U.S. TerritoriesPuerto Rico, Guam, U.S. Virgin Islands, etc.
Welcome to City-Data.com forum! Make sure to register - it's free and very quick! You have to register before you can post and participate in our discussions with 700,000 other registered members. User profiles and some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your free account you will be able to customize many options, you will have the full access to over 15,000 posts/day about local topics and you will see fewer ads.
Remember that many Spanish conquerors had some Middle Eastern blood since Muslim invaded Spain thousands of years ago.
I'm Puerto Rican, and I look very Mediterranean; I'm very tall, but I have pale skin, dark eyes and hair, and my facial features are very Mediterranean, not Latin American.
Well, if you know that the Arabs dominated Iberia for 300 years, this should not come as a surprise to you.
I do not know it for a fact, but I have always been convinced that my ancestry is of Arabic origin, probably through Spain. Even though all my immediate, back to my grand, grand parents where born in Puerto Rico.
Just as an exercise, watch any video taken in the streets of Iraq, Palestine, Lebanon, heck pick almost any middle eastern country, but mute the sound. Then ignore the local indicators, and just look at the faces. When I do that, I find myself thinking "that could easily be a Rio Piedras street scene"
The Moors or Arabs dominated Spain for almost 800 years. Before the Arabs, the Romans ruled.
The native Taino Indians would look a lot more closer to South American or North American Indians. There is not much there to look Arab, but maybe darker skin.
The Tainos were originally from the amazon. How much of a presence do tainos have on the island?? I know that the island was originally theirs, but since many died from disease, suicide, and murder, how many actually survived, and to what extent?
The Tainos were originally from the amazon. How much of a presence do tainos have on the island?? I know that the island was originally theirs, but since many died from disease, suicide, and murder, how many actually survived, and to what extent?
Originally the story was that there was not much left of them, but more recent DNA testing has shown that there is some Taino representation in today's "average" Puertorican. However, it would be alot easier to find today a person in Puerto Rico that looks close its african ancestors, or its Spanish ancestors than to their Taino ancestry.
Tainos are part of the main Arawak Native Branch. In PR. over 60% have some Taino. They were not wipedout but absorbed. This goes for the other main Caribbean islands.
Quote:
Arawak today contains 31 tribes. The theory goes that they crossed over from Asia down North America down to Central America where some tribes settled. Then others kept going to South America and scattered all over the continent down to Northern Argentina, parts of Paraguay and Brazil. Then some tribes heading North again via Brazils Amazon and reached Trinidad and then started island hopping until they got to Southern Florida.
In Paraguay one Arawak branch meet up with the Guarani who subjugated the Arawak who lived in parts of SE Bolivia. Arawak were famous for being mostly docile. Guarani were more warlike. They then together formed a new group called Tupi-Guarani. Story goes the Tupi then went to Brazil and got it from the Portuguese. While the Guarani stayed in Paraguay and parts of Bolivia.
As for the language, Arawak family of language is spoken from Belize in Central America to Northern Argentina in South America. But many of the languages of the Arawak family have gone extinct. Guana spoken in Paraguay went extinct in 2006. Today many of there words are still in use, they have been absorbed into the languages spoken in many of the Caribbean islands. This includes the food and some of there ways of doing things.
Edit: In Bolivian culture you can sometimes see a similarity with PR. mountain culture. Some people think the way these Bolivian sing is very similar to the way some sing mountain music in PR. Remember, Arawak made it to Bolivia and from there some went into the Amazon and North. Some reached the Caribbean in time.
Just as an exercise, watch any video taken in the streets of Iraq, Palestine, Lebanon, heck pick almost any middle eastern country, but mute the sound. Then ignore the local indicators, and just look at the faces. When I do that, I find myself thinking "that could easily be a Rio Piedras street scene"
That's so true!!!!!!!!
When I used to had long hair, and I wore it curly, many people thought I was from that region: Middle East!
Remember that many Spanish conquerors had some Middle Eastern blood since Muslim invaded Spain thousands of years ago.
I'm Puerto Rican, and I look very Mediterranean; I'm very tall, but I have pale skin, dark eyes and hair, and my facial features are very Mediterranean, not Latin American.
Coņo nena!!! Eso hay que verlo pa' creerlo!!! How's about posting a picture!!!
Many immigrants to the Americas and specially Latin America came from Spain. Lots of these people had Arabic lineage. what many people don't realize that the Arabs occupied Spain and Portugal for more than 500 years during this time there was mixing of races and many of the Spaniards and some Latinos today are 100% pure Arabs by genes because when the Spaniards took over Spain form the Arabs again, they forced many to convert to Catholicism and banned Arabic and Muslim religion from practice. In fact some of the early explorers with Christopher Columbus were 100% Arab. The role of the Arabs and Muslims in the western world has intentionally been ignored due to the ideological and religious animosity between the two worlds! Many of the discoveries in fields like Medicine, astronomy, physics, Math and philosophy were never accredited to its original Arab scientist due to this animosity and in fear of Islamic or middle-eastern influence which apparently seems to prevail after all!!!!
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Welcome to City-Data.com forum! Make sure to register - it's free and very quick! You have to register before you can post and participate in our discussions with 700,000 other registered members. User profiles and some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your free account you will be able to customize many options, you will have the full access to over 15,000 posts/day about local topics and you will see fewer ads. 
Linear Mode
