Maria Teresa Fernandez
Maria Teresa 'Mariposa' Hernández
Introduction
Maria Teresa Hernández, born and raised in The Bronx, is a Puerto Rican poet, activist, and performance artist.[1] Hernández is also known for her stage name, “Mariposa,” which in Spanish means butterfly. As a third-generation Puerto Rican, she aspires to uplift the Puerto Rican narrative and inspire her people to liberate Puerto Rico.
Early Life
Hernández was born and raised in The Bronx, New York City. Raised by two Puerto Ricans, she grew an attachment to the culture, although she did not visit Puerto Rico as a young girl.
Hernández acknowledges that as a young girl, her family’s openness to creativity and pride allowed her to explore various mediums. Hernández was heavily influenced by her Puerto Rican culture in her art. At a young age, Hernández had drawing sessions with her twin sister Melissa and her older sister Rachelle. She would witness her father’s brother Tato create art and incorporate Puerto Rican designs into his elephants or dream catchers.
Although Hernández was celebrated for her artistic visual talents, she acknowledges that her lack of confidence as a teen changed the direction of her life. Attending Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts, a remarkable school for talented students, created insecurities in her work as she constantly compared herself with her peers. As a result of her insecurities, she found an outlet through writing to express herself.
Education
Maria T. Hernández attended Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts with a focus in the visual arts. In high school, Hernández focused on self-discovery for four years by participating in various activities, such as the annual art festival and plays. Towards her senior year, she was struggling with confidence in her own work. Feeling an absence of creativity, Hernández took a poetry writing class her senior year and found an outlet in writing.
Hernández was the first in her family to attend college. After high school, she moved on to New York University where she earned a BA (1995) in Women’s Studies with a minor in English and an MA (1998) in special education. Although she graduated, Fernández encountered various financial and emotional struggles as she tried to complete her degrees. Before attending NYU, she worried that the tuition would leave her family in debt and considered not attending. Hernández planned to work multiple jobs and skip a semester to save up for tuition. However, her mother wanted Fernández to achieve her dreams and not worry about tuition. So, her mother decided to quit her job and take a position as a cleaning service member at NYU because they offered scholarships for employees’ children who attend NYU.
Identity
Growing up in a traditional Puerto Rican household, Fernández would eat Puerto Rican food, dance Puerto Rican dances, and take pride in the Puerto Rican flag. However, there was always an absence in conversation on the definition and history of being Puerto Rican. Fernández’s parents refused to teach her the history and political state of Puerto Rico, believing it was unnecessary to educate their children because they lived in the United States.
The absence of conversation about her own heritage motivated her to find her own identity.[2] During her time at NYU, she had an African American professor who questioned if she knew who Don Pedro Albizu Campos was. After not knowing who he was, her professor sent her to the library to look up the date 1 March 1954 in the New York Times. Hernández found that four Puerto Rican nationalists opened fire on US Congress with semi-automatic weapons because of Puerto Rico’s political state. Soon after, Hernández started to question what it really meant to be Puerto Rican if her own country is under United States rule. Hernández started to refer to Puerto Rico as a colony instead of a commonwealth. Hernández was also confused about how she should identify.
The self-discovery journey did not stop at Puerto Rico’s political state for Hernández. At the age of 22, Hernández recalls that her own physical appearance was criticized. Having a darker complexion and curly hair was not considered what a “normal Puerto Rican” would look like. She questioned the physical appearances of Puerto Ricans after a Dominican lifeguard asked her where she was from. His disbelief of her reply as “Puerto Rican” infuriated her and influenced her to learn and develop her racial consciousness. As a result, Hernández embraced that she could look like both a Puerto Rican and a Black woman. So, Hernández declared herself a Black Puerto Rican woman. Her pride in afroLatinidad is now found in all of her literary works.
Activism
Criticized her whole life for not looking and acting like a ‘typical Puerto Rican,’ Hernández found an outlet in writing to self-identify. Many of her poems in *Born Bronxeña: Poems on Identity, Love & Survival* (2001) call out discrimination in all forms, from childhood nicknames to family dynamics, colorism, racism, and sexism. One of Hernández’s favorite poems, “Tears of Tigers,” exposes the cultural and historical amnesia of many countries in Latin America. As a result, Hernández pushed Nuyorican writers to take responsibility for talking about the history of their country and not letting their people forget. Writers from the original Nuyorican movement have claimed that Hernández is one of the most prominent voices in the new Nuyorican movement.
The summer of 2017 pushed Hernández’s activism to a new height. Writing about the discrimination and colonization of Puerto Rico became a passion, but when hurricane Maria and Irma devastated Puerto Rico, she felt it was time for a change. So, Hernández got married to the love of her life, Puerto Rico.
Hernández promised to love and care for Puerto Rico in a traditional Roman Catholic wedding. Hernández dressed in all white and had a full wedding ceremony in Hunts Point, The Bronx. More than 100 guests attended and brought gifts, but not for the wife. Hernández created a wedding gift registry for attendees and other people around the world so they could buy or donate items to Puerto Rico. The wedding registry list ranged from vegetable seeds to lightbulbs and anything that would be useful to Puerto Ricans. Hernández used the wedding to gain national attention for the Puerto Rican crisis and the lack of government help that P.R. was receiving. She was featured on NY1, News 12 The Bronx, and Buzz Feed.
Artistry
Hernández’s life was surrounded by Puerto Rican art, sound, and literature. Hernández takes pride in her upbringing and incorporates her art into her profession and as an activist.
Growing up as an artist and attending art school, much of Hernández’s work was for school. After graduating high school, she felt obligated to choose between writing or painting, so she switched to writing. As Hernández grew older, she realized that artists do not limit themselves to a single medium.
Hernández’s creative and self-expression blossomed as she discovered the performance arts in college. As a result, Hernández combined her verbal, literary, visual, and musical talents to perform her poems. Today, Hernández performs her poems in local cafes in the Bronx and across stages in CUNY. She gives art expression credit for saving her spirit.
Quotes [3]
“Being free is being free. I don’t limit myself to a single art form. It’s expressed however Spirit moves me...”
“I write to look at myself in the mirror and be real to myself.”
"Take yourself LESS SERIOUSLY, really it ain’t that serious."
Achievements
Mariposa is the author of *Born Bronxeña: Poems on Identity, Survival, Love and Freedom*. She has published articles and poetry in publications such as *The Norton Anthology of Latino Literature*, *The Afro Latin@ Reader: History and Culture in the United States*, *Centro*, and *Bum Rush the Page: A Def Poetry Jam* (2001).[4]
Mariposa’s honors include a Van Lier Fellowship, an El Comite Noviembre’s Lo Mejor de Nuestra Comunidad Award, and an award from the community nonprofit El Maestro.
References
Hernández, M.T. (Mariposa). 2001. *Born Bronxeña: Poems on Identity, Love & Survival*. New York: Bronxeña Books.
Rosario Pérez, Vanessa. “Affirming an Afro-Latin@ Identity: An Interview with Poet María Teresa (Mariposa) Hernández,” (468-475). Date of access: 2 May 2019.
“Bronx woman marries Puerto Rico to raise support for island.” 14 Nov. 2017. http://bronx.news12.com/story/36838318/bronx-woman-marries-puerto-rico-to-raise-support-for -island.
“Mariposa Hernández.” https://pen.org/user/mariposa-fernandez/. Accessed 28 April 2019.
This article "Maria Teresa Fernandez" is from Wikipedia. The list of its authors can be seen in its historical and/or the page Edithistory:Maria Teresa Fernandez. Articles copied from Draft Namespace on Wikipedia could be seen on the Draft Namespace of Wikipedia and not main one.
- ↑ Foundation, Poetry (2019-05-13). "Mariposa". Poetry Foundation. Retrieved 2019-05-13.
- ↑ "Mariposa". Mariposa. Retrieved 2019-05-13.
- ↑ "A Look Into Her Life". Mariposa. Retrieved 2019-05-13.
- ↑ Foundation, Poetry (2019-05-13). "Mariposa". Poetry Foundation. Retrieved 2019-05-13.
