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 CubanDominican sisters and former slaves Teodora and Micaela Ginés inspired
Aida Cartagena Portalatins epic poem Yania tierra; the Nicaraguan
matriarch of the May Pole, Miss Lizzie, figures prominently in four
anthologies from the countrys 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.
Dawn Duke's study of black women writers in the Hispanic Caribbean - its
continental components included - breaks important new ground. Its
intersectional stress on race and gender illuminates the path of authors
who draw strength from feminist and anti-racist legacies owed to iconic
ancestresses. The cultural and linguistic diversity of this literary corpus
pulverizes homogenizing assumptions about 'Spanish American'
literature. Silvio Torres-Saillant, coauthor of The Once
