Cuba - Lonely Planet [362]
The re-evaluation of Taíno culture began in 1901 when American anthropologist Stewart Culin found credible evidence of Indian people still living in the isolated mountains of the Oriente. Half a century later, respected Cuban scientist Antonio Núñez Jiménez reported similarly significant remnants of a ‘lost’ Taíno culture in the Sierra Maestra.
Seen through the prism of history, these finds aren’t surprising. Throughout the first three centuries of Spanish colonization, vast swathes of Cuba remained uncharted and unconquered. Retreating into the impenetrable southeastern mountains and northern coral keys, disparate indigenous groups teamed up with runaway slaves in independent fugitive communities known as cimarrones or palenques.
Meanwhile, in the growing urban areas, less rebellious indigenous populations were herded into official towns earmarked by the Spanish as pueblos Indios. The best-known of these was Guanabacoa, now a suburb of Havana; another was Jiguaní, in modern-day Granma province. Existing side by side in these settlements, Old and New World cultures mixed and cross-fertilized, allowing Indian practices and words to seep into everyday Cuban life.
Indian culture was also passed through bloodlines. With European females in short supply during the early colonial period, it is estimated that at least one in three Spanish males took Indian women as their wives, a practice which saw the gradual dissipation of Indian blood through successive generations of Cuban criollos. Some of these mixed-race people eventually rose to positions of prominence in Cuban society, the most notable example being 20th-century president, Fulgencio Batista, a mulato from Holguín whose mixed Taíno, black and Chinese heritage was well known.
Today many people in and around Baracoa claim Indian blood although, as yet, no DNA-testing has been able to verify these pronouncements (similar tests in Puerto Rico have revealed that 60% of the population has some Taíno blood). Easier to confirm are the various cultural traditions passed on by the indigenous people, from the small bohíos (thatched huts), to the traditional food and the multinational Cuban cohiba (cigar).
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Baracoa’s third fort, El Castillo de Seboruco, begun by the Spanish in 1739 and finished by the Americans in 1900, is now Hotel El Castillo. There’s an excellent view of El Yunque’s flat top over the shimmering swimming pool. A steep stairway at the southwest end of Calle Frank País climbs directly up.
Baracoa’s newest and most impressive museum is the Museo Arqueológico (Moncada; admission CUC$3; 8am-5pm), situated in Las Cuevas del Paraíso 800m southeast of the Hotel El Castillo. The exhibits here are showcased in a series of caves that once acted as Taíno burial chambers. Among nearly 2000 authentic Taíno pieces are unearthed skeletons, ceramics, 3000-year-old petroglyphs and a replica of the Ídolo de Tabaco, a sculpture found in Maisí in 1903 that is considered to be one of the most important Taíno finds in the Caribbean. One of the staff will enthusiastically show you around.
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ASK A LOCAL
Coming into Baracoa you’ll get many people approaching you on La Farola selling all kinds of wares. Take the cucuruchu – a sweet, locally concocted blend of honey, mango, coconuts, banana and more (not one mix is ever the same), but bypass the polymita snail shells which are an endangered species.
José, Baracoa
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SOUTHEAST OF TOWN
Southeast of town are a couple of magical hikes that can only be done on foot. Passing the Fuerte Matachín, hike southeast past the baseball stadium and along the dark-sand beach for about 20 minutes to a rickety wooden bridge over the Río Miel. After crossing the bridge turn left, and follow a track up through a cluster of rustic houses to another junction. Turn left again