Quince Duncan's Weathered Men and The Four Mirrors: Two Novels of Afro-Costa Rican Identity

250 Pages·2018·1.51 MB·English

by  Dorothy E. Mosby

Translated by
Dorothy E. Mosby
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Two Novels of Afro-Costa Rican Identity
Afro-Latin@ Diasporas
Series Editors
Natasha Gordon-Chipembere
Heredia, Costa Rica
Miriam Jiménez Román
afrolatin@ forum
New York, USA
Edward Paulino
Department of History
John Jay College of Criminal Justice
New York, USA
The Afro-Latin@ Diasporas book series publishes scholarly and crea-
tive writing on the African diasporic experience in Latin America, the
Caribbean, and the United States. The series includes books which
address all aspects of Afro-Latin@ life and cultural expression through-
out the hemisphere, with a strong focus on Afro-Latin@s in the United
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of topics, including religion, race, transnational identity, history, litera-
ture, music and the arts, social and cultural theory, biography, class and
economic relations, gender, sexuality, sociology, politics, and migration.
More information about this series at
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Dorothy E. Mosby
Quince Duncan's
Weathered Men
and The Four Mirrors
Two Novels of Afro-Costa Rican
Identity
Dorothy E. Mosby
Department of Spanish, Latina/o and Latin
American Studies
Mount Holyoke College
South Hadley, MA, USA
Translated by Dorothy E. Mosby
Afro-Latin@ Diasporas
ISBN 978-3-319-97534-4 ISBN 978-3-319-97535-1 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-97535-1
Library of Congress Control Number: 2018951044
Translation from the Spanish language edition: Hombres curtidos by Quince Duncan, © Cuadernos de
Arte Popular 1971, and Los cuatro espejos by Quince Duncan, © Editorial Costa Rica 1973. All Rights
Reserved.
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A mis ancestras—
a las que siempre llevo en la punta de la lengua
y las ancestras cuyos nombres se desconocen,
pero vibran en mi sangre.
Acknowledgements
First and foremost, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to Dr.
Quince Duncan for his patience and generosity. I am grateful for his
permission to translate his work and the enormous trust and confidence
placed in me. This translation emerged from a humble request at the
end of 2011, and it is a joy to bring his work to a wider audience of
readers.
I am indebted to Natasha Gordon-Chipembere, whose encourage-
ment and belief in this translation helped make this dream a beauti-
ful reality. I am grateful for her determination to make sure that don
Quince’s work reaches an English-speaking public.
A generous sabbatical leave from Mount Holyoke College during
the Spring 2016 semester enabled me to complete first drafts of both
novels. I also thank my colleague Roberto Márquez for reading an early
and very rough draft of Hombres curtidos, and for his sage advice to a
novice translator. Additionally, I want to acknowledge the work of Dr.
Dellita Martin-Ogunsola who paved the way for me. As don Quince’s
first translator, she did a masterful job translating his short fiction into
English and I am thankful.
vii
viii Acknowledgements
As always, deep appreciation for my US and Costa Rican fam-
ily, whose support has offered me more than I could ever express
with words, especially my parents, Helen and James Mosby, Sheridan
Wigginton, Franklin Perry, Dlia. McDonald, Gustavo Córdoba
González, and Karla Araya Araya. Thank you to my faithful writing
accountability buddies, Patricia and Madeline, whose words of reas-
surance and inspirational example kept me motivated through the
vicissitudes of department chairing, teaching, advising, promotion,
mid-career malaise, administrative work, and simply being human.
Finally, I would like to share my heartfelt gratitude for my spouse,
Carol Knight-Mosby. Carol has been my Jamaican Creole native
informant for almost twenty years and made sure the bills got paid dur-
ing prolonged sojourns in Central America. In the words of Miss Lou,
“Me darling love, me lickle dove,/Me dumpling, me gizada,/Me sweetie
Sue, I goes fa you/Like how flies goes fa sugar.”
Contents
Introduction 1
Weathered Men 17
Part I 18
Chapter One: The Return 18
Chapter Two: The Dance 22
Chapter Three: Yesterday 29
Chapter Four: Knowing 40
Chapter Five: The Legacy 43
Chapter Six: The Vine 48
Part II 59
Chapter Seven: Incoherence 59
Chapter Eight: The Question 69
Chapter Nine: Brutus 70
Chapter Ten: In the Beginning 74
Part III 80
Chapter Eleven: The Conquest 80
Chapter Twelve: Something Important 88
ix
x Contents
The Four Mirrors 91
Part I 92
I 92
II 115
III 135
IV 146
V 158
VI 178
Part II 193
VII 193
VIII 203
IX 213
X 228
XI 234