“Más allá del recuerdo hay algo que no se borra": Rhina Espaillat and the Textures of Memory

• In Event: The Poetic Legacy and Radically Inclusive Vision of Rhina P. Espaillat

Abstract

Professor Conrad James' paper interrogates how memory is a significant concern in the work of Rhina Espaillat. Most of the principal themes addressed throughout her oeuvre (family, the politics of bilingualism, the struggles of immigrant life, youth, ageing, life and death) are all filtered through a hermeneutics of memory. In both her poetry and her prose writings it is possible to trace a concern with the relationship between the past and present which helps to tease out the role that memory plays in negotiating identity politics. In her essay ‘Un recuerdo y quizás un homenaje’ (‘A Recollection, and Perhaps a Tribute’) Espaillat engages explicitly in the theorisation of key facets of memory which are implicit in most of her poetry. The essay presents memory as an act that is synonymous with violation, abuse, betrayal and bitterness. For Espaillat, memory is not discovered it is created (no se descubre, se crea). More importantly, the essay exposes the tensions between ephemerality and palpability which constitute the creative act of memory. This paper discusses Espaillat’s engagement with memory (both in its ephemeral and tangible aspects) across a range of poetic texts produced between the early 1990s and the present. The presentation broaches a series of related themes and traces connections between Espaiilat’s work and that of other Caribbean women whose poetry demonstrates a similar association with the politics of memory.

Author

• Conrad James, University of Birmingham