Anacaona is here for Indigenous People's Day
My excellent friend Kathleen asked if I was going to talk about anyone for Not Columbus Day, and I went "!!! that is an excellent idea."
I looked up women Columbus met in his murderous, pillaging rampage and I found someone super-cool. ANACAONA. Let's talk about her today and not that dick.
Anacaona is called "Poet Queen of Haiti" on Rejected Princesses, which is SUCH A COOL TITLE. Her name means Golden Flower in Taíno. The Taíno lived in Cuba, Hispaniola (the Dominican Republic and Haiti), Jamaica, Puerto Rico, the Bahamas, and the Lesser Antilles. I know! All over! Guess whose population plummeted from 2 - 3 million to being considered extinct with 100 years of meeting Columbus! Yes, right! The Taíno!
The Taíno name for Hispaniola was Ayiti ("land of high mountains"), which is the source of the name Haiti.
In 1496, Columbus stopped in Haiti and met the Taíno people. Who greeted him? Yes, for sure: Anacaona. 22 years old. She was known for her songs and poetry. I tried finding some, but all I can find are Victorian sentimental nonsense poems by people like Tennyson.
If you read the Rejected Princesses article, it talks about her methods of ingratiating herself with the colonizing forces. Here was the situation: her husband had been imprisoned. She became a chief. At this point, Europeans had been coming to Haiti and slaughtering her people for years. So she was like "here are gifts!" Put yourself in her place. Would you try to save your people or "heroically sacrifice them" (is that a thing??). She was, of course, in the tradition of colonizers, betrayed, arrested, and executed. She was 29 years old.
I'd much rather celebrate a poet queen today than an enslaving asshole, so HAPPY ANACAONA DAY.
In the centuries since, Anacaona has been heralded as one of the Caribbean’s most enduring heroines. Her name graces innumerable poems, songs, roads, schools, and statues
For more details on Anacaona, check out this site and to see a super-cool sculpture, go here.