Almeyda

Almeyda is the first-person narrator of “Song for Anninho”. As a child, Almeyda was captured from her home and forced into slavery on a sugar plantation in Brazil. Later on, a cobbler bought her, and she was forced to work for the shoemaker. When Almeyda sewed a piece of leather incorrectly, the shoemaker beat her hand “with / the heel of a shoe until it bled” and his wife looked on with pleasure (101). She was still enslaved by the cobbler when men from Palmares raided the Brazilian town to free slaves and bring them to the sovereign settlement. Almeyda had wanted to speak to Anninho when she met him on the raid but was too afraid. Later she found the courage to stand next to him and they walked together.

In the narrative present, Almeyda is in captivity again. After she was separated from her husband, near the river...