PRUMA

Long before Columbus ever saw these shores, the Taino were playing a game on stone-lined courts that meant far more than sport. 🌿 They called it batu.

On great rectangular plazas called bateyes, lined with carved monoliths, two teams kept a heavy rubber ball in the air using their hips, shoulders, knees, and heads, but never their hands. Some matches settled disputes between villages. Others were tied to ceremony, to the harvest, and to the will of the gods. The ball itself amazed the Spanish, who had never seen rubber bounce the way it did. ⚱️

These courts were the heart of Taino community life, places where people gathered to compete, to celebrate, and to remember who they were. When you stand at a site like Caguana today and see those silent stones, you are standing where our ancestors once cheered.

How connected do you feel to our Taino roots, and what would you want the world to know about them?