Ra Ruiz León was about four or five when her mother took her to an Indigenous Taino areyto or ceremony. She remembers being near a river in the mountain region of Puerto Rico. After chants and prayers, her mother was given a clay necklace of a Taino sun and passed it to little Ra.
“And that was the moment for me. ‘Oh, I’m Taíno. This is my identity,’” she said.
Years later, when she was about seven or eight, the necklace fell and broke. “And I thought I’m not Taino anymore,” Ra remembered. She ran to her mother and she laughed. “No, no. Of course you’re Taino,” Ra’s mother said to her. “That’s only a representation, like an extension, to show your culture. But you’re Taino. Necklace, no necklace.”