One of Cuban writer Nancy Morejón’s most anthologized and best-known works is Mujer Negra. According to the author, this compelling poem came to her in a dream of a woman appearing at her bedroom window. The next morning, Morejón recorded the voice of the spirit she had dreamed about. The speaker is the Black woman throughout Cuba’s history, from when she was brought to the island as a slave to the recognition of her personhood after the 1959 revolution.

In spite of the terrible circumstances of her existence, the Black woman is not simply a victim of colonialism; she is a resilient actor in the drama of history and is, in fact, a protagonist in the postrevolutionary society. Although Morejón herself says she was not writing a feminist poem, the fact that the main character is a woman who is at the center of the struggle for racial freedom and whose role is essential to the history of her nation leads critics to read the work as feminist.

The chronological arrangement of the poem provides a woman’s perception of the price history has extracted from her. The first free-verse stanza tells of her being taken by men who “left me here and here I’ve lived,” with only the memories of her West African homeland to sustain her. Sold into bondage, the woman becomes “His Worship’s” mistress. As her slavery continues, she builds the nation but cannot share in the benefits of its growth. Escaping the cruelty of slavery, the woman enters the long struggle for freedom—from the 1895 revolution led by the Black Cuban Antonio Maceo against Spanish rule to the revolution of 1959 led by Fidel Castro.

Each section of the poem ends with an affirmation of action on the part of the speaker. In the face of each adversity, the Black woman proudly says, “I rebelled . . . I walked . . . I rose up . . . I worked . . . I left . . . [and] I came down.” Each deed is an act of both self-preservation and defiance. Significantly, when the Black woman comes “down from the Sierra,” it is to join others; the “my” at the beginning of the poem has become the “our” of the revolution that made it possible for all, especially Cubans of African descent, to become full participants in the new society.

Mujer Negra is representative of recurring concerns in Morejón’s poetry: the strength and determination of women, pride in African and Cuban history and culture, and support for the revolutionary Marxist regime. The poem was first published in Parajes de una época (Places of an Epoch) in 1979. An English translation by Kathleen Weaver is found in Where the Island Sleeps Like a Wing (a dual-language edition published in 1985).

Works Cited
Morejón, Nancy. “Mujer Negra.” Translated by Kathleen Weaver. Where the Island Sleeps Like a Wing: Selected Poetry, Black Scholar Press, 1985.

Categories: British Literature, Caribbean Literature, Cuban Literature, Literature

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