Mayaya Rising : Black Female Icons in Latin American and Caribbean Literature and Culture

Who are the Black heroines of Latin America and the Caribbean? Where do we turn for models of transcendence among women of African ancestry in the region? In answer to the historical dearth of such exemplars, Mayaya Rising explores and celebrates the work of writers who intentionally center powerful female cultural archetypes. In this inventive analysis, Duke proposes three case studies and a corresponding womanist methodology through which to study and rediscover these figures. The musical Cuban-Dominican sisters and former slaves Teodora and Micaela Ginés inspired Aida Cartagena Portalatin’s epic poem Yania tierra ; the Nicaraguan matriarch of the May Pole, “Miss Lizzie,” figures prominently in four anthologies from the country’s Bluefields region; and the iconic palenqueras of Cartagena, Columbia are magnified in the work of poets María Teresa Ramírez Neiva and Mirian Díaz Pérez. In elevating these figures and foregrounding these works, Duke restores and repairs the scholarly record. "Who are the Black heroines of Latin America and the Caribbean? Where do we turn for models of transcendence among women of African ancestry in the region? In answer to the historical dearth of such exemplars, Mayaya Rising explores and celebrates the work of writers who intentionally center powerful female cultural archetypes. In this inventive analysis, Duke proposes three case studies and a corresponding womanist methodology through which to study and rediscover these figures. The musical Cuban-Dominican sisters and former slaves Teodora and Micaela Ginés inspired Aida Cartagena Portalatin's epic poem Yania tierra; the Nicaraguan matriarch of the May Pole, "Miss Lizzie," figures prominently in four anthologies from the country's Bluefields region; and the iconic palenqueras of Cartagena, Colombia are magnified in the work of poets María Teresa Ramírez Neiva and Mirian Díaz Pérez. In elevating these figures and foregrounding these works, Duke restores and repairs the scholarly record"-- Provided by publisher Cover 1 Title Page 4 Copyright Page 5 Contents 8 Introduction: The Fundamentals of Glory 12 Part I: A Cuban/Dominican Case Study 42 1: Teodora and Micaela Ginés: Myth or History? 44 2: The Invention of History through Poetry: A Dominican Initiative 73 Part II: A Nicaraguan Case Study 94 3: Tracing the Dance Steps of a “British” Subject: Miss Lizzie’s Palo de Mayo 96 4: From “Mayaya las im key” to Creole Women’s Writings 119 Part III: A Colombian Case Study 140 5: Rituals of Alegría and Ponchera: The Enterprising Palenqueras 142 6: Palenquera Writings: A Twenty-First-Century Movement 174 Conclusion 201 Acknowledgments 206 Notes 210 Bibliography 242 Index 264 About the Author 272