History books told me the Taíno had disappeared shortly after Christopher Columbus arrived in the Caribbean. My family spoke about our Taíno ancestors as if they had never left. The Moonlit Vine became my way of exploring the history I had inherited but rarely saw reflected in literature. The deeper I dug into Taíno history, the more I understood that survival is not only about staying alive. For me, writing The Moonlit Vine was an act of remembrance.