Content area
Full Text
William Luis, ed. Autobiografía del esclavo poeta y otros escritos de Juan Francisco Manzano. Madrid: Iberoamericana; Vervuert, 2007. 351 pp.
In 2007, IberoamericanaA^ervuert published William Luis's annotated critical edition of Juan Francisco Manzanos 1835 autobiography and other writings (personal letters of the slave, poems, and a five-act play). Cognoscenti of Cuban letters know that Gertrudis Gómez de Avellaneda's anti-slavery novel, Sab, was published in Madrid in 1841 (and did not see the light of day in Cuba until the twentieth century, long after slavery had been abolished in 1886). Of utmost significance is the fact that prior to the publication of this novel about a enslaved fictional mulatto's woes, the prominent literary critic Domingo del Monte, who led an anti-slavery group, had specifically asked Manzano, a pardo (mulatto) slave born in Cuba, to write his autobiography as their epistolary exchange (part of Luis's edition) clearly demonstrates:
.. . pues en el día mismo que recibí la del 22 [de junio] me puse a recorrer el espacio que llena la carrera de mi vida y cuando pude me puse a escribir, creyendo que me bastaría un real de papel, pero teniendo ya escrito algo más aunque saltando a veces por cuatro y aun por cinco años, no he llegado todavía a 1820: pero espero concluir pronto, ciñéndome únicamente a los sucesos más interesantes. (125)
Manzano's work, and in particular his autobiography, was read in manuscript form during the group's meetings. In 1836, he was also invited to read his poetry to the group and that same year, its members collected the money needed to buy his freedom. The history of the manuscript is tortuous and convoluted because it had to circulate discreetly due to the fact that it was very sensitive material deemed dangerous by the Spanish government as well as by those who supported the institution of slavery. Luis does a meticulous job of explaining the fate of the manuscript since 1835 and the various editors who copied it and "corrected" its spelling, its grammar, or the perceived errors of organization. Luis even addresses the 1840 translation and edition of the Autobiography into English done by Richard Robert Madden ("Life of the Negro Poet" in his book entitled Poems by a Slave in the Island...