Dear readers of Strange Reality, after a study of the Pygmies of South America and Mexico , it is high time to weigh anchor in the East by looking at the question of the little people in the vast Caribbean space, which includes two subsets:

1. The Caribbean Sea archipelago with:

– Large islands like Cuba, Hispaniola (Haiti/Dominican Republic) or Jamaica.

– Small islands like the Cayman Islands, Guadeloupe, Martinique or Barbados.

2. The coastal countries of Latin America bathed by the Caribbean Sea, such as Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador.

Thus, in Guadeloupe, the sapodilla tree (fruit tree) was created according to legend by a dwarf god named "Ti sapoti". An unrepentant flirt, he enjoyed the company of humans a little too much, both men and women, whom he seduced for fun and idleness. These forbidden games were known to the other divinities who tolerated them while warning Sapoti: the world of the gods and that of men must not mix under any circumstances!

Sapoti, whose only principle was that of carnal pleasure, paid no attention to this warning. He did so well that what was to happen happened. A woman with whom he had been frolicking found herself pregnant. The gods then transformed Sapoti into a fruit tree: the sapodilla tree, distilling the sapodilla, a fruit as sweet and sugary as love and flirting.

Can we find other stories about dwarves in the Caribbean? Perhaps more precise and detailed? More realistic? This is what we are going to see, dear readers, by exploring together the file of the little people of the Caribbean.

Cuba

In 1836, Cuban lexicographer and geographer Esteban Pichardo y Tapia documented the myth of the güijes. He described them as very small, hairy, mischievous and playful dwarves who lived in Cuban rivers and lagoons. Although their physical description varies depending on the source, they are often depicted as short, black-skinned hominids. Some depictions resemble stereotypical African pygmies. They are often naked or lightly dressed in leaves. The geographer also reports a disturbing story from the 17th century. The town of Remedios was terrified of small spirits. One day, the inhabitants managed to capture a member of their clan, a güije, who was very fierce. He did not look like a Cuban. The priest wanted to exorcise him, but the unfortunate man freed himself from the villagers' grasp.

It is more observed at night and it has frightened more than one traveler. It is like all the beings of the little people, fast, mischievous, cunning and blends into the crowd. In addition, it is a fervent protector of nature. It seems that it has been fierce with some humans but no one seems to have filed a complaint against it. On the other hand, women bathing at night have said they were harassed by these creatures.

Ambivalent güije: protector of nature or harasser of women?

Strange, and certainly apocryphal, techniques nevertheless allow it to be captured: by going around a Ceiba (tropical tree) 12 times or by bringing together 12 people called Juan (in reference to the Saint-Jean festival where the spirits are invoked).

But who are these little Caribbean beings? Pure products of Cuban folklore? Magical spirits to be invoked in a voodoo mysticism? Or do they have a biological basis? If the first two questions find their answers in Cuban traditions regarding the güijes, the last question deserves to be asked more clearly: are the güijes an unknown or forgotten ethnic group on the island?

The Tainos, the majority ethnic group from which modern Cubans descend, are said to have had contact with a discreet tribe, the Ciboneys, which in Arawak means "those who live in caves". They inhabited the center of the islands of Cuba and Hispaniola. At the time of the first contacts with Europeans, they were relegated to the remote regions of these islands by their powerful neighbors, the Tainos, who also lived on small islands close to the coast. In some ways, they seem to have descended from ancient populations established in Florida. Living from hunting and fishing, the Ciboneys of Cuba and those of Hispaniola had a very different material culture: called Cayo Redondo or Guayabo Blanco, the former made great use of shells, while the latter worked with stone. The Cayo Redondo used a triangular shell as a crude gouge made from the lip of a conch, a tool found in the Florida Glades; unlike them, the Ciboneys of Hispaniola had adopted the famous Couri style (known as Haiti), characterized by the use of cut stones, which gave rise to the Couri dagger, a pointed stone chipped on one side and flat on the other. The Ciboneys lived in small groups of one or two families. A century after the arrival of the Spanish, their ethnic group disappeared.

Las Caritas cave and its ciboney rock cave

Another ethnic group, even more discreet than the Ciboneys, could have corresponded to the folklore of the güijes: the Guanahatabeys. These Indians were the first humans to set foot on Cuban soil 7,000 years ago. Originally from the forests of Venezuela and Colombia, they occupied the western part of the island. They were very primitive, small and with reddish skin, they had long hair and few clothes. They lived near the coast, in caves or caverns, where very rudimentary utensils have been found that place them in the Paleolithic era. They also did not build homes, since they were practically nomads, moving in bands, without forming hierarchical communities. Their main occupation was fishing, so their basic food was fish and mollusks; They also hunted iguanas and harvested fruit from nearby trees. They did not cultivate the land or produce pottery, they did not carve or polish stone, but they made colorful pictograms on the walls, forming circles, which are still preserved and exhibited today.

Guanajatabey rock art

The conquistador Diego Velazquez said of them: "they lived like savages, without houses or cities, eating only the food they found in the forests." We assume that they constituted a separate linguistic community because Christopher Columbus's Taíno interpreters were unable to understand their language when they encountered them in the far west of the island. Unfortunately, the Guanajatabeys disappeared before they could be studied, making it impossible to study the affiliation of their language, which did not seem to be Arawak.

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