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

Woman of cuba

Part 3: Tropical Environment and Landscapes of Race

Teachers can then discuss how descriptions of environment and landscape influence perceptions of race. For instance, hot tropical environments like Guerrero’s Cuba were often described as places of racial difference and race-mixing in 19th century texts. As spaces of colonization, North and South America were often considered places where colonizers, colonized, immigrants, and imported/enslaved laborers sexually and cultural intermixed. British and Spanish colonizers responded differently to the intermingling of racial groups. Although tensions and hierarchies existed in Spanish-America, miscegenation became an important way to acculturate and assimilate natives into the new colonial order. (In British-America, miscegenation certainly occurred; but, British colonists adhered to concepts of race purity more stringently than their Spanish-American neighbors [Rosenthal 6]).

Woman of puerto rico

Spanish, Portuguese, and American Women highlights Spain’s colonization of the Western Hemisphere and its history of race-mixing. For instance, Guerrero describes both Cuban and Puerto Rican women in terms of Creoles and natives, the first of which he defines as “a child born in America of European parents” (7). He writes, “These women are Cuban – Creoles in the true sense of the word” (7), and “In the villages of Ponce, Mayaguez, Aguadilla, and Arecibo, one will find the Puerto Rican woman– a pure-blooded Creole” (25). Guerrero explains the Creole through the history of Spanish colonization, and berates Spain’s attempt to define these women as other than Spanish. For Guerrero, the divisions created by colonialism are an irrelevant set of racial distinctions. In regard to the natives of Puerto Rico, he emphasizes assimilation or “absorption,” as he calls it. Unable to find the "copper complexion" of the "beautiful Indian" among the women of Puerto Rico, he explains their disappearance through assimilation and, in so doing, calls us to question where and if natives fit into the racial landscape of Central and South America that he depicts. As he writes, "Native Indian women have disappeared through absorption . The mixture of races is the cause of this change; just as a single grain of indigo loses its color as it is dissolved in water, the Indian woman, in the confusion with the white colonists, and later, the union of their natural descendants with African women, erased the racial print, taking with it savage customs, which would have been pushed aside naturally by the growth of civilization. As a result, much of Europe can be seen here today [...] (6). His comments call for us to understand the colonial history of miscegenation and race-mixture, and how these concepts are reflected in the setting of fictional novels and the landscapes of non-fictional documents.

Part 4: Visualizing the Tropical

Woman of paraguay

Woman of the philippines

As a final part of this lesson, teachers can call students attention to Spanish, Portuguese, and American Women ’s rich source of images. Because this module has focused on Guerrero’s description of the Cuban landscape and its women, begin with images of Cuban women, such as those featured throughout this module. How does this image reflect Guerrero’s description of Cuba and its women? What features of the setting and landscape are provided in the picture? What do these features tell us about Cuba and Cuban women? What characteristics of race and culture are expressed here? What type of clothing and colors are these women wearing? Not all of these pictures are set within Cuba's physical landscape, so what differences do you see in the different Cuban women and Cuban settings as they are depicted in these images? Next, teachers can move on to some of the other images in Spanish, Portuguese, and American Women . Compare and contrast how women of different nations are portrayed. For instance, see the two images above.

Calling on students to explore setting alongside themes of race and gender can help develop skills of literary and historical analysis, and urge students to look for these themes outside the basic plot and character formations. Considering how tropical landscapes are gendered and racialized can reveal how different authors map the hemisphere through tools of setting, climate, and environment.

Study Questions :

1. What details of setting should you look for when reading a historical text or book?

2. What features of Cuba’s landscape does Guerrero highlight?

3. Pick out 5 key phrases (2-3 words) that Guerrero uses to describe Cuba’s landscape, then provide a one sentence analysis of the type of language he uses.

4. How do race and gender emerge as a reflection of the Cuba’s landscape? How would you characterize this relationship?

5. Group Activity: Take one chapter/location from Spanish, Portuguese, and American Women (Cuba, Puerto Rico, the Philippines, Ecuador, etc.), and analyze the first five pages. Use the following questions to get started: What language does the author use to describe this place and its inhabitants? Does his language reflect his assessment of the people themselves? What conclusions does this author draw? In your opinion, what is important to him?

Bibliography:

"All American: Glossary of Literary Terms." University of North Carolina at Pembroke. Accessed September 2011. All American:Glossary of Literary Terms .

Aparicio Frances R. and Susana Chávez-Silverman, eds. Tropicalizations: Transcultural Representations of Latinidad . Hanover: UP of New England, 1997.

Guijarro, Miguel Ed. Spanish, Portuguese, and American women: As they are in their home, in the fields, in the cities, in church, during festivities, in the workshop, and in salons: descriptions and pictures of the Character, Customs, Typical Dress, Manners, Religion, Beauty, Defects, Preoccupations, and Qualities of Women from each of the Provinces of Spain, Portugal, and the Spanish Americas . Translated by Gauthereau-Bryson, Lorena and Estep, Robert (Portuguese translations). Books. Madrid: Miguel Guijarro, 1876. From Woodson Research Center, Rice University, Americas collection, 1811-1920, MS 518. http://hdl.handle.net/1911/20705.

Crane, Stephen. The Red Badge of Courage . New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1896. Google Books. Accessed September 2011.

Rosenthal, Debra H. Race Mixture in Nineteenth-Century U.S. and Spanish American Fictions: Gender, Culture, and Nation Building . Chapel Hill: U of North Carolina P, 2004.