Document Type
Article
Publication Date
Fall 10-2016
DOI
10.5354 / 0719-4862.2016.43544
Abstract
This article examines the poetry of Cuban writer Cristina Ayala emphasizing the political value of her use of a rhetoric of heroism, a discursive device that masks her demands for recognition of women’s rights and those of Afro-Cubans. The analysis of her poetry suggests that the symbolic manipulation of the “hero” and the representation of “colored” women as intellectuals and “heroes” expressed her desire to intervene in the public arena. By positioning herself within a political discourse that reconstructed slavery’s past, she narrated the revolutionary vicissitudes and created a utopian vision of the future for the Afro-Cuban community. Ayala expresses the emergence of a gender and racial consciousness that challenged discrimination. Finally, this article proposes the relevance of her poetry in Latin American studies, Gender studies and Diaspora studies in Latin America.
Recommended Citation
Aguilar, Maria A., "Heroísmo y conciencia racial en la obra de la poeta afro-cubana Cristina Ayala" (2016). Languages, Literatures and Cultures Faculty Scholarship. 14.
https://scholarsarchive.library.albany.edu/cas_llc_scholar/14
Included in
Caribbean Languages and Societies Commons, Latin American Literature Commons, Race, Ethnicity and Post-Colonial Studies Commons
Terms of Use
This article is made available under the Scholars Archive Terms of Use.
Comments
This is the Publisher’s PDF of the following article made available by Meridional: Revista Chilena de Estudios Latinoamericanos © 2016. Heroísmo y conciencia racial en la obra de la poeta afro-cubana Cristina Ayala. Meridional: Revista chilena de Estudios Latinoamericanos. 7 179-202. DOI: 10.5354 / 0719-4862.2016.43544