The Black Feast of St. Michael

In Puerto Rico, Afro-descendants celebrated the Fiesta de San Miguel (Feast of St. Michael the Archangel) every year on September 29 with performances that reflected their Afro-creole culture. The festival had deep colonial roots, though its documentation is most robust for nineteenth-century San Juan and its environs. Like other Black Atlantic traditions, the festivities showcased the celebrants’ social cohesion. The festival was a potent form of cultural agency for Afro-Puerto Ricans overcoming many obstacles to stage it annually, including efforts to suppress it. This article builds on the growing scholarship on Afro-Atlantic festive traditions. It expands on some of the theoretical approaches proposed in this literature and adds to a growing understanding of Afro-Atlantic festive traditions as forms of joyful Black resistance by addressing the historical importance and meaning of the Afro-Puerto Rican Feast of St. Michael. While it highlights broad Atlantic connections, its principal aim is to analyze how Afro-Puerto Ricans formed communities of joy despite the opposition they faced.