"We have always been there...": On Afro-diasporic Feminisms and Eulalia Bernard Little's Writing

Abstract

While critics of Afro-Costa Rican writer Eulalia Bernard Little affirm her focus on the Black struggle, they suggest neutrality or absence of gender discussions, even excessive attention to the male figures in her poetry. However, to date there has not been a review that assesses the treatment of the simultaneous experiences of race and gender in her literary career. Through a diachronic review of her publications and her poetic activism, this article examines the fundamental space occupied by the being and vision of Black women throughout her oeuvre and its relationship with the Afro-diasporic feminist tradition of thought and mobilization. The centrality of her own body and the reference to motherhood of African and Caribbean heritage can be traced back to Bernard's early works; however, the author increases the attention to the image of and links with female figures, writers, deities of the diaspora and activists in her latest collection of poems. The coincidence between these gestures, the work of other Afro-descendant female authors, the Afro-Latin American feminist movements, and an epistemology derived from the experience of Black women, allows us to initiate a conversation about Bernard Little's contributions to the genesis of a Black feminist and diaspora thought in Costa Rica. At the same time, the analysis highlights the complexities of the use of and (self) ascription to afro-feminisms, its antecedents, and the diversity of its experiences in the Caribbean and the Central American context.