Matrilineal Consciousness in Looking Within - Essay Example

Matrilineal Consciousness in Nancy Morejon's Looking Within Nancy Morejon is a Cuban revolutionary poet whose poetry springs up from within and includes both her position in history as witness and active participant in the Cuban Revolution, as well as her racial identity as a black Cuban (Gonzalez 2005). In late 2002, "Looking Within," a collection of her poems from 1954 to 2000 was released in bilingual format. The editor, Cordones-Cook (2003) described Morejon as having come to her Havana, capital of Cuba, thus - "Morejn enjoyed listening to the old black men, the aigo herbalists of San Nicols square, the housewives, the neighbors, a world that, with the fascinating rhythm of the street shows, would become an integral part of the internal rhythm of her poetry. There she absorbed and assimilated Afro-Cuban culture until she identified herself with the very essence of her beloved Havana" (Cordones-Cook 2003:33). Cordones-Cook (2003) asserts that Morejon in her poetry projects "a clearly matrilineal consciousness that establishes connection and filiation," a kind of sympathetic female bonding, with legendary female ancestors. Gonzalez (2005) would understand this as Morejn's poems referring to Yoruba deities, known as orishas, and honoring the "living dead," the eggun or ancestors. She said Morejon dominates these poetic spaces with words of wisdom from both the African ancestors and the orishas, who exercise their eternal influence. A study of her poems suggests that Morejn is obsessed with her past, and often uses poetry as a way of exploring it. It is in those poems that she revisits Africa, encounters the grandparents she never met, and experiences the hardships of slavery. As a result, she often gives voice to people who don't normally have one. Morejn is a strong believer that ancestors and loved ones who have passed on, continue to affect people's daily lives. The Poems Honoring the living dead or the ancestors may be seen from the perspective of communicating with them because of "Frustrations in personal life" as Xianglong (2007) would see it. Xianglong (2007) looked into filial consciousness into the thinking that intersects the past and future. Accordingly, frustrations in personal life are one occasion for a person to bridge the time and reach out to the dead. Indeed, in Morejon's culture, the spirits of ancestors are spiritual guides (Gonzalez-Wippler 1998:76). After death, spirits are said to remain around their relatives here on earth, for protection and guidance. Invoked in every religious ritual, they often participate in family decisions, giving their approval or disapproval in family affairs. Morejn's poem, "In Front of a Mirror," refers to the importance of "our dead ones" and how present they are in their daily lives If the parks blossom overflowing with fresh tulips then the boulevard brings in the scents of your loved ones, and, above all, of your dead ones. (Morejn in Looking Within 109) Morejon is conscious that the dead are ever with them - participating in their present conditions. Maier (2005) asserts that one poem closely identified with Morejon is "Persona." This poem, according to David Frye (2000), is a relatively recent one (1999), but it is also an update of the earlier "Mujer negra" ("Black Woman"). In "Mujer Negra" ("Black Woman)" she moves through various generations discussing immigration, slavery, poverty, rebellion and the independence movement (from Spain), and finally, affirmation of the Afro-Cuban as a human being after 1959. According to Maier (2005), this poem emphasizes the slave's point of view, and demonstrates the influence of ideological freedom found in the Cuban Revolution. She underscores the racial together with the feminist dimensions of Cuban nationalism by making the Black woman the central figure and the protagonist of the contemporary era "Black Woman," and "Persona," exemplifies well the characteristics for which Morejon and her work are known and admired. These traits include a strong identification with her family, with the working class, and with her African roots; an affirmation of what Cordones-Cook refers to as "a matrilineal consciousness." Here is a poem that seems to yearn for a better past, in her frequent use of the word, "Love." "Between the sword and the carnation," presents a conflict which is her historical present. They reflect frustrations in personal life that Xianglong (2007) spoke of, and a yearning for the comfort of liberty from a monstrous evil - and the salvation of "mother." Divertimento Between the sword and the carnation, I love utopias. I love the rainbow and the kite and I love the song of the pilgrim. I love the romance between the bear and the iguana. I love passports: when will passports cease to exist I love daily chores and the taverns and guitars in the evening. I love a thorny island in the throat of Goliath like a palm tree in the center of the Gulf. I love David. I love liberty, which is an everlasting flower. And another: As in days gone by We could sit down, as in days gone by, to read the famous writer's last book. We prefer the river, the dam, the bird, the bottom of the heart open for the reaper. O what blessed smoke from the future vanishes between our hands. The "reaper" is an equivalent of the monstrous evil mentioned earlier, and "blessed smoke from the future vanishing between our hands" is likened to an expression of despair and hope for help. It is like a child waiting long for mother's comfort to come. In "Persona," that despair and hope is again expressed as she talks of the plight of women in "a battle always being refought." She looks at herself in them and empathizes with them. Persona What's left in me of this woman What holds the two of us together What separates us Or might I be the "early morning wanderer" who takes taxis on the night of jaguars like a heron fallen to the pavement after being hunted and wasted and resold around the Quinta de los Molinos and the piers of the port Who are they, these women Or are they me Who are they, who look so much like me not only in the color of their bodies but in the devastating smoke that rises from our animal hides, branded by a strange, unceasing fire Why am I me Why are they them Who is that woman, the one in us all fleeing from us all, fleeing her enigma and her long origin with an incredulous prayer on her lips, or singing a hymn after a battle always being refought Morejon expresses a hope again in "Mother" in these subsequent lines where hope is expressed in knowing somebody is there - I know someone's there. I know there's a woman flaunting my bones and my flesh; know she's looked for me in her worn-out breast and has found me, miserable and straying. Night is rooted in our skin. Wise night rebuilds her bones and mine. A bird from the sky has transposed its light into our eyes. In "Mother," are some lines on what mother could do: "cradle my body." Note that "cold remains" of the enemy suggests victory from harshness in the end. What days, those days when she ran barefoot over the whitewash of orphanages, and didn't laugh or even see the horizon. She had no ivory-inlaid bedroom, no drawing-room with wicker chairs, and none of that hushed tropical stained glass. My mother had the handkerchief and the song to cradle my body's deepest faith, and hold her head high, banished queen -- She gave us her hands, like precious stones, before the cold remains of the enemy. Again, Morejn compares the comfort of her mother that she remembers and the coldness of "the enemy" which may refer to issues of immigration, slavery, poverty and rebellion of her life experience. This "mother" thinking is found in the frequent presence in Morejn's poems of "Yemay" according to Gonzalez (2005). This female orisha is the symbol of maternity and womanhood. She is often associated with the moon; her name is derived from the Yoruba title Yeyeomo eja, which means, "the mother whose children are the fish" (Gonzalez-Wippler 57). Yemay as the universal mother appears in some tales, as the Mother-orisha, giving birth to all other orishas. She rules over the ocean and, like the sea, shows great tranquility but also mighty force. In several poems Morejn evokes the orisha Yemay, either directly or through many references to the sea and its attributes (Maier 2005). In the poem "In Praise of Nieves Fresneda," Morejn again honors the living dead. Nieves Fresneda, according to Gonzalez (2005) is a legendary dancer of the National Folkloric Ballet of Cuba and a daughter of Yemay, who danced to her orisha worldwide. Her style has become the classic dance for Yemay in Havana. In the poem, Morejn portrays Nieves as a "flying fish," with many elements of the sea and specific objects that belong to Yemay, such as snakes and cowries. Morejn tells us of Nieves's sea-like feet, made of salt, spinning upon the sea as she moves in waves and circles in her dancing skirt. Her maritime feet, after all, trunks of salt, everlasting feet of Nieves, uplifted like moons for Yemay. (Morejn 171) Conclusion In Gonzales' (2005) analysis of Morejon's poems, nothing is direct. Morejn seduces with words, half meanings, and veiled signs. She leaves behind hidden trails for her readers to follow. There are some hidden meanings and some ancestral traits that one has to know in order to understand her meanings. Her poetry has layers upon layers of hidden meanings and many bridges that connect different worlds. For Morejon's poems to be understood according to Gonzales (2005), the only possible response to is to assume such history mentioned, to embrace the ancestors, and to carry on. Morejon's poems in this collection show much matrilineal consciousness as Cordones-Cook (2003) emphasized. True, her poems reveal her strong connectedness to the present and to the past as far as her grandmothers, her female friends and associates long dead, and to history. As Morejon writes about her experiences, they should be able to teach people about history in a world where change is possible. Mother and longingness for mother actually symbolizes the need for succor, the need for connectedness with the one capable of correcting these discrepancies. While it is necessary to perceive clearly the horror and destruction of her historical present, these poems reach beyond the present, toward a potential new world of sustaining life. In Nancy Morejon's poems, this can only be done through connecting with the symbolical "mother" of all mankind - the "center," the beginning, the creator. Then and only then can the Nancy Morejon among us find resolution and peace from all the conflicts of experiences. Works Cited Frye, David. The Joy of Translation. Journal of the International Institute. University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Winter 2000, vol. 7, no. 2, pp. 20-21. Gonzalez, Patricia Elena. "Yoruba Vestiges in Nancy Morejon's Poetry" Callaloo. Vol. 28, No. 4, Fall 2005, pp. 952-966. The Johns Hopkins University Press Gonzlez-Wippler, Migenes. Santeria: The Religion. St. Paul, MN: Llewellyn, 1998. Herman, Max. "Oedipus and Hamlet: Defining Language by Embodying Its Antithesis in Two Heroes of Western Literature." B7-MXH1. 27 Feb 2001. 21 Nov 2007 < http://www.cosmoetica.com/B7-MXH1.htm>. Maier, Carol. "Nancy Morejon. Looking Within: Selected Poems, 1954-2000 / Mirar Adentro: Poemas Escogidos, 1954-2000". African American Review. Spring-Summer 2005. Morejon, Nancy. Looking Within: Selected Poems, 1954-2000 / Mirar Adentro: Poemas Escogidos, 1954-2000. Edited with an introduction by Juanamaria Cordones-Cook Bilingual ed. Detroit: Wayne State UP, 2003. 367 pp. Xianglong, Zhang. A temporal analysis of the consciousness of filial piety. Frontiers of Philosophy in China. Volume 2, Number 3 / June, 2007. 1673-3436 (Print) 1673-355X (Online). 10.1007/s11466-007-0020-4. Research Article. Higher Education Press, co-published with Springer-Verlag GmbH. pp. 309-335. 20 Nov 2007 . Read More