Ashé-Caribbean Imagery and Folklore in Four Poems of Nicolás Guillén

CLA JOURNAL 5 4 CLA JOURNAL Sandra G. Shannon from Blaxploitation films—the ethnic subgenre of the exploitation movies that emerged in the United States during the early 1970s—to imagine how a Black British man could empower himself. She claims that Levy revises and improves upon the empowering but stereotypical misogynist ideology so characteristic of these films. Marlene Allen reveals how 20th and 21st -century writers, Pauline E. Hopkins, Octavia E. Butler, and Tananarive Due create fantastical works that evoke Afrodiasporic history and cultures and that signify upon the historical traumas experienced by African Americans during slavery. In “Kindred Spirits: The Afrofuturist Fictions of Pauline E. Hopkins, Octavia E. Butler, and Tananarive Due”Allen argues the works of these women writers counter pseudo-science-based ideas about the supposed inferiority of black bodies and black intellect by creating powerful African American characters who advocate for future worlds where peaceful co-existence among the races and sexes becomes the prevailing paradigm. Finally, Irma L. Hicks gives new meaning to the phrase “travel abroad” in her essay, “Luminous Inspirations and Modernity in the Streets: Revolutions in Politics, Culture, and Society in Paris.” She convincingly argues that, while many foreign language teachers insist that their students spend significant time abroad in non-native speaking parts of the globe, they are usually more concerned with enhancing their linguistic competency rather than the social, cultural, and political significance of such excursions. As an educational and social action, she asserts that travel abroad offers people the opportunity to question conditions they take for granted and to reassess prevailing assumptions and values. She centers her argument around how her own travel and study in Paris informed her understanding of issues that are central to the representation of postcolonial France and “Frenchness.” Works Cited O’Daniel, Therman B.“The CLA Journal.” CLA Journal vol. 1, no. 1, Nov. 1957, pp 1-2. Ashé-Caribbean Imagery and Folklore in Four Poems of Nicolás Guillén Thomas Edison Yoruba soy, Cantando voy, Llorando estoy, y cuando no soy yoruba, soy congo, mandinga, carabalí (“Son número 6”Nicolás Guillén) Nicolás Guillén (1902 – 1989) is one of Cuba’s first poets to legitimately present Afro-Cuban identity and culture in his works. While he adopted sophisticated modernist poetic techniques in his early poetry, he soon developed a more distinctive poetic voice focusing on Cuban folk traditions. Because of intellectuals such as Guillén, Cuba began to see beauty in its Africanness. The Afro-Cuban poet’s works are unique in their scope; ranging from his early sound experiments to his more overtly socio-political poetry reflecting the everyday Cuban experience. His poetic styles span over many artistic traditions such as AfroCubanismo ,1 negrismo,2 modernismo,poesíanegra,3 Negritud(e),4 andtheAfro-Antillean movement.5 Guillén encouraged Cubans to develop pride in themselves and their 1  According to Eugenio Matibag, Afrocubano grew out of the Partido Independiante de Color (PIC) which was established between 1909 until 1913. PIC served as a Cuban artistic movement featuring literature, dance, music, and plastic arts between 1928 and 1940 (93). 2  Negrista Poetry was promoted primarily by white Cubans and Puerto Ricans to reflect the “primitive” black experience. 3  Guillén was a prominent member of the early twentieth-century movement called “poesía negra” (“black poetry”) in Cuba. This poetic genre was a part of the “vanguardismo” movement that swept through all of Latin America in the 1920’s and 1930’s. While some commentators suggest that “poesía negra” is a form of negritud, others argue that Guillén’s poetry is less essentialist, more historically-based and nationalist than that of the French-speaking negritude writers such as Léopold Sédar and Aimé Césaire. Guillén moved away from the negritud movement and the negrismo movement and created his own concept known as mulatez. 4  Negritud is the Hispanophone version of Negritude, which was launched in Paris in 1934 by three young black students from French colonial possessions Aimé Césaire, Léopold Sédar Senghor, and Léon Gontron Damas (French Guiana). Janheinz Jahn describes Négritude to be“nothing more nor...