Legacy of the Past

In this week’s two readings of Brin-Jonathan Butler’s “The Ghost of Capablanca” and Camille Dungy’s “Traveling While Black” both share a key pattern on focusing on the legacy of the past that still lingers within the present. Within Brin-Jonathan Butler’s “The Ghost of Capablanca” this is done through examining the legacy that the game of chess has left, and still has, within Cuba. This is shown through Butler’s travels through Cuba with his focus on the game’s history in the country, largely focusing on what is referred to as “Cuba’s greatest chess champion” José Raúl Capablanca (Butler/Strayed 44). From this, Butler examined the legend that surrounds this legendary chess player in Cuba, how he was renowned around the world for his skills in chess, and how his legacy has impacted Cuba long after his death and during the Cuban Revolution. As Butler explains through what is told to him through his friend Fernando on the impact that Capablanca had upon Che Guevara, “Che’s father took him to a tournament when he was a boy growing up in Buenos Aires, and he saw Capablanca playing. That’s where he first got addicted to chess and also where he first learned about the country that Capablanca came from. Che and the Cuban government invested huge amounts of money to support the game” (Butler/Strayed 48). Through examining the famous chess player Capablanca and the influence that he brought about, as can be seen through the various anecdotes such as the one on Che Guevara, Butler was able to examine the greater legacy of chess within Cuba that was largely brought about by this man within his travel narrative. However, within Camille Dungy’s “Traveling While Black,” a very different aspect is focused on regarding the legacy of the past that still lingers within the present. Instead of a positive legacy such as the passion for chess that was examined within the other travel narrative, this travel narrative focuses on the legacy of racism within America towards those whom are African American. Dungy shows this legacy through her travels through Minnesota. One part of the legacy that she shows was her visiting of a memorial to an event that had happened “Ninety-four years and fourteen days earlier” where “the mutilated bodies of Elias Clayton, Elmer Jackson, and Isaac McGhie hung from a streetlight” (Dungy/Strayed 76). These men were killed because of the pure hatred that formed from racism due to the fact that they had simply been African American. Despite this event, and many others like it, that happened nearly a hundred years prior the legacy of the hatred within racism still lingers on today just as the memorial to the slayings is also ever present. This is shown by Dungy when her and her group are pulled over by the police, and in fear of what may happen, when the police officer approached the “window, he found two black men prepared for the worst. Sean’s hands were open and positioned on the dashboard. Ray’s arms were in the air, the wallet in his hand already open to his ID” (Dungy/Strayed 78). The recollection of this event was followed by the description of other events in today’s times where African Americans were unjustly killed by the police or other individuals because they were African American. Thus, Dungy shows in her travel narrative that the legacy of racism is still present in American society and continues to linger. In the end, although both travel narratives focus on vastly different topics, the both share the key pattern of focusing on a particular legacy of the past that still lingers within the present.