Areíto
The areíto was a ceremonial act that was believed to narrate and honor the heroic deeds of Taíno ancestors, chiefs, gods, and cemis.
Taíno villages often featured an elaborate dance court: an outdoor area surrounded by earthwork banks and sometimes stone carvings of cemis.
Areíto was a Taíno word that the Spanish adopted to describe epic poems, song-dances, ceremonies, festivals, performances, and ritual.
[9] Ramón Pane, a missionary who arrived in the new world in 1494, chronicled events in which the Taíno participated in singing and recitations of epic 'poems' and 'ancient texts' that they 'learnt by heart' accompanied by percussive instruments that looked like gourds.
Pané drew comparisons between these Taíno performances and ceremonies of the Moors, additionally observing that areíto served as a mnemonic device for societal rules and traditions.
He noted how the content of the narrative affected the style of its delivery and emphasized the role of the cacique and his immediate family in the tradition of learning and performing areíto.
[9] Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo y Valdés served as royal chronicler after Martyr, and traveled to the new world numerous times, observing what he deemed areítos in the Antilles as well as in Nicaragua.
Shifting the descriptions of these ceremonies away from 'poem' and towards 'song-dances' Oviedo noted that the songs were accompanied by precise and complex choreography and led by a 'dance-master' who could be either male or female.
Later colonizers also adopted the term areíto to describe songs, dances, performances, festivals, and ceremonies that they encountered in other diverse parts of the new world.
[9][10][11] Several specific accounts of areíto recorded by chroniclers of the new world illuminate how song and dance were used as ritual, storytelling, historiography, celebration, and in exchanges of power and resources.
In an alternate account of this same event by Oviedo, Anacaona gathered a group of three hundred virgins to dance for Bartholomew before her brother made the trade, using the areíto to aid in negotiation.
Even though both caciques understood that there was great risk of defeat in the upcoming attack of the Spanish, Mayobanex agreed to defend Guaironex and his people to honor the pact they had made in the sharing of the areíto.
[9] Hatuey, a cacique who had fled the Spaniards but knew of an impending attack, gathered his people together and told them that one of the reasons why the Spanish killed them was because they worship the god of gold.
