This study examines the identity categories of gender and race in the Cuban context of the first thirty years of the Revolution and focuses on black and mulata women, in which both categories converge. In this work I analyze the literary discourse of the Afro-Cuban female poets between the 1960s and 1980s and discern the role of self-representation that each of these poets constructs within the framework of "being black" or "mulata" woman. Also, since gender and race are redefined by the dominant power, this project analyzes the political hegemonic discourse of the period in relation to race and gender, and illuminates its role in preserving racial stereotypes as well as the patriarchal normatives of gender.
African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
342 p, Examines how the low socioeconomic status of the black population in Cuba informs the representation of black characters in Cuban narrative fiction. From its very first example (Espejo de paciencia, 1608) until the most recent short fiction written after the 1959 Revolution, Cuban narrative fiction has played (and still plays) an important role in creating and maintaining the subaltern position of the black population in Cuba.
African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
194 p., Includes Marie-José Nzengou-Tayo's "Prejuicios acerca de la independencia haitiana : viento negro, Bosque del Caiman de Carlos Esteban Deive," Silvia Valero's "De 'negros' y 'mulatos' en la literatura cubana contemporánea : Elíseo Altunaga, Marta Rojas y la re-escritura de la historia," and Felix Ayoh'Omidire's "La identidad frente al poder : la asimetría ritual de Yemayá en Africa y América Latina."
African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
287 p, Eexamines how a number of "foundational" Argentine authors—Echeverría, Mármol, Sarmiento, Ingenieros, Lugones, and others—either repressed the Afro-Argentine past or portrayed Afro-Argentines in profoundly racist ways. José Hernández (Martín Fierro) and Borges, in their allegedly sympathetic treatment of Afro-Argentines, were notable exceptions. The book has some appealing aspects. Extensive excerpts from the authors Solomianski examines—including, in Chapter 7, from nineteenth-century black newspapers and writers—give readers a vivid sense of literary representations of blackness in Argentina. And his analysis of Afro-Argentine characters in twentieth-century films, plays (including the patriotic skits presented in public elementary and high schools), and tangos is revealing and suggestive.
