African Roots in Latin America

RR African Things

Theme Recognition

“African Things” by Victor Cruz repeats certain refrains, altered slightly; the final rendering being “dance and tell me black african things.” The poem has a smooth jazz feel to it, which fits in with the theme of the poem: identity. The poet places a great deal of emphasis on race: black Africa meets Indio in Puerto Rico with latin influences from Europe—all of it is mixed up in this poem, and the poet is trying to establish a sense of place and identity as he looks to the heavens and appeals to the “wonder man” who “rides his space ship.” There is a sense that this represents the Western modern man who seems to know all things technological but cannot say anything—or will not say anything—about the racial identity that the poet wants to know about.

The theme can be seen in this line: “African spirits / dance & sing in my mother’s house. In my cousin’s house. / black as night can be/ what was Puerto Rican all about.” Here, the poet is referring to family (mother/cousin), heritage (house), ancestry (spirits), location (Puerto Rico), and darkness (black as night), which symbolizes both the race question and the confusion regarding identity. In darkness, it is hard to make out what is what—but the poet also wants to know how one from Africa can suddenly become Puerto Rican if he is not a native of that place. This seems to be the main question.

Thus, this poem is about identity. It is about asking questions about who one is, from a racial perspective, even if one is raised in another place and given a latin-sounding name. It does not matter to the poet, who wants to hear African spirits—not western or white ones telling him about their actions and discoveries or about who he is based on their histories instead of his family’s.