Cultural Mestizaje in the Essays and Poetry of Nancy Morejon

Bibliographic Data

ID3519262
AuthorsFlora M Gonzalez, Flora Gonzalez (corresponding author)
Year2005
Volume28
Issue4
Pages990-1011
Publication date2005-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueCallaloo (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0161-2492 • E-ISSN: 1080-6512
PublisherProject MUSE (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1353/cal.2006.0012
OpenAlexW1968596851
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited9

In the following pages, I explore the critical work and essays of the eminent Afro-Cuban poet Nancy Morejón (born in Havana 1944) as a gesture of mediation between the Afro-Cuban heritage (with its strong female contributions) that she fervently upholds and a Castro revolutionary mandate constricting the space available for discussions and considerations of race.1 Castro's much-quoted words are: "Within the Revolution everything, against the Revolution nothing" (quoted by Luis in "The Politics" 35). Because in the new socialist revolution racism could not exist, discussions of race could not be tolerated. I argue that Morejón, within her fervent support of the revolution and need to gain status in its context, finds numerous if subtle ways to "discuss race" and to celebrate her African and feminine heritage by conflating Nicolás Guillén's concept of mestizaje and José Lezama Lima's concept of the imago. Edward Mullen compares Morejón to Langston Hughes because "they are both important cultural mediators."2 Who, one asks, explained so well to African Americans their position in American society as Hughes did in The Ways of White Folks (1931)? What Latin American writer has captured with such power—in so few lines—both the history of a nation and a sense of self and womanhood as did Morejón in 'Mujer Negra' (4)? According to Linda S. Howe, Morejón, "as an intellectual of cultural production," responds with "mechanisms and manners of speaking that simultaneously appear to be outside of, as well as within, the boundaries of cultural expression. Her ambiguous metaphors leave her intentionality up to the reader" (The Fluid Iconography 33). Howe describes a constant tension in Morejón's work that produces both politically committed poems and hermetic poems (32). This tension is particularly present in her poems and essays during the first fifteen years or so of the revolution, years marked by intolerance toward intellectuals. Examples are the censorship of Orlando Jiménez Leal's film P.M., about the night life of Afro-Cubans, and the closing of the El Puente publishing house and group to which Morejón belonged and where she published her first two books (1965). Finally, these years were marked by the famous Padilla Affair in which Herberto Padilla was jailed in 1971 for his controversial collection of poems Fuera del Juego that was published in 1968 (Luis, "The Politics" 35). According to Howe, a group of Afro-Cuban intellectuals met during the 1960s to discuss issues of race and to draft a "Black Manifesto" to be delivered at the opening of the World Cultural Congress in January 1968. Morejón did not belong to this group, but those who did were chastised and not allowed to attend the congress (Howe, "Nancy Morejón's Womanism" 159–64). [End Page 990] Starting in 1975, with the First Congress of the Communist Party, there is an opening of sorts, marked by Castro's new relationship to the exiled community in Miami. This opening serves as an opportunity for a young Afro-Cuban artist like María Magdalena Campos-Pons to create feminist iconography, but this artistic generation of the 1980s finally opts for leaving the country (see the essay by Flora González on Campos-Pons in Cuban Studies). After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Fundación Pablo Milanés promoted many black intellectuals and artists, but it too lasted only two years (1993–95). In 1993 Morejón left Casa de las Américas to become an editor at the Fundación, but she later returned to Casa. Howe states that Morejón's desire to work with the Pablo Milanés Foundation "demonstrates her determination to effect change in Cuba" (Howe, "Nancy Morejón's Womanism" 164). Overall, Afro-Cubans who remain in Cuba, like Morejón, are critical of times from the sixties to the nineties, when the institutional government supports black independence

Art · Art history · Humanities · Literature · Nothing · Oppression · Poetry · Political science · Politics · Racism · Sociology · Cuban History and Society · Gender Studies · History · Latin American and Latino Studies · Latin American Literature Studies · Law · Philosophy

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