The Autobiography of a Runaway Slave/​ Esteban Montejo

Barnet, Miguel, Ed., The Autobiography of a Runaway Slave/​ Esteban Montejo; translated from the Spanish by Jocasta Innes, New York & Cleveland: Meridian Books, 1969.

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Not until publication of Miguel Barnet's The Autobiography of a Runaway Slave in 1966 did there exist a narrative centered on the life of a common slave in Cuba (Barnet, 1966). The testimony of Esteban Montejo has been described by its foremost interpreter as "the first personal and detailed account of a Maroon [escaped] slave in Cuban and Spanish American literature and a valuable document to historians and students of slavery" (Luis, p. 200). This essay will explore how testimonial literature can help us better to understand past events. It will also examine problems inherent in interpreting personal testimony based on memories of events that occurred several decades in the past.