Description

In Sugar, Cape and Port; Dominican poet Juan Matos offers a deep look at a rarely examined aspect of the Afro-Caribbean community in the Dominican Republic. This set of epic poems explores the forces that clash and coexist in the sugar cane community the author called home. The profound, lyrical, and beautifully crafted verses are an ode to the hard work, the love, and hope of the Dominicans and Haitians who share this milieu without shying away from denouncing the segregation, racism and classism that permeate their daily lives. Matos’ poetic voice speak to the heart of the important themes of identity and the rescue of that historical memory of places and people that seem to be condemned to oblivion after a century of being the backbone of a nation. -Books&Smith-

“After assimilating social realities from childhood ―and later enduring economic exile― poet Juan Matos has written of his emotional response to the dense path he pursued, in order to define and also assert his identity. The author comes from a society in which cultivating the disparagement of his own race was an indispensable requirement in order to justify racial subjugation in the most abject manner. Camouflaged in catechisms and devotional books, self-deprecation was the norm in the collective unconscious. The deep shame of being negro resulted in an inferiority complex that rose to the linguistic surface as a powerful judgment: “the race must be improved.” This judgment ―written in stone― was established as a goal worth pursuing. The poet has established other parameters; looking for compensation, he reaches for schemata and appearances that reveal the signs of a biased idiosyncrasy; remnants of a cultural syncretism that even today is ignored. It is up to the reader to judge whether this rescue is equivalent to redemption.” -Jacobo Walters-