Elaine Soto

My Journey to the Black Madonna Elaine Soto

This memoir weaves pantoum poems, paintings and vignettes about the author's search for the Black Madonna in Puerto Rico, Spain, China, Italy, Portugal and France with stories about growing up Puerto Rican. She became aware of the Black Madonna as a child and it became a metaphor for her search for her father and for a positive identity as a Puerto Rican woman. As she accomplished her goals to become a psychologist and an artist, her unconscious memories of separation and betrayal became more and more conscious. These needed healing. She had visions and dreams of the Black Madonna. According to Jungian Psychologists one becomes aware of the Black Madonna when dealing with the dark experiences of one's life. Meditation, painting, and writing pantoum poems were some of the tools used by the author to heal herself and to help others to heal. This journey helped her to become whole and to integrate and transform her feelings of pain, grief, guilt and anger into love, harmony, healing, and compassion.