Our Caribbean: A Gathering of Lesbian and Gay Writing from the Antilles

418 Pages·2008·18.23 MB·English

by  Thomas Glave

Our Caribbean

Our Caribbean
A GATHERING
OF LESBIAN AND GAY WRITING
FROM THE ANTILLES
Edited and with an Introduction by
Thomas Glave
DUKE UNIVERSITY PRESS Durham & London 2008
© 2008 Duke University Press
All rights reserved
Printed in the
United States of America
on acid-free paper ©
Designed by Jennifer Hill
Typeset in Carter and Cone Galliard
by Keystone Typesetting, Inc.
Library of Congress
Cataloging-in-Publication Data
appear on the last printed
page of this book.
To all those
above the water
and beneath it,
still silent
CONTENTS
ix Acknowledgments
I THOMAS GLAVE
Introduction: Desire through the Archipelago
13 JOSE ALCANTARA ALMANZAR, Dominican Republic
Lulti or the Metamorphosis (1995)
21 ALDO ALVAREZ, Puerto Rico
Property Values (2001)
34 REINALDO ARENAS, Cuba
Eroticism (1992)
51 RANE ARROYO, Puerto Rico/US.
Three Poems:
Saturday Night in San Juan with the Right Sailors (2004)
Almost a Revolution for Two in Bed (2004)
Tropical Fever (2003)
53 JESUS J. BARQUET, Cuba
Three Poems:
Transactions (2001)
San Francisco — New Orleans (2001)
The Image Saves (1994)
57. MARILYN BOBES, Cuba
Somebody Has to Cry (1998)
70 DIONNE BRAND, Trinidad
Elizete, Beckoned (1996)
78 TIMOTHY S. CHIN, Jamaica
“Bullers” and “Battymen”:
Contesting Homophobia in Black Popular Culture
and Contemporary Caribbean Literature (1 997)
|
97 MICHELLE CLIFF, Jamaica
Ecce Homo (2002)
IOI WESLEY E. A. CRICHLOW, Trinidad
History, (Re)Memory, Testimony,
and Biomythography:
Charting a Buller Man’s Trinidadian Past (2004)
132 MABEL CUESTA, Cuba
Other Islanders on Lesbos: A Retrospective Look
at the History of Lesbians in Cuba (2004)
142 OCHY CURIEL, Dominican Republic
Autonomy in Lesbian-Feminist Politics (2004)
153. FAIZAL DEEN, Guyana/Trinidad
Three Poems:
Young Faggot (2003)
The Magical Real (2003)
Surrender (2003)
I58 PEDRO DE JESUS, Cuba
The Portrait (1998)
173, R. ERICA DOYLE, Trinidad/US.
Tante Merle (1999)
177. THOMAS GLAVE, Jamaica/US.
Whose Caribbean? An Allegory, in Part (2005)
191 ROSAMOND S. KING, Trinidad
More Notes on the Invisibility of
Caribbean Lesbians (2005)
197 HELEN KLONARIS, Bahamas
Independence Day Letter (2004)
202 LAWRENCE LA FOUNTAIN-STOKES, 316 COLIN ROBINSON,
viii Trinidad
Puerto Rico
&# De un pajaro las dos alas: The Mechanic (1998)
Travel Notes of a Queer Puerto Rican
320 ASSOTTO SAINT,
in Havana (2002)
Haiti
CONTENTS 233 AUDRE LORDE, Haiti: A Memory Journey (1996)
Grenada/Barbados/U.S.
Of Generators and Survival: 325 ANDREW SALKEY,
Jamaica/Panama
Hugo Letter (1990)
From Zami: A New Spelling Johnnie, London, 1960 (1 960)
of My Name (1982)
336 LAWRENCE SCOTT,
Trinidad
252 SHANI MOOTOO,
Trinidad/Treland I Want to Follow My Friend (1994)
Out on Main Street (1993)
344. MAKEDA SILVERA,
261 ANTON NIMBLETT, Jamaica
Man Royals and Sodomites:
Trinidad
Time and Tide (2002) Some Thoughts on the Invisibility
of Afro-Caribbean Lesbians (1992)
268 ACHY OBEJAS,
Cuba 355 H. NIGEL THOMAS,
St. Vincent
We Came All the Way
Jerome (1993)
from Cuba So You Could Dress
Like This? (1994)
360 RINALDO WALCOTT,
281 LEONARDO PADURA FUENTES, Barbados/Canada
Cuba Fragments of Toronto’s Black
The Hunter (1999) Queer Community: From a Life Still
Being Lived (2005)
290 VIRGILIO PINERA,
368 GLORIA WEKKER,
Cuba
Suriname
The Face (1956)
Mati-ism and Black Lesbianism:
296 PATRICIA POWELL, Two Idealtypical Expressions of
Jamaica Female Homosexuality in Black
Dale and Ian (1994) Communities of the Diaspora (1996)
304 KEVIN EVEROD QUASHIE, 382 LAWSON WILLIAMS,
St. Kitts Jamaica
Genesis (2003) On Homophobia and Gay Rights
Activism in Jamaica (2000)
308 JUANITA RAMOS,
Puerto Rico 389 Glossary
Bayamén, Brooklyn y yo (1987) 393 Contributors
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I extend sincere thanks to the editor for this project, Ken Wissoker, without
whose generosity and insight this gathering, in its present form, would not
be-a reality. My thanks also to all the staff at Duke University Press who
ensured that this collection received the best possible care while in their
midst. Particular thanks to the ever-meticulous Molly Balikov.
I cannot thank enough all the writers, scholars, colleagues, and friends —
several of whose work appears here — who provided the names and locations of
more writers, possibilities, suggestions, and a generally inestimable amount of
truly invaluable information. I am particularly grateful to Maureen T. Reddy,
Charles H. Rowell, Lisa Li Shen Yun, and Leo Wilton for their advice, support,
and friendship. I am honored to know them also as colleagues. I am also
extremely grateful to my esteemed colleagues Juanita Diaz-Cotto and Law-
rence La Fountain-Stokes for so generously helping this gathering to realize a
wider Caribbean.
Thanks to the translators who made it possible for some of the works in
this collection to be published: Dick Cluster (with extra gratitude for his
paciencia tan fuerte!), Dolores M. Koch, Harry Morales, Mark Schafer, Gil-
berto Lucero, and Michael Ray.
Special thanks to Ina Brownridge at the State University of New York,
Binghamton, for her technical and technological support and suggestions,
all of which made the ultimate process of dealing with a book-in-progress of
this size both more manageable and less stressful.
My appreciation to the English department and administration of sUNY
Binghamton for providing me with leave time during which I was able to
work extensively on this book.
Special thanks to those in my family who, when they heard about my
interest in this project, said, “Yes.”
Very special thanks to Anne Higginbottom.