Dios, Patria, y Libertad
Dios, Patria, y Libertad Journey to NYC:
Reaching Taino Hebrews With The Unity Movement Written by: Jonathan Martin The first few hours of my expedition to NYC proved to be all but unraveling. Cancelled flights, delays, transfers, and connecting flights had me hop-scotching through Denver before I could land at LaGuardia. So much for getting my initial exploration bug out of the way. The half day in the city we would have had was robbed from us, and by 8:54pm Denver time, we were finally ascending to 30,000 feet trying to avoid the thunderstorms drenching the city. It was well after midnight by the time we landed at America’s busiest airport in Queens. A Jonathan Martin Design 1
Dios, Patria, y Libertad I had come to New York City on a mission: to see firsthand how NYC Hebrews operated. I wanted to hit the streets and see these ahks in action, the way I saw them on Youtube. I wanted to ask them questions about their doctrines; about the 12 Tribes breakdown in particular. I wanted to meet some of the brothers that I’d been following on Facbook, to hear and see how people responded to their messages. I would possibly even attend a shabbat class while I was there. But my main goal, the purpose for why I was there, was to investigate NYC Hebrews’ claim that West Indians are Yisra’elites. Now, for starters, let’s be clear. The 12 Tribes breakdown has its strong points; although it’s quite clearly provable that native American Indians are not, and could not be from one of the Hebrew tribes. I drove 18 wheelers for over a year, and spent much of that time in Hopi, Navajo, and Mohave country. From what I have observed, these nations of Plains Indians couldn’t be farther from Hebrews. (Any evidence that says otherwise is anecdotal at best). But, what about West Indians? The streets of Harlem, where my search for New York’s Hebrews started, are arrayed with people who believe in all forms of West Indian heredities. These beliefs no doubt pull their influence from Spanish and French colonial histories, as well as Arawak, Inka and Aztec residues, Roman Catholicism, and subverted African and Slavery traditions. All these markers correlate with our Hebrew faith. So it seemed as though there was a glimmer of hope for those that follow that West Indians are (or may be) Hebrews. Many West Indian religions, save Voodou, are remarkably similar to Torah. Rastafarians do say “Yah” and their religious convictions share no more than about fifty percent of the 2 www.yahonathan.com
Abrahamic essentials. Dances like merengue and calypso are expressions from trans-Atlantic slaves, as well as musical forms like Reggae and Soca. But one could overwhelm themself trying to grasp all of the parallelisms West Indians and the Islands have with Trans-Atlantic Slavery and the Curses. (I surely gave myself a headache.) I had to find a way to narrow my search parameters. My good friend AreYah Tsadaq clued me in. Here’s what I learned.
The Taino Marker The Taíno people are one of the major indigenous peoples of the Caribbean. At the time of European contact in the late 15th century, they were the principal inhabitants of most of Cuba, Jamaica, Hispaniola (presently Haiti and the Dominican Republic), and Puerto Rico in the Greater Antilles. They are classified as one of the Carib nations, along with the Arawak, the Lucayans, and the Lokono. While the ancestors of the Arawak, Lucayans, and Lokono are said to have entered the Caribbean from South America, Taino emanation is still a question of debate. At the time of contact with the Spanish, the Taíno were divided into three broad groups, known as the Western Taíno (Jamaica, most of Cuba, and the Bahamas), the Classic Taíno (Hispaniola and Puerto Rico) and the Eastern Taíno (northern Lesser Antilles). The Taíno were historically enemies of the other Carib nations. The relationship between the groups has been the subject of much study. Prior to the arrival of colonial Spain, the Taíno tribes were being driven out of the lesser Caribbean islands by the other Carib nations, possibly because of cultural or religious differences, or because Tainos were of a darker hue with kinkier hair qualities. Taino women were taken as captives,
and dispersed, resulting in the wide range of hues and complexions (i.e. facial and physiological variations). After Columbus arrived, most of the native Taino settlements became the sites of Spanish colonial cities, retaining the original Taíno names, for instance; Havana, Batabanó, Camagüey, Baracoa, Bayamo, and Cuba. At the time of the Spanish conquest, the largest Taíno population centers, in Hispanola, Cuba, and Puerto Rico, may have contained over 3,000 people each.
The Spaniards, who first arrived in the Bahamas, Cuba, and Hispaniola in 1492, and later in Puerto Rico, did not bring women in the first expeditions. They took Taíno women for their common-law wives, resulting in mestizo (mixed) children. Sexual violence in Haiti with the Taíno women by the Spanish was also common. Scholars suggest there was substantial racial and cultural mixing during this time, and afterwards as well, even into the 20th century. The Taíno became extinct as a culture following settlement by Spa-
nish colonists, primarily due to infectious diseases to which they had no immunity. The first recorded smallpox outbreak in Hispaniola occurred in December 1518 or January 1519. The 1518 smallpox epidemic killed 90% of the natives who had not already perished (according to some reports). Warfare and harsh enslavement by the colonists had also caused many deaths. By 1548, the native population had declined significantly. Contemporary scholars have recognized that the Taíno had developed a distinct language and culture,
although Taíno and Arawak were often used interchangeably by writers, travelers, historians, linguists, and anthropologists. There were several Hebrewisms shared among the Taino people. Inheritance was generally passed down to male heirs, but when there were no male heirs, the inheritance was passed down to the female members. Taino newlyweds were shut up for the first year of their marriage, in a special house, and the men did not participate in warfare during this time. There were other such HeA Jonathan Martin Design 3
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brewisms such as a prohibition from eating blood and only eating fish with both fins and scales, which are reminiscent of the dietary law, while other practices like polygyny, lunar observance, distinct annual religious feasts, refusing to mix seed in the field, allowing sabbaticals for the land to rest from harvesting, marrying women only within certain villages, marrying a deceased brother’s wife, ritual fasting, a priestly elite class, and eighth day cleanliness and purification laws elude to some knowledge and obeisance of Torah.
A Taino Tribe Today? Many people identify as descendants of the Taíno, most notably among the Puerto Ricans and Dominicans, both on the islands and in the United States in NYC and Florida; but the concept of “living Taíno” has pro4 www.yahonathan.com
ved controversial. The people and the society were long declared extinct. Some scholars, such as Jalil Sued Badillo, an ethnohistorian at the University of Puerto Rico, assert that the official Spanish historical records speak of the disappearance of the Taínos. Certainly there are no fullblood Taíno people alive today, but survivors had descendants that intermarried with other ethnic groups. Recent research notes a high percentage of mestizo and tri-racial ancestry among people in Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic; most Taino descendants also having Spanish and African ancestry. Frank Moya Pons, a Dominican historian, documented that Spanish colonists intermarried with Taíno women. Over time, some of their mestizo descendants intermarried with Africans, creating a tri-racial culture.
“Dominican society is the cradle of blackness in the Americas. It was the port of entry for the first African slaves, only nine years after Columbus arrived. Blacks and mulattoes make up almost 90 percent of the Dominican population.” Dominican social stratification is influenced by racial and economic issues. The upper class is historically descended from European ancestry and is light skinned. The lower class is most often black, descendants of the African slave population or Haitians. The mulattoes are people of mixed African and European ancestry and make up the majority of the population; they have created a growing middle class. This middle class is divided into “indio claro,” who have lighter skin, and “indio obscuro,” who are darker skinned. The term indio (Indian) is used be-
cause many Dominicans do not yet acknowledge their African roots. The opposite is true in Puerto Rico. Whereas African features are extensively more diluted, Puerto Ricans tend to be more acknowledging of their triracial history.
PR and DR Scientific Observance One of the things I came to NYC to see is how many West Indians actually claimed their Hebrew heritage. That I saw none, I had to investigate the nature of their nationality and heritage; from where and to whom do they ascribe their nativity. For the most part, based on all empirical evidence, I find that the most troublesome anomaly occurs when talking to Puerto Ricans and Dominicans. While most Hebrews have no problem with Jamaicans or Haitians being Hebrew, for Puerto Ricans and Dominicans the battle is a more philosophical one. This is where the 12 Tribes doctrine starts to fall apart. In Texas, the Hispanic population is mostly Mexican, and, according to the 12 Tribes breakdown Mexicans are the tribe of Issachar. This assumption is totally absurd, because Mexicans are quite clearly their own nation of people. Anyone who has spent any time with Mexicans would know that. But there are no Dominicans and Puerto Ricans in Texas. Based on the assumption that they are also Hispanic, I was pretty adamently opposed to them being classified as Hebrews. Plains Indians as well, could not be the tribe of Gad; they are clearly another people. Anyone who has spent time in Indian country would know this. My assertion that Puerto Ricans and Dominicans were not Hebrews was due to my lack of experience and exposure to them; I had never even heard of the term “Taino” before. But, consider what I learned through observation, research and
random interviews with Tainos. Not only do they not openly profess that they are Hebrews, but Tainos aren’t even able to determine who is from which country. Ask a Dominican or a Puerto Rican to explain the origins of their variations in hue, complexion and hair texture, and you’ll get a blank stare. Ask one to point to another and correctly tell you which island they are from, and it’s all 50/50. By the time you think you can que in on certain features of hair texture, complexion, hues, or physiology, you’ll guess Dominican and they’re Puerto Rican, or vice versa. In fact, the only way to differentiate between the two is the flag they claim and the type
of Spaniah they speak, (which is totally unreliable). Why is this? For starters, West Indian is an ambiguous term. Taino would more closely define who African-descented (Hebrew) West Indians from Hispanola are. During New York’s anual Puerto Rican Day parade, all West Indians claim to be from Puerto Rico, for whatever reason. And, the syntax of their Spanish dialects are blurry at best. While some research into the written history of Hispaniola, the Dominican Republic, and Puerto Rico logically supports that some Israelites did in fact land there during our A Jonathan Martin Design 5
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What’s extraordinary is that these two girls are from two different islands. They could pass for African American, Hispanic, Dominican, or Puerto Rican. The girl in the gray has a Puerto Rican father, while her sister, in the black, has a Dominican father. (Their mother is Puerto Rican.)
dispersion, some Puerto Ricans and Dominicans are obviously lacking any black (African) blood, and after just a few days of observing Dominicans and Puerto Ricans in the streets of NYC, I was quite sure that not all of them are Hebrews. We can logically assume that a tremendous amount of forcible mixing did occur. Dominicans and Puerto Ricans come in three varieties, all to varying degrees. At one extreme, are those with a darker hue, who have very kinky hair and a black complexion. The only way to really know that they are not African American or Black is because they speak Spanish. To the other extreme, are some who look Hispanic, in the broad sense. With very little African traits, they resemble the multiracial people of Spanish and Mesoamerican origin. They have straight hair and a different anatomical physiology. There are those at both extremes, but equally as many across the middle.
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Now, depending on how kinky the hair texture is they are born with, some Puerto Ricans and Dominicans can straighten it (blow it out) or dye it to resemble more Spanish traits. This effect was apparently more preferential for all Puerto Ricans and Dominicans. “Spaniard-izing” to better your social status was especially prevalent in Weehawken, New Jersey’s Puerto Rican and Dominican population. They all seemed to despise their African (Hebrew) traits. So disgusted by their “African-ness” were they, in fact, that for the most part, they tried not to intermix with American Negroes (Judah) as if to prevent the comingling of their ethnic genotype with the more dominant of African traits. Finally, I had found it; the innate marker, that essential jewel of our heritage, buried deep within the psychy of the Taino, the prick to the heart of their culture, imprinted on them from birth, unbenounced to
them, which is a universality for determining who Yisra’el is in these last days--self hatred.
My Summation I have come to the summation that the 12 Tribes breakdown is a false doctrine. There are several philosophical and empirical variables that have to align with one another in order to assert whether the revelation of the 12 Tribes breakdown is from Yah or from some other El. Remember that these spirits were called gods because we gave them power and life. We have given the 12 Tribes doctrine life. But the doctrine suffers from inconsistencies that bring the authenticity of the whole matter into question, despite the anecdotal evidence that does well to support it. If it were true, it would be universally true to all Hebrews, such as the three universalities are. The inability to establish this doctrine as
universally true overrules the anecdotal evidence to the contrary. For example, we can assert that “a troop will overcome Gad,” and “that he will overcome in the end.” This resembles the North American Indian man it may seem, but how many others as well? Two verses that relate to native American Indians, but all compared to an entire Torah that relates to us. The names we use to identify the israeliteish people of the West Indies, words such as Puerto Rican and Dominican, Haitian, etc, are misnomers that cause a lot of confusion. Empirically, West Indian nations are made up of people from over a hundred different nations, including the Taino, Amerindians, Mesoamericans, Africans, Hebrew slaves, Asians, Indians, and European Spanish, French, Dutch, and English. The trans-Atlantic slavery heritage of these island nations, which we will focus on, can help us classify the Yisra’elites in this region of the world into three separate groups; they are either Black, Zambo, or mulatto. Blacks, of course, derive their identity from an untainted
slave heritage. Zambos are the interracial, mixed children of slave and amerindian descent; mulattoes are interracial as well, being both of slave and European descent. Any further deviations can be logically assumed from the variety of mixing between all of the west Indian ethnic groups, which dilutes the Israelite blood and creates the wide assortment of hues that west Indian Israelites come in. Furthermore, a logical assertion, supported by the predominance of the “black” genotype, is that despite the tremendous amount of mixing that occurs amongst the people in the West Indies, there has not been a total obliteration of the Yisra’elite genotype, only a dilution or thinning of it. These trace amounts of “blackness” or” African-ness,” if you will, is what so many West Indian Yisra’elites despise, so they straighten and dye their hair, are selective when choosing mates, oppose normative social interactions with African American Yehudim, and prefer to affiliate and associate themselves only with the more Spanish/European-looking Puerto Ricans and Dominicans. This fact, as stated before, we can use to identify whom among all these people are Israel, by applying the “Curses” markers.
This Jamaican, who identifies himself as a West Indian, sold me some juice. It was aweful, when I tasted it, but I thought it would be worth sharing the name he had for it.
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