Claro que si. Tengo un botón en el menú que traduce automáticamente toda la página al español. Simplemente haga clic en las letras azules de “ES” en el menú en la parte superior de la página.

I initially learned inklings of stories from my grandmother and my mom. They both told me about El Coqui, Juracan, and the moon goddess Maroya (but they didn’t know her name so they just said La Diosa Luna).

From there I was hungry for more.

Then as I got older I researched here and there for fun. But once I hit high school I got a bit more serious, up until I was a sophomore in college when Hurricane Maria devastated Puerto Rico. It was from there that I became determined and I scoured online resources, and then eventually took to my college library to learn this information.

But it was not until my senior year of college, 2021-2022, that I decided to create this website as my senior thesis project and then properly write up a bibliography of my resources.

I would put my email here but it is easy for bots to find it and then send me a ton of spam emails.

For now, please contact me through my Instagram account @bicrv, or fill out my contact form on my portfolio website.

You can find me on a few platforms. Currently I am most active on Instagram, if that changes I will be sure to update this answer. I will also be adding more platforms in the near future for you to find me on. If you type in my initials, bicrv, into Google search you will find all of my designer stuff.

Instagram: @bicrv
Etsy: bicrv
My Portfolio Website

Yes, I am planning on launching a YouTube channel where I read these myths, break them down, and share the originals as well as where I got the information from. I will also share my artwork, and other things like releases of new pieces for my store too.

But you will not find it under my usual bicrv name. You will find it under the name of my online store Vené. Until then, I will keep you all posted on when the YouTube channel is ready to launch.

Yes, but there is a proper way of doing it.

This awesome website did not come from a group of tech wizards or a team of artists or designers. It was designed, built, illustrated, written, recorded, and researched by one person. ME! Brandon Ivan Cielo Rodriguez Venegas.

That also means that it is perfectly fine to reference this website or any of the textual information outside of the creative work I created over many painstaking hours.

A RANDOM FAN:
“But Mr. Brandon! Your artwork is so cool, and like so beautiful, and I wanna share it with my friends on Twitter and Instagram!”

Well, thank you random fan for appreciating my artwork! I am totally fine with you sharing my artwork, however art theft is a very real and very difficult pseudo-crime that many artists are victims of every day. Even worse though, many of us do not even know it has happened.

The internet is a very big place, and there are lots and lots and lots of places for thieves to repost an artist’s work without their knowledge or permission. This is why I ask that when you do repost my artwork, please always credit me by including my name, and social media handles. Don’t worry, my social media handles are all under the same name, @BICRV, an abbreviation for my full name. I’ll make it even easier by pasting how I would like the tagline written.

“ARTWORK TITLE, by Brandon Rodriguez, YEAR, bicrv.com, @BICRV”

“STORY TITLE, by Brandon Rodriguez, YEAR, bicrv.com, @BICRV”

Yes, I have an online Etsy store where I sell hard enamel pins, keychains, canvas reproductions, stickers, and more products of my artwork.

You can just search bicrv on Etsy or follow the link here.

No, between this site, my online store, and my career job, I am simply too busy.

Maybe one day I might be willing, or if you can offer a good price and your project intrigues me. Otherwise, no I do not take commissions.

Yes! I am planning to write more myth re-tellings based on a list of myths I have gathered from my research.

These stories will also be treated with the same dedication as the first three. That means they will be illustrated!

Yes, I have written many many stories since I was in middle school. But I never did anything this massive before. Honestly the Taino myths have given me a bit of courage to share my other works with you all.

But as of right now, I do not have a date for when those stories might become available to you. Original stories that are related to Taino myth/culture will be shared here. Anything else will be shared on my future YouTube channel.

No, and it is not meant to be.

This website is a passion project of mine. Yes, it did start as my senior thesis project back in college, but I have been planning this website since my sophomore year back in 2017. It was always meant to extend beyond college as an on-going passion project.

So no, it is not done and never will be since I will always add to it.

Yes, the Taino were a polytheistic people who believed in divine beings of many things rooted in their environment on Boriken.

The gods I listed were the few that I could find. It is incredibly difficult to find accurate resources that detail even more than a few pages about Taino mythology. I imagine that it is most likely due to the fact that a great amount of our culture was lost in the murdering and enslavement of our people. It was also recorded by Friar Ramón Pané that the Taino participated in oral traditions and did not have a written language. The names of the deities in my stories and in the glossary were originally phonetically recorded by Pané in his account of the Taino he encountered in Puerto Rico.

For right now, you cannot find my work in the real world. Not enough people know about me yet.

*cries in Spanish*

However, I am working to create an in-person art exhibition of my work some day in Philadelphia. If that goes well then I might be able to do it in other cities. It really depends on how much you all support me and my works of art.

I am also interested in selling my works through in-person stores like independently owned shops, boutiques, etc. If you know of a store in your area that you think might be a good fit to display and sell my art for me, please let me know in my DM’s on Instagram or my email form on my portfolio site.