Caribbean Dialogues by María Zambrano

Madeline Cámara’s chapter reveals the strong links that the Spanish philosopher María Zambrano established with Cuban and Puerto Rican women between 1940 and 1953, when she lived and worked intermittently on both islands. These friendships among women generated an indispensable sustaining network in Zambrano’s daily life as an exile after the Spanish Civil War, and at the same time constituted communities of discourse during the decades in which modernity was reinforced on both islands. Cámara pays close attention to Zambrano’s interaction with Lydia Cabrera and Josefina Tarafa in Cuba, as well as Elsa Fano, Nilita Vientós Gastón, and Inés María Mendoza in Puerto Rico. In particular, Cámara demonstrates the intellectual affinity between Zambrano and Mendoza regarding the necessary conditions for harmonious individual and social development.