The subtitle of The Lightning Dreamer is Cuba’s Greatest Abolitionist. In the 19th century, Cuba was the largest slave colony in Hispanic America. This was partially due to the boom of the Cuban sugar and coffee markets.

Engle adopts the persona of abolitionist Gertrudis Gómez de Avellaneda for her “Tula” poems. The Lightning Dreamer is a poetic reimagining of Gómez de Avellaneda’s, or Tula’s, life in Cuba during the years 1827-1836. Gómez de Avellaneda was born in 1814, the daughter of a Spanish marine commander—Don Manuel Gómez de Avellaneda—who died when she was young, and Cuban native Doña Francisca de Arteaga. Gómez de Avellaneda’s grandfather owned a sugar plantation, and she refused to marry the man her family picked in order to inherit his fortune.

Gómez de Avellaneda’s mother remarried another Spanish officer (Arteaga) who, fearing a slave revolt, moved the family to Spain in 1836. Gómez de Avellaneda lived with her brother in Seville and Madrid. She began to have her work published in 1840 and over the course of her career, she published two volumes of poetry (collectively containing over 180 poems), 20 works of drama, six novels, and other various writings. She sometimes wrote under a

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