Victoria Santa Cruz – “Me Gritaron Negra” (1978)

Me Gritaron Negra (They Yelled At Me: Black!) (1978) – English translation by “The Body is Memory: An Exhibition of Black Women Artists.”

I was just seven years old,

Just seven years old…

What seven years old!

And not even make it five!

Suddenly, some voices on the street,

They yelled at me: “Black!”

Black! Black! Black!

Black! Black! Black!

Black!

Am I “Black”? – I told myself (Yes!)

What is to be a “Black”? (Black!)

And I didn’t know the sad truth

which might be behind (Black!)

And I felt black (Black!)

As they said (Black!)

I stepped back (Black!)

Just as they wanted (Black!)

And I hated my hair and my fleshy lips.

And I saw with sadness my brunette skin

I stepped back (Black!)

I stepped back…

Black! Black! Black! Black!

Black! Black! Black! Black!

Black! Black! Black! Black!

Black! Black! Black! Black! Black!

And the time went by,

and I always so bitter

I continued to carry my heavy burden

On my back,

And how it weighed!

I smoothed my hair

And I make up my face,

But among my soul I heard

Always the same word:

Black! Black! Black! Black!

Black! Black! Black!

Until one day that I stepped back,

I stepped back and I was going to fall out-

Black! Black! Black! Black!

Black! Black! Black! Black!

Black! Black! Black! Black!

Black! Black! Black!

So what? so what?! (Black!)

Yes- (Black!)

I’m- (Black!)

Black!- (Black!)

I’m black! (Black!),

Yes- (Black!)

I’m- (Black!)

black!- (Black!)

I’m black!!

Henceforth, I don’t want

Smooth my hair (I don’t want!)

And I’ll laugh at those

To prevent – they said –

To prevent some conflict

They call to black people “people of color”

And what a color! (Black!!)

And how good it sounds! (Black!!)

What a rhythm it has!

Black! Black! Black! Black!

Black! Black! Black! Black!

Black! Black! Black! Black!

Black! Black! Black!

Finally!

I finally realized! (Finally!)

I don’t step back anymore (Finally!)

I walk safe (Finally!)

I walk and hope (Finally!)

And I bless the Heaven because God wanted that

My skin was jet black color,

And I understood (Finally!)

That I have total control:

Black! Black! Black! Black!

Black! Black! Black! Black!

Black! Black! Black! Black!

Black! Black!

I’M BLACK!!!!

Born into a large, talented, and successful family, Victoria Santa Cruz was always surrounded by the Afro-Peruvian community’s art and culture. While growing up, Santa Cruz found a love for writing, dance, and theatre. She later founded the first Black theatre company in Peru alongside her brother, widening accessibility for Afro-Latinx people in Peru. Santa Cruz decided it was “her lifeline aim [to] awaken Black consciousness and pride in Peru.” (Hammer Museum).

One of her most successful productions was Malato in 1961, which regarded forgotten racial tensions through Peru’s history – specifically in regards to “the relationship between slaves and their oppressors” (McFerren). Controversial at the time, she used theatre as a space to “[showcase] the daily racial conflict of Afro-Latinas” (McFerren). 

After attending university in France where she studied dance and the arts, Santa Cruz returned to Peru, where she released her first song Cumanana in 1970; “cumanana” is “a word that symbolizes the mixture between Spanish and Black” (McFerren). 

It was not until 1978 that Santa Cruz released her most renowned poem, Me Gritaron Negra (in English, “They Yelled At Me: Black!”). As shown above, this poem is very personal to Santa Cruz and exemplifies her experience as an Afro-Latina, and the journey she has gone through with her identity. However, this piece also uses this piece “to define and restore her Blackness in the midst of racism and white noise” (Smith College). 

In an interview conducted in 2007, Santa Cruz further explains why she wrote Me Gritaron Negra and says that her “young experience with racism sparked the creation” (Smith College). At the age of eight, she was asked not to play with fellow children due to her race, leaving “Santa Cruz to become conscious of her identity as a Black female in the Americas” (Smith College). Through these painful experiences, Santa Cruz decided to take it as inspiration to “utilize her reclamation of Black identity ‘to discover life’ through the celebration of Black identity” (Smith College). 

Santa Cruz passed away in 2014 at the age of 91 in Lima. Through her various works and performances, her legacy will always live on and further gives an appreciation to Afro-Latinx people and their lives in Latin America.

Works Cited

“Black Art as a Reflection of Racial Prejudice.” The Body is Memory: An Exhibition of Black Women Artists. Accessed March 8, 2021. https://sophia.smith.edu/afr111-f19/black-art-as-a-reflection-of-racial-prejudice/.

McFerren, Zachary. “Victoria Eugenia Santa Cruz Gamarra (1922-2014).” Black Past, January 28, 2021. https://www.blackpast.org/global-african-history/victoria-eugenia-santa-cruz-gamarra-1922-2014/.

“Victoria Santa Cruz.” Hammer Museum. Accessed March 8, 2021. https://hammer.ucla.edu/racial-women/artists/victoria-santa-cruz.

“Victoria Santa Cruz.” Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, January 25, 2021. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victoria_Santa_Cruz.