0.2 Close-reading tropical landscapes of the americas  (Page 2/4)

Part 2: Close-Read Setting and the Language of Difference

"woman of havana"

Next, teachers can direct their students to a discussion of setting and theme, considering how and why some non-fiction and fiction writers of the 19 ^th century construct concepts of ethnic and cultural difference through a text’s environment and setting. Begin by reading the following selection from Spanish, Portuguese,and American Women , written by Teodoro Guerrero in his chapter “The Woman from the Island of Cuba” . Provide students with a copy of this passage, as well as the following passages mentioned in this module. Read this aloud twice. The first time, read the passage at a regular pace or have a student do so. The second time, read the passage slowly and have students underline and circle important words in the passage - for instance, circle all verbs and underline all adjectives.

The tropical sun, which beats down heavily upon the children of Cuba, heats the imagination, as seen through vivid flashes, genius rays of light. In the place where everything is poetry, everything is love, where the sky is clothed in the most beautiful colors as it bids farewell to the sun in the west, where palm trees conspicuously and gracefully sway in the air amongst the most varied and exuberant vegetation, where trees never lose their leaves, where brightly colored birds sing melodious trills, where the moon’s light contests the brightness of the morning sun, where woman imprints voluptuous languor on her steps, the poet’s muse should strum the mind to pluck harmonious sonnets from the mysterious lyre, the lyre with invisible strings, known as inspiration. In that place, everything sings– youths sing to relieve the fire that burns within their souls; in the villages, the guajiro sings to the sounds of his tiple ⁵ to delight his beloved; in the fields, the slave sings to silence his chains; the bird sings in the bower; love sings in the heart. (10)

After reading this paragraph aloud, teachers can perform a close-reading on this paragraph, asking students questions similar to those posed after the Stephen Crane passage. Teachers might guide students to the following conclusions: 1) What type of language does this passage represent? How would you characterize the words you underlined or circled? What does this language say about Cuba? The passage’s language romanticizes both Cuba and its inhabitants, casting this space as a foreign, tropical, and escapist landscape. 2) Discuss one major feature of this description and then discuss how and if it influences our understanding of Cuba’s peoples. For instance, the brightness and color of this description hauntingly lulls the songs of the slave into harmony with the songs of the heart, integrating the dark history of slavery with those of a tropical island getaway. 3) What people are mentioned? Choose either the woman, the poet, the guajiro, or the slave. What adjectives are used to describe this figure and how is this reflected in the environment of Cuba? Cuba becomes a sexualized and exotic landscape through the “voluptuous languor” of Cuban women. The romantic language of the tropical setting blends with this portrayal of Cuban women, and paints them as sensual, animated versions of the landscape. 4) After close-reading Cuba’s landscape, teachers might ask students to finally summarize Cuba in one sentence. By reading this passage, how do you understand Cuba?