HISTORY, MEMORY AND TRAUMA IN CONTEMPORARY AFRO-LATIN AMERICAN AND AFRO-CARIBBEAN LITERATURE BY WOMEN Amina Butoyi Shabani Submitted to the faculty of the University Graduate School in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese, Indiana University March 2018 Accepted by the Graduate Faculty, Indiana University, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Doctoral Committee _____________________________________ Alejandro Mejías-López, PhD _____________________________________ Kathleen Myers, PhD _____________________________________ Melissa Dinverno, PhD _____________________________________ Akinwumi Adesokan, PhD _____________________________________ Irune del Rio Gabiola, PhD January 26th 2018 ii To my parents. To members of my family whom I have lost during the Civil War in Burundi. Je pense toujours à vous. Je ne vous ai pas oubliés. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS As I write the last words of this dissertation, I am simply in awe and grateful for many people who have helped me in this path. First and foremost, I am thankful for my dissertation director Dr. Alejandro Mejías-López. I am extremely fortunate to have worked with him since the Spring 2006 during my coursework and milestones leading to this dissertation. I am grateful for his unwavering support, immense patience and generous feedback as I worked on each chapter. His critical eye has pushed me to make new connections and inspired me to cultivate an inquisitive outlook as a scholar. His mentoring has allowed me to overcome challenges, understand the seasons of the profession and the importance of seeking balance. I can only hope that I can extend the same generosity, patience and compassion to my students. I am forever indebted to have had him as a role model and mentor. I would also like to thank members of my committee Dr. Melissa Dinverno, Dr. Kathleen Myers Dr. Akinwumi Adesokan and Dr. Irune Gabiola del Rio, who have all been extremely supportive throughout this project. My committee members have always believed in my potential as a researcher and guided me through each stage of my graduate studies and dissertation. I am very fortunate to have worked with each one of them. Their insightful comments have strengthened my analytical and critical skills and helped me become a better researcher. I would also like to thank the administrative staff of the Department of Spanish and Portuguese for their hard work in matters behind the scenes, the chair Dr. Steven Wagschal and the director of graduate studies Dr. Patrick Dove. I would like to thank also Dr. Darlene Sadlier, Dr. Estela Vieira, Dr. Luciana Namorato and Vania Castro for conversations, public lectures and readings on the Lusophone world that enriched and influenced my research. I would like to thank also professors who gave me invaluable input at the different stages of my graduate studies particularly Dr. Emily Maguire, Dr. Micheline Rice-Maximin and Dr. Eileen Julien. I am grateful also for the support of the Department of Modern Languages at Suffolk University (Boston), especially Dr. Céleste Kostopulos-Cooperman, Dr. Sandra Barriales- Bouche, Dr.Barbara Abrams and Dr. Marjorie Salvodon for cheering and believing in me from the moment I decided to change my path as an Economist to the writing of this dissertation. I am iv also thankful for my colleagues in the Department of Modern Languages at Butler University for their encouragement. At Indiana University, I would like to thank as well Dr.Alwiya Omar, Dr.Paul Thot, Tera Nidjam, and the late Erna Rosenfeld for their support over the years. I am also thankful to Sandra Britton who organized multiple day trips to Chicago and Cincinnati thus allowing me to visit museums and the National Underground Railroad Freeedom Center. I would also like to thank La Casa Cultural Center, especially Lillian Casillas, for organizing multiple field trips to the National Museum of Mexican Art and the DuSable Museum of African American history in Chicago to see the exhibition of Yanga which prompted my interest in Afro-Latin American studies. I also extend my gratitude to the staff of Lilly and Wells Libraries for the assistance in finding resources and primary materials. I am also grateful for the support and care of my fellow colleagues Maria Hasler-Barker, Jared Patten, Kaitlin Guidarelli, Silvina Bongiovanni,Victor Pereira-Rodríguez, Virginia Arreola, Ryan Hallows, Moraima Mundo-Rios and Zelideh Martinez Hoy. I would also like to thank my closest friends for their concern and support especially Aziz Niasse, Ziad Dib, Yvette Nijimbere, Zuwena Malik, Cécile Berne, Sabine Rèche, Ana Estrada, Audrey Person-Ducret, Caroline Clérismé, Nzingha Kendall and Meïssa Gaye. In the Bloomington community, I am grateful to all the individuals who invited me to join their creative spaces and gardening circles that gave me much solace. I thank Mary Ann Gingles for making Yarns Unlimited my second home, Stephanie Solomon, Kayte Young, Libby Gwynn, the late Carrol Krause, the Lehman Family, Linda Chapman, Maria Carlassare, Piccoli Dolci, Teresa Birtles, Janice Lilly, Marcia Veldman, Deborah Piston-Hatlen and my piano teachers. Last but not least I would like to thank my parents for their unconditional support, concern, understanding and love. My father who is my absolute hero, my mother for all her prayers and encouragement, my twin brother and sisters for being there, understanding me and supporting me over the years. Merci à tous! v Amina Butoyi Shabani HISTORY, MEMORY AND TRAUMA IN CONTEMPORARY AFRO-LATIN AMERICAN AND AFRO-CARIBBEAN LITERATURE BY WOMEN This dissertation studies how recent novels by contemporary Afro-Latin American and Afro-Caribbean women writers contest dominant national histories, proposing new genealogies that recover black women as active national subjects and render their experiences visible. I argue that, by both revisiting and recreating the colonial archive, these novels move away from monolithic representations of African slaves and their descendants, and depict a more complex and nuanced view of the slave trade, the institution of slavery, and its legacy. Using theories of memory and trauma, I study the use of silence as a literary device to represent the intergenerational trauma of slavery; as a metaphor for both the archival absence of direct voices and the absence of physical traces (monuments, neighborhoods, etc); and as a strategy to address how African heritages have been overlooked in communities defined by miscegenation or indigenous heritage. I argue that each novel can be read as what Pierre Nora called a “lieu de mémoire,” decrying the erasure of slavery in historical discourse and proposing new ways to memorialize and honor the lives of African slaves and their descendants. In chapter one, I study Jonatás y Manuela (1994) by Ecuadorian Luz Argentina Chiriboga, analyzing her use of silence and maternal genealogies to reclaim the role of women slaves during the period of independence and nation formation in Ecuador. In chapter two, I study the intersection of art, memory and trauma in Malambo (2001) by Peruvian Lucía Charún- Illescas. In chapter three, I examine the transmission of intergenerational trauma in Rosalie l’infâme (2003) by Évelyne Trouillot and Le livre d’Emma (2001) by Marie-Célie vi Agnant, both from Haiti. In chapter four, I conclude by analyzing, with the help of new museum theory, how Fe en disfraz (2009) by Puerto Rican Mayra Santos Febres confronts the problematics of national and transnational memorializing of slavery and its legacy in the present. ____________________________________ Alejandro Mejías-López, Ph.D. ____________________________________ Kathleen Myers, Ph.D. ____________________________________ Melissa Dinverno, Ph.D. ____________________________________ Akinwumi Adesokan, Ph.D. ____________________________________ Irune del Rio Gabiola, Ph.D. vii Table of Contents Introduction 1 Chapter 1: Reading the Archive: Uncovering Gendered Experiences Of Slavery in Jonatás y Manuela by Luz Argentina Chiriboga 23 Chapter 2: On Honoring the Legacy of Afro-Peruvians and Recreating Forgotten Voices in Malambo by Lucía Charún-Illescas 53 Chapter 3: Breaking Silences and Confronting Family Secrets in Le livre d’Emma by Marie-Célie Agnant and Rosalie l’infâme by Évelyne Trouillot 79 Chapter 4: Opening Dialogues: Museums and the History of Slavery in Fe en disfraz by Mayra Santos Febres 101 Conclusion 132 Bibliography 137 Curriculum Vitae viii Introduction In 2006, the National Museum of Mexican Art in Chicago, formerly known as the Mexican Fine Arts Center Museum, presented an innovative exhibition ,“The African Presence in Mexico: From Yanga to Present”, documenting 500 years of the legacy of African slaves and their descendants in Mexico. The exhibition highlighted the biography of a maroon slave named Yanga and a brief history of communities like Veracruz and Guerrero known for their noticeable population of African descent. A series of photographs was included to illustrate their participation in the Mexican Revolution (1910-1920) and examples of African influences in dances, food and music. The exhibition concluded with a list of famous Afro-Mexicans actors, singers and athletes and a note on the use of the term “Afro-Mexican”. Beyond the objective of informing the public, this groundbreaking exhibition also revisits traditional definitions of Mexican heritage, especially the indigenous figure as a symbol of national