LOS CÓDIGOS ANCESTRALES: THESIS

ABSTRACT Los códigos ancestrales are a speculative system of characters inspired by carved stone, oral history, and the desire to see and be seen through one's erased native language. With this alphabet, I reimagine a version of the Native Caribbean Taíno language that is untouched by colonial forces. Bosiba, meaning “big stone,” is not a Taíno translation, but an attempt to envision a lost and undocumented commu-nication system that was originally of oral nature. It is an interpretation full of symbolism, gesture, and intuition of what a written language produced solely by the rhythms and aesthetics of indigenous Caribbean tradition could be.
Through a mindful process, I produce Bosiba: a speculative, totally fictional, non-disruptive alphabet that exists in a decolonized Taino utopia. I deviate from the traditions of Romance and Latin tongues from the Old World, to acquire a historically accurate version of an indigenous vocabulary. The visual influence of aboriginal petroglyphs is manifested in Bosiba’s strictly handwritten character and organic lifeform. In an attempt to bring it back to its original three-dimensional field, I carve a selection of its letters into grey Kenyan soapstone. I then design a complementary collection of publications packaged with plantain leaves, giving you, the viewer, a solid background to fully appreciate Bosiba.
I do not seek to implement, affect, or change Taino history. Instead, I seek to decolonize the Boricua language through the use of typography as an anti-colonial tool. Los códigos ancestrales create a space intended for folks of Caribbean descent to grasp and process a reality in which we are in complete harmony with our ancestors’ language, and, simultaneously, becomes a resilient act against this century’s neo-colonial forces that gentrify our islands, exposing a larger culturally-disconnected public to a pivotal society in the history of language.

COMPONENTS

01 BOSIBA ALPHABET

A speculative, totally ficitional, non disruptive alphabet stemming from the petroglyphic and oral methods of communication of the Taino people from the Caribbean’s Greater Antilles.

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02 HAND-CARVED STONE SPECIMENS

Letters from the Bosiba alphabet are hand-carved onto two grey Kenyan soaptone boulders as a way to bring back the letterform to its historic surface.

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03 COMPLEMENTARY PUBLICATIONS

A collection of 3 publications, all complementary to the Bosiba alphabet, enclosed and secured with banana leafs and hemp thread.

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PROPOSAL

The native Taino people of the Caribbean’s Greater Antilles had complex methods of interpersonal and spiritual communication. These unconventional systems were eradicated by Spanish colonial forces during the early 1500’s. Overlooked by history, the Taino oral lexicon and pictorial rock carvings remain as a crucial ancestral influence to Latin-Caribbean cultures and multilingual vocabulary. Taking the research we have today, which has transcribed and analyzed their these types languages, I design a speculative, totally fictional, non-disruptive alphabet that exists in a decolonized Taino utopia.
I look at dictionaries, translations, and Caribbean history writings to absorb the Taino interpersonal oral language. Meanwhile, I go to archaeological reports and documentation, museum archives, and public domain documentation to explore the Taino petroglyphs. The highlight of my research framework is the reliance on my own data acquired from my visits to indigenous ceremonial spaces and museums in Puerto Rico, as well as accessible petroglyphs in public waterfalls and caves in the Island. With all of this information, I consider the nature and purpose of these Taino languages to develop a handwritten typeface that lies between the organic lineform of the carved pictures and the objective firmness of what we know today as a letter. In attention to the materiality of this topic, the alphabet is exclusively handwritten and carved into stone, returning this alphabet to its intended surface.
The intended audience for this topic is primarily people of Caribbean descent, giving ourselves a space to imagine and process a reality in which our culture is untouched and preserved— an idea of what a native Caribbean tongue could be. Not only this, but it's also a form of resilience against this century’s neo-colonial forces that gentrify our islands, exposing a larger culturally-disconnected public to a pivotal society in the history of language and communication.

PRO

VISUAL PROCESS

RESEARCH
Taino Language, Alphabet, and Pronounciation
Ominglot
Naguaké Taíno Pictographic Alphabet
Ominglot
Taíno Zemís and Duhos
Dr. Maya Jiménez, via Smarthistory
Talking Taino: Caribbean Natural History from a Native Perspective
William F. Keegan, Lisabeth A. Carlson
Puerto Rico's La Piedra Escrita: A "Re-Inspiration in Clay"
from Ceramics: Art & Perception
Chris Garcia
A Preliminary Report on Petroglyphs in Puerto Rico
Monica Flaherty Frassetto
Teaching Taíno: An Interrogation of Puerto Rican Indigenous Education
Yale University
Taíno Symposium – Session 1 – Elba Anaca Lugo
The National Museum of the American Indian and the Smithsonian Latino Center
Culturas indígenas de Puerto Rico
Labor Gómez Acevedo
Diccionario de Voces Taínas Escogidas (Relacionadas con la Raíz de Guares [Gemelos])
Antonio Blasini Rivera
Lengua Taina (Taino Dictionary)
José Marcano
Vocabulario indo-antillano
Cayetano Coll y Toste
Petroglyphs in Jácana, Ponce, Puerto Rico
Latin American Studies
Las comunidades Jíbaro y Taíno de Puerto Rico buscan reconocimiento y retornar sus tierras ancestrales
Coraly Cruz Mejías via Global Press Journal

A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree
of Bachelor of Fine Arts in Communications Design at Pratt Institute May 2025.

María Semidey © 2025

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