Adannaya's Sugar

 Today, many celebrate International Women's Day.  It should not be a day in isolation, but each day, we should remember to defend the rights of each and every human on planet Earth. Highlighting  this event gives us a pause of our busy lives to reflect on our ancestors and how these women faced so many challenges and overcame them so we can today have rights that were only dreams in a not so long past.

    Today I will share the first story I wrote for the anthology Coquies, Drums and Dreams.  It is titled "Adannaya's Sugar". This story is a retelling of "Rumpelstiltskin".  My stories are set in 19th century Puerto Rico at the threshold of the abolition of slavery. The main characters are Afro-Puerto Rican women that challenge the patriarchal models of their times and the slavery system in diverse ways.

    In the case of Adannaya, her father boasts that his daughter can transform brown sugar into white which was an expensive process at that time.  This untrue boasting  causes that Adannaya is locked to do this magical feat.  She meets a spider who offers to help and the story unravels into an unexpected ending.

    This story I wrote while taking one of my graduate courses at the University of Puerto Rico Humacao.  I was discovering at that time so much about my Afro-Puerto Rican ancestors guided by Dr. Alma Simounet.  In one of the assigned readings, I was learning of the different forms of resistance enslaved people used to challenge this oppressive system.  And the story emerged in my imagination.  

    Adannaya was not an enslaved young woman.  I wanted to show that not all African descendants were slaves in Puerto Rico.  But she did experienced being imprisoned and was expected to follow a master's order.  She had to face these realities, be strong and overcome them.

   The story was published in Anansesem E-zine.  I am forever grateful to Summer Edwards who provided this forum to share what later became the proposal of the creative component of my dissertation.  

    Today as we celebrate International Women's Day, we must not forget throughout the year, that women that have walked before us has paved the road to what we have today and gifted us with their wisdom so we can continue the journey accomplishing new dreams and challenges.