Participation of the Caney Circle in la Jornada Indigena Taina, Jayuya, Boriken

[Miguel Sague Jr]

Takaji My Relatives
The weekend of August 15 and 16 proved to be yet another powerful expression of Taino tradition and cultural strength at the fifth installment of a very important annual celebration high in the central mountains of Boriken.
Again this year the crafts organization known as CATTA under the guidance of our sacred sister Maragarita Noguera, with the co-operation of another powerful and sacred sister, Joanna Soto Aviles, managed, against all odds, to pull off this profoundly spiritual gathering.

The event was initiated with the traditional opening early-morning circle ceremony at the main batey around the sacred fire on Saturday morning.

This ceremony was quickly followed by a processional walk to the grave of the sacred Taino ancestress whose remains were rescued and reburied on the grounds of the El Cemi Museum by leaders and members of the UCTP, the Caney Quinto Mundo, El Consejo General De Tainos Borincanos and others several years ago. At the graveside we formed a circle and the ceremony honoring this ancestress was led by our sister Joanna Soto Aviles and the elder Abuela Shashira.

I was given the honor of the opportunity to offer the attendees a sample of the sacred songs of our Caney Indigenous Circle and was thrilled to be joined on the stage by members of several Taino re-enactment dance groups who were generous and kind enough to provide the beauty of dance to our presentation.
As in the case of last year our presentation was enlivened with the powerful rythms of my son's mayohuakan playing. My son's name is Miguel BanoManigua Sague III

I was thrilled to be reunited with an old friend, the first Boriken Taino that I made contact with in the island upon my first visit in 1987, the grand old master of Taino arts and crafts, Miguel Guzman

and was humbled when he honored me with a gift of one of his masterpieces which he handed over to me right in the circular main batey site.

All of us there experienced deep in our souls the spiritual presence of the sacred WHITE CEMI, an entity that I pesonally have always identified with a manifestation of Yoka Hu that represents RECONCILIATION. I call him the Mountain Cemi, but he is the same being no matter what you call him.

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As the Mountain Cemi (The White Cemi) this particular manifestation of Yoka Hu presents us with the very essence of forgiveness, compassion and unconditional love extended accross barriers of color, race, religious differences, and philosophical differences. This manifestation of Yoka Hu also represents the essence of Unity, in terms of recognition of commonalities as opposed to differences.

Because the fundamental basis of such a spirit implies the importance of Love instead of bitterness and ranccour, there is a basic identification between this particular manifestation of Yoka Hu as a spirit of Reconciliation, and his more recognizable identification as the spirit of Life. In my opinion there is a basic common identification between Reconciliation and Life. In other words, without Reconciliation there can be no Life.

Taino Ti
Miguel