Crossing a Cultural Divide

Reviewed by Dr. James J. Davis

Engaging university students in discussions of cross-cultural connection in foreign second language classes has always been intriguing to me. In my more than-20-year experience as a classroom instructor and administrator of second language programs, I have learned much about teaching and Hispanic culture, especially as it relates to African Americans in Spanish language and literature classes.
What students — and Americans in general — know and do not know about the wholeness and interconnectedness of the African American experience is quite revealing in its display of some of the inadequacies of the American educational system with regards to teaching for cross-cultural proficiency. The failure of the curriculum developers in Spanish to incorporate topics on Afro-Hispanic literature, history, and culture has been largely due to the lack of published curriculum materials and to teacher training.
In the past 25 years or so, however, a good number of outstanding articles, books, and curriculum materials have been published about the cultural similarities, influences, and "amazing connections of Afro-Latin Americans and U.S. Black Americans. One notable example of a scholarly text is Martha Cobb's Harlem, Haiti and Havana: A Comparative Critical Survey of Langston Hughes, Jacques Roumain and Nicolas Guillen (Three Continents Press, 1979).
In the area of published curriculum materials is La Presencia Africana en Hispanoamerica [The African Presence in Hispanic America] (International Film Bureau, 1984). Cobb's seminal comparative study — which treats three writers of the African Diaspora from the United States, Haiti, and Cuba. It provides a framework for Richard Jackson's Black Writers and Latin America: Cross Cultural Affinities.
Jackson, who has been referred to as the "Dean of Afro-Hispanic Literature," brings the cultural connections of English-writing African Americans and Spanish-writing African Latin Americans to full circle in the area of literary and cultural studies in this comprehensive comparative study. This timely volume is divided into five clearly crafted chapters: "U.S. Black Writers in Spain"; "U.S. Black Writers in Latin America"; "The Influence of U.S. Black Writers"; "Hispanic Black Writers and the United States"; and "Black Writers in Latin America Today." In these chapters, Jackson shows his brilliance in concretizing the abstract and his ability to economize on each word, phrase, sentence, and paragraph. The work covers an enormous amount of literary and cultural territory under one cover!
Jackson reveals that the goal of this study is to lead readers "to better understand U.S. Black writers and their interest in Latin America and Spain and to understand the Hispanic Black writers' preoccupation with the United States." He accomplishes this by stressing the commonalities of experiences that all Africans shared in the history of the Americas. With stimulating discussions of numerous renowned and lesser-known writers from both the United States and Latin America, Jackson's work is a veritable masterpiece. The book posesses an enviable ability to summarize and to synthesize the significance of the relationship and influences that fully demonstrate the often overlooked cultural affinities of Africans in the Americas.
What makes Jackson's work particularly significant is its discussion of "the Hispanic Writer in the United States." This is a topic that has been treated very minimally by scholars of Afro-Hispanic literature. This section uncovers a great deal about race relations among Blacks from different language and cultural backgrounds in the United States.
Upon reading Black Writers and Latin America, many readers will be aware of some of the cross-cultural connections and travels of the frequently studied English-writing African Americans — like Nicolas Guillen, Nancy Morejon, Nelson Estupinan Bass, and Manuel Zapata Olivella. However, the experiences and writings of relative newcomers to the literary scene should prove to be quite enriching. This text will certainly provide new names for curriculum developers in African American studies to include in their course syllabi.
Also, this volume should seriously challenge the "politics" if exclusion of Afro-Hispanic theme in Spanish language curricula and published literary anthologies and textbooks.
Anyone with an interest in cultural studies — African American, African, Latin American, World Literature, and the Humanities in general — should find this text illuminating and useful. To reach a wider reading audience, all Spanish language quotations have been translated into English.
Should Jackson choose to abandon scholarly writing at this point, his Black Writers and Latin America: Cross Cultural Affinities will remain his masterpiece. It will forever be known as the first comprehensive comparative study in the area of diaspora studies dealing with Black literary artists in Latin America and the United States.