Areitos

Our Mission To support companies and non-profit organizations with the technologies they need for communication, workforce and community development. What is an AreitoTM, anyways? We took the name for our social media platform, AreitosTM, from the ancient Taino culture due the significance and relationship of their culture with our modern social media. The AreitoTM or Areyto was a Taíno language word adopted by the Spanish colonizers to describe a type of religious song and dance performed by the Taino indigenous people of the Caribbean. The Areíto was a ceremonial act that was believed to narrate and honor the heroic deeds of Taíno ancestors, chiefs and gods. Areítos involved lyrics and choreography and were often accompanied by varied instrumentation. They were performed in the central plazas of the villages and were attended by the local community members as well as members of neighboring communities. Tainos were a social and industrious people that navigated the Caribbean to trade throughout the Antilles. In the AreitoTM the people would sing, dance and celebrate in a circle with their arms intertwined, to the sound of a drum. One member, either a man or a woman, guided the group. The topics of the song’s lyrics were the stories of things past and were constantly being updated mostly with accomplishments and achievements. The songs were both an oral history of the people as well as a news service for the community. They sang and danced along until the stories were told.