Yolanda Arroyo Pizarro: “Each victory must be applauded. Be a lion.”

The presentation by Yolanda Arroyo Pizarro, a Puerto Rican novelist, poet, and short-story writer, had quite an effect on the audience. She expressed her concern and dissatisfaction for the fact that Puerto Rico lacks an African Studies or related college program in its universities—there is not enough dialogue on the experiences of African diaspora people and women on the island, according to Pizarro.

“The history of the hunt will always glorify the hunter until the lions tell the story,” Pizarro began in her presentation. Her book, “Negras: Stories of Puerto Rican Slave Women,” allows the voice of black women in Puerto Rico to be heard and acknowledged. Pizarro claimed the historical data is incomplete. There is a focus on rebellions by black male slaves, and the accounts are “narrated from a patriarchal standpoint.”

Pizarro ended her presentation by saying “Each victory must be applauded. Be a lion.”

READ COMPLETE ARTICLE
URL: http://www.fordhamobserver.com/fordham-and-united-nations-host-event-on-women-creativity-and-memory-of-slavery/