& Toa Baja are named after the Taino word for “mother,” “Thoa.” Some attribute the origin to the goddess of fertility or the river, but this is “Atabey.” Others attribute it to the words for mountain, or valley, but mountain is “O.” The word for valley resembles the name of the goddess of horizontal water, including all rivers, which may explain some of the misunderstanding. Further explanation can come from the River de la Plata that runs beside Toa Alta and Toa Baja being named Toa River by the Taino, and the valley between the mountain ridges in the area after the river, Toa Valley. The word “toa” can also be used for “fertility,” and the naming of a river after such a word generally indicates a significance of a body of water in relation to a people and their origin. This kind of misunderstanding is frequent where colonial powers disregard or diminish the history and language of a people, and the separation of lower and upper Toa, Alta and Baja, serves as its own reminder of this phenomena. In reality, this region is one, and likely the first or most successful endeavor of the Taino people to establish the island of Boriken that the Spanish had run into, today’s “Puerto Rico.”