The Complete Afro-Cuban Slave Poets: Manzano, Frías, Echemendía, Cepeda, Roblejo, Díaz

currently under review

This translation and critical edition compiles the collected works by a cohort of enslaved Afro-Cuban poets of the nineteenth century: Juan Francisco Manzano (1797-1854), Juan Antonio Frías (1835-1869), Ambrosio Echemendía (1843-?), Néstor Cepeda (?-?), Manuel Roblejo (?-?), and José del Carmen Díaz (c. 1853-?). It aims to restore the Afro-Cuban slave poets to their proper place in histories of Black literature in the Americas by making their works available to a wide readership for the first time. Indeed, this oeuvre has remained virtually unknown to Cuban and U.S. literary critics alike for nearly one hundred and fifty years. While a small handful of Manzano’s poems have appeared in translation, publications by the other five poets have not appeared in English translation or have only rarely been reprinted in their original language. A bilingual, facing-page translation will ensure a wider audience among both English- and Spanish-language readers.