What is Laton City?
Laton City is the City crest of the Laton Taino Learning Community. Laton is the Spanish word for Brass, located in Brass City this is the local Taino co-ed Taino learning collective. Individuals, groups, entities who are looking to connect to their Taino ancestors and their traditions, spirituality, and history.
The Laton City crest features the free independence cross calling for the ancestral liberation of the Taino tribal nations, second, the Taino ancestors in the top right-hand corner, third Taino petroglyphs, and two iconic symbols of the Brass City - the Brass horse, and the Waterbury clocktower. Lastly, palm trees call for the diaspora to remember always the island nations of the Taino people.
Laton City Flag
Located on a brass and white bed the Laton city crest is the centerpiece of the Laton Taino Nation.
Brass symbolizes the supreme goddess Atabey is the supreme goddess of the Taínos, one of two supreme deities in the Taíno religion. She was worshipped as a goddess of fresh water and fertility; she is the female entity who represents the Earth Spirit and the Spirit of all horizontal water, lakes, streams, the sea, and the marine tides.
White symbolizes Yúcahu —also written as Yucáhuguama Bagua Maórocoti, Yukajú, Yocajú, Yokahu or Yukiyú— was the masculine spirit of fertility in Taíno mythology
ABOUT US // SOBRE NOSOTROS
Mission and Purpose // Nuestra Misión y Propósito
The Laton Taino Learning Community (TLC) is an indigenous collective organization founded in 2022 to promote the self-determination and protection of the human rights, culture, traditions, and sacred lands of Taíno and other Caribbean Indigenous Peoples, especially those living throughout the Greater Waterbury Area. The TLC serves as a forum for educational advocacy (including human rights and cultural education) and policy development to affirm and safeguard indigenous Taíno and other Caribbean cultural heritage and spiritual traditions (including burial issues); and promote spiritual, cultural, educational, health, economic, and social development in the Caribbean and the Diaspora.
La Comunidad Taína Laton (CTL) es una institución representativa indígena establecida en 2022 para promover la autodeterminación y la protección de los derechos humanos, la cultura, las tradiciones y las tierras sagradas de los Taínos y otros Pueblos Indígenas del Caribe especialmente aquellos que viven en el area de grande Waterbury. La CTL sirve como un foro para la promoción educativa (incluidos los derechos humanos y la educación cultural) y el desarrollo de políticas para afirmar y salvaguardar el patrimonio cultural y las tradiciones espirituales de los indígenas taínos y otros caribeños (incluidas las cuestiones de entierro); y promover el desarrollo espiritual, cultural, educativo, sanitario, económico y social en el Caribe y la Diáspora.
LANGUAGE
We hope to revive and reinstate the practice and knowledge of the new Taíno native tongue.
PILGRIMAGE
Planning and completing an annual pilgrimage to our Cacique motherlands.
SPIRIT & TRADITION
Re-establishing and reconnecting to Taíno ancestors, spirits, and the Zemis'.
AREITO
Annual drumming, poetry, healing, ceremony, and Taíno community reunion.
Taíno Stats!
70%
of the individuals living in Maricao, PR have taíno DNA/traces in their blood.
49%
The percentage of increase in Puerto Ricans who marked Taíno in the 2010 Census count. (19,839 (2010) vs 13,336 (2000)).
1%
Total PR population that identifies as Taíno.
The Taíno are an indigenous people of the Caribbean. At the time of European contact in the late fifteenth century, they are the principal inhabitants of most of Cuba, Hispaniola (the Dominican Republic and Haiti), Jamaica, Puerto Rico, The Bahamas, and the northern Lesser Antilles. The Taíno were the first New World peoples encountered by Christopher Columbus during his 1492 voyage. They spoke the Taíno language, a division of the Arawakan language group. Many Puerto Ricans, Cubans, and Dominicans have Taíno mtDNA, showing they are descendants through the direct female lines
THE PROJECT
IS THE LATON TAÍNO LEARNING COMMUNITY A TRIBE?
The Laton Taíno Nation is not a tribe, it is a collective of Waterbury Taino's who want to reconnect and learn about their Caribbean ancestors. We are all part of a large network of Taino individuals and practitioners who are helping us reconnect.
CAN AN INDIVIDUAL JOIN THE TAINO LEARNING COMMUNITY?
An individual can join the Laton Taíno Learning Community as well as organizations and groups whose members are from the diaspora. All new members are placed in a three-year probationary period before they acquire the official membership card issued by The Laton Taíno Learning Community.
WHOM DO I CONTACT FOR ISSUES WITH THE MTN REGISTRATION PROCESS?
For questions regarding the TLC registration process, please contact rafaelfeliciano@caciquetaino.org.
JOIN THE PROJECT
The goal plain and simple is to have 100 registered and counted Taino from the state of Connecticut. Please complete the following application to join the Laton Taino Nation - once received it will be reviewed by the governance committee and upon acceptance, all members and an official letter of acceptance will be mailed out to the address on file that will include the tribal by-laws