Inriri

Inriri por Tanya Torres

Inriri by Tanya Torres, Oil on canvas, 20" x 16", 2012.
 

"They searched for a bird called inriri (woodpecker), and before was called  inriri cahuvayal, which lives in the trees, in our language it is called pico. Those persons without male or female sex were taken, their feet and hands tied, and the mentioned bird was tied to their body; the pico, believing that the people were tree trunks, began its accustomed work, pecking and making a hole where you can ordinarily find the nature of women."  Fray Ramón Pané

And so I found that the Taínos, the original inhabitants of the island of Puerto Rico, had spoken to tell me how the nature of women was created.

For many years, I have been wanting to work with the theme of the Taíno natives of Puerto Rico, a long gone people, except for the obvious traces of their DNA in the blood and often physical appearance of Puerto Ricans. But I could not find a way. I wanted to get away from their most visible heritage, their petroglyphs.

I painted this image thinking of El Yunque, the mountain/rain-forest that has become their sacred space, at least in the popular imagination. It is there where Edgardo Vega Yunqué sent their characters through the portals of the Lower East Side into Puerto Rico in Lamentable Journey of Omaha Bigelow Into the Impenetrable Loisaida Jungle: A Novel. And it is there where you might go if you want to experience for a moment the wildlife and plant life as it might have been before the Taínos became extinct due to illness and suicide, both a direct result of the European Conquest. (There are other theories, but this is the most popular.)

I created this image originally as a drawing that responded to the poem "Alabanza" by Luis Antonio Rodríguez,  and this drawing also became the cover of my own little book Destellos de Sofía. But as I began painting it, the colors began to darken and the flower started to be filled with Mary Magdalene's fire, and the bird became fire-red, like the Phoenix.

I did not know how I would title this painting until I was preparing the image jpg. I had heard a Taíno story long ago of a bird creating women's menstruation, but I could not remember it well. Still, I knew that was what I was painting here. Holding Marianela Medrano's poetry book Diosas de la Yuca, like an oracle in my hands, I started searching for the story, or a meaning, or a connection.

I soon found it, in a part I had not yet read, and to my surprise, it was perfect:

"They searched for a bird called inriri (woodpecker), and before was called  inriri cahuvayal, which lives in the trees, in our language it is called pico. Those persons without male or female sex were taken, their feet and hands tied, and the mentioned bird was tied to their body; the pico, believing that the people were tree trunks, began its accustomed work, pecking and making a hole where you can ordinarily find the nature of women."  Fray Ramón Pané

And so I found that the Taínos had spoken, through poetry, drawing, painting and Marianela's research and book, to tell me how the nature of women was created.

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