In terms of salsa specifically, the influence can be seen in three different ways:
- Aspects of the Taíno way of life have survived to this day and continue to influence Cuban culture which in turn has an impact on Cuban songs, lyrics and the way these are being created and performed. I.e. it was the Taíno that first showed the Spaniards how to cultivate and consume tobacco something that is inherent to modern Cuban culture and therefore its music and dances. I.e. there is a common styling when leading Dile Que No where the leader twists their left foot on the floor as if to put out a cigarette and the Rueda hand sign for “Havana” is a cigar so these are both small examples of cultural elements that are part of salsa as a direct result of the Taíno heritage.
- Despite the fact that the Taíno came close to extinction, many of the words of their language have survived and continue to influence modern languages around the world. I.e. words such as tobacco, barbecue, canoe and hurricane can be directly traced back to the Taíno language where they were invented (tabako, barbakoa, kanowa, hurakã). Particularly in Cuba the linguistic influence is very apparent as it includes regions and towns which were derived directly from their Taíno counterpart (i.e. Baracoa, Havana, Batabanó, Camagüey, etc.) including the word Cuba itself which is derived from either coabana meaning "great place," or from cubao meaning "where fertile land is abundant". Therefore, moves like Bayamo have a clear linguistic relation to the Taíno as while on the surface they may just be referring to a town in Cuba, the name of the town is a heritage of the original Taíno chiefdom in the area and is therefore derived from the Taíno language.
- By far the greatest influence to salsa from the Taíno, however, comes from musical aspects which will be discussed in detail in the next post of this blog series.
