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Chapter 17: Where Do We Go from Here? A Call to Action
- State University of New York Press
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� � � � � � � � � � WhereDoWeGofromHere?ACalltoAction Vanessa K. Valdés � � � � � � � � � � Thank you all for attending what we hope to be an annual occurrence here at The City College of New York. I am humbled by your participation. For the last three days we have heard papers that discuss a number of aspects of manifestations of the creativity of the African Diaspora. We have heard presenters speak about Colombia and Haiti, about Puerto Rico and Cuba, about Africa itself and the United States. We have had presentations of literary criticism, readings of poetry and fiction, and a beautiful exhibit by Natalia Botero, Aquella raza abandonada . . . olvidada. I thank The City College of New York for allowing us this magnificent space that is the Great Hall. We have laughed together and cried, been moved by stories, and been inspired by the research presented. More importantly, we have shared. The impetus for this conference was to gather together scholars, writers, artists, and musicians, to create a space where we could all learn from each other, compare notes, and understand that many of us are engaged in answering the same questions. Many of us here are young scholars, starting in our careers as academics here in the academy: at one point or another, many of us have been questioned about our research interests, about our dedication to this subject. Over these three days, we have come perhaps to a new understanding of the vitality of our work. It is easy to stay here in our ivory tower, to speak only to each other at professional gatherings of our respective fields here in the United States, and never engage with the world outside of ourselves. That would be very easy, to write our books and articles, gain tenure, and live pleasantly comfortable lives. And yet this is not our calling. For to be engaged in work related to the African Diaspora is to be engaged in truths that often go untold, histories unknown to the outside world, lives that have gone unnoticed. We dishonor those who have gone before us by living lives of academic complacency. Instead, we follow the path of the archeologist, who recovers fragments and works to restore them, making sense of the shards that have been ground to dust. 135 136 Vanessa K. Valdés I am struck by our geographic location today. The City College of New York is surrounded by the sons and daughters of the African Diaspora. To our north and west is Washington Heights, now an enclave for those primarily from the Dominican Republic. To our east and south, we find a changing Harlem, for many a cultural center for African Americans and Puerto Ricans, now home to increasing populations from Senegal, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Guinea, as well as Mexico, Colombia, and Ecuador. Such is the richness of New York City that we do not have to leave this place in order to witness the cultures of which we speak. And yet we must. Many of our presenters at this conference come from other countries, and they bring to our attention how much we have at our disposal, the resources that we have at our fingertips, from the food we casually offer at these events to our ability to use technology to enhance our presentations. We must understand and acknowledge our location in the production of culture and scholarship and with that, comprehend our responsibility to these cultures of which we speak and write. The United States remains at the center of production of scholarship about the African Diaspora. As a Latin Americanist and a Caribbeanist primarily trained here in the United States, I am a product of this American university system. Due to that training, I know that to better understand the Americas in their entirety, one must learn about the African Diaspora—not solely the history of enslavement but also the histories of migratory patterns that had nothing to do with trade routes and conquest, but with the desire for employment. We must learn about the evolution of religions that were born in Africa and continue to be practiced in some form throughout the New World. We must recover the cosmologies that guide the lives of millions who do not question the need to acknowledge their ancestors. We must continue to uncover the diagrams and patterns that we find in quilts and paintings, in performance pieces and installations from Toronto to Buenos Aires. We must examine the common motifs and tropes in our novels and poems, in our music...