Nancy Morejón “Tobacco Worker”
Nancy Morejón is a renowned Afro-Cuban poet, critic, and translator. In 2001, she was awarded Cuba’s National Prize for Literature, becoming the first Black woman to do so. Her poems commonly express an interest in gender and racial equality in post-revolutionary Cuba. “Tobacco Worker,” written from the perspective of a woman in a tobacco factory, is just one example. To help demonstrate this, the final line of Morejón’s poem invokes the legacy of José Martí, a Cuban nationalist and poet who fought for Cuban independence.