Caribbean Daughters

I am constantly inspired by the strength, courage, and stories of Caribbean women. Everything about women is politicized, from our hair to the way we choose to dress and fashion ourselves, how we choose to birth and raise our children, and the work we take up. There are hidden cultural & national histories that lie within the stories of women that are telling of life in nations we proudly exclaim are our “homes.” Join me in telling the influential stories of Caribbean women who are true heroines and have inspired you!

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#DearCaribbean,

Meet Poet/Writer/Activist/BlogHER Linisa George.

Born in Guyana, Linisa migrated with her family to Antigua, the island where she calls home, at the tender age of 4. She wrote in secret from the age of 6; her poems were her escape from a world that she didn’t think she fit into. It wasn’t until 2003 while living in Toronto where she discovered the writings of the amazing Maya Angelou, that she realised that her life’s fulfilment was masked in her words. Linisa moved back to Antigua in 2005, where after many false starts she was able to push start her career in the literary and performing arts. She is a poet, freelance writer, director and playwright, owner and Editor-in-Chief of blackgirlinthering.com (BGRmag).

A strong advocate for gender justice, she is an Executive member of Women of Antigua (WOA). She is co-owner of a creative arts company, August Rush Productions, and the Director of The Young Poets Society of Antigua & Barbuda. The latter is an organization that uses poetry to awaken the creative elements in young people ages 12 to 18. She has won three National Youth Awards in Antigua; two for Literary Arts (2010 and 2012) and one for Youth Activism -WOA (2012).

To date, her poetry has been published in three anthologies including The World Record. She has functioned in the roles of feature writer, Sub-editor and Editor on many projects. Linisa continues to work hard as she pursues her education and cultivate a full-time career as a writer and entrepreneur.

For more on BGRMag check out: http://blackgirlinthering.com

[caribbeandaughters]

Understanding Caribbean Girlhood Means Understanding Caribbean Mothering

My mother and I have always had a complicated relationship. For as long as I can remember, it’s had its highs and lows to say the least. It wasn’t until coming into adulthood that I began to understand her how the struggles and misfortunes she faced as a little girl growing up in Port-au-Prince, Haiti have shaped our relationship and her parenting.

As a child, my mother spent much of her time alone. Her relationship with her father was non-existent, he passed away when she was six, and her relationship with her mother was turbulent. My mom had difficulty maintaining friendships and other supportive relationships because her mother was overbearing. However, my mom endured ridicule and discipline from her mother, which would be considered emotional and physical abuse at this day and age. One story that stood out to me in particular was one my mother told me quite recently -- My mom’s mother often had many men come and go through the house. She was never married to my mother’s father, and she often brought this up to my mother in a way that made her feel illegitimate and insignificant. My grandmother’s male friends would make passes at my mother, who was an adolescent at the time, and my mother would receive punishments for unintentionally gaining their attention. As a young woman growing up, my mother did not have emotional support of someone making her feel “good enough,” she didn’t have a close, consistent relationship with her mother, she didn’t develop trust, and she didn’t feel protected and loved.

At the age of 19, my mother had enough of her living situation. She took an educational opportunity to move to Canada alone and begin college.  She then moved to New York City to live with distant relatives. From there, she worked as a nurse for several years, and then began working in early childhood. She got married, went to college, and earned her Bachelor’s degree to become a teacher. When I was 5-years-old, I attended my mother’s graduation and I’ll never forget how her face beamed when she walked across the stage. I wanted to do what she did. My passion for learning and growing through knowledge came from my mother.

My mother’s independence emerged from necessity, but I gained that spirit in a way. My mother grew up with a lot of fears and limitations, but she never wanted me to think I couldn’t accomplish anything I wanted. I picked up so many lessons from her indirectly, I marvel at how someone who struggled so much early on in life could be so resilient. Each day, my mom proves that beautiful people can emerge from truly awful and traumatic circumstances, some of which I described are all too common in the lives of Caribbean women who live in a culture that is more restrictive and oppressive at times than we realize. Even though the ugly effects of her trauma seem to seep into her present life from time to time, somehow, some way, she was able to muster up enough love and resilience in her own heart to raise two children, and keep her family together.  Our relationship is not perfect, it’s always a work in progress, but I admire her for who she is and what she has overcome.

[caribbeandaughters]

Highlighting Orquesta Anacaona [Cuba's first all-female band]

“It was Cuchito, our second oldest sister, who had the idea of forming the all-women Orquesta Anacaona. That was in the early 1930s, when the dictator Machado was tyrannizing the people with a bloody fist. Gradually all eleven sisters joined the band; most of us were still minors at the time. George Gershwin, Cole Porter and Nat King Cole…all the great musicians who travelled to Cuba would come to our performances in the aires libres, the open-air cafes. That’s how we were discovered.” - Ziomara Castro

“…I would have told the reporter that, for me, there was nothing I enjoyed mre than going every evening from humdrum Lawton to the vibrant nightlife of Old Havana; or that initially Father was dead against us performing in the open-air cafes, saying there was no way his daughters were going to work at night near the sleazy bars and brothels. I would also have mentioned that we stood our ground in the face of male chauvinists, who believed that a woman’s place was in the home by the stove or working in a brothel...” - Alicia Castro

Video clip is from documentary Roots of Rhythm starring Harry Belafonte

Quotes are excerpts from book Queens of Havana: The Amazing Adventures of Anacaona, Cuba's Legendary All-Girl Band as told by sister Alicia Castro

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Discovering National Heroines: Nanny of the Maroons (Queen Nanny)

[caribbeandaughters]

nuk-pu-nuk:

She ( Nanny) put herself on a boat to the New World to come free her people. She was the leader of her tribe. She was an African queen who put herself into captivity to come to the West in order to be with her people so that she could free them. She didn’t come as a slave; it was her own plan. — Folk Historian Naakaa Cush via Karla Gottleib

Nanny, Queen of the Maroons, born into the Akan ethnic group in Ghana in the 1680’s ,lived to become one of the greatest freedom fighters of the New World.

Grandy Nanny was a chieftaness, a leader of Jamaica’s Windward Maroons, who successfully waged war with and held off the greatest military power on earth from 1724 to 1739 suffering only one majour defeat in 1734 at Nanny Town when the British, having managed to surprise the Maroons as they slept, fired upon them with portable swivel guns.

Historians acknowledge her as a master military strategist who developed and excelled at guerilla warfare. She perfected the art of camouflage and created a system of long- distance communication using the Abeng, a cow horn with a hole drilled at one end. Sophisticated Maroon communications put British troops at helpless disadvantage in the hills of Jamaica.

In the 1730’s, the war’s period of the most-intense fighting, the Maroons suffered only about 100 casualties while the British losses numbered in the thousands.

Nanny was named a National Hero for Jamaica in 1976.

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Under a Mango Tree in Jamaica, They Taught Me Who I Was.

You know that moment when you know who you want to be? Hear how you want to sound? See what you want to look like? Well...I had the moment fairly early in life. And boy was I lucky.

I wanted to be be like my mother badly. I wanted to laugh like her when times were rough. I wanted to be successful like her when the odds were against me. But I didn't have to try very hard. I am her very flesh and blood. 

When I was old enough to understand my mother wasn't always "mom" was when I began to truly know her. She had a past and she was strong enough to get to the present. Despite the heartbreak and the ever present woes of life; she 'made it.' She found joy in every situation. 

I ask her about life, taking notes so I can survive. I started to understand all the things she sacrificed. I see how strong her faith is. How deep her love goes. 

I now realize trips to Jamaica weren't "trips" they were ancestral voyages. What I learned about my culture and who I was and where I came from I couldn't learn sitting in a desk in a classroom.  

I learned who I was by watching my mom and mama reminisce under the mango tree in Lacovia, St. Elizabeth. I learned when I saw two strong Jamaican women show me the land my family owned for years. They taught me the importance of family, of keeping a house in order, of taking pride in what you have no matter how little. Those are the memories I live for.

When I hear people say "Oh you look like Fay!" "Oh you laugh like your mom!" It's the best compliment I could ever receive. 

Ahh to be my mother's daughter is special. But to have a Caribbean Mother is extraordinary! We move different, we speak different, we live different. We ARE different. 

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Meet Jasmina Lira, Banana Farmworker At Finca Santa Marta and Mother of Three.

Jasmina Lira, a farmworker raising three children on her own, changed the course of her family’s life when she secured a job at Finca Santa Marta, a Rainforest Alliance Certified™ banana farm in Limón, on Costa Rica’s Caribbean coast. Lira represents the new face of the sustainable banana labor f…

http://goo.gl/0XI2Af

[caribbeandaughters]

Highlighting Rita Marley and the Soulettes (later known as the I-Threes)

Cuban-Jamaican singer, widow of infamous reggae artist Bob Marley, and author of No Woman, No Cry: My Life With Bob Marley. 

"I was an ambitious girl child. I knew even then that I had to be, in that environment of thugs, thieves, killers, prostitutes, gamblers — you name it, you’d find it in Trench Town. But alongside the bad lived the good, a lot of strong, talented people who were really aiming at being someone."

The song Why Should I?, released in 1973 and produced by Bob Marley, is an empowering message asking women to take a good look at their romantic relationships with men and question, "Why should a girl be the only one to cry when love goes by? Why should a girl be the only one to bear all the pain of loving in vain?"

This is one moment in Caribbean music history where a group of women break the accepted stereotype of women having to endure pain while in a romantic relationship, and men having to show they are in charge and strong while moving on quickly.

[caribbeandaughters]

The Untold Story of My Mother - Attaining the American Dream

My mother and father married at eighteen years old. My grandfather gave his blessing on the condition that she finish college and so she did. By the age of twenty-two, my mother was college graduate, a mother of a very chubby one-year old, and already divorced. My mother found herself alone in a new country, learning a new language, and trying to adapt to the gringo culture. If there is one thing you should know about my mother is that she has a relentless and incredibly optimistic spirit. What many see as obstacles, she perceives as opportunities. At one point, my mother worked three jobs and did not have a baby-sitter. I still remember our 5 a.m. PATH train rides with my book bag carrying my most prized possessions: my cassette player with Selena’s latest hits, Juicy Fruit bubble gum, and Judy Blume’s Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing. My mother would wake up every morning with a smile on her face and eager to go to work regardless of how little it paid or how exhausted she was from the day before. She was even appreciative of the alarm going off in the morning because it meant she was alive to see another day. I’ll tell you what else she was appreciative of – that chancleta she always kept nearby (me? Not. So. Much.). My mother had to be both the caregiver and the rule enforcer but she also had to learn how to balance her Dominican roots with my American upbringing. She never let me hang out at friends’ houses or stay for sleepovers. She never, ever missed a chance to reinforce how important education, at all levels, is to a person’s personal and professional growth. I’ll be honest. There were times (very often) when I didn’t completely agree with her parenting approach but I am so thankful and indebted to her for everything she did and everything she continues to do for me today.

                                                                           Thank you, momma.

[caribbeandaughters]

Discovering National Heroines - Dominican Republic

My bout with feminism began when I was 12 years old. My mother’s best friend had given me the book In the Time of the Butterflies by Julia Alvarez. It was the first introduction I got to the story of the heroines of the Dominican Republic, Las Hermanas Mirabal [Patria, Minerva, Maria Teresa, and Dede. These women bravely took part in leading an underground rebellion to the violent dictatorship of Rafael Trujillo, which the Dominican people endured from about 1930 to 1961, and were endearingly named Las Mariposa or The Butterflies. Trujillo was assassinated months after he commanded for the brutal death of these 3 sisters on November 25, 1960. November 25 is now dedicated to them as the  International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women.

 The story of the Mirabal Sisters is extensive and extremely interesting. I have been obsessed with researching more of the story through news reports, finding old letters, reading books written by their sister Dede (who recently passed away) and their children who are still alive, watching documentaries and movies, etc. Ever since I was 12, I have gotten to know these women and could imagine their personality, their style of dress, and their favorite activities. These women have inspired my interests and the way I have chosen to model myself as a contributor to society. The Butterfly is a symbol of freedom, and my journey on Earth has been with purpose since my introduction to this great piece of Dominican history.

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Marissa Thomas is Programme Coordinator for Trinidad at the The Caribbean Vulnerable Communities Coalition (CVC) and El Centro de Orientación e Investigación Integral (COIN) Caribbean Vulnerabilised Groups Project:a five-year regional project which responds to HIV and AIDS...