Exploring Caribbean Heritage Through Death Rituals: A Conversation with Professor Josiana Arroyo-Martinez

In our latest episode of the Disafemi History Podcast, we dive into Caribbean history by hosting an enriching conversation with esteemed scholar Professor Josiana Arroyo-Martinez from the University of Texas, Austin. This episode explores death rituals and their sociocultural implications in Caribbean communities, offering listeners a fresh perspective on a seldom-explored subject. Professor Arroyo-Martinez shares insights into the intriguing topic "Cities of the Dead, Performing Life in the Caribbean," discussing how Afro and European traditions blend and how the memory of those enslaved from Africa deeply influences funeral practices. She also engages us in the narrative of the Atlantic Ocean as the first burial site for Caribbean people, presenting a chilling reminder of the brutal transatlantic slave trade. As we delve into the themes of life, death, and performance in Caribbean societies, the professor utilizes fascinating cultural artifacts. Through the film 'Juan de los Muertos,' Eduardo Lalo's documentary 'La Ciudad Perdida,' and the unique performative funerals of Funeral Marin, she showcases how these communities engage with heritage and identity through their traditions. Interrogating societal narratives around life, loss, and violence, we explore critical issues of gender, race, and power structures. Professor Arroyo-Martinez illuminates the cultural underpinnings of our relationship to death and survival, questioning the role of death images in either re-traumatizing communities or aiding in their healing. Join us to understand the intricate dance of life, death, and identity in Caribbean societies, as we delve into performative mourning, funeral rituals, and the photographic documentation of death. This episode further highlights the symbolism and significance of life-death rituals as a testament to societal resilience and discusses the future of research in this captivating field. Bio: Born in Puerto Rico Jossianna Arroyo-Martínez (BA, University of Puerto Rico, 1989, PhD University of California at Berkeley, 1998) is a literary and cultural studies scholar who specializes in the analysis of Afro-Diasporic literatures and cultures in the Americas, critical race studies, queer studies, and media studies. She is Professor and Chair of the Department of Spanish and Portuguese at The University of Austin, Texas. She also holds an appointment at the Department of African and African Diaspora Studies. She is the author of Travestismos culturales: literatura y etnografía en Cuba y Brasil (Iberoamericana, 2003) a critique of cultural racism in the work of Gilberto Freyre and Fernando Ortiz, and several Cuban and Brazilian novels, and Writing Secrecy in Caribbean Freemasonry (Palgrave, 2013), an analysis of transnational, racial and colonial dimensions of Masonic encounters in the circum-Caribbean and the United States (1850-1898). She has contributing essays on Brazilian and Caribbean Literatures at Lusosex Sexualities in the Portuguese Speaking World (2002); Technofuturos (2008). She has published at Encuentro de la cultura cubana, La Habana Elegante, Revista de Estudios Hispánicos, Journal of Latino Studies, and CENTRO Journal for Puerto Rican Studies, among many other national and international publications. Her new research project entitled Mediascapes is an analysis of local and transnational Caribbean cultures in new media and their ways of representing race, ethnicity and culture in neoliberal times. Book Link: https://www.amazon.com/Caribes-2-0-Globalization-Afterlives-Disaster/dp/1978819749 Article Link: https://doi.org/10.1080/13569325.2018.1485559 Workbook https://www.lulu.com/en/us/shop/wendy... FeedSpot https://podcasts.feedspot.com/caribbe... Morning Journal: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CXMTL3NV Theme Music "Africa" is modern ethnic track with fresh chords, African vocal, orchestra. License Creative Commons Attribution license (reuse allowed) #caribbean #caribbeanculture #history #death #spanishhispanola #african #africandiaspora #deathrituals #performativemourning #culturalartifacts #AfroandEuropeantraditions