Your body is only a vessel. Your essence is inviolate. It is only when you give up your soul that you are lost. - Dahlma Llanos-Figueroa

The enslaved community has no material wealth, not even having ownership of their own bodies. They can lose their children, their homes, their very lives. They often lose their physical abilities which is the measure of their only value in their masters' eyes. But their spiritual beliefs and inherent gifts sustain them. They cling to that which cannot be taken away and that gives them the strength to overcome all that they have lost. Spirituality and memory are the bedrock of their existence. Storytelling is the conduit for passing on those qualities that will allow them to endure.

My writing begins with dreaming, journaling and meditation.

She moved by rote, dragging her grief into the fields with her. (chapter 12 p149)