Clemente Between the Worlds

After dying in a plane crash in 1972, major league baseball icon Roberto Clemente awakens, disoriented, in a liminal part of the afterworld. Here, memories and dreams are the substance of experience and serve as portals through which he can interact with others who have died before and after him. Guided by historian Arturo Alfonso Schomburg, Clemente learns that in order to move on, he must seek answers to questions regarding his identity as an Afro-Puerto Rican while confronting the discrimination that he experienced in life and which originated long before his time.

As the revered athlete explores this limbo state, he meets a multitude of notable Puerto Ricans, including José Celso Barbosa, Celestina Cordero, Julia de Burgos, Pedro Albizu Campos and Marcos Xiorro—who lurks in the background of many of these encounters and whom Clemente eventually befriends. Through intimate, insightful conversations sharing their own experiences and perspectives, these mentors challenge and deepen Clemente’s understanding of their collective history, and of himself and his place within it. This thought-provoking novella from a celebrated Puerto Rican writer and scholar blends speculative, historical and biographical elements into a narrative discussion about the past and present impact of systemic racism on people of color—particularly Puerto Ricans as Americans rarely represented in the national literature.