Pedro Guanikeyu Torres, also known as Peter Guanikeyu Torres, is a Taino-identifying civil rights activist, tribal leader, educator, language teacher, tribal historian, actor and a Taino Indian Nationalist of Puerto Rico.

Academic preparation

Torres's academic background includes studies in

Cultural Anthropology Cultural anthropology is a branch of anthropology focused on the study of cultural variation among humans. It is in contrast to social anthropology, which perceives cultural variation as a subset of a posited anthropological constant. The portma ...

, Puerto Rican studies,

Art Art is a diverse range of human activity, and resulting product, that involves creative or imaginative talent expressive of technical proficiency, beauty, emotional power, or conceptual ideas. There is no generally agreed definition of wha ...

and

Latin American studies Latin American studies (LAS) is an academic and research field associated with the study of Latin America. The interdisciplinary study is a subfield of area studies, and can be composed of numerous disciplines such as economics, sociology, history ...

. Torres graduated from

Rutgers University Rutgers University (; RU), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a Public university, public land-grant research university consisting of four campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's ...

, the State University of New Jersey at Livingston College in June 1977.

Cultural activism

Flag of the Jatibonicu Taino Tribal Nation

In the late 1960s and early 1970s Torres did research aimed at documenting Taino artifacts and history through the

CPI A consumer price index (CPI) is a price index, the price of a weighted average market basket of consumer goods and services purchased by households. Changes in measured CPI track changes in prices over time. Overview A CPI is a statistic ...

Comite Pro Indigenismo. In the mid 1970s Torres had translated the very first theater script from the Spanish language to the Taino language as a former Actor and member of El Grupo Guazabara (The Guazabara Theater Group). In 1993 he founded the Taino Inter-Tribal Council (TITC, Inc.), a not-for-profit Taino cultural-educational organization. He worked at various archaeological sites, including Puerto De Tierra in the 1970s. For over five (5) decades and many years, Torres has advocated the reclaiming and repatriation of artifacts pertaining to the past Pre-Columbian historical territory of the principal regional Chief

Orocobix Orocobix was the principal regional Taíno Cacique (chief) of the central mountain region of Puerto Rico called Jatibonicu in the 16th century. The Jatibonicu territorial region covered the present day municipalities of Aibonito, Orocovis, Ba ...

of the Jatibonicu Taino tribe, a tribe located in the central mountain region of Puerto Rico. It should be mentioned that Torres is credited and recognized as being a Taino Civil Rights activist and one of the original founding Fathers of the 1968 Taino Indian Movement of Puerto Rico. He is an activist for the official government recognition of the Taino people and his unrecognized Jatibonicu Taino tribal community of Puerto Rico and in New Jersey. As tribal leader, Torres is politically active in Taino tribal council government, national and international political affairs. Often known as Don Pedro or

Chief Chief may refer to: Title or rank Military and law enforcement * Chief master sergeant, the ninth, and highest, enlisted rank in the U.S. Air Force and U.S. Space Force * Chief of police, the head of a police department * Chief of the boa ...

Guanikeyu, in 1996 Torres called for the "Taino national unity of all the Taino Indian people. In 2000, Torres represented the Jatibonicu Taino Tribal Nation before the U.S. Census Bureau. As part of his Taino tribal activism he has written various papers and articles on the relevancy of Taino culture and the history of Tainos in Puerto Rico, Florida and adjacent areas. Torres also performed as a Taino language teacher and researcher. As a tribal leader, he conducted the traditional Taino Guatiao (naming ceremony) and has bestowed the Taino name on many modern Taino people today. He also promoted the Taino language when he was chosen to name a crater on planet Venus that he named Nanichi "My Love or My Heart" in the year 2000.

Resignation and subsequent return

Due to failing health, in 2001, Guanikeyu Torres withdrew from the leading role of his Taino tribal community and assumed the post of tribal elder.''My Fairwell [sic] Letter To The Taino People in the Year 2001.''
World History archives: The contemporary political history of the Taino in general. 1 January 2001. Retrieved 19 March 2013.

References

External links

*
Video on Taino History on YouTube

Jatibonicu Taino People site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Torres, Pedro Guanikeyu 1951 births American civil rights activists Living people Puerto Rican people of Taíno descent