Aycayia from The Mermaid of Black Conch
Aycayia was a mermaid in which its name means "she with a lovely voice" among the Neo-Taino nations of the Caribbean such as Puerto Rico, Cuba, and the Dominican Republic. She was known to be seductive and sexually generous, being the incarnation of beauty and of sin who gave men pleasure but robbed them of free will. She would often times be "visited" by the men seduced by her beauty.
Biography[]
Aycayia was a beautiful woman with alluring voice who lived before the conquistadors arrived. She loved to sing at parties at night and even during daytime. This had an effect on men, who would leave work to hear her sing. Other women did not like that and prayed to Mother Jagua to stop it. Once when a party was to take place on an island, Aycayia and a group of women planned to attend it but Aycayia was late for the canoe that was to transport them. The canoe sank in a storm, and the women were transformed similar to mermaids. While Aycayia was transformed into a flower, majagua.[1]
Adaptations[]
The story has also variants where it was Aycayia that was transformed into a mermaid. This version was used in a book "The Mermaid of Black Conch".[2] Hundreds of years later Aycayia falls in love with a man, and returns to the land. where she learns to walk and be human again with his help.[3]