Taíno Presentation by Melanio Gonzalez, 1997
SubjectPortrait of
Melanio Gonzalez
(born 1951)
SubjectPortrait of
Graciela Quiñones-Rodriguez
(Puerto Rican)
Date1997
Mediumphotographs
ClassificationsGraphics
Credit LineConnecticut Cultural Heritage Arts Program collections
CopyrightIn Copyright
Object number2015.196.350.1-.15
DescriptionPhotographs of Melanio Gonzalez giving a presentation about the Taíno to a school group in the Herencia Taína exhibition in 1997.
(.1) Mel Gonzalez wearing traditional Taíno clothing, including a headdress.
(.2) Mel Gonzalez wearing traditional Taíno clothing, including a headdress. There are also children in the photograph.
(.3) Mel Gonzalez speaking before a group of children. A painting of Atabey displayed in the exhibit is behind him.
(.4) Mel Gonzalez speaking before a group of children. He is holding a vessel in his hands.
(.5) Mel Gonzalez speaking before a group of children. He is standing beside a table covered in shells.
(.6) Mel Gonzalez speaking before a group of children. Artwork of a tree on the wall is visible in the background.
(.7) Mel Gonzalez speaking before a group of children. Mel is holding a conch shell.
(.8) Mel Gonzalez playing a cane flute for the group of children.
(.9) Mel Gonzalez holding a cane flute and standing before a group of children.
(.10) Mel Gonzalez.
(.11) Mel Gonzalez holding a cane flute.
(.12) Mel Gonzalez holding a conch while standing next to a table covered in shells.
(.13) Mel Gonzalez standing next to shells. The Atabey painting is displayed in the background.
(.14) Mel Gonzalez standing in front of a wall of text reading “The Spiritual Realm.”
(.15): Graciela Quiñones-Rodriguez standing in front of gourds she has carved, which are displayed in the exhibit.
NotesSubject Note: "Herencia Taina: Legacy and Life" was an exhibit and related programs examining the history of Puerto Rico's indigenous people, the Taino through contemporary art expressions and interpretations, on view May 3-November 30, 1997 at the Institute for Community Research.(.1) Mel Gonzalez wearing traditional Taíno clothing, including a headdress.
(.2) Mel Gonzalez wearing traditional Taíno clothing, including a headdress. There are also children in the photograph.
(.3) Mel Gonzalez speaking before a group of children. A painting of Atabey displayed in the exhibit is behind him.
(.4) Mel Gonzalez speaking before a group of children. He is holding a vessel in his hands.
(.5) Mel Gonzalez speaking before a group of children. He is standing beside a table covered in shells.
(.6) Mel Gonzalez speaking before a group of children. Artwork of a tree on the wall is visible in the background.
(.7) Mel Gonzalez speaking before a group of children. Mel is holding a conch shell.
(.8) Mel Gonzalez playing a cane flute for the group of children.
(.9) Mel Gonzalez holding a cane flute and standing before a group of children.
(.10) Mel Gonzalez.
(.11) Mel Gonzalez holding a cane flute.
(.12) Mel Gonzalez holding a conch while standing next to a table covered in shells.
(.13) Mel Gonzalez standing next to shells. The Atabey painting is displayed in the background.
(.14) Mel Gonzalez standing in front of a wall of text reading “The Spiritual Realm.”
(.15): Graciela Quiñones-Rodriguez standing in front of gourds she has carved, which are displayed in the exhibit.
ICR's Connecticut Cultural Heritage Arts Program, in conjunction with project scholar Ruth Glasser and designer Ricardo Mulero, planned an exhibit, workshops, and concert to present a wide range of arts practiced by musicians and visual artists who are inspired by Taino heritage. Participating artists included Imna Arroyo (Eastern Connecticut State University), Graciela Quiñones-Rodriguez (West Hartford), Mel Gonzalez (Meriden), and Roberto Borrero (New York), who created contemporary interpretations and folk art works illustrating Taino heritage, such as musical instruments, gourd carvings, paintings, and textile art, as well as interpretive information for these. Their works were juxtaposed with Taino artifacts from archaeological collections, along with photographs and posters from the continuing indigenous festival held in Jayuya, Puerto Rico, to show the strong influence that Taino culture still holds for Puerto Ricans. The exhibit project also presented several public events including a concert, a workshop for teachers, and a roundtable discussion. An illustrated brochure in both English and Spanish was produced. The project was supported by the Connecticut Humanities Council, the Connecticut Commission on the Arts, the Edward C. and Ann T. Roberts Foundation, the Greater Hartford Arts Council, and the Institute for Community Research.
The heritage of the Taino Indians is often proudly proclaimed by Puerto Ricans as one of the three strands of their multi-racial society. What that heritage consists of, how much of it has survived, and its relative importance in the overall culture of the island has been a hotly debated topic for centuries. The Tainos, indigenous people living in Puerto Rico when colonists arrived in the late 15th century, provide an example of the politics and complexities of interpreting a culture which has only a small present-day community and no living language, but is both remembered from the recent past and still represented in blood lines, place names, some everyday practices, and spiritual and political inspiration.
Recreated musical instruments made by members of the group Cacibajagua showed how contemporary Puerto Ricans have been both adopting Taino heritage and basing their work on serious study of archaeology and indigenous materials. Cacibajagua demonstrated their music at a concert on May 1, 1997, at Charter Oak Cultural Center in Hartford.
"We're Making History" Education Visit in April 1997, was organized by Jane Christie and the Connecticut Humanities Council through a Capitol Region Humanities Alliance Interdistrict Grant, where fifth grade teachers visited the exhibit as one of their curriculum-integrated museum trips. They discussed with members of the project team how the exhibit was developed, and the issues around which the project was framed.
"I started talking to this anthropologist about the whole issue of Taino culture and Taino heritage and he felt that this belief of Taino culture was a phenomenon of Puerto Ricans, mostly in the United States, as a way of clinging onto parts of our heritage. Because in his opinion the Tainos were exterminated...One of the things I talked about with him was, for me, it is definitely a part of connecting with my heritage." Gourd carver Graciela Quiñones-Rodriguez.
Biographical Note: Melanio Gonzalez is a Meriden-based visual artist and musician with Taino family roots who has conducted research on Taino history with an emphasis on musical forms. He makes and plays musical instruments indigenous to the Caribbean, such as the mayahuacan (log drum), maracas, drum sticks, seed rattles, cane flutes, and tree branch trumpets. Mel also makes masks and other ceremonial objects. He is a founding member and performer with the group Cacibajagua (the mythical cave from which all Taino emerged), which bases its presentations on members' research.
He has compiled an impressive body of information on Taino history and archaeology, difficult to do because of controversy and secrecy surrounding the topic of Taino identity. Mel has explored sources beyond the written, academic, and accepted, uncovering oral histories from his own family and the people living quiet, traditional lives in the central mountains of the island. He has presented his research into the Taino people of Puerto Rico at the American Indian Archaeological Institute in Washington, Connecticut, and at El Museo del Barrio's NYC exhibit on Taino archaeology.
Mel makes Taino regalia and musical instruments, decorative carvings and sand paintings. His creations are technically excellent because he spends time making them perfect both in background research on the form, and in execution. Mel has developed effective presentations on Taino art and culture for a variety of audiences. During the Herencia Taína exhibit at ICR, Mel served as a project advisor and presented music workshops to school groups and other audiences during the exhibit. He also participated in the panel discussion "Taino Culture in Contemporary Life: Revival or Reaffirmation?" His music group Cacibajagua presented a concert on May 1, 1997 at Charter Oak Cultural Center as part of the Connecticut Heritage Music Series, a collaboration between the Charter Oak Cultural Center and CCHAP from September 1996 through June 1997. In 1999, he again served as a project advisor for "Mano a Mano: Puerto Rican Traditional Arts from Island to City" at ICR.
Mel loaned the following objects to the Herencia Taina exhibit: big log drum, two smaller drums, gourd tobacco holder, pirana jaw necklace, caiman tooth necklace, cane flute, ceremonial spatula, cohoba pipe, two gourd ladles, bohio model, bark branch trumpet, war club, chair, mask, maracas, and a nut rattle. He has donated two pieces to the CCHAP collection at the Connecticut Historical Society: a drawing of a native man (2015.199.1) and a painting of a Taino spirit being on slate (2015.199.2).
Biographical Note: Graciela Quiñones-Rodriguez is a Puerto Rican educator, social worker, artist and luthier who apprenticed with William Cumpiano (Easthampton MA) and has built cuatros, tiples, and bordonuas. Graciela is also a cuatrista and higüera (gourd) and santos carver. She served as an advisory committee and exhibiting artist and workshop leader for CCHAP’s three Puerto Rican projects, starting as a community scholar with Herencia Taina, CCHAP’s 1998 Taino exhibit project, researching the techniques of higüera preparation and decoration for use as household utensils, ornaments with Taino or political iconography, or musical instruments. She also worked as an artist-presenter for the Massachusetts Cultural Council summer institute on Puerto Rican cultural heritage for Springfield MA teachers. Graciela is a highly respected arts educator, woodcarver, and singer with the Connecticut Latin music group Tierra Mestiza; she is a CT Commission on the Arts Master Teaching Artist and Artists Fellowship winner. As part of the Southern New England Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program in Year 3 (2000-2001), she worked with master luthier Bill Cumpiano. Together they built cuatros, tiples, and bordonuas, older forms of Puerto Rican stringed instruments. As part of the apprenticeship they built a cuatro on the basis of a photograph of an unusual form from the early 1900's, which has a bent wood body rather than a hollowed-out base. They demonstrated their partnership work at the Lowell Folk Festival in 2000.
Additional materials exist in the CCHAP archive for these artists and this project.
Cataloging Note: This project was made possible in part by the Institute of Museum and Library Services MA-245929-OMS-20.
Status
Not on view
2022 July 8
Glaisma Pérez Silva
July 1999
1951
