Mayaya Rising

Who are the Black heroines of Latin America and the Caribbean? Where do we turn for models of transcendence among women of African ancestry in the region? In answer to the historical dearth of such exemplars, Mayaya Rising explores and celebrates the work of writers who intentionally center powerful female cultural archetypes. In this inventive analysis, Duke proposes three case studies and a corresponding womanist methodology through which to study and rediscover these figures. The musical Cuban-Dominican sisters and former slaves Teodora and Micaela Gins inspired Aida Cartagena Portalatins epic poem Yania tierra; the Nicaraguan matriarch of the May Pole, Miss Lizzie, figures prominently in four anthologies from the countrys Bluefields region; and the iconic palenqueras of Cartagena, Colombia are magnified in the work of poets Mara Teresa Ramrez Neiva and Mirian Daz Prez. In elevating these figures and foregrounding these works, Duke restores and repairs the scholarly record.