Technologies: transculturations of race, gender & ethnicity in Arturo A. Schomburg's Masonic writings

For Arturo A. Schomburg, Freemasonry was a space for civic interactions, which went hand in hand with two main complementary agendas: first, the archival agenda, Schomburg?s main task of re-writing black history in the Am ricas; and second, his fight for equal citizenship, against racial discrimination. Schomburg dedicated thirty years to his Masonic duties, which have been obscured by his labors as a historian and bibliophile. In this paper I analyze the transcultural shifts of race, gender, and ethnicity in Schomburg?s Masonic writings, which I regard as technologies of representation of a migrant subjectivity in exile. Masonic writing also offers other opportunities to underscore Schomburg?s modernist ethic, and shed light on many questions scholars have had about his historical persona, primarily, how he decided to abandon his commitment to Cuban and Puerto Rican independence after 1898 and commit himself to the civic, social, and political struggles of African Americans.