Ay, Ay, Ay of the Kinky-Haired Negress

I thought this poem was really interesting. I think in some sense Burgos is being a pioneer for rights for blacks because she says the first two lines give a sense of pride for being black. For example, Burgos says that the speaker is "pure black." The use of the word "pure" gives, at least to me, a sense of pride. It's the same as saying "I'm 100% black and proud of it." I don't know, maybe I'm wrong, but that's what I thought. The speaker continues to give a sense of pride in her blackness when she says that "my statue is all black." She doesn't say just black, but all black as if there are no impurities in the speaker's race.

In the couplet, "Ay, ay, ay wash the sins of the white King/in forgiveness black Queen", I immediately thought of chess. Everyone knows that in chess the Queen has the most power, not the King. I thought it was interesting that Burgos says "black Queen," indicating that in some sense that the Black Queen has more power than the white King. This idea seemed the complete different of the previous pieces of literature that we read. In Sab, blacks were viewed negatively because Avellaneda wanted to prove a point. I think Marti said that they races did not exist. But, in this poem, the black race is actually in control of the white race. The white King is asking for forgiveness because of all the sins that had been committed. Burgos continues to give the black race a sense of control in the second to last stanza where it says "or perhaps the white will be shadowed in the black." Although it is just a speculation, it seemed radical at least to me that she would even think to write about white being underneath the blacks. That statement is just way ahead of its time.

I liked this poem the best because of the interesting way race is portrayed in the poem. For the first time, whites are not placed higher than the blacks and someone seems proud to be black.