When the Slave Esperança Garcia Wrote a Letter by Sonia Rosa (review)

Abstract

Reviewed by: When the Slave Esperança Garcia Wrote a Letter by Sonia Rosa Elizabeth Bush Rosa, Sonia When the Slave Esperança Garcia Wrote a Letter; tr. from the Portuguese by Jane Springer; illus. by Luciana Justiniani Hees. Groundwood/House of Anansi, 2015 40p ISBN 978-1-55498-729-0 $18.95 Ad Gr. 2-5 “Esperança Garcia is famous in the Brazilian state of Piauí, and I would like her to be celebrated all over Brazil and the rest of the world.” Author Rosa makes a good case for this wider recognition through her portrayal of the eighteenth-century slave who [End Page 219] learned to read and write from the Franciscan missionaries who owned her family, and was later sold apart from her husband and older children to the cruel Captain Antonio Vieira de Couto. Garcia took the probably unprecedented step of writing a letter of complaint to the regional governor asking for relief, and when a copy of the letter was discovered in a Piauí archive in 1979, it became a testimony to the tribulations and resistance of the indigenous enslaved population. Rosa notes that there is no record of a reply from the governor, and this bitter uncertainty is built into the reimagining of Esperança’s story: “Esperança Garcia could think of nothing else. The answer could arrive at any moment.” The universal sadness of the slave’s story, together with Hees’ arresting folkloric artwork that renders Esperança as a stalwart, dignified profile with a wide eye on the future, will draw in the audience. However, since the letter itself is the crux of this tale, much more explanation—or even informed conjecture—is needed. How did a slave come by writing paper and pen? How did she get the letter itself to the governor? Why was a copy of the letter found in Piauí while the original is archived in Lisbon? While these omissions are disappointing (particularly in view of the fact that no source notes are offered), this title can nonetheless provide younger children with a broader view of the history of slavery beyond the United States. Copyright © 2015 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois