Monica Styles

This research project is designed to include the voices of historically underrepresented Afro-Peruvians in the Latin American literary canon. Afro-Peruvians's realities are palpable in narratives concerning their lives through Black orality and embodiment even though they are marginalized because of race and, in the case of women gender, and they are not writing. Source materials for this project are published and archival materials concerning 17th century Afro-Peruvian healers and spiritual leaders. The questions to be pursued are what ideologies are produced and how do race and gender intersect in these narratives? How do Afro-Peruvians envision their roles in colonial society in the construction of narratives about race and how do they talk back to stereotypes about Afro-descendants?