Reyita

The Life of a Black Cuban Woman in the Twentieth Century, as told to her daughter, Daisy Rubiera Castillo

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by Maria de los Reyes Castillo Bueno . As told to her daughter, Daisy Rubiera Castillo

Duke University Press

Due/Published October 2000, 168 pages, paper

ISBN 0822325934

Mar’a de los Reyes Castillo Bueno (1902-1997), a black woman known as "Reyita," recounts her life in Cuba over the span of ninety years. Her story--as told to and recorded by her daughter Daisy Castillo--begins in Africa with her own grandmother's abduction by slave-traders and continues through a century of experiences with prejudice, struggle, and change in Cuba for Reyita and her numerous family members.

 Sensitive to and knowledgeable of the systemic causes and consequences of poverty, Reyita's testimony considers the impact of slavery on succeeding generations, her mother's internalized racism, and Cuba's residual discrimination. The humiliation and poverty inflicted on the black Cuban community as well as her decision to marry a white man to ensure a higher standard of living form the basis of other chapters. Reyita actively participated in the life of the community--often caring for the children of prostitutes along with her own eight children and giving herbal medicine and "spiritualist" guidance to ill or troubled neighbors. She describes her growing resistance, over five decades of marriage, to her husband's sexism and negativity. Strong-willed and frank about her sexuality as well as her religious and political convictions, Reyita recounts joining the revolutionary movement in the face of her husband's stern objections, a decision that added significant political purpose to her life. At book's end, Reyita radiates gratification that her 118 descendants have many different hues of skin, enjoy a variety of professions, and--"most importantly"--are free of racial prejudice. 

"I am Reyita, a regular, ordinary person. A natural person, respectful, helpful, decent, affectionate, and very independent. For my mother, it was an embarrassment, that I--of her four daughters--was the only black one. I always felt the difference between us, because she didnÕt have as much affection for me as she did for my sisters. . . . I was the victim of terrible discrimination from my mother. And if you add that to the situation in Cuba, you can understand why I never wanted a black husband. I had good reason, you know. I didnÕt want to have children as black as me, so that no one would look down on them, no one would harass and humiliate them. Oh, God only knows! I didnÕt want my children to suffer what IÕd had to suffer."--from Reyita