"The surname, then! Do you know my other surname, The one that comes to me from that enormous land, The captured, bloody surname that crossed the sea in chains, That crossed the sea in chains? Oh, you cannot remember it! You dissolved it in immemorial ink. You stole it from a helpless black man."
"My Last Name" is frequently cited as one of the most effective poetic challenges to systemic racial silence in the Americas. In educational settings, it is used to teach concepts of transculturation (the merging of cultures) and the African influence in the Caribbean. The poem's rhetorical question—"What are the thirteen letters of my surname?" (referring to the letters in Nicolás Guillén)—forces the reader to consider that a name contains only a fraction of the story. el apellido nicolas guillen english translation
Why is there no written record of his true ancestors in the official registry? Linguistic Colonization "The surname, then
You're referring to the renowned Cuban poet Nicolás Guillén! You dissolved it in immemorial ink