Central Americans in Movement: A Diasporic Revival of Poesía Comprometida A dissertation submitted to the Graduate School of the University of Cincinnati in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of Romance and Arabic Languages and Literatures of the College of Arts and Sciences by Tiffanie Clark M.A./B.A. University of Miami April 2011 Committee Chair: Jorge Mauricio Espinoza, Ph.D Abstract Central Americans in Movement: A Diasporic Revival of Poesía Comprometida is an interdisciplinary investigation that analyzes the sociopolitically engaged poetry of Cynthia Guardado (1985), Alexandra Lytton Regalado (1972), Ilka Oliva Corado (1979), and Javier Zamora (1990), four emerging authors of Central American descent of the U.S. diaspora. Considering their diverse diasporic conditions, this investigation employs theories of diaspora and hybridity to better understand how their differing diasporic conditions impact their sociopolitically engaged poetry. On a similar front, this investigation also compares the themes and styles of their poetry with a sampling of poesía comprometida authored by Central American poets, spanning between the 1940s and 1980s. My hypothesis is that the collective of contemporary writers of the Central American diaspora to the United States are reviving poesía comprometida in a manner that is affected by notions, concepts, and theories of diaspora and hybridity in relation to each author’s diasporic conditions and experiences. The representative authors used for the literary comparison made in this investigation are Claribel Alegría (1924-2018), Ernesto Cardenal (1925-2020), Roque Dalton (1935-1975 ), Jorge Debravo (1938-1975), Pompeyo del Valle (1928-2018), and Otto Raúl González (1921-2007), six widely published and researched poetas comprometidos. ii Copyright ©Tiffanie Clark 2020 i بسم الل DEDICATION To all the people who helped along the way. You know who you are. ii Acknowledgements To the Creator of me and this world for his grace. Without him I would not have had the strength to embark on a project like this. He has blessed me with my mind, my strength, and my passion. He has given me this life. All thanks to Allah, the Most Merciful, the Most Gracious, The One who Delays. Thank you. To the chair of this dissertation, Dr. Jorge Mauricio Espinoza. Thank you for taking a chance on this lost soul. Thank you for introducing me to these dynamic poets. Thank you for editing my writing and encouraging me every step of the way. Thank you for making the most complicated moments seem so simple. You have taught me more than I can imagine with all the patience and kindness that the University surely needs more of. To the members of this dissertation committee, Dr. Nicasio Urbina and Dr. María Paz-Moreno for joining me in this journey and teaching me all that you could about poetry and literature. To the Taft Research Center. Thank you for the funds to undertake this dissertation without teaching responsibilities. To the Taft Research Committee at the Department of Romance and Arabic Languages and Literatures. Thanks for taking a chance on this project! To the Yates Graduate Fellowship. Thanks for your four years of financial support that has allowed me to focus on my research. Thanks for the community and fellowship, the workshops, and the outings To Cynthia Guardado, Alexandra Lytton Regalado, Ilka Oliva Corado, and Javier Zamora for gifting me and the world with their dynamic poetry. It is a poetry that will leave me forever impacted. Thanks for your interviews, your manuscripts, and your conversations. Thanks for your vulnerability and bravery. Without you, this dissertation could not breathe. Mil gracias. To the poets who have passed on, Claribel Alegría, Ernesto Cardenal, Roque Dalton, Jorge Debravo, Pompeyo del Valle, and Otto Raúl González. Thanks for showing me this complex facet of what poesía iii comprometida is. Without you, this dissertation wouldn’t have a foundation. May you all rest in peace, perhaps, with a pencil in hand. To the woman who fought for my life every step of the way, my mother, Twila Clark. You are my light. You are every word that I write. Thank you for your advice, your humor, and your heart. Thank you for showing me the art of reading and supporting my decisions. Thank you for loving me forever, for now, and for always. You are my she-roe. To my father for always believing in me. While I was writing the last part of this dissertation, I could only think of you running beside me when I was going to give up on the last mile of a cross country race in high school. You were there then. You are here now. Thank you for teaching me about the game of chess. It is fundamental to how I approach life and writing. I can’t wait to play some more. To my husband Ebraima Sisay for being my rock throughout these past four years of study. Without you, none of this would be possible. Thanks for being an incredible father to our children. Thanks for standing by me in the sun and under the moon. To our three beautiful boys, Ebrahim, Shareef, and Yousef. Thank you for teaching me about the joy of play and stopping to smell all the roses and even the dandelions. You all have been the driving force behind this dissertation, keeping me laughing all the time. I love you so very much and I can’t wait to see the wonderful men that you become. To my big brothers Day-Day and Josh for always protecting me and loving me so dearly. To all my family members on the Clark and Desmond side for filling me with your strength and enthusiasm for life. Thank you, Aunt Mona, for reading me your poetry. Thank you, grandma Editor and grandma Cola for your love that continues to inspire. To my best friend and intellectual companion, Rufia Dehmani. From the first day I met you, I knew that you would always be a star in my sky. Thank you for those many conversations that taught me how to be a wife and mother while being a scholar. Thank you for the peace you have tattooed upon my soul. It will NEVER go away iv To my first Spanish Professor, Dr. José Domínguez Búrdalo for leading me down this mysterious path of literature and the phrase that marks my endeavor, Literatura o literatura, todo es literatura. Thank you for showing me that when absolutely nothing seems to be happening in a text, that is when everything is happening. To Homi Bhabha, Avtar Brah, Paul Gilroy, and James Clifford. Thanks for your shaping this work with your amazing intellect. To every name that appears on my bibliography. Thanks for your intellectual thought. To the people who love their homeland but can’t stay, I stand with you in solidarity. To anyone who dares to really love, bless you. To all those who face the merciless canon of this world in shambles, I pray for you. To Amado Nervo and his fight to love God and Modernity. v Table of Contents ABSTRACT .............................................................................................................................................................. II COPYRIGHT ............................................................................................................................................................. I DEDICATION .......................................................................................................................................................... II ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .......................................................................................................................................... III CENTRAL AMERICANS IN MOVEMENT, AN INTRODUCTION ................................................................................... 1 METHODS FOR ANALYZING DIASPORIC POETRY .................................................................................................. 26 HYBRID PROCESSES OF CREATION, SURVIVAL, AND SUBVERSION ............................................................................................ 32 DIASPORA CRITERION .................................................................................................................................................... 44 FOUNDATIONAL ELEMENTS OF POESÍA COMPROMETIDA ................................................................................... 58 POESÍA COMPROMETIDA FLOURISHES DURING A CENTURY OF CRISIS ...................................................................................... 64 POETIC APPROACHES TO IMPERIALISM.............................................................................................................................. 78 POETIC APPROACHES TO CLASS CONSCIOUSNESS ................................................................................................................ 87 POETIC APPROACHES TO INDIGENISM ............................................................................................................................... 97 POETIC APPROACHES TO FEMINISM ............................................................................................................................... 106 POETIC APPROACHES TO LIBERATION THEOLOGY .............................................................................................................. 113 POETIC APPROACHES TO EXILE, DIASPORA, AND TRAVEL .................................................................................................... 121 MANIFESTATIONS OF DIASPORIC HYBRIDITY WITHIN A REVIVAL ...................................................................... 130 U.S. TIME-LAPSE, SALVADORAN TIME LAPSE…BOTH? .....................................................................................................