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Teeming with autobiographical elements, this book reveals one of the Caribbean’s most complex identities, the result the crossing of several cultures. Translated by Maria Josefa Gomez Alvarez and Gloria Riva Morales, and revised by poetess Nancy Morejon, the text reconstructs Jennifer’s existence by the hand of her childhood memories: the first communion, the first planted tree, the mystery of the Singer sewing machines that used to turn cloths into beautiful garments; the Bible and the candles, the timely arrival of an uncle to round out the grocery purchase, the nonstop family talks in front of the TV set; the Black Power experience…

There’s no abundance of poetic works that, based on personal references, achieve expressive accuracy by the hand of such allegedly irrelevant deeds as doing the dishes with a crab in the sink. In other times, poems appear to be chest-cleaning acts aimed at getting rid of ghosts and tears, or just at making memories help settle the score with the past and join the building of a new identity. On the Eve of Sabbatical Days has taken into account different topics required to build an identity, such as the complex issue of religiousness and hybrid spiritualization that mixes the religion of the Catholic saints, ancestral folkloric ­figures, the texts of the Old Testament, or the oracle spirits under the influence of Buddha. This reality expressed in poetry shows the Caribbean as one of the regions better prepared for peaceful coexistence in today’s globalized world.