Afro-Caribbean culture seen in poetry: the Palo de Mayo tradition in the poem If I Were May by Carlos Rigby Moses

Abstract

This work focalizes on the poetry of the Caribbean coast of Nicaragua to reveal elements that reflect the culture of African heritage, like they may pole festivity. Carlos Rigby Moses poem Si yo fuera mayo, is used by the author of the article as a model poem because it contains elements of the culture of African heritage in the Caribbean coast, it also serves as a point of comparison to find similarities with afro descendant poetry. The investigation is based in the study of Afro­ Caribbean literature and it focalizes in the value of the literature that deals with “blackness" in an appropriate context, offering, in addition, a unique and rich perspective that reflects the world of the Afro-Caribbean being.