Yao, the Space of the Spirit
Toponymy is part of the aboriginal mystery that surrounds and challenges us. In the Greater Antilles millions of people live in places with names that originated long before Christopher Columbus…
The Place, the People and the Wife: the Common Key to Three Arawak Names
In this paper we will examine the etymology of three Arawak words that have the same sequence of morphemes in a segment of their structure, which shows some correlation between…
Guanabacoa, The New Site
Guanabacoa is the name of an “Indian village” founded in 1554 in the vicinity of the then village of San Cristobal de La Habana and which is currently a municipality…
Guanajay, The Upland
The locality of Guanajay in the current province of Artemisa, west of Havana, was a well-known place since the early colonial times in Cuba. In the Chapter Acts of the…
Guanabo, The Lowland
Guanabo is a town east of Havana, famous for its white, fine-grained sandy beach, visited by thousands of tourists and bathers every year. There are also other places in Cuba…
Arawak Mysteries in the Spanish Spoken in Cuba: Guana
Introduction Guana is a segment present in the structure of several words from the Spanish language spoken in Cuba that come from the language of the aborigines (Taino, also known…
Cagüeiro: Decoding the Myth
In an identity born of transculturation, such as the Cuban one, cultural traits are indicators of the human factors that shaped it. Following Fernando Ortiz’s metaphor about the ajiaco (a…
Cauto: The River and the Name
Landscapes are an essential part of Cuba’s image and by identifying with them we generate a sense of belonging that is at the very basis of Cuban identity. Sometimes we…