“Pass Them On”

Through the analysis of Dahlma Llanos-Figueroa’s novel Daughters of the Stone (2009) and Josefina Báez’s long poem Comrade, Bliss Ain’t Playing (2011, 2013), this essay investigates how Afro-Latina writers depict Afro-Latinx subjectivities in the hispanophone Caribbean and the United States. The study makes the argument that Afro-Latina women have historically been underrepresented in literary interpretations of Latino-ness and are challenging dominant narratives of the Latinx and diasporic female body. It also considers how Llanos-Figueroa and Báez intertwine religion and spirituality into their work as integral components of Afro-Latina identity discourse. The two faith practices discussed are African Indigenous spirituality as it relates to the diaspora and Advaita Vedanta, an Eastern philosophical approach to nondualism.