Anacaona's Royal Diary

Edwidge Danticat's Anacaona: Golden Flower is one of those early works of the famous Haitian-American writer we have always intended to read. Due to an ongoing obsession with the indigenous past and legacy in the Greater Antilles, we decided to actually read this children's book to see how Danticat used fiction to tell the tale of our famous cacica. Unfortunately, it does not match the literary value and rigor of Danticat's adult novels. Anacaona's character is rather flat and one-dimensional and the narrative, told in the format of a diary, does not include the final, horrifying end of her life. As a result, it is an incomplete narrative that omits the years of Anacaona's direct political authority and the full transformation of Spanish-Taino relations across Hispaniola. Despite these aforementioned flaws, however, Danticat clearly did some major research. Taino social structure, inheritance, mythology, lore, and art are incorporated throughout the text. While more recent research would call into question the historical details of this fictional work (such as ignoring the Lucayan origins of Caonabo) and its assumption of inheritance of political office, Danticat largely succeeds in showing young readers a humanized experience of pre-Columbian Taino culture. After all, Anacaona hopes the ballad of the destruction of La Navidad would include events leading up to that fateful conflict. This is a necessary reminder to readers that the Taino were human beings with histories and lived experiences like everyone else.