Interview with TCIKH Co-Directors
Taiguey! Greetings! We are so excited to bring you our first official blog post for Seeds for Thought. To introduce ourselves, we decided to conduct an unofficial interview among ourselves, the TCIKH Co-Directors. Here you will find insight into the beginnings of TCIKH, how the organization has grown, and the exciting, prosperous future we imagine for ourselves and our community! It is with great joy and excitement that we bring this exclusive content to you!
Maya Soto: Let’s talk about the vision behind the Traditional Center for Indigenous Knowledge and Healing, what would you say really brought the organization to life?
Joe Soto: TCIKH was born out of a series of thoughts that we (Joe, Alexas, and Maya) had around our Indigenous way of living. The organization is based on the way that we think. Simply put, TCIKH arose from a thought, and then a prayer.
Alexas Esposito: I think it is also really important to note that we, as unrecognized Indigenous people, had to think of “outside-of-the-box” ways to assert our sovereignty.
Joe Soto: As non-status Indigenous people, we had to figure out how to position ourselves in this community in a way that was right for our people, Taino people, in acknowledgement that we are on unceded Gayogohono territory, so we really had to collaborate.
Alexas Esposito: One of the main reasons that we created TCIKH was because of the desire we found in our local non-Indigenouss community members to partake in some of our knowledge. Simultaneously, we had to/have to work to maintain the sacred nature of our knowledge and teachings. I also think that we wanted to share our understandings of nature as a way to help others heal from their traumas, understanding that no one trauma is more important than the other. A large part of our focus is bringing back a matrilineal way of thinking and being, this is at the core of everything we do.
Maya Soto: Can you tell me more about the inspiration behind the organization?
Joe Soto: There were a series of things for me, one is that I was no longer working a normal job due to taking leave of absence in order to better care for my wife. It was a way of rebirthing into something new and originally ours, a sort of reclamation and also a way to assert our sovereignty in the area, where we have no representation. At the same time, I was thinking, ‘what do we have that is unique and different from the other organizations around us?’ In an odd way, we became a sort of liaison for the indigenous community, and a bridge between the non indigenous population, the bipoc community, and the indigenous community. That’s been met with some success and some failure.
Alexas Esposito: Yeah, for me, there was a lack of community around healing and I felt that with our knowledge and teachings that we would be able to help some people in the times we are in now.
Maya Soto: What does it mean, to you, to assert your sovereignty?
Alexas Esposito: Asserting sovereignty is about us asserting ourselves as free human beings, where, in community we are provided for and we provide for others.
Joe Soto: For me, it is to live our way of life without the interference of outside influences and the biases and prejudices of other people. To be free to exercise our spiritual and religious rights without interference from religious entities, to be able to educate our children, with the accurate history of what happened to our people. Part of that educational component is rewriting ourselves into history without academic influence or other institutions based on their notion of who we are. Also, to have the freedom to grow our own foods, do our own ceremonies, and be able to exercise our identity free from questioning. We do all of this in accordance with the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People.
Maya Soto: Tell me more about the name, “Traditional Center for Indigenous Knowledge and Healing.”
Alexas Esposito: Before TCIKH was founded, we had distinguished essential components of a sovereign community in the taino language; these components were Behuko, Conuco, Caney, and Bohio. We knew that Behuko, meaning, the root or the vine, and Bohio, which is the home for us, are symbolic of something sacred, are not for everybody. In this we knew that Caney and Conuco would be the basis for what we would be able to share openly with the community. Caney is the house of knowledge and conuco represents the central community garden and land. For us to be able to translate that for the general community, we came up with the name Traditional Center for Indigenous Knowledge and Healing.
Joe Soto: So, although TCIKH is not an accurate translation, that was the closest name we could come up with. Although, of course, this can be left to interpretation as there are many Taino communities
Maya Soto: So TCIKH has been around formally for about a year and a half. Can you talk a little bit more about how you have seen the organization grow and evolve?
Alexas Esposito: Over the course of colonization, many of our lineages of seeds have been lost, however some of these seeds remain protected and some of them haven’t been grown for a long time. So, we can only hope that when we plant those seeds that they grow, and when they do we can only have a certain level of expectations of what will come of that, but because we planted them with good intentions and prayer, whatever comes of it is what is needed.
Joe Soto: I would also say that it’s grown organically. People from our community and other communities have taken great interest. Initially it, the organization, was met with a lot of questions…
Alexas Esposito: And some resistance from the Indigenous community…
Joe Soto: I see this being because we started it as a non-profit, and a lot of native communities are not as open to non-profits because of the inherent ties to government. However as we met those oppositions in the same native circles, there was a lot of support and allies. This helped us organize ourselves in a way that would make sense to the communities and also for future funders. Since then, we have had funders and other organizations come to our support, and they have helped us to put ourselves out there. We have taken those funds and invested it in community nutrition programs, a farmer practicum (in collaboration with other organizations and farms) to create learning opportunities for bipoc community members, etc.
Alexas Esposito: And growing out heirloom indigenous seeds.
Joe Soto: So that is how I believe TCIKH has grown; it also has taken a spiritual energy of its own because we center that in our connection to creation, mother earth and that is based on our matrilineal understanding and knowledge.
Alexas Esposito: Our Indigenous communities are observant of what we do, although it seems we have quietly received more support as we have been able to demonstrate the integrity of our work
Maya Soto: Tell me about what you are both excited about that TCIKH will be doing soon.
Alexas Esposito: I think I am always most excited about growing seeds. Although we haven’t been able to realize that into a program for the community yet, we are moving forward in our education and accompanying support around nutrition.
Joe Soto: One of the things that is really exciting, is that we now have an official community space that will be used for community learning, and exemplifying and showcasing Indigenous artisans work.. And we are connecting these aspects not only to the community at large but specifically to the Indigenous community.
Alexas Esposito: Also, as the pandemic loosens its grip, we look forward to continuing our workshops on healing intergenerational trauma through returning to nature.
*As mentioned before, the Traditional Center for Indigenous Knowledge and Healing is but one spoke of the wheel in our assertions of sovereignty as Taino people. Our indigenous community base here is strong, the part that tcikh is, is just the part that is for the larger community. I mean this in the sense that there are other businesses and projects in our community. With that being said, please feel free to check out our community website