Welcome to Unsilencing the Afro-Puerto Rican Voice

     As an Afro-Puerto Rican woman, I have undertaken a journey of discovery.  When I started my graduate studies at UPR-Rio Piedras to complete a doctorate degree, I did not imagine that more than a degree, these studies will make me question my identity and pursue a quest to encounter those ancestors whose lives have been silenced in history.

    This academic journey also permitted me to explore my creativity through the writing of children's stories and later on a novel.  They are still mainly unpublished works but today as I write this first post of the blog,  I have made the compromise to myself to share them beyond the small circle of friends and collegues that have permitted me to express myself through the world of imagination interwoven with history and the challenges faced by those who no longer live among us.

    I also had the opportunity in those years to be part of the wonderful team of Anansesem E-zine.  It first started as the discovery of the most astonishing resource of Caribbean children and young adult literature.  Later on, I had the opportunity to publish some of my creative work in Anansesem E-zine.  Also, Summer Edwards, its founder gave the priviledge to be part of the team of Anansesem as an evaluator of the works submitted and even as a book reviewer.

    Even though Anansesem has completed its cycle during the pandemic after ten prosperous years transforming the literature world and providing a forum to emerging and established Caribbean children and young adult writers, its archives are available for us  to enjoy.  Anansesem's FB page publishes about upcoming books and Summer Edwards at this moment continues contribuing the world of children and YA literature.  Maybe, someday, not far from now, Anansesem E-zine will enter a new cycle similar to those ten years that are important milestones in the world of Caribbean children and YA literature.

    The blog carries the title of my 2015 dissertation Unsilencing the Afro-Puerto Rican Voice.  Since in March, Puerto Rico remembers the abolition of slavery, it is for me an ideal moment to start my conversation and share about Afro-Puerto Rican literature and other relateed experiences.  This year on March 22, 1873 marks the 149th year when the Spanish National Assembly finally acknowledge the unalienable right that should have never ever been questioned of the freedom every human should experience instead of being enslaved. And the blog will remember this event through the sharing of publications of creative writing and other topics that deal with the Afro-Puerto Rican experience in the past and in contemporary times.

    Welcome to my blog!