Monica Styles

This research project is designed to include the voices of historically underrepresented Afro-Peruvians in the Latin American literary canon. Source materials for this project are published and archival records concerning 17th century Afro-Peruvian healers and spiritual leaders. The questions to be pursued are: what ideologies are produced in the narratives in these records and how do race and gender intersect? How do Afro-Peruvians envision their roles in colonial society as communicated in the construction of these narratives about their lives and race and how do Afro-Peruvians talk back to stereotypes about Afro-descendants? This project proposes Afro-Peruvians exert power in narratives concerning their lives even though they are marginalized because of their race and gender.