Winner of the 2008 Belpre Award for Text

The Poet Slave of Cuba: A Biography of Juan Francisco Manzano is written by Margarita Engle and is winner of the 2008 Belpre Award for Text

In this book you will find a collection of poems written in verse that tell horrendous stories of a Cuban slave. They all deal with mental, emotional, and physically abuse caused by a woman named La Marquesa de Prado Ameno. Juan's first owner promised him and his family that they would all be set free. However, after she died Juan was given to La Marquesa de Prado Ameno and suffered years of torture. He was locked in cellars, slashed with the whip, tied to a chair and gaged, had his ankles tied up in shackles and tied to a cross and the list of torture and torment go on-and-on. But, through all his pain and suffering, Juan never gave up reciting and writing poems. Sometimes La Marquesa de Prado Ameno's son, Don Nicolas and their overseer, would show him some acts of compassion. Don Nicolas would take Juan to the city or the overseer would give him less lashes with the whip.

Juan's mother never gave up in trying to pay for her son's freedom. Unfortunately she died and never got to see him free. In the last poem we learn that Juan eventually escapes. Like many of his favorite poems that he memorized, Juan was now free as a "feather."

I couldn't just read one poem; I had to read all of them in one sitting. His poems tragically recount the many ways slaves were tortured. Slavery is a something that unfortunately existed and because of courageous and strong willingly people like Juan Francisco Manzano we are fortunate to learn about it. Even today, some people suffer in a daily babies from spousal or parental abuse. Just watch the news or read the newspaper and you'll find out about the many cases where children have been fatally abused by their parents or others. I know it is not the same kind of abuse that slaves went through but it's still a form of abuse.