In the 53rd Casa de la Américas Literary Awards, Caribbean winners included Haitian writer Gary Victor for his novel Le sang et la mer, with a special mention for Guadalupe’s Gisèle Pineau for her Morne Câpresse. Two Cuban essayists were also conferred prizes for their works on African-American/Afro-Cuban women; Zuleica Romay won the first prize in the category on Black Presence in the Americas and the Contemporary Caribbean for her essay “Elogio de la altea o las paradojas de la racialidad.” In this same category, the special mention went to Inés M. Martiatu with “¿Y las negras qué? Pensando el afrofeminismo en Cuba.”

In “Premios CASA: Dos negras cubanas que me representan,” Negra Cubana tenía que ser blog writes: “Zuleica Romay and Inés M. Martiatu were the two Cuban intellectuals awarded in the prize House concluded yesterday. Both are black women. The first is the president of the place where I work, Instituto del Libro [The Book Institute] and the second is my friend and mentor. Both competed in the same category, for the Premio Extraordinario de Estudios sobre la presencia negra en la América y el Caribe contemporáneo [Special Prize for Studies on Black Presence in the Americas and the Contemporary Caribbean], which Zuleica [Romay] won with the essay ‘Elogio de la altea o las paradojas de la racialidad’ and Lalita [Inés M. Martiatu] was awarded a special mention with the text ‘¿Y las negras qué? Pensando el afrofeminismo en Cuba.’ I am jubilant; I feel very well represented!”

Negra Cubana tenía que ser is a blog that highlights black women in Cuba and the Americas, analyzing the challenges and achievements of Afro-Cubans in all spheres of contemporary life in Cuba.

For the list of Casa de la Américas prize winners this year, see http://laventana.casa.cult.cu/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=6672 (in Spanish) and previous post Casa de las Americas Literary Awards Announced (in English)

For original post (in Spanish), see http://negracubanateniaqueser.wordpress.com/2012/01/27/premios-casa-dos-negras-cubanas-que-me-representan/