Miguel Barnet. Biography of a Runaway Slave. Willimantic, Conn.: Curbstone Press, 1994. 217 pp. $11.95, paper, ISBN 978-1-880684-18-4.

Reviewed by Dale T. Graden

Published on H-Ethnic (October, 1996)

Few documentary sources exist from the Car‐ preter as "the frst personal and detailed account ibbean islands and the Latin American mainland of a Maroon [escaped] slave in Cuban and Spanish written by Africans or their descendants that de‐ American literature and a valuable document to scribe their life under enslavement. In Brazil, two historians and students of slavery" (Luis, p. 200). mulatto abolitionists wrote sketchy descriptions This essay will explore how testimonial literature of their personal experiences, and one autobiog‐ can help us better to understand past events. It raphy of a black man was published before eman‐ will also examine problems inherent in interpret‐ cipation. In contrast, several thousand slave nar‐ ing personal testimony based on memories of ratives and eight full-length autobiographies were events that occurred several decades in the past. published in the United States before the outbreak Esteban Mesa Montejo discussed his past with of the Civil War (1860-1865) (Conrad, p. xix). In the Cuban ethnologist Miguel Barnet in taped in‐ Cuba, one slave narrative appeared in the nine‐ terviews carried out in 1963. At the age of 103, teenth century. Penned by Juan Francisco Man‐ most likely Esteban Montejo understood that he zano, the Autobiografa (written in 1835, pub‐ was the sole living runaway slave on the island lished in England in 1840, and in Cuba in 1937) re‐ and that his words and memories might be con‐ counted the life of an enslaved black who learned sidered important enough to be published. For how to read and write. The Autobiografa con‐ that reason, he delved into topics of particular in‐ cludes with Manzano's escape from his owner. terest to himself and to the interviewer Barnet. The book inspired other authors to condemn the These included forms of African religious expres‐ institution of slavery as it existed in Cuba. Not un‐ sion and Montejo's recollections of life as a fugi‐ til publication of Miguel Barnet's The Autobiogra‐ tive slave hiding for several years in the forests of phy of a Runaway Slave in 1966 did there exist a Cuba. The book includes what appear to be actual narrative centered on the life of a common slave quotes from Montejo along with sentences and in Cuba (Barnet, 1966). The testimony of Esteban paragraphs shaped by Barnet to provide a read‐ Montejo has been described by its foremost inter‐ H-Net Reviews able account of the life of a black man in Cuba mills, taverns that sold supplies to the slaves, and during the late nineteenth and early twentieth religious practices. He rejects the myth that century. Africans committed suicide by hanging or drown‐ Born in 1860 as a slave, Esteban Montejo wit‐ ing themselves, but argues instead that they few nessed some of the most turbulent moments in all back to their homeland with a religious object of Latin American history. With the end of sugar (known as a prenda) tied to their waist. Slaves production on the Caribbean island of St. loved music, particularly the use of the drum. Domingue as a result of the Haitian Revolution Montejo laments that the "white man's music had (1791-1804), Cuba became a major exporter of no drum at all. Tasteless" (Barnet 1994, p. 33). sugar from its plantations in the decades before Montejo depicts the Africans with whom he lived Montejo's birth. To satisfy an insatiable demand as people of great physical beauty, compassion, for inexpensive labor, planters and merchants and sensuality. He also presents clear evidence of transported thousands of African slaves to Cuba the brutal treatment inficted on these African from the 1780s to the 1860s, among them Monte‐ slaves by masters and overseers. Planters often jo's parents. Given the presence of so many re‐ locked their slaves in stocks for two or three cently arrived Africans in his midst, Montejo had months for minor ofenses, and whipping was an extraordinary opportunity to witness African common. "The barracoon [slave quarters] was cultural expression and various forms of resis‐ bare dirt, empty, and lonely" (Barnet 1994, p. 24). tance to the slave regime. At some unknown junc‐ Slaves rose at 4:30 a.m. and then worked from ture during Cuba's Ten Year's War (1868-1878), 6:00 a.m. until sunset cutting sugar cane and Montejo escaped from bondage and lived on his working in the mill. own as a cimarron (runaway slave). The narrative In a chapter entitled "Life in the Woods," includes Montejo's remembrances of the War for Montejo talked about his decision to escape. After Independence (1895-1898), better known as the throwing a rock that hit the head of the overseer, Spanish-Cuban-American War. The subsequent he ran from the felds into nearby wooded hills. presence of United States troops as an army of oc‐ Similar to the escaped slave Sethe in Toni Morri‐ cupation (1898-1902) deeply infuenced Montejo's son's novel Beloved, Montejo lived in constant worldview. The book ends in 1905 with the death fear of capture. Unlike the majority of fugitive of the Cuban general Maximo Gomez. slaves in the United States who fed from masters The narrative is divided into three sections. In in the American South with a destination in mind the frst section entitled "Slavery," Montejo ofers (the American North or West), Montejo preferred some of his most poignant and insightful com‐ to remain alone in the thick forests of Cuba. For mentary. He believes that "nature is everything. several years, he communicated with no one. Even what you can't see" (Barnet 1994, p. 17; Whenever he heard dogs barking, he immediately Aching, pp. 35-41). In a tropical environment took of his clothes to prevent the animals from where sickness and painful insect bites were com‐ picking up his scent. Montejo lived in a cave for mon, Montejo delights in recalling the manner in many months, and was always careful about the which Africans used natural herbs and potions sounds he made and the fres he built. When pos‐ for healing. Black women and men from various sible, he stole pigs and food crops from small African nations resided on the sugar plantations, farms. He allowed his hair to grow long into a kin‐ including Musungo Congos, Mandingos, Gangas, ka (most likely meaning dread locks). "You live Lucumis and Carabalis. Montejo comments on the half wild when you're a cimarron.... My legs and games played by Africans, sugar refning in small arms got as hard as sticks.... I felt good being a cimarron. Because I was my own boss, and I de‐

2 H-Net Reviews fended myself on my own" (Barnet 1994, p. 52). to employ natural herbs, grasses and plants to Upon learning that slavery had been abolished, keep people in good health. The religious holiday Montejo ended his life of seclusion and began to of San Juan, celebrated each year on the 24th of search for employment at the sugar plantations. June, included festive parties attended by over‐ The title of the second section is "The Aboli‐ dressed men and women of the elite, cock fghts, tion of Slavery." A better title might be "The After‐ horse racing and card playing, along with dances math of Slavery," given that the chapter covers known as the mani, the jota, the zapateo and the the decade following fnal emancipation in 1886. tumbandera. Houses of Santeria, where "only Montejo labored as a free worker at the Purio and black people went" to practice their African reli‐ Ariosa central sugar mills during these years. He gion, also hosted parties during the feast of San endured long days cutting sugar, clearing felds, Juan. Instead of following Catholic rituals, howev‐ and maintaining the machinery of the mills. His er, the participants paid homage to the Yoruba cynicism about race relations and treatment of god of iron, farmers and war known as Oggun. the workers is evident from the outset. "There Clearly, Montejo is very interested in the African were masters, or rather, owners, who believed contributions to Cuban culture. "I come to the that blacks were made for locking up and whip‐ conclusion that the African was wise in all things. ping. So they treated them the same as before. To There are some who say they were from the my mind blacks didn't realize that things had wilds, and that they behaved like animals. There changed [with emancipation] because they kept is no lack of white men out there who say it. I on saying 'Your blessing, Master'.... [The white think diferent because I knew them. They man] believed they were the owners of humanity" weren't the least bit like animals. They taught me (Barnet 1994, p. 62). Montejo criticized the lack of many things though they didn't know how to read education provided for black and mulatto chil‐ and write. Customs that are more important than dren, and the fact that competent blacks were information. To be educated, not to meddle in oth‐ barred from entering elite professions. Reserving er folks' problems, speak softly, be respectful, be some of his most scathing criticism for the religious, be a hard worker.... All of that the Catholic hierarchy, Montejo claimed that "with African taught me" (Barnet 1994, pp. 150-51). women they [priests] were devils. They converted Montejo alludes to the presence and contributions the sacristy into a whorehouse.... The priests put of Chinese, Canary Islanders, Filipinos (all of women in caves, in holes in the ground where whom had been brought to Cuba by planters as a they had executioners ready to kill them"(Barnet cheap indentured labor force in the nineteenth 1994, p. 80). Other topics of great interest that he century), gypsies, and creoles. He remembers touches on include the use of identity cards and with emotion a strong sense of sharing and com‐ passbooks to control the movement of workers, munity which fourished among the compesinos the harsh daily life of peasant women, moderniza‐ in the countryside. tion of the mills (he observes that "progress is In a third section entitled "The War of Inde‐ amazing") and increasing deforestation of the pendence," Montejo comments upon his experi‐ Cuban countryside. ences during the fghting against Spain, which In a wide-ranging discussion, Montejo pro‐ lasted from 1895 to 1898. Cuban guerrilla tactics vides a wealth of information about social life in and the use of the machete to cut of the heads of late-nineteenth-century Cuba. Bandits created their enemy instilled terror among young Spanish problems in the city of Havana and in rural areas. troops. Cuban soldiers became known as Mambis‐ African and Chinese doctors understood best how es, meaning the child of a monkey crossed with a buzzard. The Mambises fought heroically

3 H-Net Reviews throughout the war, and Montejo attributes the of testimonial narrative. He emphasizes the re‐ victory over Spain to their actions. "The conduct sponsibility of the writer to interpret the ideas of our troops was a model for others, as anyone and words of marginalized persons and the un‐ will tell you who fought in the war ... we were derclass. This is accomplished through efective brave and put the revolution above everything oral communication and close consideration of else.... Even so, many colonels and other ofcers how best to write about the "true identity" of the shit of-target every day. They did things that not common people. "The function of the testimonial even little children do" (Barnet 1994, p. 183). novel [sic] as rescuer of a foundational language, Cubans paid a terrible price for victory; a tenth of as a rescuer of the old historical novel [sic], its population died and two-thirds of the wealth of should be to give back the original sound of story‐ the island was destroyed (Langley, pp. 13-14). telling to the contemporary novel. It should be in‐ Montejo condemned propaganda tht minimized terpreted as the burgeoning of a new cultural lan‐ the role of black soldiers in the war. He claimed guage, in battle with real deceit that is propped up that 95 percent of blacks had fought, but their in‐ by long-standing cliches" (Barnet 1994, p. 204). volvement and sacrifces did not prevent them Certainly Barnet's suggestions have been heeded. from being "left out in the street" after the hostili‐ Some of the most insightful social commentary ties ceased. and historical analyis emanating from Latin United States troops landed on Cuba in 1898 America in the past three decades has appeared during the fnal weeks of the war. In the words of in the form of testimonial literature (see for ex‐ one historian, "in a bizarre little war, the United ample I, Rigoberta Menchu: An Indian Woman in States Army--wretchedly led, scandalously provi‐ Guatemala and Maria Teresa Tula, Hear My Testi‐ sioned, and ravaged by tropical disease--swiftly mony: Human Rights Activist of El Salvador). Yet, defeated a demoralized, dispirited Spanish army the appeal and infuence of this genre should not and snatched the fruits of victory from the mam‐ allow us to overlook complex questions that arise bises, the Cuban guerrilla fghters who had fought when judging the Biography of a Runaway Slave gallantly in a struggle of three years' duration" as a historical source. (Keen, p. 414). During the occupation that fol‐ With regard to Esteban Montejo, the reader lowed, American troops brutalized the Cuban encounters difculties gleaning clear information populace. Montejo claims that many United States about many aspects of his life. How long was he a soldiers abused Cuban women and called blacks fugitive? Did he in fact end his life as a cimarron "nigger, nigger." Yet, it is interesting to note that in 1886 when slavery ofcially ended? If this date he also recalls that "the Americans were the only is correct, Montejo would have been twenty-six ones to put a stop to the pimps," and that "the years old, and not twenty, as he estimated in his white Cubans were as much to blame as the testimony. He provides stimulating details about a Americans [for the poverty and social inequali‐ rich culture shared by enslaved Africans. Yet, it is ties] because they let themselves be ordered most likely that he learned about African culture around in their own country" (Barnet 1994, pp. after emancipation, and then worked backward 193-94). Memories among Cubans of two occupa‐ in the taped interviews to portray such cultural tions and an intervention (1898-1902, 1906-9, practices as common at an earlier juncture. Such 1912) by the United States endured. an approach can easily distort analysis of actual In an afterword to the narrative entitled "The conditions and the true historical record. Montejo Alchemy of Memory," Miguel Barnet ofers his portrays himself as a rebel during his frst forty- perceptions about the meaning and construction fve years of life, yet he never entered a quilombo (escaped slave community) or joined with other

4 H-Net Reviews fugitive slaves to steal from plantations. One won‐ and therefore appealed to a regime seeking to ders to what extent he reshapes his views of the demonstrate that it had fulflled the revolutionary past in response to the present circumstances he aspirations of earlier generations. It is strange encountered in post-revolutionary Cuba of 1963. that the story ends in 1905. Esteban lived through Montejo notes on the last page of the book that "If the 1912 Race War in which thousands of African- I could, I would tell the whole story, all of it" Cubans were slaughtered by other Cubans. Why (Barnet 1994, p. 200). What is he alluding to? Per‐ does Barnet not include such an important haps his unhappiness with continued racial dis‐ episode when we know that Montejo expressed crimination in a revolutionary Cuba whose lead‐ strong opinions about this violent event in the ership claimed that such practices had ended? Or taped interviews? Perhaps Barnet understood is this actually Miguel Barnet speaking about cen‐ that an analysis of the Race War, one in which for‐ sorship that he had endured as a writer? The re‐ eigners played virtually no role, would not be ac‐ sult, in the words of William Luis, is that "the nar‐ ceptable to the Cuban revolutionary government ration cannot be conceived as a chronicle with a (Luis, pp. 199-218). The book received immediate historical development but as a fctional discourse international acclaim, and Barnet quickly re‐ which breaks with history and is subject to the gained political and literary stature in Cuba. strategies of memory" (Luis, p. 205). The Curbstone revised edition of 1994 is Questions also emerge regarding Miguel Bar‐ translated by W. Nick Hill. Mr. Hill makes some net's role in writing this testimony. As the tran‐ mistakes in his preface. I know of no frst edition scriber and editor, he played a critical role in de‐ of Biografa de un cimarron dated in 1966. Rather termining which topics would be addressed in the I believe the frst Spanish edition appeared in discussions and what ultimately appeared in print 1968, published in Barcelona by Ediciones Ariel. in the book. He changed words and whole phrases The frst English translation of the book, entitled to satisfy what he as the intermediary believed The Autobiography of a Runaway Slave, was not would be most readable and most true to what published in the United States in 1968, but rather Montejo wished to say. But we also need to consid‐ in London in 1966 by Bodley Head. Last, Cuba was er that Barnet determined which events would be not the "last country to overcome this afront included for personal political reasons. Barnet [slavery] to the human condition [in the Americ‐ had been part of a group of poets known as El as]" (Barnet, p. 13). Rather, that distinction falls on Puente, named after a private publisher of that the nation of Brazil, which ofcially ended slavery name which existed between 1960 and 1965. The on 13 May 1888 after fourishing for more than revolutionary government claimed that members three centuries. In spite of these errors, W. Nick of the group were homosexuals and antisocial, Hill has provided readers with a solid translation and subsequently repressed or marginalized its of this testimonial narrative. It is a book that can members. Therefore, Barnet was seeking to be used with great success among advanced high reestablish his credentials as an acceptable writer school students and at the college and university in the new literary establishment of Cuba of the level. Most students who participate in my "Com‐ early 1960s. It was at this juncture that he read in parative Slavery and Emancipation in the Atlantic a newspaper that Esteban Montejo was alive and World" seminar at Idaho cherish this book as well. Barnet most likely decided (wisely) to devote much as I do. After reading the Biography of a the bulk of the book to slavery, the Ten Years' War Runaway Slave, one does not quickly forget about and the Independence War because such themes the extraordinary life of Esteban Montejo or the would not raise a controversy. Each episode had power of words, spoken or written. been directly afected by foreign intervention,

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REFERENCES 1994: Hear My Testimony: Human Rights Ac‐ Aching, Gerard tivist of El Salvador. Edited and Translated by Lynn Stephen. Boston: South End Press. 1994: "On the Creation of Unsung National Heroes: Barnet's Esteban Montejo and Armas's Ju‐ Note: I would like to thank James W. Martin of lian Del Casal." Latin American Literary Review Washington State University and Dennis West and 22:43 (January-June):31-50. Joan West of the University of Idaho for reading this essay and ofering helpful comments. Barnet, Miguel Copyright (c) 1996 by H-Net, all rights re‐ 1966a: The Autobiography of a Runaway served. This work may be copied for non-proft Slave. Trans. Jocasta Inness. London: Bodley educational use if proper credit is given to the au‐ Head. thor and the list. For other permission, please con‐ 1994b: Biography of a Runaway Slave. Trans. tact [email protected]. W. Nick Hill. Willimantic, Conn.: Curbstone Press. Conrad, Robert Edgar 1994: Children of God's Fire: A Documentary History of Black Slavery in Brazil. University Park, Pa.: Pennsylvania State University Press. Keen, Benjamin 1996: A History of Latin America, vol. 2, Inde‐ pendence to the Present. 5th edition. Boston: Houghton-Mifin Company. Langley, Lester 1988: The Banana Wars: United States Inter‐ vention in the Caribbean 1898-1934. Chicago: The Dorsey Press. Luis, William 1990: Literary Bondage: Slavery in Cuban Narrative. Austin: University of Texas Press. Manzano, Juan Francisco 1937: Autobiografa, cartas y versos de Juan Francisco Manzano. Ed. Jose Luciano Franco. Ha‐ vana: Municipio de La Habana. Menchu, Rigoberta 1993: I, Rigoberta Menchu: An Indian Woman in Guatemala. Edited and Introduced by Elisabeth Burgos-Debray and Translated by Ann Wright. London: Verso. Morrison, Toni 1988: Beloved. New York: Penguin. Tula, Maria Teresa

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Citation: Dale T. Graden. Review of Barnet, Miguel. Biography of a Runaway Slave. H-Ethnic, H-Net Reviews. October, 1996.

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