20 pages • 40 minutes read

Afro-Latina

Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 2015

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.

Download PDF

Summary

Background

Poem Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Literary Devices

Symbols & Motifs

The Black Body

Descriptions of the Afro-Latina body are a motif that develops the theme of Celebrating the Black Body. For example, the texture of Afro-Latinos’ hair symbolizes a diverse heritage and its impact on identity. Afro-Latinos are “not a cultural wedlock” (Line 109), because their hair is “too kinky for Spain, / too wavy for dreadlocks” (Lines 110-111). “Wedlock” (Line 109) subsumes two people into one unit, but for the speaker, the Afro-Latinidad identity seeks to celebrate difference and unite people across lines of race and ethnicity. Acevedo also describes other parts of the Afro-Latina body—“[c]aramel-color skin” (Line 44), “hips” (Line 90), “backbones” (Line 97), and “palms” (Line 112)—to enumerate the ways that history and culture have shaped perceptions of the Black body. Ultimately, Acevedo describes the bodies of Afro-Latinos as a “bridge” (Line 124) among many cultures. That body represents a coherent identity based on self-love and knowledge of the history that shaped it.

Food

The motif of food develops the theme of Culture, History, and Identity. Early in the poem, the speaker describes rejecting Dominican culture to embrace an “American” (Line 40) identity, but she uses the figurative language, saying she chose “Happy Meals / and Big Macs” (Lines 24-25) over “habichuela y mangú” (Line 23), beans and a traditional Dominican cuisine. The fast food contrasts sharply with the healthy food steeped in Dominican culture, which helps communicate what the speaker gave up when she rejected her culture. Later, Acevedo uses “sancocho” (Line 72)—a stew of meat and vegetables that varies by Caribbean locale—to describe the “beautifully tragic mixture” (Line 71) of people and historical processes behind her heritage. Even after cooking, the central ingredients of sancocho are apparent because they are roughly chopped, much like how Dominican culture and Afro-Latino bodies reflect history no matter the passage of time.

Music and Dance

Music and dance are important symbols for the Dominican diaspora’s resilience and creativity. The musical genres of “cumbia / merengue / y salsa” (Lines 92-94) are popular not only in the Dominican Republic but also in other parts of the Caribbean and Spanish-speaking world. Because these influential genres show their European, African, and/or Indigenous roots in their rhythms and steps, they reflect something of what it is to be Afro-Latino. Acevedo describes those dances as a “bending / and blending” (Lines 96-97), representing how the descendants of Europeans, enslaved African people, and Indigenous people have been “deformed / and reformed” (Lines 98-99) by their tumultuous history. The difference between “deformed” (Line 98) and “reformed” (Line 99) helps express the speaker’s dual experience: her shame over her European ancestors’ violence, but also her pride in her African and Indigenous ancestors who survived that violence.