Mara de los Reyes Castillo Bueno (19021997), a black woman known as Reyita, recounts her life in Cuba over the span of ninety years. Reyitas voice is at once dignified, warm, defiant, strong, poetic, principled, and intelligent. Her storyas told to and recorded by her daughter Daisy Castillobegins in Africa with her own grandmothers abduction by slave-traders and continues through a century of experiences with prejudice, struggle, and change in Cuba for Reyita and her numerous family members.
Sensitive to and deeply knowledgeable of the systemic causes and consequences of poverty, Reyitas testimony considers the impact of slavery on succeeding generations, her mothers internalized racism, and Cubas residual discrimination. The humiliation and poverty inflicted on the black Cuban community as well as her decision to marry a white man to ensure a higher standard of living form the basis of other chapters. Reyita actively participated in the life of the communityoften caring for the children of prostitutes along with her own eight children and giving herbal medicine and spiritualist guidance to ill or troubled neighbors. She describes her growing resistance, over five decades of marriage, to her husbands sexism and negativity. Strong-willed and frank about her sexuality as well as her religious and political convictions, Reyita recounts joining the revolutionary movement in the face of her husbands stern objections, a decision that added significant political purpose to her life. At books end, Reyita radiates gratification that her 118 descendants have many different hues of skin, enjoy a variety of professions, andmost importantlyare free of racial prejudice.
Sensitive to and deeply knowledgeable of the systemic causes and consequences of poverty, Reyitas testimony considers the impact of slavery on succeeding generations, her mothers internalized racism, and Cubas residual discrimination. The humiliation and poverty inflicted on the black Cuban community as well as her decision to marry a white man to ensure a higher standard of living form the basis of other chapters. Reyita actively participated in the life of the communityoften caring for the children of prostitutes along with her own eight children and giving herbal medicine and spiritualist guidance to ill or troubled neighbors. She describes her growing resistance, over five decades of marriage, to her husbands sexism and negativity. Strong-willed and frank about her sexuality as well as her religious and political convictions, Reyita recounts joining the revolutionary movement in the face of her husbands stern objections, a decision that added significant political purpose to her life. At books end, Reyita radiates gratification that her 118 descendants have many different hues of skin, enjoy a variety of professions, andmost importantlyare free of racial prejudice.
