Paradise Once

Paradise Once traces the aftermath of the massacre by Spanish forces of the fictional Maima village in Cuba in 1513. Some believe the destruction of Maima is the result of angering the cemies - Taino spiritual entities - when foreign practices, contrary to the sacred laws of the Taino, began to infiltrate the village. Four young people who survive the massacre are unwittingly chosen by the cemies to save a Sacred Bundle and return it to a cave in the Cauta mountain, the mythological place the Taino are believed to have come from: Sekou, an enslaved African born in Spain who has aligned himself with the Taino resistance; Night Orchid, a young girl and the reluctant bearer of the Sacred Bundle; the young Taino noble Heart of Palm; and finally Flint, whose mother is part of the 'Old Ones,' a remnant group of people on the islands displaced by the Taièno. The four survivors start off on separate paths and only learn of their roles in the sa