Antonio Benitez Rojo:
 An Indispensable Friend

 Maria Cristina Rodriguez
 University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras


In 1994, the Department of English of the College of Humanities at the
 University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras, with the collaboration and support
 of the History Department, invited the renowned Caribbean writer,
Antonio Benitez Rojo, to be the guest speaker for the 15th annual West Indian
Literature Conference. I was honored to be asked to introduce the creative
writer and critic, whose work I had read during the decade of the 1970s
while I was writing my dissertation on Caribbean narrative.
 The most attractive aspect of his critical writings was their Caribbean
perspective. His studies did not just refer to Cuba or the hispanophone
Caribbean; but encompassed the entire region, even the islands excluded
by "Antillean" or "Caribbean" scholarship that only recognize the existence
of Cuba, the Dominican Republic, and Puerto Rico. Undoubtedly, Casa de las
Americas was true to its name and founding principles, and used all its
resources to blurring differences, and in this way opened the necessary doors
to search for the common uses of language, religious creeds and rituals,
musical rhythms, orality and performance, parallel historical experiences,
and cultural expressions. Antonio Benitez Rojo was an essential scholar in
this refocusing of the Caribbean during the twelve years he worked in Casa
de las Americas.
 This is why when we read The Repeating Island -which covers the entire
region-we recognize ourselves as Caribbean peoples and we begin to erase
the barriers of exclusion. Benitez Rojo achieved this breakthrough in his
writings by exploring the origins and trajectory of popular culture. Through
music, dance, rituals, masks, and festivals, we are able to see ourselves as
individual islands and also as an archipelago. His novels and short fiction-
with such suggestive titles as Tute de reyes, El escudo de hojas secas, El mar
de las lentejas, Estatuas sepultadas and Mujer en traje de batalla-are locally
Cuban and regionally Caribbean because Benitez Rojo could always find
apertures in the most enclosed and insular spaces.