From Gradualism to Afrorealism in Latin America

Sociocriticism XXXVI-1|2022 Diasporas/ diasporisations noires From Gradualism toAfrorealism inLatinAmerica Quince Duncan http://interfas.univ-tlse2.fr/sociocriticism/3148 Electronic reference Quince Duncan, «From Gradualism toAfrorealism inLatinAmerica», Sociocriticism [Online], XXXVI-1|2022, Online since 15 juillet 2022, connection on 25 mai 2023. URL: http://interfas.univ-tlse2.fr/sociocriticism/3148 From Gradualism toAfrorealism inLatinAmerica Quince Duncan OUTLINE Integrationist gradualism Afrorrealism by Nicolás Guillén TEXT As a gen eral rule, AfroLatin Amer ican stud ies tend to ig nore the struggle and think ing of Afric ans and their des cend ants. Re search is lim ited to ana lyz ing European dom in a tion and ex ploit a tion, leav ing aside the African? struggles of res ist ance and lib er a tion. Nev er the‐ less, these forms of res ist ance have been very di verse. 1 From their up root ing from African ter rit ory, the en slaved tried vari‐ ous strategies: selfimmolation (sui cide); up ris ing on the slave ships; plant a tion in sur rec tions; pass ive res ist ance such as break ing tools or let ting cattle loose; ne go ti ations such as ma nu mis sion, ma roon cul‐ tural res ist ance; in tel lec tual res ist ance; the top form of struggle: armed res ist ance, and as sim il a tion and in teg ra tion. Bey ond doubt Afric ans and their di a spora, did not con sider them selves de fense less vic tims, an at ti tude that en abled them to cre ate thought and in sti tu‐ tions for their pur poses. 2 Afric ans and their des cend ants con tin ued their struggle enroute, by selfimmolation, throw ing them selves out board, or by means of in‐ sur rec tions. And in the plant a tions and mines of Amer ica, they pro‐ longed the struggle. By 1553 there were many well doc u mented heroic ef forts: Alonso de Illes cas, in Es mer al das, Ecuador; Ben kos Biojo in Colom bia, in 1608 Yanga in Mex ico, in 1770, Bon nie in the Guianas, and in Ja maica, a woman, Queen Nanny led the suc cess ful re volt of the “ma roons”. 3 African Di a spora people even man aged to or gan ize ma roon states, such as St. Vin cent, in the Carib bean where a new Afroindigenous 4 From Gradualism toAfrorealism inLatinAmerica eth nic group emerged circa 1635 the Black Carib na tion later termed Garifuna that las ted over a hun dred years. And down south, in Brazil, the Re pub lic of Pal mares was or gan ized in 1605 -a mod ern state, and the first in de pend ent state in the Amer icas. This ma roon state, which was the size of Por tugal, main tained its in de pend ence for al most 67years. The top achieve ment was that of Haiti -an en slaved na tion that de‐ clared free dom. The heroic Haitian deed des troyed some of the fun‐ da mental myths of European doc trin aire ra cism, such as the al leged ab so lute su peri or ity of Europeans. This idea, rooted in the euro philia (an ali en ated rev er ence for everything European) of the Latin Amer ica rul ing classes, com bined with en do pho bia (re jec tion of their own cul‐ ture) was smashed to pieces. Afrodescendants them selves saw in Haiti the re cov ery of their iden tity and pride. Toussant had suc cess‐ fully con fron ted the three main European powers of the time: the Span ish and the Brit ish Em pires, Na po leon’s France–and de feated all three of them. Ad di tion ally, Haiti gave mil it ary as sist ance and arms to Simón Bolívar, the South Amer ican lib er ator. The Haitians demon‐ strated that co lo nial powers were not in vin cible. 5 On the other hand, Afrodescendants in Latin Amer ica fought upfront in the wars of in de pend ence. It should suf fice to men tion José María Mo relos, who is sued the de cree of Novem ber17, 1810, in Mex ico ab ol ish ing castes and slavery; or the case of María Remedios delValle, the AfroArgentine who act ively par ti cip ated in the An dalus ian Bat‐ talion in the fight against the Eng lish in va sion and then, was re luct‐ antly in cor por ated into the army of Gen eral Bel grano, con trib ut ing to the pro cess of in de pend ence of the Vice roy alty of La Plata. Her struggles earned her the title of Mother of the Na tion spon tan eously as signed by the troops. (Yao,2009). 6 But as the en thu si asm with in de pend ence was van ish ing, Latin Amer‐ ican elites de cided to cre ate White na tions. The pro ject of a demo‐ cratic state, with the par ti cip a tion of all groups, began to fade rap idly. The dream of Miguel Hidalgo (1810) and José María Mo relos (1813), who had de creed the free dom of slaves, the ab ol i tion of the caste sys tem and equal ity for all who would be thereon termed “Amer ic‐ ans” was gradu ally for got ten. 7 From Gradualism toAfrorealism inLatinAmerica The four fath ers were aware of the multiethnic and mul ti cul tural char ac ter of Latin Amer ican people. Simón Bolívar, speak ing at the Con gress of An gostura, poin ted out that the na tions to be cre ated were a mix ture of Africa and Amer ica, since the Span iards them selves had African blood. Ac cord ing to Bolívar, “The European has been mixed with the Nat ive Amer ican and the African, and the lat ter has been mixed with the In dian and with the European”. Sym bol iz ing the mat ter, he went on to state that all were born from the bosom of the same mother, even when “our fath ers, dif fer ent in ori gin and in blood, are for eign ers, and all dif fer vis ibly in the epi dermis; this dis sim il ar ity brings a chal lenge of the greatest tran scend ence” (Simón Bolívar, Con greso deAn gostura). 8 Tak ing into ac count the act ive par ti cip a tion of Afro Des cend ants in the in de pend ence pro cess, one would ima gine them as free and fully in teg rated cit izens into the emer ging na tional so ci et ies. How ever, very soon it be came clear that that would not hap pen. On the con‐ trary, the lead ers opted to cre ate “White na tions”, under the as sump‐ tion that civil iz a tion and pro gress were only pos sible among White pop u la tions. 9 The truth is that the pro ject of a mul ti eth nic egal it arian na tion to be built, ac cord ing to Bolívar, stumbled against his tor ical real ity. At the in ter na tional level, the Latin Amer ican elite ex cluded Haiti from the pro cess, des pite the sup port re ceived dur ing the wars of in de pend‐ ence. On the in ternal level, José deSan Martín, warned in re la tion to his at tempt to form a uni fied na tional army: the only in con veni ence oc curred in ef fort to form a uni fied na tional army is the im possib il ity of bring ing to gether in one body the vari ous castes of Whites and browns (Ang larill,1994). 10 In the con text of the newly cre ated na tional states, Afrodescendants tried to in cor por ate and work from within the polit ical parties, choos ing their party af fil i ation ac cord ing to the po s i tions that the dif fer ent polit ical groups as sumed around is sues such as slavery and ra cism. This phe nomenon was re peated through out Latin Amer ica. But this strategy faced strong op pos i tion. Psy chi at rist José In gen i‐ eros, one of the lead ing ideo lo gists of the times had this to say: Men of color should not be polit ic ally and leg ally our equals; they are inept 11 From Gradualism toAfrorealism inLatinAmerica at ex er cising ci vil ian ca pa city and should not be con sidered per sons in the legal sense (Las razas in feri ores,1906). In teg ra tion ist gradu al ism The words of the AfricanAmerican in tel lec tual Wil liam Sanders Scar‐ bor ough, (1921) clearly defined the men tal ity of in teg ra tion ist gradu‐ al ism: 12 My ad vice to people of color would be to emerge gradu ally but in vin ‐ cibly. I would tell them to make such in tel lec tual and moral pro gress, and such pro gress in their con duct, that other people can not but ap ‐ pre ci ate them.” (Lon don Times, Lon don, Sept.1921) In Cuba, the ideo logy of Gust avo Ur ru tia cor res ponds to the in teg ra‐ tion ist gradu al ism of his time. He had done well in postcolonial Havana, and was in a com fort able po s i tion at the be gin ning of the second dec ade of the twen ti eth cen tury. His eco nomic po s i tion was the res ult of his work, but he also had had the spon sor ship of out‐ stand ing White people. His ar gu ment was: “I man aged to sur pass my‐ self and there fore, how come oth ers can not do the same?”. He lam‐ basted other Cuban ideo lo gists, that were claim ing a space in so ci ety for Black people, ar guing that the so cial and eco nomic sys tem was det ri mental to their as pir a tions. 13 Writer Tomás Fernández Robaina, quotes the frag ment of an art icle by Cuban gen eral Gen er oso Cam pos Mar quetti, who in 1902 de‐ scribed the situ ation of AfroCubans trans lated asfol lows: 14 All the of fices are still in the same state, the colored ones are still re ‐ ques ted for port ers, for coach men, for ser vants or for tiny po s i tions, the same in the mail as in cus toms. The prison is still di vided into Black and White, and the ar til lery corps also di vided (…) When a for ‐ eign rep res ent at ive comes to the Palace, neither in the rural guard nor in the ar til lery that es corts him, they form any man of color. (Fernández Robaina, 2007, p.81) Ur ru tia man aged to pub lish a series of art icles en titled “Ideals of a Race” in the Di ario de la Mar ina, an im port ant Cuban news pa per. 15 From Gradualism toAfrorealism inLatinAmerica These art icles called for the co oper a tion of White people of higher cul ture, in tel li gence and prestige, to pub licly de nounce the mar gin al‐ iz a tion of Afrodescendants, a fact that he con sidered cir cum stan tial. Fernández Robaina syn thes izes Ur ru tia’s thought by say ing that “he con sidered that the negro should de velop so cially and eco nom ic ally and that only by achiev ing that de vel op ment as a col lectiv ity could he ob tain full re cog ni tion and the en joy ment of his rights.” (Fernández Robaina, 2007, p.44). It is use ful for the present line of thought to re it er ate that the at‐ tempt of Afrodescendants to have a full par ti cip a tion in the emer‐ ging polit ical parties, was a fiasco through out the Con tin ent. The nas cent nationstates not only raised the flag of White na tions, but pre cisely to con sol id ate the iden tity to which they as pired, made Black people and com munit ies in vis ible, ex cluded them from eco‐ nomic power and lim ited their par ti cip a tion. The founders of these Na tional States were well con vinced of the al leged in feri or ity of the Black race and there fore agreed with the idea of their own ra cial su‐ peri or ity. Ac cord ing to Fran cisco Cruz, Dir ector of Stat ist ics of Hon‐ duras, Blacks had smal ler skulls than other races, a fact that made them more ex posed to idi ot ism than mad ness (Fran cisco Cruz, 18201895, cited by Devés Valdez,2000). 16 In the con text of these na tional States, Afro Des cend ants took an act‐ ive part in the ef fort to set up the new so cial order. In many in‐ stances, ties with one party or an other was the rule, usu ally owing to the stand taken by those parties in re la tion to the rights of the Black pop u la tions. Such were the cases of Partido Lib eral in Colom bia, that favored the ab ol ish ment of slavery; the sup port given by Afro Ar gen‐ tines to Gen eral Juan Manuel de Rosas, who, not with stand ing his philoslavist past, sup por ted the Black com munit ies and their cul ture and re sor ted to a series of ma nip u la tions to stay in power with their sup port; and in re cent years, the sup port of the Afro Carib bean pop u‐ la tion of Limon, Costa Rica, to the Lib er a tion Party be cause its founder, José Figueres Fer rer ab ol ished laws that dis crim in ated against them at the end of the1940s. 17 In de pend ence then, did not lead to free dom and equal ity. The “raise your color” ideo logy in her ited from the co lo nial casteclass sys tem un re lent ingly had the sway of the day. The Mes tizo elite and the 18 From Gradualism toAfrorealism inLatinAmerica White minor ity con tin ued en for cing their ad op ted Euro centric iden‐ tity– Euro philia, eth no pho bia and en do pho bia in cluded. Clear skin mes tizos were in cor por ated into the White elite. Tra di tional In di gen‐ ous civil iz a tions were ideal ized, as show cases, in an ef fort to equate an cient GrecoRoman civil iz a tion. But the des cend ants of the Aztecs, Maya, Tol tec, and Incas, were mar gin al ized, ex cluded from power and eco nom ical struc tures. Afro Des cend ant com munit ies were also ex cluded and rendered in‐ vis ible. Minor ity elite Afro Des cend ants were as sim il ated, under the con tinu ing “bleach ing” ideo logy in her ited from co lo nial days. Ra cial mix ing in tens i fied, as the elite con tin ued to claim a place in the in ter‐ na tional White com munity –a seat that was con stantly denied, as ob‐ serv able in the fol low ing cita tion of Wil liam Walker, a U.S. fili buster that in vaded Cent ral Amer ica in 1856 with the in ten tion to set up a slave State through out the re gion. Ac cord ing to Walker, Cent ral Amer ic ans con sti tuted a “a mixed and de gen er ated race, dis guised as White”. He went so far as to af firm that stable re la tions between the “pure and White” su per ior Amer ican race, with the mixed IndoSpanish in ferior race, as it ex ists in Mex ico and Cent ral Amer ica was im possible. (Quoted by Leo poldo Zea, Journal Uni ver sum, Año 121997). 19 Through out the re gion, lim ited demo cra cies were es tab lished, fol‐ lowed by dic tat or ships sup por ted by the U.S. gov ern ment. In Ar gen‐ tina the Black pop u la tion sided with one of the fac tions in con flict, led by Pres id ent Rosas, a move that triggered re tali ation on the part of Rosas’s op pos i tion. In Cuba, Juan Fran cisco Man zano, the first pub‐ lished Afro Latin Amer ican writer, par ti cip ated in the struggle for ab‐ ol i tion. Falsely ac cused by the co lo nial Cuban gov ern ment (Cuba was under Span ish rule until 1902) barely es caped death, and had to give up writ ing. Eth nic dif fer ences were con sidered con trary to na tional unity. As a res ult, fac tions of Afro Des cend ants, con sid er ing that they had been be trayed by their cri ol los coun ter part, with whom they had waged war against the Span ish co lo nial power, set up polit ical en tit‐ ies to en hance their struggle against con tinu ing op pres sion. The most out stand ing cases were those of Partido In de pendi ente deColor (PIC) in Cuba and A Frente Negra Brasileira (FBN) in Brazil and Partido Auténtico Negro of Ur uguay. These ef forts were rap idly sup pressed by thesys tem. 20 From Gradualism toAfrorealism inLatinAmerica The In de pend ent Party of Color was foun ded by the AfroCuban Evaristo Estenoz, as a re ac tion to the fact that in the byelections held on Au gust1, 1908 none of the Black people who ran for the two dom in ant parties (Lib er als and Con ser vat ives) were elec ted. A few days later, Estenoz, a vet eran of the Lib er a tion Army, called a meet ing in Havana in spired by José Martí’s slo gan of hav ing a “Re pub lic with all and for the good of all.” The dia gnosis of the situ ation of the Afrodescendant pop u la tion, made by them selves, not only co in cided with the afore men tioned per spect ive of Gen eral Gen er oso Cam pos Mar‐ quetti, but also gives us an intracentric per spect ive of greater depth: 21 The men of color who mil it ate in the polit ical parties, have not had, do not have, nor will they have, coreligionists in them, other than in cases where a street demon stra tion is pro jec ted, so that Blacks are the bear ers of the candles; so that they form the nu mer ous nuc lei that ap plaud at the ral lies, so that they are the de term ined and en ‐ thu si astic pro pa gand ists of the can did ates nom in ated by the party, so that they are the free and di li gent agents on elec tion day, and to achieve such co oper a tion, it is enough that only two or three names of darkskinned in di vidu als ap pear in the party’s can did acy, pos tu ‐ lated for the humblest of thepo s i tions. (Fernández Robaina, 2007, p.61) From that meet ing was born the In de pend ent Party of Color, led by Estenoz him self as pres id ent and Gregorio Turin as sec ret ary, also an army of ficer. The slo gan was clear: free dom is not re ques ted, it is not begged for, it is conquered and the right is ex er cised by those who haveit. 22 The ideo logy of the PIC con tained re volu tion ary ideas of the time. As loyal excombatants of the Cuban in de pend ence, they showed con‐ cern for the ex iles, those who had had to flee Cuba or who were ex‐ pelled as a res ult of the war. The re quest for the re pat ri ation of ex iles on be half of the State, without dis tinc tion of race, is con sist ent with their struggles. But in ad di tion, they asked for free and com puls ory edu ca tion, in clud ing uni ver sity edu ca tion; they also called for a policy of nonselective im mig ra tion, con front ing the at tempts of the new na tional state to white wash the coun try by im port ing European pop‐ u la tion and ex clud ing people from other ra cial groups. They also in‐ cluded in their pe ti tions an agrarian re form based on state lands; the 23 From Gradualism toAfrorealism inLatinAmerica reg u la tion of child labor, oc cu pa tional ac ci dent in sur ance, labor courts; they also de man ded that tri als be con duc ted with ra cially mixed jur ies and op posed the death pen alty. And in their struggle against the in vis ib il ity of Afrodescendants that con sti tuted the Cuban ma jor ity, they re ques ted the ap point ment of AfroCubans in the dip lo matic ser vice. After its leg al iz a tion, the PIC quickly achieved great pop ular ity among the Cuban pop u la tion. In fact, the great mass of work ers saw in their ideo logy the vin dic a tion of their own as pir a tions. This brought a swift re sponse from the rul ing elite. Lib eral Sen ator Martín Morúa Del gado in Feb ru ary1910 pro posed an amend ment to the elect oral law to sup‐ press the PIC. He ar gued that it was against the Con sti tu tion to or‐ gan ize “ex clus ive polit ical groups or parties on the basis of race, wealth, pro fes sional title or birth.” Morúa Del gado, the first AfroCuban sen ator, the son of a Span ish father and a Black mother, con‐ sidered that mu latto pop u la tion was su per ior to the Black pop u la tion. 24 The pro posal was ap proved by the Sen ate and rat i fied by the House of Rep res ent at ives a few months later. The gov ern ment of Pres id ent José Miguel Gómez took ad vant age of the law to un leash a fierce per‐ se cu tion against the mil it ants of the Party, im pris on ing them with vari ous ac cus a tions and out law ing the Party. How ever, the PIC con‐ tin ued its struggle, now fo cused on the elim in a tion of the law that out lawed them. 25 Mil it ant excombatants as they were, the mem bers of the PIC de‐ cided to hold a march bran dish ing their weapons. This served to jus‐ tify the re ac tion of the au thor it ies, who called the armed protest an “up ris ing” and un leashed a mil it ary re sponse. The PIC mil it ants could not con tain the army. In the fol low ing two months, more than three thou sand Black and mes tizo people were mas sacred for their re la‐ tion ship with the PIC. Gen er als Evaristo Estenoz and Pedro Ivonet who led the fight were cap tured and killed. By June1912, the Black in‐ sur rec tion had ceased, put ting an end to the ef fort of Cuban Afrodescendants to seek an autonom ous solu tion to their situ ation (Fernández Robaina, 2007, p.93). 26 A Frente Negra Brasileira (FBN), was es tab lished in 1931 by a group of Afro Brazili ans. The ob ject ive of FBN was to cre ate aware ness among the Black pop u la tion, to boost up and high light their in tel lec tual, 27 From Gradualism toAfrorealism inLatinAmerica Tan blanco como te ve y tu abuela sé quién é. ¡Sácala de la co s ina: Mamá Iné! Mamá Iné, tú bien lo sabe; Mamá Iné, Yo bien lo sé; Mamá Iné, te dise nieto,. As White as you seem I know your grandmah Get her out of the kit chen! Mamá Iné You know it And I do Mamá Iné calls you grand son. (Guillén, Motivo de son, frag mento) The intra per spect ive thus al lows dis cus sion within the com munity. The AfroUruguayan Cristina Cab ral con fronts the Black man: “Black Man / if you are just look ing for / a woman who warms / your food and your bed”, she ac cuses him of being blind by a White veil. Cristina in tro duces her vis ion of the woman of the an ces tral com munity: 52 Soy re sis ten cia y me mo ria. Construí el cam ino del amo Así como el de la liber tad Morí en la Casa Grande Igual que en la Sen zala. Dejé el in genio y de scalza Me hice cim ar rona I am res ist ance and memory. I built the way of the mas ter As well as that of free dom I died in the Casa Grande Same as in the Sen zala. I left the cane field and bare footed And be came a ma roon (Cab ral, “Me moria y Res ist en cia”, frag mento). From Gradualism toAfrorealism inLatinAmerica And it ends with the ac cus ing fin ger, with a claim that is only pos sible from within: “You are still notthere!” 53 The po etic voice of the Costa Rican Shir ley Camp bell, re bukes “Car‐ los” a nonBlack friend who is be gin ning to un der stand. She tries to make him see that his skin is dif fer ent from hers, and that her his tory is di verse. The po etic voice re cog nizes that the world looks dif fer ent from within and dares toaf firm: 54 Que el tiempo es desigual que las pieles tienen matices y que el amane cer pinta dis tinto desde estos ojos That time is un equal that the skins have shades and that dawn looks dif fer ent from these eyes (PoemaXII Camp bell88). That in ternal con flict is not only so cial. It oc curs in the inner self of the Black woman. Such drama is per ceived in the work of Nancy Morejón. Her ap proach has noth ing to do with that of Al berto Ordoñez Ar guello, a Latin Amer ican mes tizo poet, who had his own ver sion of Negrism. His Black per sonae is a Black woman in utter an‐ guish, beg ging God that her son would be born White as snow (Ordoñez Argüello, “Oración de Negra”). There is no such plea in Morejón’s in tra centric vis ion. Her “Black Woman” con fesses her lovehate re la tion ship with her “mas ter”, con fess ing di cho tom ous love: 55 Amo a mi amo, pero todas las noches, cuando at ravieso la vereda flor ida hacia el cañaveral donde a hur ta dil las hemos hecho el amor, me veo cuchillo en mano, desollándole como a una res sin culpa. I love my mas ter, but every night, when I cross the flowery path to the reed bed From Gradualism toAfrorealism inLatinAmerica where we have sneaked to make love, I see my self knife in hand, skin ning him guilt lessly as a beast. (Mujer Negra, frag mento) This ex ist en tial am bi gu ity, gives rise to the claim of the com munity, in the po etic voice of the Panamanian Ger ardo Malo ney who in Juega Vivo claims the Black far from per fect Bryan asleader, 56 porque en carna nuestra his toria con las tram pas, los engaños la as tu cia y la malicia que se ap lican por lec ciones en el transcurso de esta vida. be cause he em bod ies our his tory with its traps, de cep tions cun ning and malice that are ap plied as les sons in the course of this life. (Juega vivo, frag mento) This new sig ni fic ance tran scends both lit er ary and polit ical per spect‐ ives, to be come ex ist en tial. 57 Afrorealists writers, strongly pro claim their AfricanAmerican iden‐ tity. They claim to be prot ag on ists of the na tion and cul ture and claim their space. They re cog nize them selves as part of the an ces tral com‐ munity, but that claim is but one of the ex pres sions of mes tizo Amer‐ ica, in which those who are not ge net ic ally are cul tur ally so. We must as sume real ity, pen et rate the shad ows of his tory, sep ar ate the grain and thechaff. 58 Som bras que sólo yo veo, me escoltan mis dos abuelos (…) tam bor de cuero y madera: mi abuelo negro (…) gris ar madura guer rera: mi abuelo blanco From Gradualism toAfrorealism inLatinAmerica Shad ows that only I see, I am es cor ted by my two grand par ents (…) Leather and wooden drum: my Black grand father (…) grey war rior armor: my White grand father (Guillén, “Bal ada de los dos abuelos”, frag mento) The Afrorealists with Guillén, show their shield with a baobab, a rhino ceros and a spear, and without deny ing the gray war rior armor of the White grand father, they af firm them selves proud prot ag on ists of the an ces tral com munity. “From now on I will call my self African”, Blas Jiménez shouted in his col lec tion of poems, as if to em phas ize that the Domin ican na tion was also built by “us”, those of African her‐ it age. But that re cog ni tion is not made without protest, it is not as‐ sumed without rais ing the cry of his tor ical de teri or a tion: the Panamanian Cubena, protests and as serts him self an grily: “What a mis for tune, Ashanti I am and they call me Car los” and chooses as a lit er ary name “Cubena”, which in the Ashanti tra di tion, means male born onTues day. 59 Afroreal ism is a polit ical stand; a pro posal for de mys ti fic a tion, against the Euro centric chain of deni als, myths, omis sions, vic tim hood, and blatant lies that con sti tute of fi cial his tory; a claim that people of African des cent con sti tute an in teg ral part of the Latin Amer ican com munit ies, and as such, are fullpledged cit izens, cobuilders of these na tional states, hav ing a clear un der stand ing of mul ti cul tural iden tity: “I am”, Guillén em phas izes, 60 también el nieto, bizni eto, tatar ani eto de un es clavo. (Que se avergüence el amo) also the grand son, Great grand son And the greatgreat-grandson of a slave. (Shame on the mas ter) And as such, he as sumes his iden tity: Who amI? 61 From Gradualism toAfrorealism inLatinAmerica ¿Nicolás Yel ofe, maybe? ¿Or Nicolás Bakongo? ¿Or could it be Guillén Ban guila? (Guillén, “ElApel lido”, frag mento). The riddle is solved, in Son16 62 Yor uba soy, lloro en yor uba lucumí. Como soy un yor uba de Cuba, quiero que hasta Cuba suba mi llanto yor uba; que suba el alegre llanto yor uba que sale de mí. (…) y cuando no soy yor uba, soy congo, mandinga, carabalí. Yor uba I am, I cry in Yorubalucumí. Since I am a Yor uba from Cuba, I want my Yor uba cry to rise to Cuba; the joy ful Yor uba cry that comes from me. (…) and when I am not Yor uba, I am Con golese, Mandinga, Carabalí (Guillén, “Son 16”, frag mento). So then, as claimed by Jorge Artel, the AfroColombian poet: 63 No im porta que seas nieto de chibchas, españoles, caribes o taras cos si al gunos se con vier ten en los tránsfugas, si al gunos se evaden de su hu mano des tino, noso tros tenemos que en con trarnos, in tuir, en la vibración de nuestro pecho, la única emoción ancha y pro funda, defin it iva y eterna: somos una con cien cia en América It doesn’t mat ter if you are the grand son of chibchas, Span ish, Carib or Taras can From Gradualism toAfrorealism inLatinAmerica BIBLIOGRAPHY An gla ril, Nilda Bea triz. “El es tu dio de la población de ori gen afri ca no en la Ar‐ gen ti na”, (Po nen cia) Ier Co lo quio In ter‐ na cio nal de Es tu dios AfroIberoamericanos, Alcalá de He nares, 1994. Artel, Jorge, Tam bores en la noche, Mi‐ nis te rio de Cultu ra Co lom bia na, Bi blio‐ te ca de Li te ra tu ra Afro co lom bia na, 2010 Ca bral, Cris ti na, Me mo ria y Re sis ten cia, República Do mi ni ca na, Edi to rial Manatí, 2004. Cha rún Illes cas, Lucía, Ma lam bo, Perú, Edi to rial Uni ver si ta ria, 2001. Da costa Wil lis, Miriam, Daugh ters of the Di a spora, King ston, Ian Ramble Pub‐ lish ers, 2003. De clar a tion of Rights of the Negro Peoples of the World, New York, Au‐ gust 31, 1920, in Amy JacquesGarvey (comp.), Philo sophy and Opin ions of Mar cus Gar vey. Vol. 2, New York, The Uni ver sal Pu bli shing House, 1925. Dun can, Quince, Un señor de cho co late: trein ta re la tos de la vida de Quince, Uni‐ ver si dad Na cio nal, Pro gra ma de Pu bli‐ ca ciones e Im pre siones, 1996. Dun can, Quince. “El afror rea lis mo, una dimensión nueva de la li te ra tu ra la ti‐ noa me ri ca na”, Anales del Ca ribe, 20052006, La Ha ba na, Casa de las Amé ri cas, 2006. Dun can, Quince, Un Men saje de Rosa, San José, Euned, 2006. Fernández Ro bai na, Tomás, Cuba: Per‐ so na li dades en el De bate Ra cial, La Ha‐ ba na, Edi to rial de Cien cias So ciales, 2007. Guillén, Ni co las, Mo ti vos de Son, La Ha‐ ba na, Im pren ta y Papelería de Ra me la, Bouza y Cía., 1930. In ge nie ros, José, Las razas in fe riores, 1906, cited by Eu ge nio Raúl Zaf fa ro ni, Criminología. Aproximación desde un mar gen, Bogotá, Edi to rial The mis, 1988. Or if some be comes fu git ives, if some evades their human des tiny, we have to re con cile, search in the vi bra tion of our chest, the only wide and deep emo tion, defin it ive and eternal: we are a con science in Amer ica (Jorge Artel, “Poemas sin odios ni temores”, frag men tos). Afroreal istic thought is com pel ling. No more will ing ness to fol low gradu al ism or polit ical auto nom ism: Afroreal ism is the com pel ling claim to polit ical rights and iden titynow. 64 From Gradualism toAfrorealism inLatinAmerica ABSTRACTS English In the pro cess of their kid nap ping and en slave ment, Afric ans and their des‐ cend ants con tin ued their struggle enroute, by selfimmolation, throw ing them selves out board, or by means of in sur rec tions. And in the plant a tions and mines of Amer ica, they re sor ted to polit ical and cul tural ma roon age. Dur ing the quest for in de pend ence, they con tin ued their dig ni fied struggle for sur vival and free dom and later in the con text of the newly formed Latin Amer ican re pub lics, as they were sub jec ted to the af ter math of slavery and grow ing ra cism, they re sor ted to di verse forms of phys ical, polit ical, cul tural and re li gious res ist ance—ad opt ing the idea of gradual re cog ni tion and full in teg ra tion as cit izens. But as gradu al ism failed, they formed autonom ous polit ical parties, a strategy that was vi ol ently sup pressed. The res ist ance and struggle has evolved in the in tel lec tual field. Nicolás Guillén, the Cuban poet (1902-1989), pro posed in the 1920s a new view point to re store the African di a sporic voice, using Afrocentric ter min o logy; vin‐ dic ate African sym bolic memory; re af firm ing the concept of an an ces tral com munity; ad opt ing an intracentric per spect ive and a sys tem atic search for, and pro clam a tion of African Latin Amer ican iden tity. This pro posal, evid ent in Guillén’s po etry, has been iden ti fied and termed Afroreal ism. Many AfroDescendant writers through out Latin Amer ica, have ad op ted Guillén’s Afroreal ism, giv ing the African Di a spora in Latin Amer ica, a new per spect ive in their con tinu ing struggle for an egal it arian re cog ni tion and par ti cip a tion in their re spect ive coun tries. Ji mé nez, Blas R., Ca ribe Afri ca no en Des per tar, Santo Do min go, Nue vas Rutas, 1984. Ji mé nez, Blas R., Exi gen cias de un Cimarrón (En sueños), Santo Do min go, Edi to rial Tal ler, 1987. Ma lo ney, Ge rar do, Juega Vivo, Panamá, Edi ciones For ma to, 1984. Morejón, Nancy (ed.), Nicolás Guillén: Selección, prólogo y notas, Serie Valoración Múltiple, La Ha ba na, Casa de las Amé ri cas, 1972. Morejón, Nancy, Per so na, La Ha ba na, Colección Sur Edi tores, 2010. Ordoñez Argüello, Al ber to, “Oración de Negra”, in Yo lan da Cruz Mo li na, In dia‐ ni dad y Ne gri tud en el Re per to rio Ame‐ ri ca no, Costa Rica, EUNA, 1999. Schwartz, Marcy, Writ ing Paris, New York, State Uni ver sity Press, 1999. Yao, JeaneArsène, Los Afroar gen ti nos, Ma drid, Edi to rial Mundo Negro, 2009. From Gradualism toAfrorealism inLatinAmerica Français Alors même qu’ils étaient en le vés et ré duits en es cla vage, les Afri cains et leurs des cen dants ont pour sui vi leur lutte lors de leur dé por ta tion, en s’im‐ mo lant, en se je tant à la mer ou en or ga ni sant des in sur rec tions. Dans les plan ta tions et les mines d’Amé rique, ils ont eu re cours au mar ron nage po li‐ tique et cultu rel. Lors de leur com bat pour l’éman ci pa tion, ils ont pour sui vi leur digne lutte pour la sur vie et la li ber té et, plus tard, dans le contexte des nou velles ré pu‐ bliques latinoaméricaines, alors qu’ils étaient sou mis aux suites de l’es cla‐ vage et au ra cisme crois sant, ils ont eu re cours à di verses formes de ré sis‐ tance phy sique, po li tique, cultu relle et re li gieuse – adop tant l’idée d’une re‐ con nais sance gra duelle et d’une in té gra tion com plète en tant que ci toyens. Mais comme le gra dua lisme a échoué, ils ont formé des par tis po li tiques au‐ to nomes, une stra té gie qui a été vio lem ment ré pri mée. La ré sis tance et la lutte ont évo lué dans le do maine in tel lec tuel. Le poète cu bain Nicolás Guillén a pro po sé dans les an nées1920 une nou velle ma nière de res tau rer la voix de la dia spo ra afri caine, en uti li sant une ter mi no lo gie afrocentrique; en re ven di quant la mé moire sym bo lique afri caine; en ré af‐ fir mant le concept de com mu nau té an ces trale; en adop tant une pers pec‐ tive intracentrique et une re cherche et une pro cla ma tion sys té ma tiques de l’iden ti té afrolatino-américaine. Cette pro po si tion, évi dente dans la poé sie de Guillén, a été iden ti fiée et qua li fiée d’afro réa lisme. De nom breux écri‐ vains afrodescendants d’Amé rique la tine ont adop té l’afro réa lisme de Guillén, don nant à la dia spo ra afri caine d’Amé rique la tine une nou velle pers pec tive dans leur lutte per ma nente pour une re con nais sance et une par ti ci pa tion éga li taires dans leurs pays res pec tifs. Español En el pro ce so de su se cues tro y es cla vi tud, los afri ca nos y sus des cen dien‐ tes con ti nua ron su lucha du ran te su de por ta ción, por au to in mo la ción, arro‐ ján do se fuera de borda o por medio de in su rrec cio nes. Y en las plan ta cio nes y minas de Amé ri ca, re cu rrie ron al ci ma rro na je po lí ti co y cul tu ral. Du ran te la bús que da de la in de pen den cia, con ti nua ron su lucha digna por la su per vi ven cia y la li ber tad y más tarde, en el con tex to de las re pú bli cas la ti‐ no ame ri ca nas re cién for ma das, al ser so me ti dos a las se cue las de la es cla vi‐ tud y el cre cien te ra cis mo, re cu rrie ron a di ver sas for mas de re sis ten cia fí si‐ ca, po lí ti ca, cul tu ral y re li gio sa, adop tan do la idea del re co no ci mien to gra‐ dual y la plena in te gra ción como ciu da da nos. Pero a me di da que el gra dua‐ lis mo fra ca só, for ma ron par ti dos po lí ti cos au tó no mos, una es tra te gia que fue vio len ta men te re pri mi da. La re sis ten cia y la lucha han evo lu cio na do en el campo in te lec tual. Ni co lás Gui llén, el poeta cu bano (1902-1989), pro pu so en la dé ca da de 1920 un nuevo punto de vista para res tau rar la voz de la diás po ra afri ca na, uti li zan do ter mi no lo gía afro cén tri ca; rei vin di can do la me mo ria sim bó li ca afri ca na; re‐ afir man do el con cep to de co mu ni dad an ces tral; adop tan do una pers pec ti va in tra cén tri ca y una bús que da sis te má ti ca y pro cla ma ción de la iden ti dad From Gradualism toAfrorealism inLatinAmerica afro ame ri ca na. Esta pro pues ta, evi den te en la poe sía de Gui llén, ha sido iden ti fi ca da y de no mi na da afro rrea lis mo. Mu chos es cri to res afro des cen‐ dien tes en toda Amé ri ca La ti na han adop ta do el afro rrea lis mo de Gui llén, dando a la diás po ra afri ca na en Amé ri ca La ti na una nueva pers pec ti va en su con ti nua lucha por un re co no ci mien to y una par ti ci pa ción igua li ta ria en sus res pec ti vos paí ses. INDEX Mots-clés littérature noire, afroréalisme, Nicolas Guillén, Duncan, afrolatino Keywords black literature, afrorealism, Nicolas Guillén, Duncan, afrolatino Palabras claves literatura negra, afrorrealismo, Nicolas Guillén, Duncan, afrolatino AUTHOR Quince Duncan Costa Rican Writer, National Literature Prize Professor, Universidad Nacional (emeritus), Human Right Activist