Copyright by Garrett Alan Oleen 2010 The Dissertation Committee for Garrett Alan Oleen certifies that this is the approved version of the following dissertation: 19th Century Plantation Counter-Discourses in Juan Francisco Manzano, Gabriel de la Concepción Valdés (Plácido), and Eleuterio Derkes Committee: César Salgado, (Co-Supervisor) Jossianna Arroyo-Martínez, (Co-Supervisor) James R. Nicolopolus Michael P. Harney James Sidbury Leopoldo Bernucci 19th Century Plantation Counter-Discourses in Juan Francisco Manzano, Gabriel de la Concepción Valdés (Plácido), and Eleuterio Derkes by Garrett Alan Oleen B.A.; M.A. Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of The University of Texas at Austin in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy The University of Texas at Austin December 2010 Dedication I tenderly dedicate this dissertation to my wife: Deanna Oleen and our three children Kayson, Bailey and Tyler; and to my mother Marsha Oleen; and my siblings and best friends Robert Adam Grizz Oleen and Jennifer Oleen Rook. Also, I dedicate this to the memory of my father Alan Whiting Oleen. My deepest regret is that he did not live to live to see its completion. Acknowledgements The following individuals and institutions aided me in completing this dissertation and I am deeply grateful for their contributions and support. First, I owe a debt of gratitude to the members of my dissertation committee for their patience, wisdom, and continued support throughout this long process: to César Salgado, co-supervisor and mentor, for his compassion, friendship and relentless expectations, whose classes and scholarship challenged me to think more critically and motivated me to excel and whose leadership I hope to emulate. To Jossianna Arroyo-Martínez, her exemplary scholarship, abounding energy and dedication to her craft have been an inspiration to me and her commentaries have been crucial to my writing. To Leo Bernucci whose teaching and careful mentoring aided and guided me both as a graduate student and a father and husband. To Jaime Nicolopolus, Michael Harney, and David Sidbury whose classes challenged me and opened to me a vision of where I wanted to steer my career. To Professor Roberto Ramos-Perea of the Ateneo Puertorriqueño for answering my frantic e-mails and lending me advance copies of parts of his manuscript, especially some of the “lost” texts of Eleuterio Derkes - I am grateful that he entrusted me with this stewardship. His lifetime of searching in libraries and archives throughout the world for traces of those “lost” texts combined with his theatrical scholarship has proven invaluable not only to me but has left an indelible mark on the study of Afro-Puerto Rican and Afro-Caribbean literature and for that matter, literary criticism throughout the world. The contributions of the following friends and colleagues should not go unnoticed: University of Austin Professors Jennifer Wilks, Ivan Texeira and Delia v Montesinos; University of Utah Professors Esther Rashkin and Gema Guevara who taught me how to write and introduced me to the Caribbean; Southern Utah University Professor Emeritus Leon Chidester whose gentle mentorship to me as an undergraduate opened up a world of possibilities I did not know existed; University of Texas at Austin staff member Laura Rodriguez whose organization and advocacy make the world a better place; Benson Latin American Collection Assistant to Head Librarian for Research Programs Adán Benavides whose research expertise rescued me numerous times; former University of Texas at Austin fellow graduate students and friends Brian Price of Wake Forest University and Rob Martinsen of Brigham Young University for editing and revising early versions of my manuscript and whose continued encouragement and support has lifted me up when I most needed it; fellow University of Texas at Austin graduate students Carlos Amador, Alanna Breen, Burke White, Alan McCown and Nicolas Poppe for their timely suggestions, loyalty and esprit de corps. Finally, I would not have been able to complete my studies without the love and support of my family. I thank my parents Alan and Marsha for their wisdom, unconditional love and for teaching me to work and instilling in me a desire to reach above my own expectations. I thank my sister Jennifer and brother Grizz for their steady friendship and commiserate understanding. Without their humor and support I would truly be lost. Lastly and most importantly, for her patience and love throughout the entirety of my post-secondary education, I thank my sweet wife Deanna and our children Kayson, Bailey and Tyler who have had to grow up while their father was still a student and have endured more than their share of misery and injustice because of it. It has been said that the vi graduate student experience is one of blood, sweat, and tears – only we will be able to understand just how literal this statement has been for our family. Without their faith in me and sacrifices for me, this would not have been possible, and it will never be forgotten. vii 19th Century Plantation Counter-Discourses in Juan Francisco Manzano, Gabriel de la Concepción Valdés (Plácido), and Eleuterio Derkes Publication No._____________ Garrett Alan Oleen Ph.D. The University of Texas at Austin, 2010 Co-Supervisors: César Salgado and Jossianna Arroyo-Martínez My purpose in writing this dissertation is to re-evaluate the works of three influential Spanish-Caribbean authors who seem to be remembered more as exceptional historical characters rather than for their literature itself. Although often considered to be important contributors to the Spanish-Caribbean literary canon, these writers have also suffered a measure of marginalization as scholars have relegated them to the status of discursive subjects rather than evaluate them as authorial agents. As a consequence, the majority of their works have not been fully recognized as important factors in nineteenth, twentieth, and twenty first century literary production. I show how in their writings – many of which have been misunderstood, under-evaluated, and/or forgotten altogether – these viii writers narrated their own precarious situations and lifted their voice in protest against slavery, racism and economic oppression at a time when the dominant discourses and heavy-handed controls of the Spanish colonial government strictly forbid them to do so. These authors are Juan Francisco Manzano, Gabriel de la Concepción Valdés (Plácido) and Eleuterio Derkes. Because these authors lived in Cuba (Manzano and Plácido) and Puerto Rico (Derkes) as colonial subjects underneath the oppressive structures of their respective plantation and hacienda economies based on sugar production and slave labor, they experienced difficult colonial conditions and as such are able to narrate this life through a unique perspective that other writers associated with the dominant discourses of the time could not. While these brands of hegemony were indeed forced upon them as writers and artists, it did not stop them from narrating and communicating their unique Spanish Caribbean perspective. I show how these authors, as marginalized figures of nineteenth century plantation society, engineered their own discourses around these hegemonic institutions – writing between the lines of hegemony and concurrent with it at the same time – in order to create an alternative image of nineteenth century Spanish Caribbean society that requires further critical consideration and perspective. ix Table of Contents Introduction: Nineteenth Century Latin American Discourse and the Spanish Caribbean: Cuba and Puerto Rico ..................................................... 1 Organization ...................................................................................... 5 Chapter 1: Colonialism, Race, and Slavery in Juan Francisco Manzano's Autobiografía: A Plantation Counter-Discourse ................................. 7 Introduction: A New Discursive Consideration for Manzano's Autobiografía ............................................................................. 7 Overlooking Autobiografía: A Critical Omission ............................... 10 Sab, Manzano, and Caribbean Subjectivity ..................................... 31 (En)countering Del Monte: The Plantation Counter-Discourse ........ 38 Romantic Emotion, Nature, and the Caribbean Subject in Sab ....... 46 Re-writing Manzano and the Legacy of Autobiografía ..................... 60 Chapter 2: Manzano's Other "Autobiograph(ies) Versos and Zafira ........ 73 Introduction: Recording the Body; Writing the Soul - Autobiografía and Versos ...................................................................................... 73 Versos: A More Perfect Witness - Manzano's Poetic Discourse ...... 82 Si "Sab c'est moi", entonces yo soy Zafira: Manzano's Drama ........ 96 Chapter 3: Inciting Revolution? Plácido's Poetry and the Escalera Conspiracy of 1844: A Counter-Creole Discourse ............................................ 120 Introduction: A Metaphorical Premonition ...................................... 120 "El Doble Estigma" and Poetic Formation in a Plantation Society . 125 Confronting Plácido: Cuban Creole Nationalism and Plácido's Counter- Creole Discourse ................................................................... 136 Silencing the Poet: Plácido and La Escalera ................................. 144 Jicoténcal and the Emergence of a Counter-Creole Discourse ..... 159 María Cristina and the Mulatto