Afro–Puerto Rican Female Writers Debunking the White Family Myth

John T. Maddox IV’s illuminating Fractal Families in New Millennium Narrative by Afro–Puerto Rican Women, sheds light on the “recent rise of an Afrodescendant literature on the island and in the diaspora” (2). He delves into the richly layered and transnational works of four Afro-Puerto Rican feminist authors, based in Puerto Rico and New York City, who have published since 2000: Mayra Santos Febres, Yolanda Arroyo Pizarro, Yvonne Denis Rosario, and Dahlma Llanos Figueroa. His compelling analysis demonstrates that these authors (in both Spanish- and English-language works) challenge and revise the myth of the “great Puerto Rican family” that White authors such as Antonio S. Pedreira in Insularismo (1934) and Tomás Blanco in Prontuario histórico de Puerto Rico (1935) popularized, while simultaneously accentuating Black voices.

Maddox’s exploration of Puerto Rican history, culture, academic studies, and the personal context of the authors under scrutiny lays a solid foundation for understanding their works. He argues that Afro-Boricua literature reveals the archipelago as a fractal family. This concept of the “fractal family” is one defined by Santos Febres herself as a theorist, and it extends to the notion of the “uno múltiple,” where Black individuals and groups are scattered internally (noticing ethnic and gender intersections within) and geographically (from Africa to Puerto Rico and its diaspora), creating their own fractal families by choice. Maddox observes how Santos-Febres presents characters of both queer and Black identities creating their own communities—their “fractal family” (31)—and he uses this theory as the basis of his exploration of all the authors studied, illustrating the ways they see a postmodern nation and its diaspora and how these groups reimagine alliances. Throughout the volume the vision of nation/identity that these authors propose is richly layered and transnational.

Maddox further underscores the significance of studying Black feminist writers who not only experience racial discrimination but also face exclusion from White feminists; this makes their unique perspectives, often overlooked outside the island, crucial for combating racism. Maddox supports his analysis by drawing from theorists who analyze a fractal Caribbean, such as the critic Odile Ferly when she says that female Caribbean writers empower Afro and feminine voices and recuperate their history (25–26). He also aptly connects the authors with the postmodern Caribbean poetics of Édouard Glissant that challenges the harmonious plantation myth and history’s linearity and emphasizes the importance of resistance. Moreover, Maddox uses the transnational theories of the Caribbean as a scattered meta-archipelago; the repeated images of plantation oppression that gave birth to the palenques of Antonio Benítez Rojo; and the LGBTQ+ and transloca precepts of Lawrence La Fountain–Stokes, among others.

The identity portrayed by these female Black Puerto Rican writers and their protagonists is nuanced and vibrant. Over the past decade, Afro–Puerto Rican and queer experiences, whether in the archipelago or the diaspora, have gained prominence through their literary works. Fictional voices comingle within their narratives, highlighting the intersections of identity and historical discourse. This affirming identity, while acknowledging the ambivalence and paradoxes within certain characters, is explored and analyzed from colonial times to the present day through novels such as Fe en disfraz and La amante de Gardel (Santos Febres), las Negras (Arroyo Pizarro), Capá prieto (Denis-Rosario), and Daughters of the Stone (Llanos Figueroa), among other texts.

In the first chapter, Maddox studies Santos Febres’s complex protagonists. He focuses on the writer’s objective in Fe en disfraz (2009) of unveiling the reality of a racist and sexist plantation system, in stark contrast to the harmonious colonial settings depicted by the above mentioned 1930s writers. The protagonist Fe researches the historical figure of Xica da Silva, a light-skinned Brazilian mulatta who became the real “queen” of the plantation where she was enslaved despite never being the White owner’s wife. Maddox acknowledges how Xica can be seen as a courageous example but notes that she did not pretend to eradicate the colonial system. In his analysis of La amante de Gardel (2015), Maddox explores the matrilineal community of women, the spiritual daughters of Oshun, who strive to uphold their traditions but ultimately clash with the advancement of science. Micaela, the granddaughter who becomes Gardel’s lover, diverges from her grandmother’s beliefs and rituals, even participating in the sterilization of women without their consent and later searching for a contraceptive based on the plant her grandmother used for such purpose. While Fe and Micaela are intelligent, educated, and respected in society and openly embrace their sexuality, they both prioritize White male figures in their fractal family. Maddox questions this ambivalence in the characters and the author’s ultimate objectives, particularly when White males play such prominent roles in the novels and when sexuality remains an integral part to their representation.

Next Maddox turns his attention to the work of Arroyo Pizarro and the figure of the cimarronas (Black female runaways) in her poetry, essays, and the short-story collection las Negras (2012). He asserts: “She is part of the fractal Caribbean, and the new national/diaspora families that she creates and depicts are giving visibility to Black women of multiple identities going back to the enslavement period” (78). Arroyo Pizarro, a prominent advocate for Black and LGBTQ+ issues in the island, weaves narratives that meticulously explore aspects of history often absent from official accounts such as rape, infanticide, and torture, exposing past traumas. However, her resilient characters refuse to be seen as victims; they believe in female solidarity and uphold the memory of their female ancestors. Arroyo Pizarro showcases how enslaved individuals learned to resist and survive, lessons that still hold relevance today. While Maddox suggests the need of a more integrated approach to both Black and LGBTQ+ issues in her work, I would argue that Arroyo Pizarro in fact unites both identities in her novel Violeta (2016).

The following chapter explores Denis Rosario’s Capá prieto (2009), in which she reclaims Black history by empowering Black national and diasporic figures, albeit in a more sexually conservative manner, while still acknowledging past traumas. Maddox analyzes the stories about Artur Schomburg, the Black soldiers who triumph over the British in 1797, Adolfina Villanueva Osorio, Juan Boria, Pura Belpré, and Rafael Cordero Molina, among others. He draws parallels between the struggles of both the palenques (antiplantation communities) and the quilombos (slave communities) of the past and the present-day situation of Afro–Puerto Ricans in the island and beyond, demonstrating the formation of new fractal families.

The final chapter dwells on spirituality in Llanos Figueroa’s Daughters of the Stone (2009). Maddox presents this work as “the most explicit and complete revision of the ‘great Puerto Rican family’” (128). The orisha Oshun emerges as the protector and empowerer of women in the family depicted in the text. Maddox emphasizes that “this family is fractal because of the traumas of colonialism, racism, sexism and cis-heteronormativity” (156). In this text women reclaim their bodies and histories as foundational elements, echoing the themes explored in Santos Febres’s Fe and Arroyo Pizarro’s stories. Furthermore, Llanos Figueroa’s story transcends the confines of Puerto Rico, connecting directly to Africa and then New York, asserting that Blackness is an integral part of the nation’s identity and preventing the continuing Whitewashing of Puerto Rican history. Notably, Maddox expands his analysis by drawing parallels between Daughters of the Stone and other Puerto Rican and American classics.

Fractal Families serves as an excellent study of Afro–Puerto Rican female writers and their ongoing exploration of Black identity. This book offers fresh perspectives and novel ways of theorizing about these texts, compelling readers to contemplate essential questions and inspiring further research in this area. In addition to the insightful content, the volume includes an appendix of author interviews, going into more detail on other areas of the writers’ advocacy. It also provides a helpful glossary, a comprehensive index, and a well-documented bibliography. Fractal Families is a valuable addition to the field of Puerto Rican, Afro–Puerto Rican, and Black Caribbean studies, making it a must-read for anyone interested in these areas of research.

Michele C. Dávila Gonçalves is a professor in the Department of World Languages and Cultures at Salem State University, Massachusetts. She has a BA and an MA in comparative literature from the University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras, and a PhD in Hispanic literature from the University of Colorado at Boulder.