Nancy Morejón as a Cultural and Gender Mediator
Nancy Morejón as a Cultural and Gender Mediator
GABRIELA SUÁREZ Undergratuated Student
Quality Leadership University
I am not more of a black person than a woman ; I am not more of a woman than a Cuban ; I am not more of a black person than a Cuban .
I am a brief combustion of those factors . — Nancy Morejon
Culture and gender are seen as both expressions and characteristics of certain groups and societies ; both of these concepts could easily be linked when studying behavior and identity influence in Literature . The Cuban Revolution of 1959 paved the way for numerous Cuban writers in matter of societal , political and educational matters . These Cuban writers benefited from the great opportunities of education and the new laws addressing discrimination and gender status and began to develop a mindset and literature abundant in Afro Cuban tradition , gender empowerment and a nationalist tone . An example of these offsprings of the revolution is the renowned poet , essayist , and translator Nancy Morejon . She as a writer could address topics from a direct point of view coming from her experience living as an Afro Cuban woman , making her a mediator and spokesperson of the Afro Cuban identity and also of the Cuban woman , during the Post-Revolution Cuba and until the present day .
Nicolas Guillen , fellow writer and mentor of Nancy Morejon , once stated that Nancy ’ s literature was “ as black as her skin ”, expressing her devotion to her Afro Cuban identity . What makes Nancy a beacon of light within the Afro Cuban literature is the simplicity and oneness of her person and her work , which is very easy to identify with , while also causing an impact on the reader . Whether it ’ s in her poems , essays or other scripts , Nancy Morejon can easily convey the concept of race and gender within the Cuban environment , which makes her a solid writer of diverse topics . An example of this is the poem " Mujer Negra ", first published in 1975 , after a dream that Nancy had about a woman that stared at her in her sleep begging for freedom , which intrigued her until she found the source for it , as Nancy stated in her Poetics analysis “ la negra regresó y me dictó el poema ” ( which translates as “ the black woman came back and dictated the poem to me ”. In " Mujer Negra ", Nancy wrote about the experience of the slave trade as a woman .
This poem can be interpreted as the direct experience of an African woman coming to the new world , while experiencing the horrors of slavery and possible assault , but there is also the undertone of black identity when she speaks of her ancestry and her native language . In this poem the line “ acaso no he olvidado ni mi costa perdí a mi lengua ancestral ” ( translated as “ perhaps I have neither forgotten nor lost my coast to my ancestral language ”) highlights the theme in her poem , where she battled with its direction because " Mujer Negra " wasn ’ t only about the sole experience of that woman but it was also intertwined with the experience of Nancy in the Cuba of the 70s ( Morejon 1995 ).
A complement for " Mujer Negra " is the poem " Amo a Mi Amo ", which portrays the other side of the coin , being more introspective and analytical of the female mind . Both of these poems are important to Nancy as she stated in an interview done by BOMB Magazine ; because " Mujer Negra " poses as a global and epic account of slavery written almost in a dreamlike state and " Amo a Mi Amo " brings the opposite sense , analyzing the internal struggle of women as slaves . What makes these poems relevant not only in the black community
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