Afro-Caribbean Witchcraft in Outside the Bones Novel

Afro-Caribbean Witchcraft in Outside the Bones Novel

After having read the novel, what was your opinion about Fina?

According to me, Fina is a passionate, loving and jealousy woman who can do anything to whoever tries to take away Chico a musician whom she has fallen in love with. Fina has great affection for Chico, however she faces two rivals who also have affection towards Chico. One of this women is Hilesca, who claims to be Chico’s daughter and later on turn s to be Chicos lead-singer. Fina as well face rivalry from Chico’s ex-lover, who was a former Miss Universe. As a result of jealousy, Fina resorts to put a spell on Chico at first. However, when the results fail to meet her intentions, Fina makes a pilgrimage to Spanish Harlem and the home of Tata Victor Tumba Fuego “Mater of Fire.”  

How was the historical blended with the fictional in this story?

Lyn Di Lorio in the story “Outside the Bones” uses a narration blending fiction and History developing a factual fabricated tale. Lyn Di Lorio comes up with the factual history from the ghost story set in both present-day New York and Puerto New York. In the story, fiction of imaginative characters with conscious articulation where author uses a fictional character Fina to display the history of Afro-Caribbean tradition where Di lorio’s mines the relationship between the masters if the black arts and spirits they conjecture to evoke rich comparisons to slavery. Fina is also used by the author as a fictional character to display the history of ghosts illustrating how they help one to heal.

How did Afro-Caribbean witchcraft and belief systems add another layer to the book’s narrative development?

Through the story where Lyn Di Lorio uses Fina a fictional character who is displeased by the rivalry she faces from two other women who have feelings for Chico, and thus, decides to visit her mentor, Tata Victor Tumba Fuego, the master of fire who is associated with Afro-Caribbean witchcraft rituals. Tata Victor Tumba Fuego specializes in ‘Palo Monte,’ which is the Afro-Caribbean magical art of controlling and manipulating spirits housed in cauldrons. Consequently, after visiting her mentor, Fina has to make a sacrifice to be helped, something she had not expected and not willing to do, however, she has to give in, therefore she to provide blood sacrifice to the ancient one, the oldest spirit working for victor. Lastly, she ends up involved with a spirit whose quest for revenge can’t be stopped.  Through this character, the author unfolds the history of traditions and beliefs of Afro-Caribbean witchcraft.

Do you think Fina was truly a “spirit worker”?

I think Fina is a spirit worker. Spirit workers are people who have the ability and willingness to get involved in work that involves spirits. In the story, Fina is seen visiting her mentor Tata Victor Tumba Fuego, a Master of Fire and a witch, who specialize in Palo Monte. This shows that Fina is a witch as well, and thus she engages in activities that involves the spirits. Also, Fina’s father was a witch and he encountered whatever happened to Fina, this also affirms that Fina was practicing Witcraft and that is the reason she calls herself a “spirit worker.”

What were your thoughts about Chico?

In my opinion, I believe Chico is an irresponsible person who doesn’t care about his immediate family and loved ones, other than indulging in adultery. Aurora blames him of struggling alone to make sure their daughter survives when Chico was having a sexual affair with another woman. Death of his daughter makes him regret his deeds and thus ends up depressed. He also seems to be very much in to women, he is seen in the story being loved by more than two women such as Fina and Alba who claims to be his death daughter.

What did Palo Monte add as a spiritual metaphor, magical journey, and/or literary quest strategy?

Palo Monte is a spiritual metaphor used in the story to introduce the magical journey of Afro-Caribbean. This title means an art of Afro-Caribbean that specializes in controlling and manipulating spirits housed in cauldrons. This is the art that Tata Victor Tumba Fuego specializes in. Through this, the author introduces the traditions of Afro-Caribbean beliefs such as providing sacrifices to the ‘Ancient One,’ the oldest spirit working for Victor who was the mentor to Fina. Thus, through the witch Tata Victor Tumbo Fuego who specializes on ‘Palo Monte,’ the author presents the culture of Afro-Caribbean set-in present-day New York and Puerto Rico.

How does this novel show different levels of ghostly occurrences?

In Di lorio’s novel, she presents different levels of ghostly occurrences. In the story, she describes different ghostly spirits according to the level of power and authority over the other one. Some of the spirits include ‘Nkisis’ a term used to refere to the spirits of water and woods, ‘Nkuyo’ a god (a deity) of woods and roads, guidance and balance, ‘Nsambia’ a supreme god of palo who rules over the other ‘Nkisis,’ the universe and the dead, ‘Orishas’ the gods of another Afro-Caribbean religions called santeria, ‘Site Rayos’ the god who rules over thunder, fire, and divine justice, ‘Yemaya’ a god of the ocean and motherhood, ‘Zrabanda’ a god of iron, war, and sorcery, among others. This shows that every ghostly spirit or a god had a special to work differently and at different level.

How can this novel be categorized as a mystery? Do you think the spectral and the mysterious can mix?

The novel is a mystery since the story does not have anything to do with finding out the identity of the murderer, but rather with Fina coming to terms with happened to her father, who was also a witch. Although spectral refers to a ghostly figure or something insubstantial, it doesn’t blend with mystery since mystery is an occurrence that is impossible or hard to comprehend or explain. For instance, in the case of Di lorio’s novel, it is a mystery story to the reader to comprehend what really Fina who is the main character in the novel is up to. Some think he is after getting the identity of the murderer when she is not, instead she wants to comprehend what his father who was also a witch encountered.

If you had been Fina’s friend, what advice or help would you have given her?

If I was Fina’s friend, I could advise her not seek help from spells or witcraft to get Chico lover. Her decision of using witcraft puts her into a mess since when the two of them unleash a spirit bent on revenge. Instead of seeking help from her mentor Victor, she could have faced Chico and told let him know that she got great feelings for him, that she loves him and would wish them to be in a relationship. I believe Chico could have responded positively based on the story since Chico made sure Fina was not hurt.

How did the novel’s atmosphere and settings make it more interesting and ghostly?

The author Lyn Di Lorio’s makes use of wonderfully lyrical language to bring us into the consciousness of supernatural beings as they interact with the world of living. This novel provides a doorway into a totally different reality. The book begins with a gritty, urban New York City realism that soon directs the reader into the largely unknown world of African religion and mysticism that exists just below the surface. Also, the streetwise main character ushers us into a richly woven tale of secrets that spans from the world of Puerto Rican wealth and privilege to the harsher realities of contemporary East Harlem. This creates an interesting and scary atmosphere due to spirits getting involved with worldly beings.

Part 2.

“Our dead want to be part of our conversation, they do not allow us to forget, they tell us that the communities that are no longer present are also part of the communities we create in life.” (Cristina Rivera Garza)

According the Liyn Di Lorio’s novel, dead doesn’t want to be forgotten, as such it keeps on appearing in the story. Firstly, the whole story is associate with dead as it talks about ghostly spirits that controls and everything in the world. Although ghosts are usually perceived as bad things or occurrences, in the story they are seen as beings of help to the human generation since they can heal, however their power can only used through traditional means and that is why Fina is asked for a sacrifice in return getting helped win the heart of Chico. Also , the Ancient One, the oldest spirit that  worked for Victor. When he was still a live, he was a great a sorcerer and he was tortured to death after he made slaves rebel, but later on rescued by Tumba Fuego’s ancestor and had been speaking to the rescuer’s descendants thereafter. This shows how dead repeats itself that it doesn’t want us to get forget about it. Also, normally people associate ghostly spirits with dead, in fact, people dead people turn into spirits yet the novel is full of ghostly spirits.

Spectral texts reveal “a series of interconnected topics related to the past, ranging from colonial violence to more recent times. [They] gesture to an ethics of memory counteracting the politics of closure and the silencing of the past.” (Jean Franco)

Based on the novel “Outside the Bones” A ghost can neither be dead nor alive. neither absent nor, neither effective nor inoperant, neither actual, nor virtual; thus, it is both past and current, perceptible and imperceptible. For instance, the spirit working fo Victor in the Di lorio’s novel, the ‘Ancient One’ has lived for the past 300 years and still works for the descendants of its rescuer. Also, spirit ghosts can be translucent vision, an echo without communicating body, something forgotten that remains in place, or a recurrence with no future.

“Sinister narratives are populated by characters who have crossed the line between absences and shadows…they haunt the consciousness” (Albert Ribas Casasayas)

 Being a fictious story, Di lorio’s novel uses fictional character to present spirit ghost interaction with worldly beings to come up with a mystic sinister narrative. Being a sinister narrative, the novel “Outside the Bones” portrays the type of character who cross the line between absence and shadows and later on they are haunted as a result of their decision. In the story, Fina for example crossed a line by making a choice to go seek help from witcraft by consulting her mentor to help her put a spell on Chico, however she is haunted back as the process fails endangering the life Chico. 

Conditions in the past banished certain individuals, things, ideas…circumstances rendered them marginal, excluded or repressed. ‘(Avery Gordon)

Avery Gordon’s story of Ghostly Matter relates much well with Di lorio’s novel “Outside the Bones” since both of them talk about ghosts and association with worldly beings. Based on the Di lorio’s novel, past occurrences affect us in future. This is seen in the story when Fina finds hard coming to terms to what happened to her father who was a witch as well. Fina expects something bad to happen. Thus, the novel concludes our doings can affect us and our future generation and thus there is necessity to be careful when making decisions.

“Everyday life is haunted by implicit others, who supposedly live outside the ordinary, the everyday…whether the ordinary is haunted by what is outside it or by what used to be part of it, it is represented as a haunting, haunted structure, where what you see is never quite what you get.” (Esther Peeren)

Normally, appearance of ghost’s cause surprises, shock and fear which disrupts the living pattern of common people. People perceive ghosts as an undesirable intruder when it is seen in everyday life and as such, people should enter the supernatural ghostly realim because their life might be threatened and most importantly, their visitation would disturb the everyday of the supernatural realim. In the Di Liori’s story, Fina was not supposed to go consult his mentor since everything failed putting the life Chico in danger. This shows how getting engaged in ghostly world or attempting to intrude for the sake of getting helped win heart of Chico brings harm to Chico and she ends up wasted. Such an occurrence raised a need of not disturbing the ghosts realim since they cannot harm us unless we tamper with them.