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Guest speaker, Amadeo Nazario, who has spent much of his career in the media, is a noted historical authority on an important chapter in Puerto Rico’s history - the Taino Indians. Explorer Christopher Columbus described the Tainos as physically tall, well-proportioned people, with a noble and kind personality. He wrote: “They traded with us and gave us everything they had, with good will...they took great delight in pleasing us. Due to the lack of large game, the Tainos became very skilled fishermen. Their staples included vegetables, fruit, small animals and fish. Their massive decline (in thirty years between 80% and 90% died) was due to infectious diseases (smallpox, influenza, measles, and typhus) brought to them by the Spanish. Groups of people currently identify as Taino, mostly among the Puerto Ricans and Dominicans, both on the islands and on the United States mainland.
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