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For other people named Cristina Ayala, see Cristina Ayala (disambiguation).

Maria Cristina Fragas (July 24, 1856 – April 20, 1936), known by her pen name, Cristina Ayala, was an Afro-Cuban writer and poet.

Biography

The daughter of a Creole mother who was enslaved and an unknown father, she was born free in Güines, Cuba, on July 24, 1856.[1] She did not marry until 1912, when she wed Cecilio Larrondo.[1] Fragas died in Güines in 1936 at the age of 79.[1]

Writing

Her work was published in various newspapers and journals including El Pueblo Libre and El Sufragista, as well as in Minerva, a magazine dedicated to black women for which she was a founding editor. She is believed to be the first Afro-Hispanic writer to talk about race in her poetry. In her work, she opposed slavery and supported racial equality and national independence for all Cubans.[2][3]

A collection of her work, Ofrendas Mayabequinas, was published in 1926 with a foreword by Valentin Cuesta Jimenez.[4]

Recognition

After her death, the town council of Güines named a street in her honour. The street was renamed after the Cuban Revolution and no longer exists.[1]

References

  1. ^ a b c d "Cristina Ayala". Círculo Güinero de Los Ángeles.
  2. ^ Callahan, Monique-Adelle (2011). Between the Lines: Literary Transnationalism and African American Poetics. Oxford University Press. pp. 25–32. ISBN 978-0199876693.
  3. ^ Sanmartin, Paula (2014). Black Women as Custodians of History: Unsung Rebel (M)Others in African American and Afro-Cuban Women's Writing. Cambria Press. p. 240. ISBN 978-1604978698.
  4. ^ DeCosta-Willis, Miriam, ed. (2003). Daughters of the Diaspora: Afra-Hispanic Writers. Ian Randle Publishers. pp. xxx–xxxi. ISBN 976637077X.
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