Caucubú was the daughter of a Ciboney (also spelled Siboney) chieftain. When she fell in love with a fisherman called Naridó, her father disapproved. She hid in a cave to avoid an arranged marriage.
Some of the caves of Trinidad de Cuba are now nightclubs for modern salsa dancers. In La Cueva Maravillosa (The Cave of Marvels) there is a fountain honoring Caucubú, who is said to grant wishes. People claim that on moonlit nights she can be seen near the mouth of the cavern, surrounded by fruit and flowers as she waits for Naridó.
Culture and Language
Cuba’s Taíno and Ciboney Indians spoke closely related dialects, performed ceremonial round dances, and shared a belief in spirits of the forest, sea, and sky. Peace between neighboring tribal groups was maintained through diplomatic marriages, a ritual precursor of soccer, and name trading, a practice that gave enemies a fresh start.
Many English words have Taíno roots. Examples include barbecue, barracuda, canoe, cassava, guava, hammock, hurricane, iguana, manatee, papaya, savannah, and tobacco. Spanish words with Taíno origins include ají (chile pepper), guacamayo (macaw), maíz (corn), maní (peanuts), maracas (rattles), and yuca (manioc). Cuba’s distinctive variety of Spanish is even more widely enriched by Taíno terms, such as bohío (thatched house), cocuyo (firefly), guagua (transportation), guajiro (farmer), guateque (feast), and manigua (jungle).
Columbus gave Cuba the Spanish name Juana. Later attempts to give the largest Caribbean island a colonial name included Fernandina, Santiago, and Ave María. Only the original Taíno name has survived into modern times. One speculative translation is cu (friend) combined with ba (big). Other indigenous place names include Bahamas, Borinquén (Puerto Rico), Guantánamo, Haiti, Havana, Jamaica, and Quisqueya (the Dominican Republic).
Literature
For five centuries, the love story of Caucubú and Naridó has been told and retold by Cuban authors, with various endings and different interpretations of the young couple’s names. My translations of Caucubú as “Brave Earth,” and Naridó as “River Being,” are based on Taíno lexicons in modern references.
It is tempting to associate Brave Earth with the “brave new world” speech of Miranda in act 5, scene 1, of William Shakespeare’s marvelous play The Tempest. Scholars have never been able to verify all the British playwright’s sources of inspiration. It is intriguing to imagine him in a smoky inn on a foggy night, listening to some wandering seafarer’s tale of hurricanes, castaways, caves, masked dancers, island spirits, forbidden love, and a girl named Brave Earth.
REFERENCES
Arciniegas, Germán. Caribbean Sea of the New World. Translated by Harriet de Onís. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1954.
Horwitz, Tony. A Voyage Long and Strange. New York: Henry Holt and Co., 2008.
Keegan, William F., and Lisabeth A. Carlson. Talking Taíno: Caribbean Natural History from a Native Perspective. Tuscaloosa: The University of Alabama Press, 2008.
Las Casas, Bartolomé de. Historia de las Indias. Madrid: Alianza Editorial, 1957.
Pané, Fray Ramón. An Account of the Antiquities of the Indians. Durham: Duke University Press, 1999.
Rouse, Irving. The Tainos: Rise and Decline of the People Who Greeted Columbus. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1992.
Sauer, Carl Ortwin. The Early Spanish Main. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1966.
Tabio, Ernesto E., and Estrella Rey. Prehistoria de Cuba. La Habana: Editorial de Ciencias Sociales, 1985.
Wright, Irene Aloha. The Early History of Cuba, 1492–1586. New York: Macmillan, 1916.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I thank God for the quiet times between storms.
As always, I am grateful to Curtis, Victor, Nicole, and the rest of my family.
Special thanks to Pamela S. Turner, Martha Moreira Yunis, the Cuban DNA Project, and the Museum of the American Indian, Smithsonian Institution.
For helping me rescue this manuscript from numerous shipwrecked drafts, I am profoundly grateful to my wonderful editor, Reka Simonsen. I am also deeply indebted to Tim Jones, Laura Godwin, Deirdre Jacobson, Rich Deas, Liz Herzog, Sarah Dotts Barley, and the entire Holt/Macmillan team.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Margarita Engle is a Cuban American poet, novelist, and journalist whose work has been published in many countries. She is the author of young adult nonfiction books and novels in verse including The Surrender Tree, a Newbery Honor Book, The Poet Slave of Cuba, Hurricane Dancers, The Firefly Letters, and Tropical Secrets. She lives in northern California. You can sign up for email updates here.
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CONTENTS
Title Page
Copyright Notice
Dedication
Epigraphs
Historical Setting
Cast of Characters
Part One: Wild Sea
Quebrado
Quebrado
Quebrado
Quebrado
Quebrado
Bernardino de Talavera
Quebrado
Bernardino de Talavera
Alonso de Ojeda
Quebrado
Quebrado
Quebrado
Alonso de Ojeda
Bernardino de Talavera
Quebrado
Quebrado
Alonso de Ojeda
Quebrado
Bernardino de Talavera
Quebrado
Quebrado
Bernardino de Talavera
Quebrado
Alonso de Ojeda
Quebrado
Quebrado
Part Two: Brave Earth
Quebrado
Naridó
Quebrado
Bernardino de Talavera
Alonso de Ojeda
Quebrado
Naridó
Quebrado
Quebrado
Caucubú
Naridó
Caucubú
Quebrado
Caucubú
Quebrado
Part Three: Hidden
Quebrado
Quebrado
Bernardino de Talavera
Alonso de Ojeda
Quebrado
Quebrado
Quebrado
Quebrado
Naridó
Quebrado
Caucubú
Quebrado
Bernardino de Talavera
Alonso de Ojeda
Naridó
Caucubú
Quebrado
Caucubú
Naridó
Bernardino de Talavera
Quebrado
Part Four: The Sphere Court
Quebrado
Quebrado
Caucubú
Naridó
Quebrado
Bernardino de Talavera
Alonso de Ojeda
Bernardino de Talavera
Alonso de Ojeda
Caucubú
Quebrado
Quebrado
Alonso de Ojeda
Quebrado
Caucubú
Naridó
Quebrado
Bernardino de Talavera
Caucubú
Part Five: The Sky Horse
Quebrado
Quebrado
Quebrado
Quebrado
Quebrado
Bernardino de Talavera
Quebrado
Quebrado
Quebrado
Quebrado
Quebrado
Bernardino de Talavera
Alonso de Ojeda
Caucubú
Naridó
Que
brado
Caucubú
Quebrado
Quebrado
Part Six: Far Light
Bernardino de Talavera
Alonso de Ojeda
Quebrado
Alonso de Ojeda
Bernardino de Talavera
Quebrado
Alonso de Ojeda
Bernardino de Talavera
Quebrado
Bernardino de Talavera
Yacuyo
Author’s Note
Historical Note
References
Acknowledgments
About the Author
Copyright
Henry Holt and Company, LLC
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Copyright © 2011 by Margarita Engle
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First Edition—2011
eISBN 9781627797825
First eBook edition: June 2015