United States of Banana

Last updated

United States of Banana
United States of Banana.jpg
Author Giannina Braschi
LanguageEnglish
SubjectSeptember 11, Terrorism, Colonialism, Revolution, Puerto Rican Independence, Love
Genre
Set inStatue of Liberty and United Nations in New York City; La Fortaleza in San Juan, Puerto Rico
Published2011
PublisherAmazonCrossing
Publication date
2011
Publication placeUnited States
Pages305
ISBN 9781611090673

United States of Banana (2011) is a postmodern allegorical novel by the Puerto Rican author Giannina Braschi. [1] It is a cross-genre work that blends experimental theatre, prose poetry, short story, and political philosophy with a manifesto on democracy and American life in a post-9/11 world. [2] The book dramatizes the global war on terror and narrates the author's displacement after the attacks from her home in the Battery Park neighborhood in New York City. [3] The work addresses Latin American immigration to the United States, Puerto Rico's colonial status, and "power imbalances within the Americas." [4]

Contents

Summary

Part One: Ground Zero

Part One, titled as "Ground Zero", critiques 21st-century capitalism and corporate censorship [5] with its depictions of New York City before and during the September 11 attacks. [6] Part One unfolds through a collection of metafiction, short stories, and philosophical essays on American culture since the attacks on the World Trade Center. [7] Using avant-garde techniques, Braschi links post-9/11 fears of terrorism with the "daily suffering that stems from a changing, debt-ridden economy to offer a scathing critique of neoliberal economic and social reforms." [2]

Part Two: United States of Banana

In Part Two, called "United States of Banana", the structure changes from political manifesto and philosophical fiction into an experimental theater play about economic terrorism, U.S. colonialism, liberty, and love. [8] Hamlet and Zarathustra (Zoroaster) join the author's alter-ego, Giannina, on a quest to liberate the Puerto Rican prisoner Segismundo (named after the protagonist of Pedro Calderón de la Barca's La vida es sueño) from the dungeon of the Statue of Liberty, where he has been held by his father, the king of the United States of Banana, for more than 100 years, for the crime of having been born. [9] When the King remarries, he frees his son, and for the sake of reconciliation, makes Puerto Rico the fifty-first state and grants American passports to all Latin American citizens. [10]

The play dramatizes the plight of prisoners in the United States, Puerto Rico's position as an American territory, and Braschi's struggle for liberty. [11] By having the people of Puerto Rico vote on Segismundo's liberty, the work satirizes the three political options of Puerto Rico: statehood, nation, or colony. [12] [13] The prison scenes feature Middle Eastern prisoners of war, including those classified as terrorists, who are detained indefinitely. [14]

According to Ronald Mendoza-de Jesús, "The plot of United States of Banana unfolds in the following way: Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Nietzsche’s Zarathustra, and a character named Giannina decide to cross the Hudson River to go to Liberty Island, penetrate the Statue of Liberty, and free Segismundo, subsequently freeing Puerto Rico from its colonial captivity. This act of defiance produces a response from Gertrude—Hamlet’s mother—who concocts a plan to marry Basilio, free Segismundo, and bring him into the same family as Hamlet as the only possible way to save the ancien régime of the imperial United States of Banana from collapsing. As part of her plan, Gertrude convinces Basilio that Puerto Rico should be granted admission into the United States of Banana, that all illegal immigrants should be granted citizenship, and that the borders of the United States of Banana should be opened. Her efforts to mitigate the revolution by granting concessions to Giannina and the other insurgents fail. Giannina and her comrades declare unilaterally the independence of Puerto Rico after realizing that the changes in the United States of Banana’s policies toward Puerto Rico and Latin America were an attempt to perpetuate a sort of imperial Pax Banana under the joint leadership of Basilio and Gertrude. War erupts between Puerto Rico, Cuba (which has claims to Puerto Rico and seeks to create its own Caribbean empire), and the United States of Banana. Giannina and her comrades can only rely on coconuts and philosophical conversation to fight the soldiers of the empire. But the timely intervention of China—the USB creditor—secures the independence of Puerto Rico and brings Braschi’s geopolitical comedy to a close." [15]

Adaptations

Further reading

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Puerto Rican literature</span> From oral story telling to its present-day

Puerto Rican literature is the body of literature produced by writers of Puerto Rican descent. It evolved from the art of oral storytelling. Written works by the indigenous inhabitants of Puerto Rico were originally prohibited and repressed by the Spanish colonial government.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joakim Lindengren</span> Swedish cartoonist

Joakim Lindengren is a Swedish cartoonist, illustrator and artist.

Caribbean literature is the literature of the various territories of the Caribbean region. Literature in English from the former British West Indies may be referred to as Anglo-Caribbean or, in historical contexts, as West Indian literature. Most of these territories have become independent nations since the 1960s, though some retain colonial ties to the United Kingdom. They share, apart from the English language, a number of political, cultural, and social ties which make it useful to consider their literary output in a single category. Note that other non-independent islands may include the Caribbean unincorporated territories of the United States, however literature from this region has not yet been studied as a separate category and is independent from West Indian literature. The more wide-ranging term "Caribbean literature" generally refers to the literature of all Caribbean territories regardless of language—whether written in English, Spanish, French, Hindustani, or Dutch, or one of numerous creoles.

Latin American poetry is the poetry written by Latin American authors. Latin American poetry is often written in Spanish, but is also composed in Portuguese, Mapuche, Nahuatl, Quechua, Mazatec, Zapotec, Ladino, English, and Spanglish. The unification of Indigenous and imperial cultures produced a unique and extraordinary body of literature in this region. Later with the introduction of African slaves to the new world, African traditions greatly influenced Latin American poetry. Many great works of poetry were written in the colonial and pre-colonial time periods, but it was in the 1960s that the world began to notice the poetry of Latin America. Through the modernismo movement, and the international success of Latin American authors, poetry from this region became increasingly influential.

Latino poetry is a branch of American poetry written by poets born or living in the United States who are of Latin American origin or descent and whose roots are tied to the Americas and their languages, cultures, and geography.

Frederick Luis Aldama is an American author, editor, and academic. He is the Jacob & Frances Sanger Mossiker Chair in the Humanities and founder and director of the Latinx Pop Lab at the University of Texas, Austin. At UT Austin is also affiliate faculty in Latino Media Arts & Studies and LGBTQ Studies. He continues to hold the title Distinguished University Professor as adjunct professor at The Ohio State University. He teaches courses on Latino pop culture, especially focused on the areas of comics, TV, film, animation, and video games in the departments of English and Radio-Television-Film at UT Austin. At the Ohio State University he was Distinguished University Professor, Arts & Humanities Distinguished Professor of English, University Distinguished Scholar, and Alumni Distinguished Teacher as well as recipient of the Rodica C. Botoman Award for Distinguished Teaching and Mentoring and the Susan M. Hartmann Mentoring and Leadership Award. He was also founder and director of the award-winning LASER/Latinx Space for Enrichment Research and founder and co-director of the Humanities & Cognitive Sciences High School Summer Institute. In has been inducted into the National Academy of Teachers, National Cartoonist Society, the Texas Institute of Letters, the Ohio State University's Office of Diversity & Inclusion Hall of Fame, and as board of directors for The Academy of American Poets. He sits on the boards for American Library Association Graphic Novel and Comics Round Table, BreakBread Literacy Project, and Ad Astra Media. He is founder and director of UT Austin's BIPOC POP: Comics, Gaming & Animation Arts Expo & Symposium as well as Founder and Editor-in-Chief of the Latinx Pop Magazine.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Culture of Puerto Rico</span>

The culture of Puerto Rico is the result of a number of internal and indigenous influences, both past and present. Modern cultural manifestations showcase the island's rish history and help create an identity that is uniquely Puerto Rican - Taíno, Spanish, African, and North American.

McOndo is a Latin American literary movement that breaks with the magical realism mode of narration, and counters it with languages borrowed from mass media. The literature of McOndo presents urban Latin American life, in opposition to the fictional rural town of Macondo.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nuyorican Poets Café</span> Forum for Puerto Rican culture in New York City

The Nuyorican Poets Cafe is a nonprofit organization in the Alphabet City neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. It is a bastion of the Nuyorican art movement, and has become a forum for poetry, music, hip hop, video, visual arts, comedy, and theater. Several events during the PEN World Voices festival are hosted at the cafe.

Giannina Braschi is a Puerto Rican poet, novelist, dramatist, and scholar. Her notable works include Empire of Dreams (1988), Yo-Yo Boing! (1998) and United States of Banana (2011).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">La Perla, San Juan, Puerto Rico</span> Urban neighborhood in the Old San Juan Historic District in San Juan, Puerto Rico

La Perla is a historical shanty town astride the northern historic city wall of Old San Juan, Puerto Rico, stretching about 650 yards (600 m) along the rocky Atlantic coast immediately east of the Santa Maria Magdalena de Pazzis Cemetery and down the slope from Calle Norzagaray.

Francisco Rodón was a Puerto Rican portrait and landscape painter.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Caribbean poetry</span> Poem, rhyme, or lyric that derives from the Caribbean region

Caribbean poetry is vast and rapidly evolving field of poetry written by people from the Caribbean region and the diaspora.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">American literature in Spanish</span> Spanish-language literature in the United States

American literature in Spanish in the United States dates back as 1610 when the Spanish explorer Gaspar Pérez de Villagrá published his epic poem Historia de Nuevo México. He was an early chronicler of the conquest of the Americas and a forerunner of Spanish-language literature in the United States given his focus on the American landscape and the customs of the people. However, it was not until the late 20th century that Spanish language literature written by Americans was regularly published in the United States.

<i>Yo-Yo Boing!</i> Spanglish book by Giannina Braschi

Yo-Yo Boing! (1998) is a postmodern novel in English, Spanish, and Spanglish by Puerto Rican author Giannina Braschi. The cross-genre work is a structural hybrid of poetry, political philosophy, musical, manifesto, treatise, memoir, and drama. The work addresses tensions between Anglo-American and Hispanic-American cultures in the United States.

Latino literature is literature written by people of Latin American ancestry, often but not always in English, most notably by Mexican Americans, Puerto Ricans, Cuban Americans, and Dominican Americans, many of whom were born in the United States. The origin of the term "Latino literature" dates back to the 1960s, during the Chicano Movement, which was a social and political movement by Mexican Americans seeking equal rights and representation. At the time, the term "Chicano literature" was used to describe the work of Mexican-American writers. As the movement expanded, the term "Latino" came into use to encompass writers of various Latin American backgrounds, including Mexican, Puerto Rican, Cuban, and others.

Empire of Dreams is a postmodern poetry epic by Puerto Rican author Giannina Braschi, who is considered "one of the most revolutionary voices in Latin American literature today".

Latino theatre presents a wide range of aesthetic approaches, dramatic structures, and themes, ranging from love, romance, immigration, border politics, nation building, incarceration, and social justice. Whether of a linguistic, ethnic, political, cultural or sexual nature, the plays often have a social justice component involving Latino people living in the United States. The Oxcart by René Marqués, Marisol by José Rivera, and In the Heights by Lin-Manuel Miranda are examples of staged Broadway plays. There is also a strong tradition of Latino avant-garde and absurdist theatre, which double as political satires; prime examples include The Masses are Asses by Pedro Pietri and United States of Banana by Giannina Braschi.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Financial Oversight and Management Board for Puerto Rico</span> US government entity overseeing Puerto Ricos government budget

Financial Oversight and Management Board for Puerto Rico (FOMBPR), colloquially known as La Junta de Control/Supervisión Fiscal is a government entity whose role to revise and approve the budget and obligations of the government of Puerto Rico was created by federal law PROMESA.

References

  1. Giannina, Braschi. "United States of Banana". Library Journal. Retrieved 2020-11-10. The premise of this allegorical novel by Puerto Rican author Braschi (Yo-Yo Boing!; Empire of Dreams) is bizarre but intriguing ... The novel's main purpose is political with plenty of reflections on the horrors of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, on Puerto Rico's awkward position as an American territory, and on personal desire and individual liberty.
  2. 1 2 Riofrio, John (January 28, 2020). "Falling for debt: Giannina Braschi, the Latinx avant-garde, and financial terrorism in the United States of Banana". Latino Studies. 18: 66–81. doi:10.1057/s41276-019-00239-2. S2CID   212759434.
  3. Torrens, Claudia (October 20, 2011). "Novela de Braschi fantasea con un mundo ideal para hispanos. [Braschi's Novel Fantasizes About Ideal World for Hispanics]". Associated Press. Archived from the original on August 13, 2014. Retrieved April 16, 2013.(in Spanish)
  4. Perisic, Alexandra (2019). Precarious Crossings: Immigration, Neoliberalism, and the Atlantic. Ohio: The Ohio State University Press. pp. 152–173. hdl:1811/88397. ISBN   978-0-8142-5552-0. power imbalances within the Americas
  5. Roth, Larry (May 7, 2012). "Rushdie Brings PEN Festival to Close". The New York Times. New York. 'A critique of 21st century capitalism in which [Braschi] condemned corporate censorship and control.'
  6. Braschi, Giannina (2011). United States of Banana. Seattle. p. 45. ISBN   978-1611090673.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  7. Pérez-Duthie, Juan Carlos (November 24, 2011). "Autora busca la libertad en la palabra: "United States of Banana", lo nuevo y controversial de la boricua Giannina Braschi (Author Searches for Liberty in the Word, The New and Controversial "United States of Banana" by Boricua Giannina Braschi)". Sun Sentinel. Miami. Archived from the original on 2013-10-02. Retrieved 2013-04-20.
  8. 1 2 Cruz-Malavé, Arnaldo Manuel. "Under the Skirt of Liberty: Giannina Braschi Rewrites Empire." American Quarterly 66.3 (2014): 801-818.
  9. "Review of United States of Banana," Library Journal ', 1 October 2011
  10. Romero, Ivette (December 12, 2011). "New Book: Giannina Braschi's United States of Banana". Repeating Islands: News and Commentary on Caribbean Culture.
  11. Delgado, José A. (September 24, 2012). "La libertad no es una opción, es un derecho [Liberty is Not an Option, It is a Right]". El Nuevo Día. Archived from the original on October 2, 2013. Retrieved April 11, 2013.
  12. Hernandez, Carmen Dolores (February 2012). "El reino del absurdo [The Reign of the Absurd]". El Nuevo Día. San Juan, Puerto Rico. Archived from the original on 2013-10-02. Retrieved 2013-04-11. 'Puerto Rico's destiny should be decided between "wishy", "wishy-washy" or "washy"'
  13. POETS, PHILOSOPHERS, LOVERS : on the writings of giannina braschi. [Place of publication not identified]: UNIV OF PITTSBURGH Press. 2020. ISBN   978-0-8229-4618-2. OCLC   1143649021.
  14. Perisic, Alexandra (2019). Precarious Crossings: Immigration, Neoliberalism, and the Atlantic. Ohio: The Ohio State University Press. pp. 152–153. hdl:1811/88397. ISBN   978-0-8142-5552-0.
  15. Jesús, Ronald Mendoza-de (2020-10-27), "Free-dom", Poets, Philosophers, Lovers, University of Pittsburgh Press, pp. 133–155, doi:10.2307/j.ctv193rr38.16, S2CID   240965842 , retrieved 2021-09-05
  16. "NYS Literary Tree, United States of Banana". NYSCA. December 1, 2011. Archived from the original on June 10, 2016. Retrieved April 20, 2013.
  17. Lugo Bertrán, Dorian (2020). "Leaping Off the Page: Giannina Braschi's Intermedialities," POETS, PHILOSOPHERS, LOVERS. [Place of publication not identified]: UNIV OF PITTSBURGH Press. ISBN   978-0-8229-4618-2. OCLC   1143649021.
  18. "United States of Banana, a play based on the book by Giannina Braschi". Poets and Writers Magazine. May 2015. Colombian film and theater director Juan Pablo Felix brings to the stage for the first time 'United States of Banana,' by poet Giannina Braschi on the post-911 American psyche around the politics of empire and independence.[ dead link ]
  19. "Columbia Theater Director Debuts United States of Banana". LatinoLa Magazine. May 2015. Archived from the original on 2016-06-11. Retrieved 2015-05-19. The work depicts New York City as "the Darwinist capital of the Capitalist word" and U.S. imperialism as doomed as "a chicken with its head cut off".
  20. "New Release: A Swedish Comic Book of United States of Banana". gianninabraschi. 2017-04-30. Retrieved 2017-05-21. The Swedish Comic Book publisher COBOLT will release Joakim Lindengren's illustrated version of United States of Banana by Giannina Braschi in Swedish translation by the poet Helena Eriksson. The graphic dramatic novel will be released at The Stockholm International Comics Festival, taking place in May 19–21st, 2017.
  21. "United States of Banana | Cobolt Förlags webshop". Cobolt Förlag. Retrieved 2017-05-21.