Place, Language, and Identity in Afro–Costa Rican Literature This page intentionally left blank Place, Language, and Identity in Afro–Costa Rican Literature Dorothy E. Mosby University of Missouri Press Columbia and London Copyright © 2003 by The Curators of the University of Missouri University of Missouri Press, Columbia, Missouri 65201 Printed and bound in the United States of America All rights reserved 5 4 3 2 1 07 06 05 04 03 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Mosby, Dorothy E., 1970– Place, language, and identity in Afro-Costa Rican literature / Dorothy E. Mosby. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-8262-1472-X (alk. paper) 1. Costa Rican literature—Black authors—History and criticism. 2. Costa Rican literature—20th century—History and criticism. 3. Blacks in literature. 4. Bernard, Eulalia—Criticism and inter- pretation. 5. Duncan, Quince, 1940—Criticism and interpreta- tion. 6. Campbell Barr, Shirley, 1965—Criticism and interpreta- tion. 7. Woolery, Delia McDonald—Criticism and interpretation. I. Title. PQ7480.5 .M67 2003 (cid:2) 860.989607286—dc21 2003000586 (cid:2)(cid:2) ™ This paper meets the requirements of the American National Standard for Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, Z39.48, 1984. Designer: Kristie Lee Typesetter: The Composing Room of Michigan, Inc. Printer and Binder: The Maple-Vail Book Manufacturing Group Typefaces: Adobe Garamond, Worcester To my grandmother Dorothy Josephine Snowden This page intentionally left blank Contents Preface ix Acknowledgments xi Abbreviations xiii Introduction Afro–Costa Rican Writing A Diaspora Literature 1 One Roots and Routes Foundations of Black Literature in Costa Rica 32 Two Negotiating Home The Poetry of Eulalia Bernard 75 Three Quince Duncan and the Development of Afro–Costa Rican Identity 120 Four To Be Young, Gifted, and Black Shirley Campbell and Delia McDonald 167 Conclusion Becoming Costa Rican 233 Bibliography 239 Index 247 vii This page intentionally left blank Preface There is a Creole saying in Limón, Costa Rica, that speaks to the history, iden- tity, and culture of the Afro–Costa Ricans. To say “me navel-string bury dere” is an affirmation of “belonging” to a place and a challenge to those who deny the cultural contributions of the descendants of West Indian immigrants born in Costa Rica who helped to form its modern state. To bury your “navel-string” or umbilical cord in a place is, in effect, to plant the self in a particular space or ter- ritory. The expression refers to a folk practice of “burying an infant’s umbilical cord in its parents’ home ground... or in some place of symbolic significance.”1 It is to literally take a piece of the developing self and inter it so that it becomes part of the land and, in doing so, represents an indelible bond between the self and place. To bury the “navel-string” of the descendants of Afro–West Indian immigrants in Costa Rica is to root the self to a location—to affirm that this place is a home, even if home neglects, denies, or renders invisible the black pres- ence. This difficult affirmation of belonging is represented in the traditional oral lit- erature, such as stories of Anancy (the trickster spider of African Ashanti animal tales) and calypsonian lyrics, and in published and unpublished Afro–Costa Ri- can writers of West Indian descent, including Alderman Johnson Roden, Dolores Joseph, Eulalia Bernard, Quince Duncan, Shirley Campbell, Delia McDonald, Prudence Bellamy, Claudio Reid Brown, Marcia Reid, and Alonso Foster. The literature records an “intrahistory” often neglected by the hegemonic and ho- mogenizing project of the Europeanized values of the dominant Hispanic cul- ture of Costa Rica. Black writing from Costa Rica reveals the story of a people who were formed and strengthened by the great waves of West Indian migrant la- borers, who began to arrive in 1872. This study developed out of research conducted in Costa Rica on a Fulbright Grant for graduate study and research abroad during the 1997–1998 academic year. The original focus of my project was literature by Afro–Costa Rican women. After conducting interviews, meeting people in the community, visiting libraries, and speaking with academics, I decided it was necessary to expand my research to include male writers. Questions of place, language, and identity 1. Oxford Dictionary of Caribbean English Usage,s.v. “navel-string.” ix