Did You Know: Early colonial records from Borikén preserve the personal names of Taíno women whose individual identities are often overlooked in generalized histories of early Spanish colonial period. Historian Francisco Moscoso highlights a June 26, 1516 relación de cacona—a record of clothing provided as payment to Taíno people subjected to the encomienda system at the Real Hacienda de Toa. Among the women named in that document were Yayguana, Ataguas, Ata, Canaca, Caguama, and Buriquena, along with many others. Moscoso traces the record to Aurelio Tanodi’s compilation of documents from Puerto Rico’s Royal Treasury.
These women were not anonymous figures living on the margins of history. They belonged to particular communities, had families, names, identities, and lived through the violent transformation of Borikén under Spanish colonization. Other records preserve additional Taíno women by name. Gu'ahia Taíno, drawing on the work of Puerto Rican scholar Luis Hernández Aquino, also identifies three Indigenous women, Aldonza Ata, Catalina Ata, and Teresa Ata during this same time period. They too were subjected to the encomienda of Kasike Aramana.
On the International Day of the World’s Indigenous Women and Girls, observed each September 5, the United Confederation of Taíno People remembers not only celebrated women leaders such as Anakaona, but also the many Taíno women whose lives remain only partially visible in the colonial record. The survival of names such as Yayguana, Ataguas, Canaca, Caguama, Buriquena, Aldonza Ata, Catalina Ata, and Teresa Ata reminds us that our ancestors were not simply categories in colonial documents—they were individual Indigenous women whose lives formed part of the continuing history of our People. The United Nations established September 5 as the annual International Day of the World’s Indigenous Women and Girls to recognize the leadership, knowledge, contributions, and rights of Indigenous women and girls worldwide.
References
Francisco Moscoso. “Los cacicazgos taínos y la historia antigua de Puerto Rico.” 80grados+, July 25, 2025. Moscoso cites the 1516 Toa record and identifies the women Yayguana, Ataguas, Ata, Canaca, Caguama, and Buriquena.
Aurelio Tanodi, comp. Documentos de la Real Hacienda de Puerto Rico. Volumen I: 1510–1519. See pp. 104–107, cited by Moscoso as the source for the June 26, 1516 relación de cacona.
Luis Hernández Aquino. Diccionario de voces indígenas de Puerto Rico. 2nd ed. Río Piedras: Editorial Cultural, 1977. Moscoso includes the work in his bibliography, and Gu'ahia Taíno draws on Hernández Aquino for the colonial record of Aldonza, Catalina, and Teresa Ata.
Roberto Múkaro Agueibaná Borrero. Gu'ahia Taíno: We Speak Taíno — A Classic Taíno Dictionary and Grammar Guide, Vol. 1. United Confederation of Taíno People, 2023.
