Joy Castro rustled through a collection of her father鈥檚 belongings after his passing in 2002, finding among them a fragile, paperback book she recognized.
It was the collection of poems written by her grandfather that her father had showed her some years ago. The contents were flowery 鈥� mushy even, she thought.
The significance of her discovery wouldn鈥檛 hit her until a decade later.
The poetry collection titled Lagrimas y Flores written by Feliciano Castro held not only untold secrets from the family鈥檚 past, but also a rich literary and cultural archive of Florida's early 20th century Cuban community 鈥� a lesser known period of migration from the island.
A Spanish-Cuban poet, printer, editor and cigar factory lector, Feliciano made himself a name in Key West, establishing one of the most prominent Spanish-language printing presses and becoming a representative between Spain and Monroe County.
鈥淭he community that this book comes out of is one of the richest and most understudied in not only U.S. Latinx or Latine studies, but also within the sort of broader framework of hemispheric or Latin American literature,鈥� said Rhi Johnson, assistant professor in Spanish and Portuguese at Indiana University.
The academic teamed up with Joy Castro to bring the world its first English translation of the poetry collection that uncovers a piece of Key West and the Cuban American community largely unknown to most people.
READ MORE: In Key West's varied history, booze and bars are the throughline
Lagrimas y Flores, first published in 1918, will be released in October as Tears and Flowers: A Poet of Migration in Old Key West. It will be a bilingual facing page edition, with the original Spanish text on the left-hand page and the English translation on the right.
Rebuilding a literary archive
The collection gives insight into the Cuban American community driving the so-called Tobacco Triangle of three cities 鈥� Havana, Tampa and Key West 鈥� that shaped a decades-long revolutionary effort to liberate Cuba from Spanish imperialism. Spain relinquished sovereignty over Cuba in 1898, but remained an occupying force until 1902.
It was a pro-labor, rebel community whose history has been largely eclipsed by the Cuban American community many are most familiar with today, of post-1959 exiles fleeing Communism in the wake of Fidel Castro鈥檚 revolution and the waves of people who鈥檝e arrived since.
鈥淭his history of about 70 years of anti-colonial, anti-racist Cuban pro-labor cultural and political work was largely effaced by that larger, louder history, which has very different political valence from this earlier history,鈥� Joy said.
The collaborators on the project met in 2019, at a summer institute at the University of Tampa that looked at the works of Jos茅 Mart铆 and immigrant communities of Florida on Cuban independence.
Joy showed Johnson 鈥� then a phD student with an expertise in 19th century Spanish poetry 鈥� her grandfather鈥檚 collection. They immediately recognized the sociopolitical context that had flown over Joy鈥檚 head and that made it such a significant piece.
The Tobacco Triangle was 鈥渋ncredibly fertile in its literary, cultural and political production,鈥� Johnson said. But because of the community鈥檚 鈥渕ultiple marginalities, [it] didn't leave the kind of lasting archive that we would hope that that kind of production would create."
That archive, Johnson said, they and many other scholars are currently attempting to rescue and rebuild.
The collection is influenced by two major literary movements of the era: Romanticism and Modernismo. Romanticism, which is rooted in the 19th century, is focused on the exaltation of emotion, the individual and the unattainable, according to Johnson.
鈥淚n Latin America particularly, it's also the moment of a huge amount of patriotism and nation building,鈥� they said.
Modernismo comes out of the 1880s and is associated with writers like Mart铆 and Rub茅n Dar铆o. It鈥檚 based on the idea of art for its own sake, with a focus on intellect and the use of innovative writing structures. It is particularly significant because it came from Latin America, Johnson says.
鈥淸It] is one of the major world literary movements to come out of Latin America and then influence the Anglophone and the other European literary traditions, rather than the other way around, which is the way that we think of these things traveling because of the colonial history there,鈥� Johnson said.
Excerpt of Una Patria Azul / A Blue Patria from Tears and Flowers:
Yo he pensado en el misterio de una noche silenciosa, contemplando las estrellas desde el buque en alta mar, que los mares son la patria de la vida venturosa,
donde embria虂ganse las almas del roma虂ntico sonar.
Una patria azul, muy bella con sus brisas y su bruma,
esa bruma que parece de los cielos regio tul;
una patria donde flotan, cual parti虂culas de espuma
los ensuen虄os, las quimeras, embriaga虂ndose de azul.
Porque azules son los mares y los cielos y las olas,
y al correr veloz la nave todo azul se ve cruzar;
los ensuen虄os, como espuma, fingen tiernas barcarolas,
y las brisas los suspiros de la amada al despertar.
鈥�
I have thought about the mystery of a night that鈥檚 wreathed in silence, gazing upward at the stars from aboard a ship on the high seas,
for the seas are the patria of a life full of adventure
where the spirit gets itself drunk on the most romantic of dreams.
A blue patria, oh so lovely with her breezes and her brume, her fog that is like a splendid royal tulle that veils the heavens;
a patria where float, like so many particles of seafoam,
every daydream, every fantasy, getting themselves drunk on blue.
Because the seas are blue, the skies are blue, and the waves they are blue,
and as the ship runs on swiftly, all of blue it seems in crossing;
daydreams born there, like the seafoam, conjure up tender barcarolles,
and the breezes seem the sighs of a beloved upon waking
But Lagrimas y Flores doesn鈥檛 fit directly into any one movement or genre 鈥� Feliciano鈥檚 multifaceted identity is reflected in the work. But Joy believes its messaging may still resonate with many today, particularly those who've been displaced or chose to migrate from their home countries.
鈥淚f you think about how many people today have had to or have chosen to live such mobile lives, often of involuntary displacement, and this sense of being in transit or liminal,鈥� Joy said. 鈥淗is work anticipates that by over a hundred years.鈥�
The collection itself is divided into two sections: Lagrimas, or Tears, which focuses on political strife and patriotism, and Flores, or Flowers, which includes poetry dedicated to women of Key West and features floral imagery as well as discussions of beauty and comfort.
It鈥檚 in the Flores section that Johnson said they see the book鈥檚 鈥淜ey West-ness" appear.
A contemporary of Feliciano Castro, named Octavio J. Monteresy, who was a Cuban literary critic and playwright, wrote that Feliciano 鈥渇ound welcome in the community by leaving a bouquet of verses at the feet of all the pretty ladies in town.鈥�
A man of few words
Much of Feliciano's poetry was inspired by upheaval in his early life. He moved with his godfather away from his family in Galicia, Spain 鈥� a region experiencing economic desperation 鈥� to Havana, Cuba, when he was just 9 years old.
鈥淎s a little boy he traversed the Atlantic so the sea was imbued with feelings of both grief and loss for family,鈥� Joy said.
He dedicated poems to family members that, to Joy鈥檚 understanding, he never saw again.
鈥淎nd then also the sea is imbued with imagery of something new, some adventure," she added.
The rest of Feliciano鈥檚 life was surrounded by that adventure. After studying for a time in Rome at a school designed to train men for the priesthood, a profession the translators say he was too much of a player and romantic to be suited for, Feliciano returned to Havana.
There, he was left financially strained after his godfather, the patron who raised him in Cuba, unexpectedly passed away. He also suffered a romantic loss after a brief marriage ended.
Seeking a fresh start, he headed to Tampa but after struggling to find a job with a suitable income he headed south for Key West where he found a job as a lector, reading to workers at the E.H. Gato Cigar Factory in town.
鈥淭he history of lectores in the Caribbean is a really fascinating one as well that a lot of people don't know about today,鈥� Joy said.
Feliciano Castro, though caring and engaged, was a man of few words by the time his granddaughter, Joy, who simply knew him as Papi, would visit his home on Elizabeth Street in Key West in the 1970s and 80s.
Feliciano went on to become an influential figure in town. He founded the Florida Press at 311 Elizabeth Street, a house that still stands today. The press handled much of the Spanish-language printing on the island. He was also named the honorary vice consul to Spain for Key West and Monroe County in 1926 and in 1934, became the administrator of a Spanish-language newspaper, Cayo Hueso.
Upcoming events
Tears and Flowers will feature at a series of events in Central and South Florida in October:
- Thursday, Oct. 17, the event "The Dawn of Latinx Creative Writing in Florida: Culture, Identity, and Community in Key West and Tampa" will feature a panel discussion at the student union at the University of Central Florida in Orlando, followed by a dramatic reading of Feliciano Castro's poems by three actors from at the .
- Friday, Oct. 18, at the 2024 at the University of Central Florida in Orlando, the book will feature in a roundtable discussion.
- Saturday, Nov. 23 and Sunday Nov. 24 the book will be part of the
