A Woman Of Endurance Chapter Summary

The book, A Woman of Endurance, written by Dahlma Llanos-Figueroa, is a historical fiction novel about a young African woman named Keera, then renamed Pola, after being kidnapped and sold into enslavement. Her story starts in West Africa as a young girl and takes the reader on a journey into the Transatlantic voyage with enslavers to the shores of Puerto Rico, where she is eventually sold. Pola is first purchased for the purpose of breeding more enslaved children. After continuous sexual assault and exploitation, among many other brutalities, Pola gains the willpower to run away but fails. When recaptured, she is badly punished, tortured, and sold to another plantation. While still being enslaved on the new plantation, Pola is able to start

She uses descriptive wording at the very beginning and throughout the book to pull the readers in and entangle them with Pola’s journey. She could have simply said that a girl was kidnapped, sold, and brutally treated, but instead she goes through each step of the journey in a very candid and descriptive way. Making it impossible to turn away and not pay attention to this story. Most importantly, Llanos-Figueroa makes great historical references that make this novel even more incredibly believable. She also takes a more Afrocentric and Latino perspective in her storytelling. Especially since it is narrated by the enslaved and incorporates Spanish words. Readers are always reminded that this is not another American or Eurocentric-driven story about racism or enslavement. To the author, it is obviously important that we know the time, locations, and identities of the

I did not think it held up to be the incredible ending it could have been. Whether a happy or sad one. I would have rather Pola kept her fighter spirit than be satisfied with the false notion of calling marriage while being enslaved a happy ending. It also feeds into the ideas of women needing men, love stories, and so on. I get that Simon and Pola had similar experiences, but so did many others on that plantation. I just feel that the love story is completely unnecessary. In addition, the storyline of Chachita is a bit cruel. From the beginning, the author establishes that in this space, enslaved women do not have any rights over their own bodies, children, or motherhood. Why make Pola go through all the trouble of creating this storyline to make it another tragedy? A part of me believed Pola’s redemption would include Chachita. Yet I understand that this part is important to depict the emotional impact of being separated from your family and still having the desire to fill that