Figure 1, Sweetfield of Eden Baptist Church, 2022.

Figure 2, Map of Africa, edited in 2022, from geology.com, edited by Ryan Garcia-Mercer.

Figure 3, Praise House, unknown date, from gullahgeecheecorridor.org.

Figure 4, Gullah Geechee Conjure Woman, Synthia Saint James, 2019, from fineartamerica.com.

Figure 5, Pin Point Community Marker, 2022.

Figure 6-8, Bottle Tree, Ryan Garcia-Mercer, 2022.

As a first generation Cuban American, your roots and spirituality are incredibly important to me. My grandmother grew up around Santeria, an Afro-Atlantic religion exclusive to Cuba that is a syncretic combination of Yoruba religion and Catholicism. I find it so human that people were able to keep a part of their history and culture alive, adapting it to fit something more “socially acceptable,” and in a way I find it inspiring. Having a sense of culture and faith is integral to identity, and even if that culture or faith is different from the norm, that does not make it any more or less who you are. Learning about different people, beliefs, and customs expands your own horizons and encourages you to view the world in a different light, and I would highly encourage anybody to take any opportunity possible to learn new things.

My original artwork is a painted horseshoe crab shell. As Savannah and Pin Point are coastal, it only seemed fitting to use a crab as the canvas. The bottle tree painted on the crab reflects the Gullah superstition that evil spirits get trapped in these blue bottles at daybreak. There is a sculpture in the center of the Pin Point Heritage Museum made to look like a tree with bottles: this painting is done in homage to it directly (Figure seven).

African American Life in the Georgia Lowcountry: The Atlantic World and the Gullah Geechee. Edited by Philip Morgan. Georgia: University of Georgia Press, 2011.

Cross, Wilbur. Gullah Culture in America. Connecticut: Praeger, 2008.

Georgia Historical Society. “Pin Point Community.” Accessed March 3, 2022. https://georgiahistory.com/ghmi_marker_updated/pin-point-community/

“Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor Commission.” Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor. Accessed May 25, 2022. https://gullahgeecheecorridor.org/thegullahgeechee/.

LeRhonda S. Manigault-Bryant. Talking to the Dead: Religion, Music, and Lived Memory Among Gullah/Geechee Women. North Carolina: Duke University Press, 2014.

Pollitzer, William S. The Gullah People and their African Heritage. Georgia: University of Georgia Press, 1999.

Pin Point Heritage Museum. 9924 Pin Point Avenue, Savannah, Georgia. Visited April 15, 2022.