"La Noche De San Pedro" and the Place of Blackness in the Poetry of Juan Antonio Corretjer

Abstract

Juan Antonio Corretjer is often regarded as Puerto Rico's national poet. His poetry was the expression of a lifelong commitment to the struggle for Puerto Rico's independence, the exploration of the island's history, and the celebration of its natural landscapes. Despite that sustained attention to Puerto Rico's history and identity, Afro-Puerto Rican characters and culture very rarely occupy a central place in Corretjer's poetry. In this essay, I examine some of the causes of this phenomenon, paying particular attention to "La noche de San Pedro," a poem in which the island's black population, as well as the realities of slavery and the many resistances it generated, become the dominant theme. In my analysis, I show that although Corretjer's poetry consistently displays his condemnation of all forms of injustice (including racism), his priority always remained the fight for Puerto Rico's national liberation, which was supposed to include other, more specific fights against oppression.