Jayne Cortez was an Afro-Latina poet and musician who expressed her stance on racism and misogyny through her poetry, music and contributions to the women\u2019s movement through her experiences as a woman of color. In her poem, \u201cDo You Think?\u201d Cortez talks about different issues that affect women of color through different literary techniques like imagery and repetition. She addresses how racism, colonialism, and misogyny affect the way that women of color navigate their identities within society. She establishes the importance of her Latinx identity by using words like \u201cchorizo\u201d and<\/span><\/p>\n The poem, Do You Think?, by Jayne Cortez. This poem discusses the hardships of women of color as a result of racism, misogyny and colonialism.<\/p><\/div>\n \u201ccuchifritos.\u201d In the poem, Cortez asserts \u201cAnd my chorizo face a holiday for knives\/and my arching lips a savannah for cuchifritos\/ and my spit curls a symbol for you to\/ overcharge overbill oversell me\u201d (Cortez 57).\u00a0 By evidently depicting a woman of color with distinct physical features, Cortez alludes to the fact that being a woman of color is not justification for her to have to submit to the oppressive systems that neglect her identities. <\/span>Later in the poem Cortez says, \u201cyou think i accept this pentecostal church in exchange for the lands you stole\u201d (Cortez 57). Pentecostalism is a common religion among Latinx religions even though it was forcefully imposed on indigenous and African slave communities to erase their native beliefs. Eventually, Pentecostalism was used to subordinate people of color and subjected women to the control of men for centuries. Cortez\u2019s rejection of Pentecostalism is significant because it displays to the reader that because of her identity, practicing institutionalized religion is difficult because of its misogynistic and racist roots.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The poem, \u201cFrom the House of Yemanj\u00e1,\u201d by Audre Lorde also does not shy away from accepting native religion. This poem was released in 1978 in <\/span>The Black<\/span><\/i> Unicorn<\/span><\/i> along with other poems that explored the themes of womanhood, family life and spirituality. The name <\/span>Yemanj\u00e1<\/span><\/i> refers to the \u201cYoruban deity celebrated as the giver of life and as the metaphysical mother of all orishas<\/span>\u00a0(deities) within the <\/span>Yoruba<\/span> spiritual pantheon\u201d (Canson).\u00a0 This specific poem examines the relationship that the narrator has to their mother. The first stanza describes the narrator\u2019s mother to have two faces. The narrator says,\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cMy mother had two faces and a frying pot<\/span><\/p>\n where she cooked up her daughters<\/span><\/p>\n into girls<\/span><\/p>\n before she fixed out dinner.<\/span><\/p>\n My mother had two faces and a broken pot<\/span><\/p>\n where she hid out a perfect daughter<\/span><\/p>\n who was not me\u201d (Lorde).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The poem, “From the House of Yemanj\u00e1,” by Audre Lorde as it appears in The Black Unicorn<\/em>.<\/p><\/div>\n This stanza establishes the poem as the narrator\u2019s yearning for a motherly figure who accepted them as who they were. The second stanza describes the narrator having two women on their back \u201cone dark and rich and hidden\/ in the ivory hungers of the other\u201d (Lorde). The duality of the two women introduced depict the two faces of the mother. They depict the two sides of the narrator\u2019s mother as these women taunt and take care of the narrator. The poem ends with the repetition of \u201cMother I need\u201d signifying the narrator begging their mother for their comforting touch and presence. As Yemanj\u00e1 is the mother of all, this poem could be interpreted to be the narrator asking for a form of Yemanj\u00e1 to appear before them and offer support and acceptance.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Sources:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Canson, Patricia. \u201cYemonja.\u201d <\/span>Encyclopedia Britannica, <\/span><\/i>15 August 2014,\u00a0<\/span>https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/Yemonja<\/span><\/p>\n Cortez, Jayne. \u201cDo You Think?\u201d <\/span>Heresies<\/span><\/i>, vol. 1, no. 1, 1977, p. 125.<\/span><\/p>\n Lorde, Audre. <\/span>The Black Unicorn.<\/span><\/i> 1st ed., Norton, 1978.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Women of Color and Native Spirituality\u00a0 For women of color, the hardship of navigating through society was doubled as they suffered from oppressive systems that rejected their identities as women and people of color. As traditional religions like Roman Catholicism … Continue reading ![\"\"](\"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/engl113-f18\/files\/2021\/12\/Do-You-Think-1-138x300.png\")
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