CACIBAJAGUA

SITE OF MYTHOLOGY AND CULTURE ABORIGIN CARIBBEAN

Tuesday, January 15, 2008

MITONIMIA ABORIGIN TAINA

INTRODUCTION

"... for the pre-Christian religious man it was, in fact, easy to distinguish a sacred stone from all the other
stones that did not incorporate the sacred, easy to distinguish a sign loaded with power - a spiral, a
circle, a swastika, etc. - of all the others who were not, it was easy to separate the liturgical time from the
profane time, at a certain moment, the profane time stopped running and, for the same fact that the
other was initiated, the liturgical time began, the sacred time "
Mircea Eliade (1988: 164)

The discovery and conquest of America, the journeys of circumnavigation, made known to the
European man of the sixteenth, seventeenth and eighteenth centuries new forms of life, cults and
beliefs, which in the measure of his view linked to his search for one of the myths oldest: the myth of
the terrestrial paradise. Eliade (1988: 19) argues that European man invented a kind of "good savage"
in correspondence to his moral concerns as political and social, envying their freedoms, their equitable
division of labor, their arcadian existence in the bosom of nature, and as such they interpreted their
myths and beliefs. The cronistas, educated within the Christian faith, of the contempt to all that
smelled pagan, they only had as standards of comparison, the Greek mythological pantheons, Romans
and others quite dissimilar from those found in America, and thus the myths will suffer distortions in
their approaches. It also influenced the disappearance of the language of the primitive settlers and the
myths were stranded in time and in the pages of the manuscripts of some friars such as Pané, Las
Casas or Mártir de Anglería, provoking a series of questions for the current man. regarding the beliefs
of our aborigines.
Studies of great depth, such as those of Arrom, López-Baralt, Cassá, Alegría, among others, have
brought to light myths and their interpretations based on the beliefs of peoples that still survive in the
Americas and linguistic studies of the aruaco . Important discovery for the understanding of the
primitive society in the Antilles, since the myths are not only a form of exteriorization of animistic,
totemic, fetishist and animatist conceptions, as some authors explain, by religious essences; Nor is it
just the mere account of primal time. Its etiological character is to offer an interpretation according to
the degree of development of society given the conditions of its development and the characteristics
of the natural environment, as well as the establishment of patterns of behavior and behavior,
The disappearance of the aboriginal language in the process of transculturation after the Spanish
conquest makes it difficult to interpret the myths collected by the sources, which were also hampered
by the ignorance or partial knowledge of the language, and the European culture that gave them
provoked a distorted view of the American reality.
In towns like ours where only the chroniclers, among them a series of names, have saved their culture,
we can determine their etymological roots through linguistic studies carried out in other towns that did
preserve their Aarucan language and establish comparisons between the terms and functions that the
designated individual occupies within the myth. The researchers Brinton, Breton, Perea, Tejera, Alvarez
Nazario, Barral, Valdés Bernal and Arrom have played an important role among many others.
These studies have shown that in the absence of proper names primitive man takes objects that
represent personal characteristics or attributes to define the individual. The knowledge of the mythical
name and its meaning also allows us to know the etiology of the myth from the establishment of
analogies with those of other peoples of the same Aruaco trunk or related to them.

Mitonymy

AIBAMAYA: Name of aboriginal legendary character of Cuba collected by Feijóo (1986: 21), who raises
in turn to take it from Américo Alvarado. India of the Yucayo tribes that inhabited the region of
Matanzas, known as "the woman who killed for love", according to the myth achieved the love of the
Guacumao cacique and later turned into stone when trying to escape with the cacique. Polysynthesis
formed by the possible corruption of Aida, which in guarao means superior, the largest, Barral (1979: 6)
and Maya, which is the name given to Cuba by Bromelia pinguin, a wild plant whose foliage is
reminiscent of pineapple, Valdés (1991: I, 302). The possible meaning of this term could be translated
as: Gran Maya.

AIPIRÍ: Name by which a character of Cuban aboriginal legends collected by Valle (1919: 95-99) is
known. According to the legend, this Indian lived in the pre-Columbian Jagua. Once married, and with a
son, she felt nostalgia for her days as a maid and began to leave home leaving her son abandoned;
After this son came another six without changing the behavior of the mother, who cried producing a
sound like guao-guao. Mabuya tired of hearing them transformed them into poisonous shrubs known
by the name of guao, Comucladia dentata, Valdés (1991: I, 226), and the mother, Aipirí, in Tatagua,
Erebus odorata, Valdés (1991: I, 332). Possible offspring of the word aruaco Aipara that means "of
curled hair".

ALBAHOA: According to Feijóo (1986: 22), he is the character name of the Cuban aboriginal legends of
the Matanzas area. India loved by Yumurí, but forced to marry Canasí, escapes next to the first one,
dying both when sinking in the mud of the Babonao river when they escaped from their persecutors.
The term, although we have not been able to determine its possible meaning, denotes indoantillana
origin.

ALBEBORAEL GUAHAYONA: Pané (1990: 23-26) picks him up as a mythological character of the
Tainos of La Española. It was the one that separated women from men from the same inbred tribe
creating new exogamic relationships; initiator of the first mythological migration. He cured his skin
disease thanks to Guabonito, who gave him the most precious guanines or jewels for the Indo-
Antillean peoples. Mythical ancestor, Bachiller and Morales (1883: 1, 139) indicates it as antediluvian,
that is, prior to Yaya's flood.
Arrom (1990: 63) refers to the change from Guagugiona to Guahayonaya, which in aruaco wahajia ~
wahaddia is equivalent to "then, from then on". And he clarifies that among the Ahuaco peoples it is a
widespread custom to change their name once a great disease has been overcome. What would
translate the name of Albeborael Guahayona as "From then on Albeborael".
Zayas (1914: II, 17-19): Vagoniona, Guagoniana, Guahiohana, Guagugiona, Giahubagia, Guahagiona.
Izquierdo Gallo (1956: 185) Guaguinona
Bachiller and Morales (1883: II, 139) Albebora, Albeborael Guagoniana.
Cambiaso (1974: 35) Guayuyona and says that it can be corruption of Vagoniana.
AMAYAÚNA: Mythical cave of the beliefs of the Taínos of La Española, Pané (1990: 22), according to
which the non-Taínos went out to populate the island. This cave, the aborigines believed, was located
on a mountain called Cauta in the region of Caonao on the aforementioned island. Arrom (1990: 59) in
his notes to the book of Pané chooses the version of Pedro Mártir, Amaiauna and not Amaiauua de
Ulloa and for this is based on the union of semantema iauna, iouna in aruaco, which has the sense of
value, reward ; while the prefix Ama- could be the exclusive prefix ma-; which means "those without
value, those without merit, non-Tainos".
In kaliña Amoanyá means house, perhaps the name in this language explains the fact that it is named
with this to the cave from which the non-taínos came.

ANACACUYA: Mythical ancestor or mythological character collected by Pané (1990: 25). It was the
name of a cacique from the Cacibajagua cave who helped Guahayona in the exodus, but was tricked
by it and thrown into the seabed where he died.
Arrom (1990: 62) states that this polysynthesis is formed by the words annaka meaning: center, middle
and whose, which could well be Kuya, spirit or Kuhuyakoeia, star, constellation; that translated could be
Central Spirit or perhaps Star or Central Star.

ATABEY: A mythological being of the Taínos who was worshiped, represented the mother of the
Supreme Being. Pané (1990: 21) collects it with this name and with four others for which, according to
him, it was also known. These are: Guacar, Apito, Yermao and Zuimaco; sometimes it names Atabeira,
Atabina or Atabex. It is a symbol of fertility and motherhood.
Arrom (1990: 58) analyzes two of the variants of the name, Atabeira and Guacar. De Atabeira gives its
root in the vocative Atte, mother and the suffix linked beira, water; what would be equivalent to Madre
de Aguas; and Guacar posed as the union of the prefix wa, ours and kar as apocopated form of katti ~
kairi, moon, month, term composed in turn of ka, strength and iri, tide, menstruation, all of which would
link this deity to symbol of fertility, femininity, motherhood.
Bertoni (1916: 86) says that the land is Guaca, Anglería cites Guacar as a region or proximity; Perea
(1941: 45-46) states that Guacar could emerge from the wai pronoun, wakia directly from waikillen, to
express "what is ours, the territory we occupy", which could be translated into Guacar as Mother Earth.
Bachiller (1883: II, 152-153) in his study of the Supreme Being defines Atabey or Ataba, as he calls it,
from At, ata, atu, which means first, single, unique, and Bei which means existence; what would be
translated as Unique Being. This contradicts the myths collected by Pané in which the One or Supreme
Being is Yúcahu, his son.
Cambiaso (1974: 2) collects Apito as the name of a married woman and that means "who has risen".
He also collects it with the name of Atobei.

AYCAYÍA: Name of aboriginal legendary character from the area of Jagua, Cuba picked up by Valle
(1919: 41,44) and describes her as a very beautiful Indian who upset all the men of her tribe with her
beauty. When the wives abandoned to the behíque complained, he summoned Mabuya, provoking a
hurricane that dragged the young woman and an old companion to the sea transforming them into
ondina or sirena at first and into turtle at the old Iguanayoca.
Possible this name has its root in the aiki aruaco, which means evil.

BAGANIONA: Corruption of Guahayona collected by Gavaldá.

BAIBRAMA: It is the Cema de la Yuca, vigilant deity of the crops, Pané (1990: 43). The myth tells that
this cemí was burned in a war and when washing it later with yucca juice the arms, the body grew and
it returned to have eyes. Arrom (1990: 75) suggests that Alba and Buya, the other names of this cemí
collected by Pané, rather than names are epithets and adds that they have their roots in ayúa and puxi,
ugly and bad, respectively, and quotes Brinton in "The Arawak language of Guiana in its Linguistic and
Ethnological Relations "p.444, and Count Ermano Stradelli, in Vocabularios da lingua geral portuguez-
nheêngtú e nheêngtú-portuguez, Rio de Janeiro (1929: 385, 625). However, in studies that we have
done of the languages of aruaca origin we have that in lokono, Buya is to feed, to nourish, to feed,
Edwards (1980: 73) and Aakwa, it is to swell, swell, expand, expand. Barral in his Dictionary collects
Buya as a parade of abuya, I bite, you bite (1979: 78) and Alda (1979: 6) Grow, grown up, big, Great (in a
moral sense), superior, Boss; and also Alda: The big one, the one that is big among other smaller ones,
the one of more category.
One of the ways of naming the Supreme Being guarao is Aidamo meaning Lord or Chief.
In Guajira language, Jusayú (1977: 71,75,83), Ai means cassava, Ain, ain-uá, heart, soul, spirit; and Aiuá,
loved, loved, dear.
In the Ceona language, Aybue is translated as the Ancestors or Elders.
Among the cribs Ayban is a Higher Being, chief of a mountain where a generation of deities lived.
Analyzing the above, we come to the conclusion that Baibrama, cemi of yucca, has as epithets: "He
who Grows, the Superior, who feeds".

BAIGUANA: Character of the legends compiled by Feijóo (1986: 20) as a very beautiful Indian from the
area of Matanzas, who for bringing mad men to the point that all the works had been abandoned, the
cacique after consulting his deities , he brought her a magical fish that made her sleep and
transformed her into a mountain, which is known today as Pan de Matanzas.
Possible translation as Sacred Iguana or Father Iguana, polysynthetic descendant of the terms Ba,
father or Baye, priest and the word Iguana.

BAYAMANACO: Being or mythical ancestor of Taíno religious beliefs, linked to the myths of creation
but without any religious function, Pané (1990: 30). Connoisseur of the secrets of the confection of the
cassava and the rites of the cohoba and linked to the emergence of the human race creating Caguama
through his magic saliva thrown on the back of Deminán Caracaracol when he tried to steal the
cassava. He is a cultural hero of the primitive mythological time. Some authors call it Ahiacabo
Guamocoel, example Zayas (1914: I, 63). This last name is very well refuted by Arrom (1990: 68) when
he explains the roots of this phrase that literally translates as "let's talk with our grandfather".
As for the name of Bayamanaco it could be a polysynthesis formed by the words Baye, priest, and
annaka, central, which would be a central or main priest.

BOINAYEL: Considered to be a mythological chamo or deity, although Pané (1990: 31) makes it clear
that it is a cemi or tutelary spirit, to which it was invoked to make it rain. They were at the entrance to
the Iguanaboina cave next to Cemi Márohu and were represented with their hands tied. Arrom (1990:
70) collects it with this name and states in his analysis that this translates as the Son of the Brown
Snake, taking into account that boina could be the same Boiúna voice that is recorded in the Brazilian
Folklore Dictionary of Luis Câmara Cascudo (1962: 123-124) and that the ending -el means son.
Following the analysis that mboi means snake and we add that in lokono, Edwards (1980: 64), aiya is
crying, we would also have the possible translation of "the son of the snake that cries", a metaphor
widely used by the American peoples to refer to to the rain.
Zayas (1914: I, 114) picks it up as Boinael.
Mártir de Angleria names Binthaitel and from it several authors call it in this way, among them Perea
(1941: 19-20) who also says that it is the name of cemi related to the sun.
Bertoni (1916: 86) gives it as Boinial and Cambiaso (1974: 15) calls it Boiniael and says it means Son
of Boinial which in turn translates as "as big as a mountain", but does not clarify which linguistic source
it takes this data.
CACIBAJAGUA: Name of the cave from which the Taínos come, according to their own myths collected
by Pané, this was in the Cauta mountain in the Caonao region. Voice that comes from the term
Casimba, that serves to designate cavities in the land and Jagua, Genipa Americana, common tree in
the Antilles, which is translated as Cueva de Jagua.

CAGUAMA: Guarch and Querejeta (1992: 14-15) (1993: 18) name in this way the turtle that emerges
from the back of Deminán Caracaracol, on which Pané (1990: 31) says that they managed to remove it
by cutting the back of Deminán with an ax in the place where he had beaten the guanguayo launched
by Bayamanaco when going to ask for him. The turtle, says Pané, was female and was raised by the
Twins. Angleria states that what came out of the back of the Caracaracol was a woman with whom the
Four Brothers lived and of which they had sons and daughters, which has made this link to the myth of
the emergence of the human race. Caguama is a species of sea turtle whose scientific name is Caretta
caretta.

CAONAO: Mythological character collected by Valle (1919: 19-23) and belonging to the beliefs of the
aborigines of the Jagua region, Cienfuegos. Second son of Hamao and Guanaroca, husband of Jagua,
his children were the first women. The name of Caonao is a place name very abundant in the Taíno
language and is also the name of a plant of the species Polygala oblongata.

CAORAO: According to Valle (1919: 41-44) God of the Tempest for the Indians of Jagua. We do not
know both the linguistic affiliation of the term and the sources from which the authors took it.

COATRISQUIE: Cemi of the Taíno myths collected by Pané (1990: 46), according to these his function
was to accompany the Cemi Guabancex. He was the collector and governor of the torrential waters.
The etymological root of the name is unknown; although it is of aruaca descent.

COROCOTE: According to Pané (1990: 44) Cemí of the cacique Guamorete, he lived at the top of the
house, from which he came down at night to live with the women; This cemí managed to escape to the
fire of the house taking refuge in a nearby lagoon, also informs Pané that belonged later to the Cacique
Guatabanex of the region of Ja. It also tells the myth that Corocote left two crowns in time.
Guarch (1992: 42-43) picks it up as a mythical ancestor that engenders carnal love.
Arrom (1990: 76) suggests that the term could be the Koruacori gold aruaco, reddish metal, or the
corochorian guaraúno "bronze". And the name of Cacique Guamorete says that it seems to come from
the aruaco wa-murreti, Our Creator.

DEMINAN CARACARACOL: Cultural hero or mythical ancestor of the Taínos, Pané (1990: 29), the
eldest of the Cuatro Gemelos, the first to be removed from the belly of Itiba Cahubaba, together Yaya is
linked to the myth of the creation of the sea and together with Bayamanaco of the creation of
Caguama.
Anglería picks it up as Demiban Caracaracol.
Cambiaso (1974: 32) names Dimivan.
Arrom (1990: 67) adheres to the expression given by Taylor in his "A note on the Arawakan of taino"
(1954: 53) that the term Caracaracol comes from the term eyeri Kara Karacoti whose translation would
be "mangy skin".

GUABANCEX: Ceimí taíno collected by Pané (1990: 45), which according to his description
corresponds to the deity of the storm, or rather of the hurricane, also adds that it is female and that it is
accompanied by two cemíes, the one herald and the other collector of the waters, Guatauba and
Coatrisquie respectively.
Still ignore the etymological root of the term.

GUABONITO: Character from the Taino mythology collected by Pané (1990: 25), is female, lived at the
bottom of the sea, was the one who cured Guahayona of his illness and gave him the guanines.
Term of possible guaraúna root, in this language wabon means immortal, that does not die, Barral
(1979: 449).

GUANAROCA: According to Valle and Hdez. (1919: 13-16) character of the Cuban aboriginal legends of
the Jagua area. It represents the first woman, was created by the Moon for Hamao's partner. His tears
for the death of his first son formed the lagoon that bears his name. A term that possibly has its root in
Guanara, which according to Guarch and Querejeta (1992: 23-24, 36 note 25) means "quiet and
secluded place"; whereas Arrom (1990: 63) citing Rafael Celedón's Grammar, catechism; vocabulary of
the Guajira language (1878: 96) says that it may come from the term "guanoru" which means disease
in this language.

GUATAÚBA: Appears in this way in Pané (1990: 46) and says that it is the name of the cembí
pregonero of Guabancex, it is the thunder that announces the storm.
Arrom in his analysis (1990: 77) decomposes it in Wa- nuestro and Taúba- which could be the same
Tupa or Tupan, deity of thunder for the Guarani, or the supreme deity Koeruna Toibá.
Zayas (1914: 64) picks it up as Guatamba and Cambiaso (1974: 35) calls it Guataura.

GUAYZA: According to Arrom (1990: 72) is the correct form of the word goeiza related by Pané (1990:
33) and states that comes from waisiba, isiba is expensive, face, wa as possessive prenominal prefix
meaning our, so it means our face It is the soul of the living beings that the body inhabits while it lives
but that escapes from it at the moment of death. As referred to by Pané can also be understood as a
kind of spirit or ghost.
Arrom takes for his explanation of Brinton (1871: 438), Perea agrees with the previous ones.
lsiba, Iza, assimilated to the radical izi, issi, isi present in the corresponding face, face, face.

HAMAO: In the legends collected by Valle and Hernández (1919: 13-16) is the first man created in the
area of Jagua, killed his son by the jealousy of Guanaroca's love, his wife, and the hidden in a güira of
the mountain, that when breaking, of this arose fish and turtles.

HUIÓN: According to Valle and Hdez. (1919: 13-16) is the Sun for the aborigines of Cuba, from the area
of Jagua. They also state that he is the creator of men, while the Moon is the creator of women.
Bachiller refers to him as the second Caribbean of the ten that emerged from Lucuo's navel (1883: I,
323) and Huin writes, as does Izquierdo Gallo. This what they call Bachiller and Morales or Izquierdo
Gallo incorrectly insular Caribbean, is what has been called aruaco protomaipure, Valdés Bernal (1991:
I, 33).

HURRICANE: According Ortiz (1947: 89-93) and Izquierdo Gallo (1952: 185-190) is the God of the
Storm for the aborigines of Cuba, Lord Almighty for the Antilleans whose terrible power is manifested
by thunder, storms, lightning , storms, cyclones.
Ortiz in his study states that this deity must have had many devotees among the Cuban Indians, who
asked him not to unleash their furies and in turn to favor them in the rains that promoted the
fertilization and prosperity of their fields. It also proposes that the Hurricane of the Antilles should have
been the predominant deity in the cults, although later in this study it says that among the Cuban
Indians of Aruaco Guabancex origin, the Huracán deity was not the Supreme but Atabeira, although
Pané y Arrom, among other researchers, state that this supreme deity is Yúcahu.
Izquierdo concludes that the name of Guabancex prevailed in Hispaniola and that this is equivalent to
the Hurricane of Cuba.
Mártir de Anglería, Las Casas and Oviedo collect it as Hurricane and pose that it is Antillean word.
Rafinesque picks it up as Iuracan and says it is a word of the Eyeri Indians, that is, protomaipures of
the small Antilles.
Perea also defines it as eyeri and says that it seems to derive from a common radical of the Aruaco
languages.

IASIGA: Also known as Yasiga, Indian of the pre-Columbian Jagua, of the legends collected by Valle
and Hdez. (1919: 27-32), wife of Maitío, of ardent and passionate temperament, lover of Gagiano;
Surprised by her husband, she was transformed into a sea monster that appears silent and
supplicating to solitary fishermen.

IGUANAYOCA: In the legends gathered by Valle and Hdez. in the area of Jagua (1919: 41-44) is the
name of the old companion of the Indian Aycayía transformed into a turtle when being dragged by the
hurricane that the behíque had invoked to punish the young woman. This name has its roots in Iguana
and yucca which translated would mean yucca serpent.

INAO: According to Valle and Hdez. (1919: 13-16) first son of Hamao and Guanaroca. He was taken to
the mountain by his father where he died for lack of food. Hamao to hide his crime hid the child inside
a güiro that hung from a tree. The mother, noticing the lack of her son, went out to look for it and when
she found the güiro, she let it fall and from it sprouted fish, turtles and a large amount of liquid. The
fish formed rivers and the turtles the peninsula of Majagua and the keys of the south of Cienfuegos.
Possible corruption of Ineu.
Sixto Perea picks it up as an Aruca word meaning son.
Rafael Girard picks up in Inert myths Ineu, second of the children of a deity, discoverer of paradise, I
teach men the cultivation of the earth.

INRIRI CAHUBABAYAEL: Carpenter bird, was sought when the separation of men and women and the
appearance of the first asexual beings, was sought to open sex to the latter, Pané (1990: 27).
The essence of the word Cahubabayael indicates that it is the son of Çahubaba, the Earth Mother and
the homotonía with Yahubabayael raises the possibility that it refers to the same individual, Arrom
(1990: 65).
Cambiaso (1974: 20) states that Cahuvaial is the ancient name of the Royal Carpenter.

ITIBA CAHUBABA: Picked up by Pané (1990: 29) as mother of the Four Twins, which she had when she
died in childbirth and when she opened her womb, of which the oldest was Deminán Caracaracol.
Mythical ancestor
Arrom in his analysis of Pané's book (1990: 66) states that often in the Aruacan languages the T is
exchanged for the K, so Tahuvava (as Ulloa writes it) could read Cahubaba, also points out that had
there been any relationship with Tupí-Guaraní the word could come from the word Kayu, which in this
language means old, full of years.
Ite en aruaco came from the root ite ~ üttü ~ ütte which means blood, all of which would be translated
as Bloody Old Mother.

JAGUA: Valley and Hdez. (1919: 19-23) in their legends of the area of Jagua say that this character
was the second woman on earth, born from a bunch of ripe fruit at the contact of a moonbeam.
It was Caonao's wife, her children were the first women.
Jagua is a term of defined aruaca filiation, Valdés Bernal (1991: 254), is the name that in Cuba is given
to the Genipa americana, a very common timber tree.

MABUYA: According to the diverse interpretations of the cronistas of indias is the name that the taínos
of Cuba give to the Devil or rather to the supernatural Being to which they attributed their calamities.
According to Zayas (1914: 152) he is a malefic spirit, a genius of evil and in turn he cites Brasseur de
Bourbourg who breaks down the word into a ma- negative prefix and buya-thing or good spirit, from
what would result in negation of good, or spirit of evil. Following the reasoning of this work in which we
translate Buya as: the one that feeds, the one that nourishes, the one that feeds and we link it to the
negative prefix ma-, we would have Mabuya that would be the one that does not feed, or also the one
that takes away the food , which brings us closer to the reflections of Fernando Ortíz about Mabuya
and its relationship with the negative part of the Hurricane. Corroborating the above, Sixto Perea states
that Mabuya means fasting.

MÁCOCAEL: Mythical character of the Taíno beliefs collected by Pané (1990: 22), was chosen to
distribute the human beings that lived in the cave Cacibajagua, one day it took him to return from his
guard and was surprised by the Sun and transformed into stone nearby from the entrance of the cave.
Mythical ancestor
Arrom in his study of Pané's book (1990: 60) takes the term given by Anglería
Machochael and not that of Ulloa Marocael's translation and suggests that this may have its root in the
word aruaco akoke, which means eyelid, which is linked to the prefix negative ma- would be translated
as "the without eyelids". Although in the protomaipure language of the insular Caribbean ako means:
power, observation of the teachings, which could also result: "the powerless", or, "the one who did not
observe the received teachings".

MAGUANI: Cacique from the area of Matanzas who, according to the myths collected by Feijóo (1986:
21), caught a magical fish with which he managed to sleep the Indian Baiguana and transform it into a
mountain.
Magua according to the Houses and Perea (1941: 43-44) means vega and the particle does not mean
a little, which gives it a diminutive character that could be translated as vega pequeño or veguita.

MAICABO: According to Guarch y Querejeta (1993: 57) stone idol found by a peasant in a cave on the
hillock of Júcaro, Holguín and adds that it is possibly a corruption of the Mauabo aruaco word that
means without a spring, dry, it also says that it is a nominal dedication by which Marohu is known.

MAITIO: In the myths of the area of Jagua, Valle and Hdez. (1919: 27-32), this character is the Indian
husband of Iasiga who upon discovering his wife deceiving him with his lover invoked Mabuya and
instantly she was transformed into a sea monster.
Word of possible origin aruaca with root in iti-ite blood, which would be translated as "the bloodless".

MAQUETAIRE GUAYABA: Lord of Coaybay, according Pané (1990: 32) the first to go to the House or
room of the dead, this place is located on an island named Soraya, where the dead spend time eating
guavas and doing areitos.
Arrom referring to the term Maquetaire argues that perhaps related to the word aruaco Kokke, Kakü,
"live, life" which could mean linked to the prefix ma-, the lifeless.
As for Guayaba he cites Ulloa who writes it as Guabazza and Anglería who gives it as Guannaba.
Bachiller and Morales (1883: 279) translates it as guanábana, which has no resemblance to the quince
as described by Pedro Mártir. Arrom in his analysis of this word says that the guannaba may be the
latinization of guañaba, guaiaba or guanyaba which has a resemblance to the aforementioned quince.
Coaybay, Arrom relates it to the word aruaco Kocua which means to be absent and the semantema baí
with the words recorded in the Taíno aruaco boa ~ bouhí ~ bohío that translates as Casa, or to the
terms of the lokono bahoi ~ bahü, casa aborada, lo that would turn out to be House of the Absent
Cambiaso to talk about to Mr. of Coaybay names Machete Taurú Guauana (1974: 55).

MÁROHU: Cemi made of stone, according to Pané (1990: 31), says of him that he was highly
esteemed, like Boinayel, he was represented with his hands tied; Guarch and Querejeta (1992: 32) say
that it is deity of the clear weather, without rains, the cause of the dry seasons, for this they are based
on Arrom's explanation of the meaning of the name. Boinayel and Mároho were at the entrance to the
cave Iguanaboina, linked to the appearance of the Sun and the Moon, hence some authors relate these
cemíes with the aforementioned cosmic elements.
Arrom takes the name Maroho de Anglería and decomposes the term into ma- prefix of negation or
privative, ring coming from the voices aruacas or-aro, ur-aro that mean cloud and the nominalizing
suffix -hu, as a sign of reference which is would translate as The No Clouds.
He also says that Ulloa is written by Maroio, a term that may be the one that provokes the confusion
for which many authors, linking cemí to the Moon, call this last Maroya.
Perea (1941: 20-22) calls Maroho and defines it as cemi representing the Moon. It considers that the
subject that informs the name of the Moon is actually present in this word, and is based on the
equivalences of the words fire and light, proposes that it is the radical ar, aru, ari and its variants and
explains that the The negative prefix associated with this radical would be an allusion to the weak
luminous intensity of the Moon and gives the example of the verbal adjective Aruaco Marúnnahan,
which means not to be luminous, not to be brilliant.

MAROYA: Way in which some authors personify the Moon, example Valley and Hdez. (1919: 19-23),
Bachiller (1883: 11.24). We suppose that this confusion, as we stated in the analysis of Mároho,
comes from Ulloa's translation of Pané's document when he names the cemí at the entrance of the
Iguanaboma cave, Maroio.
Bertoni (1916: 85) states that Maroyo also Maroho on the Moon in Taíno.

MAUTIATIHUEL: According Pané (1990: 31) is the name of the Cacique of the region where the
Iguanaboina Cave, from which the Sun and the Moon came, according to Guarch and Querejeta (1992:
17) personification of the Aurora, announced the departure del Sol, perhaps based his explanation that
makes this polysintetismo Arrom in his notes to Pané's book (1990: 69) in which he decomposes it in
the following way Mautia "dawn or dawn", -this nominalizing particle, -hu, sign of respect and
termination - the one that means son of, all of which would result "Son of the Dawn", also raises that
could be translated as Cacique of the Region of the Dawn.
Bachiller (1883: II, 244) is named Manaia Tiunel and Cambiaso (1974: 59) Mancia Fionel.

OCON: Valley and Hdez. (1919: 14) In his aboriginal legends of the Cienfuegos area they say that he is
the personification of the Earth.

OPÍA: Spirit of the dead, Pané (1990: 33), is the one that continues to the Guayza after she died.Zayas
(1914: II, 103-104), Valle and Hdez., And Las Casas name it as hupia.Breton (1812: 424) in his Caraibe-
français Dictionary he cites the word aruacoprotomaipure, which he calls the insular Caribbean,
oupoyr-m, and he says that it means espirit.Cambiaso (1974: 48) writes in his book Hupía por Jupía,
and says that it is Fantasma .

OPIYELGUOBIRÁN: Cemi, according to the stories collected by Pané (1990: 45) has four legs and a dog
shape, made of wood; belonged to the cacique Sabanajobabo. He escaped every night to go to the
woods where it was necessary to find him and bring him home tied with ropes from which he escaped
to return to the mountains. Legend has it that when the Spaniards arrived on the island of Haiti, he
escaped to a lagoon and never again Was seen.
Zayas (1914: 11, 226) picks it up as Opijileboniran.
Arrom in his notes to the book of Pané says that the voice has root in the Taíno aruaco Opía, spirit.

TAGUABO: According to Guarch y Querejeta (1997: 31-32) it is Avatar or nominal dedication by which
Boinayel is known in the myth turned into a legend in the city of Antilla in Holguín. Name that was given
to a wooden Cemí found by the farmer Alejandro Reyes in loma del Júcaro.

TOA: In the myths collected by Pané (1990: 24) a voice with which the children abandoned by their
mothers, when Guahayona separated the women from the men, called those. Children abandoned at
the edge of a stream became frogs.
Arrom in his notes (1990: 61) cites Ulloa in this voice as too and later tona, he also says that it is
possible that the correct form is toa and that it means water.
Zayas picks it up as tona, toha. Tona in aruaco protomaipure is water.
Cambiaso (1974: 67) states that toa means breasts, breasts. Also in the mother's sense.

UAGUANO: Valley and Hdez. (1919: 103-115). They say that he was also known as: mueco, muenco or
muengo, and that his legend is lost in the remote times of the aborigines. Species of spirit of the
forests, addicted to the evils, its favorite diversion is to change of site the animals that it finds in his
step, as well as to lose the farming tools. It lives on rocks and reefs on the coast or in burrows in the
high mountains or deep in the mountains. Deformations are also attributed to children.
Bachiller picks it up as Uaquian and says it means bad companion (1883: II, 368).

YAHUBABA: In the myths of the primitive time of the aborigines of Hispaniola collected by Pané (1990:
23) this individual inhabitant of the cave Cacibajagua, was sent by Guahayona to collect medicinal
herbs and not being able to return to the cavern before dawn was surprised by the Sun and
transformed into the bird that announces the morning, called Yahubabayael.
Zayas (1914: II, 3) names him Giudranama.
Cambiaso (1974.25) picks it up as Giahubabagionel and says it is a phrase whose meaning is: "he who
became a bird".
Arrom says in his myths Pané's book (1990: 60) that Yahubaba, Tahubaba and Cahubaba are perhaps
variants of the same voice.

YAYA: Mythological character of those collected by Pané (1990: 28). To be unnamed, mythical
ancestor, some authors consider him primeval Father. He killed his son, who in turn tried to kill him and
put his bones in a pumpkin that hung from the top of his hut, one day when the container overturned,
many fish came out of it, having its origin in this way, like the sea that arose from the rupture of the
aforementioned pumpkin.
Arrom in his notes to Pané's book (1990: 65 note 53) clarifies that in reality what should have been
treated was a güira that is the one used in the Antilles as a container.
Arrom (1990: 65) clarifies the existing contradiction by mentioning the name Yaya and immediately
saying that his name is unknown, citing CH de Goeje (1928: 45,142 and 204) where the term aruaco Ia,
meaning spirit, is explained. life and that by its duplication it becomes a superlative that could be
translated as the Supreme Spirit.
According to Izquierdo Gallo Yaya is a solar god, and links the rupture of the gourd to the myth of the
flood.
Bachiller and Morales (1883: 11, 227) says that IaIa means land.
YAYAEL: Son of Yaya, as the ending indicates -the. They tell the myths collected by Pané (1990: 28)
who tried to kill his father so he was exiled for four months and later died for being a father; his bones
kept in a gourd gave rise to the appearance of the fish.

YÚCAHU: Yúcahu Bagua Maórocoti, Supreme Being for the tamos of La Española, according to Pané
(1990: 21). In aboriginal beliefs this being is located in Heaven, it is the only one of all its mythology, it
has no beginning nor known father, but mother yes, that is Atabey. He was considered immortal and
invisible.
Zayas names him Yucaho and says that it is "a word that is possibly a basic modality of the yoca voice,
it appears in several complex and surely expressions related to the Divinity". He also collected it as
Yocabay Bama, Guamoquina, Yocahuguama, Yocahuna-Vagua-Maorocoti, Yocauna-Guamaocon.
Ulloa, as Arrom quotes him, calls him Iocahuuague Maorocon. Las Casas (1990: 104) Yocahu Vagua
Maorocoti.
Arrom in his Studies on the Supreme Being decomposes the name in the following way:
Yúcahu: Yúca -yuca
hu-nominalizer suffix that gives sense of solemnity what would be translated as Yucca or Yuca.
Maórocoti: Ma- negative or proprietary prefix. Orocoti grandfather. What would be translated, Without
Grandpa.
Yucaguama: It is polysynthesis that would be translated as Our Lord of the Yuca.
Perea confirms this word and explains that it descends due to the syncope of Balahua, the word of the
aruaco eyerí (aruaco protomaipure of the Lesser Antilles) that means great water, sea, mighty river
Bertoni (1916: 85), says that Yocahúna or Hovana is the name of God in Taino.
Cambiaso picks it up as Jocahunage and states that it is a phrase that means: Ente of heaven that had
no father. To be Supreme that nobody had created (1974: 52)

YUMURÍ: Indian from the Matanzas area, from the legends collected by Feijóo (1986: 22), lover of
Albahoa. Faced with the decision of the girl's father to marry her with another, she told Yumurí, who
went to rescue her in a canoe down the river Babonao, in which they found their death sinking in the
mud on their banks, once The escape was discovered, and after a long chase. From that moment the
river stopped being called Babonao to be called Yumurí.

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Eduardo Frias Etayo at 16:39

1 comment:

Anonymous August 22, 2010, 3:19 PM

Sino lo sabe, toda la obra de Arrom es un fraude. Para empezar compare su alegada traduccion de Pane
al castelano con esta del 1932. Le soprrendera que es la misma:

http://digicoll.library.wisc.edu/cgi-bin/IbrAmerTxt/IbrAmerTxt-idx?
type=header&id=IbrAmerTxt.Spa0006&pview=hide

Por otro lado hasta hace un cuento chino de que unos viejitos le hicieron la traduccion. Dos traducciones
nunca pueden ser una imagen de espejo
Responder

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