Brother to Brother the Friendship and Literary Correspondence of Manuel Zapata

8/12/2019 Brother to Brother the Friendship and Literary Correspondence of Manuel Zapata

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Laurence E. Prescott

crafted/rendered timeline of his life and travels, located on the main floor ofth cen-ter. This coincidence, perhaps, should not be too surprising, for Zapata Olivella andHughes also shared a long yet little known friendship that ended only with the lat-ter's passing.^

In an article titled Male Versus Female Friendship in DonQuijote, Debra D.Andrist establishes the importance of male relationships in literature, which she con-siders the cornerstone of the literary society's dynamics. According to Andrist, theportrayal of male characters as friends and the actual relationships between malewriters have been central to canon formation. Although female relationships bycomparison have been m uch less significant, she asserts tha t they may not only offerinsight on their own merits but may illuminate male relationships as well (Andrist149). Sandra M. Cilbert and Susan Gubar, authors ofThe adivoman inthe Attic:The W oman Writer and the Nineteenth-Century Literary Imagination, have also ques-tioned male-oriented thinking and literary tradition. They respond to critic HaroldBloom's postulations that the dynamics of literary history arise from the artist's 'anx-iety of infiuence,' his fear that he is not his own creator and that the works of hispredecessors, existing before and beyond him, assume essential priority over his ownwritings, ^ and explain tha t in defining herself as an author, th e female writer engagesin a process of revision by which she must redefine the terms of her socialization.They also cite what Adrienne Rich has called 'Revision the act of looking back,of seeing with fresh eyes, of entering an old tex t from a new critical direction .. . anact of survival,' and add th at the woman writer's struggle often begins only as sheactively seeks a female precursor who, far from representing a threaten ing force tobe denied or killed, proves by example that a revolt against patriarchal literaryauthority is possible (Gilbert and Gubar 49).

Although these three scholars focus on the lack of female precursors and thenon-representation of female friends in literature, their comments and insights alsohave relevance and application to friendships of other writers who do not belong tothe traditional paradigm of white male authority. This is especially true for blackwriters such as Zapata Olivella and Hughes who, like women writers, have also notbeen models of friendships in literatureeither in fictional texts or real lifeandhave also had to struggle against assumptions of inferiority and lack of ability. Thisessay proposes to illuminate the relationship and written correspondence of thesetwo important authors of African descent who, despite differences ofage,nationali-ty, and mother tongue, formed and maintained a lasting friendship based o n mutualrespect and the recognition that they shared common literary interests, political


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In the Un ited States of America of the 1920s, the flourishing of literature, artand music that became known as the Harlem Renaissance, and especially the voiceof its leading poet, Langston H ughes, represented a new awareness and affirmationof black identity and culture in the Americas. As a radical challenge to and depar-ture from traditional white authority and representation, the literary and artistic out-pouring of Hughes, Claude McKay, Countee CuUen, W E. B. Du Bois, Zora NealeHurston, and other African American writers, artists, and intellectuals of the peri-od,'' resonated with poets and writers throughout the Americas and elsewhere.Illustrative of that appeal is the friendship of Hughes and Cuban poet NicolasGuillen (1902-1987), which began with a trip Hughes made to Cuba in February of1930 and lasted until his death in 1967. During that visit, as critic Jose AntonioFernandez de Castro wrote shortly afterwards, Hughes fue recibido y festejado porlos elementos representativos de nuestra joven intelectualidad, y por distinguidaspersonalidades y entidades cubanas de la raza negra (Mullen 170.) Hughes himselfbriefly mentions his friendship with the Cuban poet in his second autobiography, 1 onderasi ander 8).

Arnold Rampersad, who has written the defrnitive biography of the AfricanAmerican poet and writer, and other scholars' have amply documented Cuillen'srelationship with Hughes. Rampersad makes no mention, however, of ManuelZapata Olivella, with whom Hughes maintained a friendship for more than twentyyears. Unlike Guillen, who was bom in the same year as Hughes and had traveledwith him from Paris to Barcelona and around Spain as newspaper correspondents onthe Spanish Civil War, Zapata Olivella, who was considerably younger than hisAfrican American confrere, spent relatively little time in Hughes's company.Moreover, the widely traveled Hughes never visited Colombia or any other SouthAmerica nation. Nevertheless, as this essay will show, their meeting and the friend-ship tha t ensued had lasting importance and mutual benefrt to both of them . WhileHughes helped Zapata Olivella to sharpen his literary skills and to understand U.S.black life and culture better, Zapata Olivella enhanced and broadened Hughes'sappreciation ofth black experience in Spanish Am erica. Th eU.S.poet's correspon-dence to Zapata Olivella and the latter's incorporation of Hughes's persona and textsinto his own published writings corroborate the two writers' friendship, mutualrespect, and identification. Consisting of autographed dedications on five ofHughes's books and a Christmas card accompanied by a typed letter, the correspon-dence is numerically smaller than that written by Hughes to Nicolas Guillen, whichhas come to light.* Nevertheless, it is not without signifrcance.

Bom in 1920 in Lorica and raised in Cartagena de Indias, the historic port citythat had served as anentrepot for captive Africans destined for slavery in the


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Am ericas, Zapata Olivella met Hughes in 1946, the year after the end of World WarII and about three years after he had abandoned medical school and his homelandto discover the world beyond Colombia: yo no queria ser medico ... queria servagabundo, he would write later in his 1949 book,Pasion vagabunda: Ya habiaprobado el veneno del vagabundaje y todo mi cuerpo anoraba los caminos que aunno se insinuaban en el horizonte (69). After trekking through Central America dur-ing the early months of 1944 and illegally entering Mexico in April of that year, hesurvived in that post-revolutionary society by using both his wits and his knowledgeof medicine. Eventually, as he narrates in the final chapters ofPasionvagabunda heobtained employm ent as a journalist with various Mexican periodicals, one of whichcontracted him to write a series of articles on the conditions of migrant farm labor-ers in the United States. During the summer of 1946 he crossed the border into theUnited States where he encountered racism, hunger, homelessness, and unemploy-ment, but also comradeship and support, especially among African American veter-ans seeking to reestablish themselves within their segregated homeland, and amongLatin American immigrants eager to find work in the land ofth dollar. ^ Althoughthe U. S. and its Allies had defeated the Axis forces of Nazi Germany, fascist Italyand imperial Japan, the nation, previously weakened by the Great Depression, hadno t recovered its full economic strength . Neither had it begun to effectively confrontits history of racial injustice and discrimination, to end the longstanding and legal-ized practice of racial separation, or to address the crime of lynching.

Making his way to N ew York City with the help of friends bu t lacking a steadymeans of support, Zapata Olivella faced a constant struggle for food and shelter.Familiar with Hughes's autobiography The ig Seaand a few ofhispoems, and anx-ious to resume his own writing, Zapata Olivella sought out the Harlem Renaissance'smost celebrated poet, who as a youth had also taken to the road to see the world.*Under the aptly titled section Resurreccion of Hevisto larwche (1953), the bookthat narrates his experiences in the United States and is the second of his three trav-el narratives,' Zapata Olivella describes his initial encounter with the writer:

a sus puertas esperanzado en que me ayudara a vender algiin articulo en los per-i6dicos negros, aun cuando no habia visto ninguno editado en Nueva York. Detris deesta ayuda que pensaba solicitarle, se escondia la profunda admiracion que como hom-bre y poeta me habian despertado los relatos de su vida y los pocos poemas que leconocia.' En el poeta encontr6 m ucho mSs de lo que abdgara mi alma abatida: unamigo.(1953:88; 1969: 126; 2000: 35 1)According to Zapata Olivella, who informed Hughes about his own back-

ground and the vagabond passion that had impelled his own travels, so natural andlively was their conversation th at it seemed as if Hughes had m et him before en


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Evidently, Zapata Olivella's recounting of the wanderlust that had brought him toHughes' door seemed to have reawakened in his host escondidos recuerdos . Moreimportant, Zapata Olivella made Hughes aware of voces nuevas de los caminos deSur America, de la que solo habfa oido hablar durante su permanencia en Mexico(88).On e of the voices that Zapata O livella brought to H ughes's atten tion was thatof his compatriot Jorge Artel (1909-94), Colombia's leading black poet, who hadpublished his first book of poetry, Tambores en la noche (1940), only a few years ear-lier. Although Hughes had no knowledge of Artel, the latter had been familiar withHughes's verse since at least the 1930s and considered him one of several AfricanAm erican writers whose works reflected the true image of the race and its unmis-takable voice (qtd. in Prescott 73 ). Significantly, Artel had also been one of ZapataOlivella's secondary school teachers in Cartagena, and may well have been instru-mental in familiarizing his student w ith Hughes's writings and literary s tatu re.

Conversely, Hughes, besides providing his grateful guest with much neededsustenance and respite from his daily privations, also introduced him into black lit-erary, artistic, and intellectual circles, which in turn helped the young SouthAmerican mulatto traveler to discern the powerful intellectual force that propelledthe Afiican American struggle for liberation. As Zapata Olivella acknowledged,those experiences would have a profound and long-lasting impact on his literarydevelopm ent and racial consciousness: Yo sentia que aquellas influencias gravita-ban sobre mi espiritu violentamente, encauzando mis ideas dispersas hacia nuevosrumbos He visto89 .

Although Hughes was bo th older and a well established writer, the warm wel-come and unselfish assistance he gave the young aspiring Colombian writerw scon-ducive not so much to the developm ent of a filial relationship that is, of fatherto son, as Bloom positsbut ra ther of a fraterna l relationship, characteristic of manyAfrican-descended peoples in the Americas, who recognize in each other not mere-ly a kindred spirit but a common ancestral experience, a heritage of suffering andstruggle that inextricably bound them together. Indeed, for Zapata Olivella and oth-ers, Hughes^by Latin American standards a mulatto, like Zapata Olivella andGuillen'^embodied, through his privileging of blackness and black culture, his out-spoken eloquence against Jim Crow and racism, and his openness to other languages,cultures and peoples, the model of a successful and committed black writer worthyof emulation, not competition. *

In an interview with Yvonne Captain-Hidalgo, author of the first book inEnglish devoted to his work, Zapata Olivella confirmed the strong fraternal senti-ment tha t Hughes's most famous composition, I,Too, had inspired in him: Tal vezel [poema] que mas me influyo en el sentido de entusiasmarme, en hacerme sentir


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herm ano de el fue 'Yo tambien soy Am erica'. (26 ). Revisiting in his autobiographyiLevdntatemulato (1987) the feelings engendered by his first meeting with Hughes,Zapata Olivella again underscored the fraternal quality of tha t encou nter: Auncuando solo conocia algo de su obra, me acogio con los sentimientos de un viejo her-mano (278-79).'^

Both the known correspondence from Hughes to Zapata Olivella and the lat-ter's inclusion of Hughes in several publications substantiate the development of thetwo w riters'friendship As stated above, the correspondence consists of Hughes's sig-nature and accompanying greeting on five of his published books. The earliest ofthese is inscribed on a copy of TheWays ofWhiteFolks,Hughes's first collection ofshort stories, published in 1934. It reads as follows: For Manuel Zapata, with allgood wishes for a happy stay in th e U. S. A., Sincerely, Langston H ughes. New York,September 2, 1946.

Besides exemplifying Hughes's generosity, this first message is especially impor-tan t because it offers evidence of Zapata Olivella's presence in the U nited States andindicates an exact day, month, and year when the two writers may have met or mostlikely were together. The dedication also reveals that the young traveler was in theearly stages ofhisvisit to the United States. In contrast, it is noteworthy that in Hevistola nocheZapata Olivella rarely offered precise information about the day, monthor year of his particular experiences. It is as if he wanted to avoid in a literal sense dating his work, which, undoubtedly, he envisioned not as a detailed, everydayrecord of his movements but as a lively narrative of his particular rovings, encoun-ters,and discoveries.

Zapata Olivella's stay in the United States lasted about a year. Returning toColombia in m id-1947, as the dates of various articles written by and about him sug-gest, he resumed his medical studies at the National University while also continu -ing his literary aspirations. Hughes, in fact, is the subject of one of the articles hewrote upon his retu rn. Titled simply Langston Hughes, el hom bre, it presents amore detailed account of his interactions with Hughes than the brief episode hewould narrate in He visto lanoche years later. Through this intimate portrait ofHughes the writer and the m an, Zapata Olivella not only expressed publicly his grat-itude to the poet who had provided him sustenance and guidance at a critical timein his life, but also helped to broaden Hughes's name and literary reputationthroughout Colombia and possibly to other areas of the Spanish-speaking world.

Towards the end of 1947 Zapata Olivella published his first book, the novelTierra rrwjada, which carried a prologue by Peruvian indigenista novelist CiroAlegria, whom Zapata Olivella had also met in New York City and considered amentor (Hevisto la noche89-90;iLevdntatemulato 276 ^ Equally important (for


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purposes of this essay), about this time Hughes setit him a copy of Iinmensomarthe Spanish version ofThe igSea which had been published in Buenos Aires threeyears earlier. The dedication that Hughes wrote tberein constitutes the secondknown piece of correspondence to Zapata Olivella. ' Inscribed m ore than a year afterHughes bad signed and presented him tbe sbort story collection, tbe words read: For my friend and fellow vagabon [sic], Manuel Zapata, witb all good wisbesSincerely, Langston Hugbes. New York, Nov. 22, 1947. Like tbe first inscription ,tbis one also closes witb tbe com mon expression of sincerity. It differs sligbtly, bow-ever, in tone and in degree of intimacy. Wbile tbe words written on tbe story col-lection seem more formal, expressing witb cordiality tbe kind of greeting given toa person one bas just met and does not know well, tbose on tbe autobiograpbyand specifically tbe word friend confirm tbe existence of a deeper relationsbipand reaffirm an awareness of a common experience and identityvagabondagetbat binds tbe two men and reinforces tbeir firiendsbip.

Zapata Olivella, of course, was not tbe first Soutb American to travel tbeUnited States and to sbow interest in tbe social and economic conditions and tberacial inequities tbat cbaracterized tbe lives of Afiican American citizens in tbe ageof segregation. However, as a self-identified Spanisb Am erican man of color wboembraced bis Afiican and indigenous beritages witbout sbame or fear, and wbo tookto tbe road witbout tbe relative comforts and security tbat invited visitors from tbesou tbem republics usually enjoyed, Zapata Olivella no doubt stood out from most oftbose wbom Hugbes bad met. Furtbermore, and again unlike many otber Hispanictravelers of tbat period, be not only bad witnessed discrimination and tbe injusticeof soutbem Jim Crow laws and customs tbat cbaracterized mucb of 1940s U. S.Am erica, but also bad lived it bimselffrom tbe b lack side of tbe color line. As aconsequence, be was able to offer bis readers a unique, insider's view of marginalizedpopulations witbin U. S. society at a crucial moment in its bistory. His firm fiiend-sbip witb Hugbes, bis familiarity witb Harlem by day and nigbt, and bis firstbandknowledge of (U. S.) African American life and culture experienced from w itbintbe veil, accorded bim a certain cacbet to speak and write witb autbority about U.S. race relations, social problems, and prominent black figures, wbicb was uncom-mon for most Spanisb American travelers.

Tbus, in a brief article of 1948 titled Agenda politica de un campeon, berefutes a journalist's opinion abou t beavyweigbt boxing cbam pion Joe Louis's pbysi-cal condition and unsuitability for political activity, pointing out tba t Louis bad longbeen active in tbe political struggle on bebalf of Afiican Americans. He concludestbe n ote by citing Hugbes, singer and actor Paul Robeson, and writer Ricbard W rigbtas otber prom inent A fiican Am ericans involved in la politica de los negros esta-


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dounidenses, who lo sacrifican todo y no por cierto en pos de una curul (5).As Zapata Olivella told professor Captain-Hidalgo in the interviews she con-

ducted with him, he and Hughes kept in touch largely by sending each other thehooks they published. Although both produced several works between 1950 and1960,no evidence of correspondence or exchange ofworksis available for this peri-od . Equally momentous events in their lives may have prevented them from main-taining easy, regular communication. Owing to his radical writings and activities ofearlier years, Hughes fell victim in the 1950s to the hysteria of the Cold W ar inten -sified by Senator Joseph R. McCarthy. He was summoned to appear in March of1953 before the Senate Permanent Sub-Committee on Investigations, chaired bySen. McCarthy, and aimed at rooting out suspected Communists spies andCommunist sympathizers. Although Hughes managed to acquit himself sufficientlyand continued to write, the whole experience, according to Arnold Rampersad, lefthim vigilant about any connec tion between his nam e and the Left (2: 221), andmay even have compelled him to be more circumspect about his correspondence.^''Zapata Olivella's participation in Colombia's Communist Youth organizationi l evdntate mulato 286)which might have prevented him later from obtaining avisa to travel to the United Statescertainly could have compromised furtherHughes' unsettled situation or made it difficult for the poet to be linked with hisColombian comrade. Similarly, in the wake of the fratricidal political violence thatshook Colombia after the assassination of Liberal leader orgeEliecer Gaitan in Aprilof 1948, Zapata Olivella's political affrliations and activities presented no little dan-ger to his own life (287). Although he completed his medical degree in 1949 aboutthe same time that his second book, asionvagabunda, appeared, he found it advis-able to leave the capital and establish residence in the small town of La Paz,Valledupar, situated near the border with Venezuela, where he practiced medicineamong the rural peasantry. The Marxist-oriented social and political consciousnessevident in his doctoral thesis also seems to have motivated the move, as the follow-ing excerpt from one ofhisearly 1950 newspaper writings reveals:

tengo la predileccion de curar a los menos aptos para pagarme una consulta. Por estemotivo estoy ejerciendo la medicina en un medio rural y no en un c entro digno de miinteligencia, como suelen algunas voces amigas aconsejarme. Para mi la medicina no esun problema cientiflco, economico o de talento, sino simple y Uanamente politico: deboservir a los pobres y no a los ricos. ( Cartas de u n medico rura l 4)Before reaching La Paz, however, it appears that he did manage to sendor

have sentto Hughes a copy of asion vagabunda,which contains two brief hand-written inscriptions (in green ink), one of which bears testimony to the insecurepolitical climate existing th en in Colombia. The frrst appears on the book's title page


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and reads: Es el primer volumen que se vende en B arranca en las af[ueras]. de Z.Libertadora Barranca l-X-49 Bolivar . The second notation is found at the end ofthe Carta a manera de introito (14), which opens the book and begins with thesalutation Recordado hermano , probably addressing the au thor's younger siblingJuan , who would also study medicine. It reads: En estado de sitio y paro civico, endireccion a la voragine...? Barranca 26-XI'49 . Using the word voragine, whichevokes the celebrated novel Lavordgine (1924) by fellow Colombian Jose EustacioRivera (1880-1929), the author alludes to the uncertainty and violence that hisnatio n was experiencing. '

Unlike Hughes, who remained a bachelor throughout his life, Zapata Olivellasettled down and had childrentwo daughtersduring the years he lived andworked in Valledupar. Especially in those difficult times, no doubt, he must haveremembered his friend, the circumstances of their meeting, and the experiences inNew York that originated from it. Evidence of this memory is the fact that he gaveto his elder daughter the name of the community where Hughes lived, which alsosymbolized the vibrancy and resilience of African American culture: Harlem.Significantly, too, he placed as the epigraph to his book Hevisto la noche whichappeared in 1953, the following lines taken from Hughes's first published poem, The Negro Speaks of Rivers, a Spanish version of which Zapata Olivella evident-ly knew:

He contemplado rios,viejos, oscuros, con la edad del m undo,y con ellos, tan viejos y sombriosel coraz6n se me volvi6 profundo. 'Assuming that Zapata Olivella was aware of the political witch-hunt that hadensnared Hughes in those years, his inclusion of those p oetic lines could certainlybe interpreted not only as a recollection of the poet, but also as an expression ofsolidarity and support to his friend.

Colombia's political problems notwithstanding, Zapata Olivella obviously didnot forget or lose sight of the world beyond his homeland, asChina 6a.m.(1955),his third book of travel narratives, and Hotelde vagabundos (1955), his first dram at-ic work and winner of the 1954 Premio Espiral for theater, show. Based on his expe-riences among other unemployed, down-and-out immigrants, veterans and tran-sients rooming at the Mills Hotel in New York,' the play, which he began writingshortly after his return from the U nited States, reflects an abiding faith in revolution-ary struggle. Nevertheless, manyif no t mostof Zapata Olivella's journalistic andliterary writings tha t appeared between 1954 and 1961 including his second novel.La Calk 10(1960), and his first collection of short stories, uentos de muertey liber


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tad (1961)focused largely on national themes (violence, folklore, indigenous life)that reflected his experiences in and his observations of both rural and urban sociallandscapes.

During the decade of the 1960s, which would encompass the final years ofHughes's life, Zapata Olivella received from his friend three more books, whichincluded familiar handw ritten inscriptions in customary green ink. Th e first of theseis the collection titledSomething in ommonand Other Stories which was publishedin 1961 when Zapata Olivella's own stories also appeared. Two important changesdistinguish the dedication of this book from those of the two earlier ones. Writingfourteen years later, Hughes addresses Zapata Olivella by his first name only.Concomitantly, he signs the book w ith just his given nam e. These two minor but sig-nificant modifications simultaneously reveal and reinforce the greater familiarity andintimacy that undoubtedly had come to define the unique friendship of these twoAfio-American w riters. Th e dedication reads: For Manuel with sincere regardsfromL angston[.] Harlem , U. S. A ., May, 1961. It is also interesting to note tha tHughes no longer indicated, broadly, the city of New York as the place from whichhe was writing. Rather, he chose to denote the predominantly black neighborhoodor comm unity of Harlem as the specific location from which he w rote, in wh ich helived, and which, of course, held fond memories for Zapata Olivella.

Two years later (1963) Hughes sen t to Zapata Olivella his latest book, plainlytitledFive Plays published tha t same year. Here he maintained the simplicity andintimacy that marked the previous dedication by addressing his correspondent againonly by first name and signing the book in a similar manner. On the other hand,Hughes returned to indicating New York City as the site from which he wrote. Thewords of the dedica tion are as follow: Especially for Manuelmy plays. Sincerely,Langston New York, May 1,1963. In addition, it is noteworthy that Hughes addedpersonal emphasis to the signature by using the intensifying adverb Especially.Also, unlike the previous dedication, which included only the month and year of thesigning, Hughes in this instance wrote the complete date, including day, month andyear.

AlthoughPasidn vagabundais the only one of Zapata Olivella's books knownto have reached Hughes, another of his undertakings that linked the two vmters alsoformed part of Hughes's possessions that passed to the Schomburg Collection uponhis dea th. The inaugural issue (numbered 0 ) of Zapata Olivella's literary journa lLetras Nacionaks begun in 1965, included Hughes as the lone U. S. member on thelist of Colaboradores, thus refiecting and strengthening the bonds tha t continuedto conne ct the two writers.The fifthand apparently the lastbook of his that Hughes forwarded to


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Zapata Olivella is the paperback edition of his second autobiography, I Wonder as IWander (1964), which was originally published in t956 . The first three words of thededication ("Especially for Manuel") echo those that Hughes wrote on the volumeofplays.Immediately following this phrase and placed between dashes are four morewords, no t used in any of the previous inscriptions, tha t contain the strongest expres-sion of sentim ent yHughes to his Afro-Colombian literary colleague and racial con-frere: "with all my affection."

As in the dedications of 1961 and 1963, Hughes also signs this one with hisgiven name only. Once again, he records the city of New York as his location andalso specifies the exact date ofhissignature. Th e final words of the dedication, how-ever, depart from the usual, briefperhaps even formulaicbut no less sincere man-ner in which Hughes dedicated his books. Written after the place and date are fiveadditional words that constitute an invitation or appeal to Zapata Olivella to visitHughes again. They also serve as another emotional reminder to Zapata Olivella ofthe exact place where he and Hughes first met and their long friendship began:Harlem . Here is the text of the dedication: "Especially for Manuel with all myaffectionSincerely, Langston New York, M arch 9, 1964 Oye, come back toHarlem " The use of the familiar Spanish verbal imperative "O ye" meaning"Listen" or "Hey"which Zapata Olivella would, of course, understand andappreciate, demonstrates Hughes's familiarity and ease with common expressionsof the language. More important, it adds a playful yet more personal and sensitivetouch to the sincerity of the dedication.

On May 22, 1967, Langston Hughes died in a New York hospital from com-plications following surgery (Rampersad 423). About a year laterand more thantwo decades after he had departed the United States to go back home toColombiaZapata Olivella finally was able to return to the country of Hughes'sbirth but not in time to see his friend." Following his appointment as first VisitingProfessor of the Latin American Chair in the Latin American Studies Program at theUniversity of Toronto (1968-69), he was a writer-in-residence during the academicyear 1970-1971 at the University of Kansas, in Lawrence, Kansas,^^ where Hugheshad spent much of his childhood (The Big Sea 13-25). Nevertheless, as his novelChango, elgran putas (1983), his essayISluestra vo z (1987), and his autobiographyILevdntate mulato (1990) reveal, throughout much of the rest of his life ZapataOlivella continued to remember and evoke the nam e ofhisfriend and literary men-tor. Eor example, in hango (395-96) Zapata Olivella introduces Hughes as a char-acter, recalls incidents from The BigSea,and reproduces the same verses of "TheNegro Speaks ofRivers"that serve as epigraph to He vistolanoche. Elsewhere (404)he has Hughes recite lines from his poem "Negro." In the essay Zapata Olivella cites


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Hughes's first book of poetry TheWeary Blues(1926) among the long list of writingsby U. S. authors that evince the black infiuence on popular speech and written lan-guage (75-76), and mentions Hughes andJorgeArtel as outstanding poets, who bothreveal and acknowledge their trietnicidad biologica 76).^More than mere personal recollection or even literary inter-textuality, theseremembrances and evocations concur with the African beliefto which ZapataOlivella came to subscribeof keeping alive the memory of the departed, by whichthe living are able to carry on with a firm sense of self and identity (Prescott 131).In remembering and revering Hughes, by honoring their friendship, Zapata Olivellanot only strengthened the poet's well-earned reputation within the Hispanic worldbut also enhanced his own position within the Americas as a talented Afi:o-Colom bian writer committed to literature and the struggle for justice for all peoples.

NotesThis article is based on a paper originally presented at the XIV Congreso of the Asociacion de

Colombianistas, Denison University, Granville, O hio, 3-6 Aug. 2005. The author wishes to thank par-ticipants Michael Palencia-Roth, Jonathan Tittler, David Gilliam, Ligia Aldana, and Luisa Ossa fortheir constructive criticism given on that occasion. He also expresses his gratitude to Edelma ZapataPerez for permission to publish the inscriptions on the books th at M anue l Zapata Olivella received fromLangston Hughes, and to Carmen MilMn de Benavides for sharing timely clippings. Thanks also toRosalia Comejo-Parriego for helpful suggestions throughout the writing of this paper.

Sadly, even though Hughes and Zapata Olivella attained a notable measure of literary success andrenown in their respective homelands, and gained significant recognition and respect in interna tionalquarters, neither m anaged to achieve through his writings the economic solvency and stability that heso eagerly sought.

See Sandra M. Gilbert and Susan Gubar, T he Madw oman in the Attic: The W omanWriter and theNineteenth-Century Uterary Imagination (46).*See, for example, Langston Hughes's essay, The Negro Artist and th e Racial Moun tain. The Nation23 June 1926.

Several critics have comm ented on the friendship between Hughes and G uillen and their similar useof black musical forms. Among these Edward Mullen, Arnold Rampersad, and Richard L. Jacksonassert tha t Hughes influenced the black poetics of Gu illen. KeithEllis,however, argues that Guillen hadalready taken the path that would lead to the creation of hisMotivos de son (1930) and other black-inspired musical poetry. Citing both publisbed and unpublished correspondence betw een Hughes andGuillen and other sources, Vera Kutzinski in a recent article ( Cuba Libre: Langston Hughes y NicoMsGuillen ) reexamines and raises new questions about the two poets' relationship.


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on Africans in Colombia. Asked by a dark-skinned woman when the Negro speaker was to arrive,Zapata Olivella joyfully informed her that he was the one, to which the woman replied in amazement,"But you're white " (181).

Th e poem actually begins "I, too, sing America. / I am the darker brother" and ends with the verse,"I,too, am America."

It is worthwhile noting th atILevdntatemuhto , which bears as its subtitle Mexican philosopher andeducator Jose Vasconcelos's slogan "Por mi raza hablarS el espiritu," first appeared in a French edition.It was published just four years after Zapata Olivella's Chango,el gran putas(1983), which introducedthe Yoruba/Lucumi term "ekobio," meaning "brother," into the common parlance of black Colombiansand black scholars of Afro-Hispanic literature througho ut the A mericas.

Owing to considerations of space, Hughes's Christmas c orrespondence will not be included in this dis-cussion. July of 1947 articles by Zapata Olivella on Colombian themes and institutions were appearing inColombian newspapers and magazines. See, for example, "Confidencias de un tinto. Tertuliasbogotanas" and "Problemas del Iibro en Colombia. Los ineditos," both of which appeared in Cromos.

In another article in preparation, I examine thic text more closely.Alegria acknowledged Zapata Olivella not only in the prologue but in otber writings as well. See, for

example, bis article "La novela y su tecnica," merica (27).According to Zapata Olivella, Hughes had also sent him a copy of his recent collection of verse titled

FieldsofWonder (1947) in which he rem inded the Colombian tb at h e had agreed to get him a copy ofArtel's book: "La obra vino acompanada de unos reclamos que me bace deTamboresen la noche, deJorge Artel, de quien solo ha conocido unos pocos poemas que Uevaba en mi morral de vagabundo"("Langston Hughes" ). Had Zapata Olivella been able to locate the book, it is possible tbat Hugheswould have included Artel in the South American section of The Poetry of the Negro, 1749-1949(Garden City: Doubleday, 1949), the comprehensive anthology he was then editing with AmaBontemps.

The se words form pa rt of the subtitle of W. E. B. Du Bois's bookDarkwater:Voices from within theVeoriginally published in 1920 and from which one of tbe epigraphs at the head of this paper is taken.

During tbis period Hughes published Montage of a DreamDeferred (1951), Laughing toKeep froCrying(1952), andSelected Poems (1959), among others. Zapata Olivella's book production includedHe visto lanoche (1953), the playHotel devagahundos (1955),China6 a.m.(1955), and the novelLaCalk 10(1960).

Rampersad provides excerpts from Hughes's testimony in public hearings on Thursday, March 26,1953 (212-19). Tbe interrogation that Hughes underwent in closed session on Tuesday, March 24,1953, appears in the recently published (2003) transcripts of the Executive Sessions of the SenatePermanent Subcommittee on Investigations of the Committee on Government Operations (McCarthyHearings 1953-54), Kutzinski incorrectly gives 1952 as the year of Hughes' appearance before the sub-comm ittee (143). Th e transcripts are available online at:


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ry/resources/pdf/Volume2.pdf >.See "N otas culturales. Novelista,"El Colombiano nov. 1949: 5: "El conoc ido novelista colombiano

Manuel Zapata Olivella, recibioen el dia deayerelgradodedoctorenm edicinade laUniversidadNacionaldeColombia.Eltrabajodetesis p resentadopor el joven escritor, para optareltitulo, versosobre'Elmetodo dial6cticoy lasciencias mod ema s'. Zapata Olivellahapublicadodosobras: TierramojadayPasionvagabunda,ambas acogidas jubilosamentepor lacritica nacional."26

I wishtothank the Schomburg C enter for ResearchinBlack Cu lture for photocopying the aforemen-tioned pages fromPasidn vagabundaandallowing metophotograph them also.Itis importanttomen-tion also tbattbelibrary ownsasecond copyofthe book, whichitreceived from Langston Hughesin1950,as thefollowing w ords a ttest: For theSchomburg C ollection-his book byaColombian N egro(mulatto) writerwhospent several m onthsin NewYork-Sincerely, Langston Hughes[.] New York,2/24/50."

His older daughter's full given name is Harlem Segunda, because, as Zapata Olivella informed me,hisfirst-bom, whomhe also named Harlem, died in infancy. Ironically, however,his younger daughter,Edelma, is the one wbo has inheritedorfollowed their father's creative bent and wbo has taken respon-sibilityforsafeguarding bis intellectual memoryandliterary patrimony.

Th e verses correspondto thelast stanzaofthe poem as rendered by Colombian poetandanthropol-ogist Carlos Lopez Narvaez. This version appearedin tbeBogotS pressin1948andwas included laterinEldeh enelrio;versiones depoemas del francesydelingies (1952),acollectionofpoems fromtheFrenchand theEnglish tbat Lopez NarvSez translated.See pages 139-40forHugbes's poems. M ullen(63) lists five other translationsofthe poem published before 1953.Notabem: Thebook's cover bearstbedate 1955but thetitle page has 1954.In a section of He vistola noche (70-73) Zapata Olivella describes tbe miserable existence of tbe hotel's

residents.Th e plays are "M ulatto," "Soul Gone Hom e," "Little Ham ," "Simply Heavenly" and "Tambourinesto

Glory.""Inthe interview w ith Yvonne Captain-Hidalgo, Zapata Olivella erroneously states tha t he did no t seeHugbesfortwenty-five years, which would have been 1972, five years after Hughes's death(26).

This information is taken fromtheauthor'svitathat appearson theback coverof isnovel E fusi-lamiento deldiahb(1999).

See also Manuel Zapata Olivella, "Los ancestros combatientes: una saga afro-norteamericana,"Hispanic Review 10.3 (1991): 51-58.

Works ited

Alegria, Ciro. "La novela ysutecnica." merica 50.1-3 (1956): 25-28.And rist, Debra D. "Male versus Female FriendshipinDonQuijote. Bulletinofthe Cervantes Society of


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Artel, Jorge. Tamiiores en knoc /ie ( J9 3) -J93 4) . Cartagena : Editora Bolivar, 1940.Chrisman, Robert. "NicoMs Guillen, Langston Hughes, and the Black Am erican/Afro-Cuban

Connection." Michigan Quarterly Review33.4 (1994): 807-20.Du Bois, W E. B. Darkwater: Voices from W ithin theVeil. 1920. Am herst, New York: Hum anity-

Prometheus, 2002.Durango O., Sylvana. "Zapata Olivella volvio por ultima vez a Lorica." Indymedia Colombia27 nov.

2004. 11 May 2006 .Ellis,Keitb. "NicolSs Guillen and Langston Hughes: Convergences and Divergences." Between Race

and Empire: AfricanAmericans and Cubansbefore the Cuban Revolution. Ed. Lisa Brock andDigna Castafieda Fuertes. Philadelphia: Temple UR 1998. 129-67.

Fernandez de Cas tro, Jos6 Antonio . "Presen taci6n de Langston Hughes." Revistade laHabana1.3(1930): 367-68. Rpt. in Mullen 169-71.Gilbert, Sandra M., and Susan Gubar. The M adwoman in the Attic: The W oman Writer and theNineteenth Century LiteraryIma gination. New Hav en: YaleUP 1979.

Hughes, Langston. Th eBigSea; an Autobiography. NewYork: Knopf 1940.. Elinmensomar. Buenos Aires: Editorial Lautaro, 1944.. FieldsofWonder.NewYork: Knopf 1947.. FivePlays.Bloomington: Indiana UR 1963.. IWonder asIWander; anAutobiographicalJoumey. New York: Rinehart, 1956; New York: Hi

& Wang, 1964.. Laughing to Keep/rom Crying. New York:Holt, 1952.. Montage o/ a D ream Deferred. New York: Holt, 1951.. "Th e Negro Artist and the Racial M ountain." The Nation23 June 1926.. SelectedPoems. NewYork: Knopf 1959.. "Six Letters to Nicolas Guillen." Ed. Robert Chrisman. Trans. Carm en Alegria. TheBlack

Scholar 16.4 1985): 54-60.. Something in CommonandOtherStories.NewYork: Hill & Wang, 1963.. TheWaysofWUteFolks.NewYork: Knopf 1934.. TheWearyBlues. NewYork: Knopf 1926.. and A nna Bontem ps, eds. T/ie Poetry o/t/ie Negro, 746-J949.Garden City: Doubleday, 1949.

Jackson, Richard L. BlackWriters and Latin America: Cross Cultural Affinities. Wasbington, D.C:Howard UR 1998.

Kutzinski, Vera. "Cuba Libre: Langston Hughes y Nicolas Gu illen." Cuba;un si^ deliteratura (1902-2002). Ed. An ke Birkenmaier and Roberto Gonzalez Echeverria. Madrid: EditorialCloibrf2004. 129-46.

Lopez NarvSez, Carlos, trans. E cielo en elrio;versiones depoemas delfrancis y del ingles.BogotSEdiciones Espiral Colombia, 1952.

. "El negro habla de los rios". (Versi6n de Carlos Lopez NarvSez.) ElTiempo 6 junio 1948,


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Suplemento Literario: 3.Mullen, Edward. LangstonHughes in the Hispanic World andHaiti. Ham den: Arch on Books, 1977.

. Notas culturales. Novelista. Colombiano 8 nov. 1949: 5.Prescott, Laurence E. Without Hatredso r Fears:]orgeArtel ardthe StruggleforBlack Literary Expressionin Colombia. Detroit: Wayne State UR 2000. . ' We, Too, Are Am erica': Langston Hughes in Colombia. Forthcoming inT heLangston Hughes

ReviewFall 2006.Rampersad, Arnold. TheLifeofLangston Hughes. 2vols. NewYork Oxford U?,1986 and 1988.United States. Cong. Sena te. Executive Sessions of the Senate Perm anent Subcommittee on

Investigations of the Committee on Government Operations (McCarthy Hearings 1953-54).10 May 2006


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Documents

Brother to Brother the Friendship and Literary Correspondence of Manuel Zapata