GRITA EL COJITO CON ALEGRIA Y PENA INDIAS / NEGRAS / BLANCAS / MESTIZAS / MULATAS / LAS AMAN LA JUSTICIA Y EL AMOR CON RESPETO ¡VENID! ¡Ea! ¡Mujeres! ¡Ea! ¡Mujeres! ¡Soltad los pájaros de la esperanza! ¡Ea! ¡Mujeres! ¡Soltad palomas! —Aída Cartagena Portalatín (172) O pen acknowledgement of the racial diversity in the Dominican Republic can be seen in the above epigraph from Yania Tierra, a “poema documento” published by Aída Cartagena Portalatín in 1981, which to date has not received critical attention. As more general studies of Dominican literature and history have recently shown, relatively few twentieth-century writers embrace the black African roots of Dominican culture, because an insistence on the “indio” as the foundation of national identity has long prevailed in both the popular imagination and official discourse. The “cojito” is a heroic but demoralized native prototype, insufficiently strong to effect social change. The objectives of Portalatín’s remarkable text appear to be nothing short of revising the history of Hispaniola and repairing what the poet perceives to be a frayed social fabric. Simultaneously, her project underlines the fundamental role of women in shaping society and serves as a call to (peaceful) action in the face of contemporary economic and political struggles. The present study critically considers what has been called an “impulso cartográfico” in Portalatín’s poetic work, specifically examining the cultural landscape depicted in Yania Tierra. What is revealed—in spite of manifestations of racial acceptance—is a tendency towards maintaining more conventional approaches to the island and its western inhabitants in particular. Thus, central to my argument is an interrogation of Portalatín’s concept of tierra. Most scholars agree that the island of Hispaniola, which for over three centuries has been shared by Haiti and the Dominican Republic, is a microcosm of the social, political, and economic tensions that arose in the Caribbean region as a result of capitalism and colonialism, the twin pillars of the modern world system. Afro-Hispanic Review • Volume 30, Number 2 • Fall 2011 ~ 85 Problematic Cartographies: Hispaniola as Truncated Island in Aída Cartagena Portalatín’s Yania Tierra MARIANA P AST DICKINSON COLLEGE