Date of Award

Spring 2023

Degree Name

Master of Arts

Major

American Studies

First Advisor

Amanda Guzman

Second Advisor

Scott Gac

Abstract

The central theme of this text is self-governed naming. I am implementing Black feminist storytelling procedures to write and paint without the “white,” the “male” or the “elitist gaze.” I’m writing an anti-colonial historical narrative about the making of the Puerto Rican people. I am providing to the field of American Studies an Afrocentric narrative–and series of paintings–through an interdisciplinary study of the presence of the African in the Americas. Although many colonial narratives center Spain in histories of Puerto Rico and of Puerto Ricans. I’m rewriting my Afro Puertorriqueño ancestors’ abolition story and collecting my family’s oral histories. I am remaking my past to make my future. I am a Black feminist storyteller conducting an autoethnography, a historiography, oral history collection, and artmaking as research. I’m leaning on anti-colonial narratives and Black feminist stories about the enslaved, their ancestors, and their descendants. This text visions the future of the Black Boricua diaspora. That is, the future of Blackboricuaness and of Black Boricuahood; the essence of Black Boricuas and the conditions informing their peoplehood. To do so, I am enunciating how Jíbara Negra immigrants were responsible for the making of the Nuyorican; and claiming they are also responsible for the making of the Black Boricua global, collective identity. Ultimately, I’m proving that the African and the Boricua were co-responsible for the making of the Puertorriqueño people.

Comments

Master's Thesis completed at Trinity College, Hartford CT for the degree of Master of Arts in American Studies.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

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