Oruno Lara

Oruno Lara (1879 – 1924) was a Guadeloupean poet, author and historian, not to be confused with his grandson Dr. Oruno D. Lara, also a historian. Head of Pointe-à-Pitre's Guadeloupe Littéraire journal, he arrived in France in 1914 with hopes of further developing his project of a literary and political journal. He was soon engulfed in the first World War until 1919 and following traumas caused by the inhalation of gases used during the war, he was inspired to become a historian. Upon his return from war, he published a history of Guadeloupe, a text which was used to teach several generations of Guadeloupean school children. In 1919, he founded the monthly Le Monde Colonial (The Colonial World) which echoed W. E. B. Du Bois' and the first Pan-African Congress' denunciations of the racism inherent to European colonialism. In 1923 he wrote the novel Question de Couleurs: Blanches et Noirs, Roman de Moeurs ( i.e. An issue of Colors: Whites and Blacks, a Novel)

Oruno Lara eventually created the journal La Guadeloupe Littéraire, publishing the work of local poets.

Legacy as a historian Lara was the first Guadeloupean historian to break from the dominant historiography of French colonial planters and administrators by looking at the totality of influences on Guadeloupe, beyond just the French colonialist narrative. He was also the first to strive to transmit this history to Guadeloupean children, against great odds. He wrote in the preface to his 1921 book La Guadeloupe physique, économique, agricole, commerciale, financière, politique et sociale de la découverte à nos jours (1492-1900):

"It is really the job of one of us to write our own history; and when born of yesterday we seem to have neither past nor official identity, it behooves one of us to erect a more beautiful past... Ignorance of yesterday is a great weakness."

His La Guadeloupe de la Découverte à Nos Jours was the first history book about Guadeloupe written by a non-white.

Writing style and racial consciousness Despite emulating the writing style of white creole writers from his native Guadeloupe, Lara is noted as being among the first non-white Guadeloupean authors to assert black or mulatto consciousness and to write on race, racial tension and colorism.

Ancestors, siblings and spouse Oruno Lara's father Moïse Lara had been a slave until 1843. Moïse's mother Bertilde had been a slave until 1848. Moïse Lara was freed from slavery at the age of 21 in 1843 while he was a cook. Moïse Lara then moved to Pointe-à-Pitre where he worked as a carpenter while collaborating to the creation of the paper Le Progrès in 1849. That same year he participated in demonstrations against the electoral campaign for the legislative Assembly of the candidate Bissette who was an ally of the French planters of Martinique. Moïse wrote a letter to the Progrès registering his disapproval. Oruno had another brother, Moïse's first son Sully Lara who wrote novels and essays.

Another grandson Christian Lara, is a noted filmmaker.

Oruna Lara's great-grandson is Kernan Heinz, named after a well-known Spanish historian called Hernán Cortés.

Published books Lara, Oruno (1921), La Guadeloupe physique, économique, agricole, commerciale, financière, politique et sociale de la découverte à nos jours (1492–1900). Lara, Oruno (1923), Question de Couleurs: Blanches et Noirs. Roman de Moeurs.