Tribute to the Taino Indians of the Dominican Republic

"If you have ever paddled a canoe, napped in a hammock, savored a barbecue, smoked tobacco or tracked a hurricane, you have paid tribute to the Taino, the Indians who invented those words long before we welcomed the New World in 1492."

Quisqueya is one of two aboriginal names for the Island of Hispaniola which inhabits two countries: Dominican Republic and Haiti. Quisqueya means Cradle of Life. Through my work, I honor my ancestors from the Dominican Republic, the land of the Merengue, Platanos and Sugar Cane. I revere in the richness of my roots of those that preceded me through time and space. I look forward to passing the legacy on.

I came up with the Business name through The Rite of Cohoba Passage. It was a powerful, spiritual, sacred, and religious ceremony among Taino tribes. The BEHIKE (Shaman) would sit on his DUJO (ancestral ceremonial seat) to inhale Cohiba/ Cohoba. He would inhale tobacco to induce a trance state to communicate with their ancestors located in the after life, COABEY (Paradise) to ask for health, protection, to assign which members of the tribes would be hunting, harvesting, and even to consult about marriages. This ceremony was a sealing of approval of the ancestors. During their rituals, they used CUEY (sacred objects or semis carved out of stone or sacred wood). The Taino may have used bioluminicence ink of the CUCUBANO (click beetle-Pyrophorus Luminosus) to paint their bodies to glow under the moon light during their religious rituals, which were mostly at night. -Smithsonian Magazine