Mujeres como islas: la herencia cultural y religiosa afrocaribeña en las obras de Mayra Santos Febres, Wendy Guerra y Rita Indiana

Abstract

This article aims to establish a dialogue between three Caribbean writers (Mayra Santos Febres, Wendy Guerra and Rita Indiana) that deal with the issue of Afro-Caribbean female identities in relation to the syncretic religions born from the encounter between Catholicism and African cosmogonies. Through the novels Our Lady of the Night (2006), Negra (2013) and La Mucama de Omicunlé (2015), the aim is to analyze the feminine archetypes proposed by those spiritual traditions gathered under the common definition of santeria and the role that women and homosexuals play in them. The three authors propose an intersectional look at the emancipatory path that will lead the heroines of their stories to rescue as independent Afro-descendant women, within the framework of hegemonic value systems that tend to “neutralize” them, silencing their voices.