LYDIA CABRERA: LA FILOSOFÍA Y EL PENSAMIENTO AFROCUBANO EN ORÍGENES

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SEÑORAS DE LA TRADICIÓN. MUJERES FOLKLORISTAS EN CUBA.

In the history of Cuban anthropology, little attention has been paid to several women who have, nevertheless, obtained professional recognition from the international academic community. Calixta Guiteras Holmes is one such case, with her unique characters. Another less known but equally relevant woman was Carolina Poncet de Cárdenas, who formed a generation of highly active female pedagogues and folklorists. A different place is required to situate the life and work of a person who could be considered the modern founder of studies on Afro-Cuban religions, the writer and anthropologist Lydia Cabrera, who has only recently begun to be acknowledged by intellectual circles in official Cuban culture. An examination of these three figures is undertaken, and their contributions to anthropology are analyzed, opposing the hegemonic account of the history of science where the role of founders has generally been attributed to men. Likewise, the issues of institutional visibility and continuity and the lines of research in the Cuban academic world dedicated to anthropology and folklore are discussed, with the ultimate goal of bringing the contributions of these women researchers to the fore.

The Sacred Language of the Abakuá

This chapter is a translation of the introduction and over 6,000 entries of Abakuá ritual jargon created by Lydia Cabrera from 1938–1959 in Havana and Matanzas, Cuba. Many entries have new commentaries by living Abakuá specialists to clarify obscure issues in the original material. The entries refer to the foundation of Abakuá in West Africa centuries ago, with reference to historical figures in the port of Calabar. They also refer to important Abakuá specialists in Cuba and the adaptation of this West African institution to the Caribbean context.

The Sacred Language of the Abakuá

In 1988, Lydia Cabrera (1899–1991) published La lengua sagrada de los Ñáñigos, an Abakuá phrasebook that is to this day the largest work available on any African diaspora community in the Americas. In the early 1800s in Cuba, enslaved Africans from the Cross River region of southeastern Nigeria and southwestern Cameroon created Abakuá societies for protection and mutual aid. Abakuá rites reenact mythic legends of the institution’s history in Africa, using dance, chants, drumming, symbolic writing, herbs, domestic animals, and masked performers to represent African ancestors. Criminalized and scorned in the colonial era, Abakuá members were at the same time contributing to the creation of a unique Cuban culture, including rumba music, now considered a national treasure Translated for the first time into English, Cabrera’s lexicon documents phrases vital to the creation of a specific African-derived identity in Cuba and presents the first ‘insiders’ view of this African heritage. This text presents thoroughly researched commentaries that link hundreds of entries to the context of mythic rites, skilled ritual performance, and the influence of Abakuá in Cuban society and popular music. Generously illustrated with photographs and drawings, this volume includes a new introduction to Cabrera’s writing as well as appendices that situate this important work in Cuba’s history.

IEMANJÁ-YEMAYÁ: LA DIOSA DE LOS MARES

Iemanjá es la diosa de los mares en la cultura africana y su culto ha repercutido con múltiples variantes en América Latina, fundamentalmente en la cultura popular. En este artículo realizaré un abordaje desde diferentes creadores y presentaré cómo la recrean literariamente la cubana Lydia Cabrera, el francés Pierre Verger o el brasileño Jorge mado; como le han cantado artistas como Dorival Caymmi, Celia Cruz o Alexandre Carlo. El abordaje teórico se sustentará en lo multidisciplinario, con base en la propuesta del maestro Antonio Candido: “Crítica de ertientes”. Será importante mostrar las coincidencias y las divergencias en las representaciones de esta deidad africana. La ropuesta consistirá en vislumbrar: ¿cuáles son los caracteres mitológicos y de ficción utilizados entre los autores?

Contrapunteos de Lydia Cabrera

Todavía hoy en la historia de la antropología cuba­na se presta poca atención a la escritora y antropóloga Lydia Cabrera, quien solo muy recientemente ha empezado a formar parte de la nómina intelectual de la cultura cubana oficial. Sin embargo, en función de su obra y trayectoria vital puede consi­derarse a Cabrera como la fundadora moderna de los estudios sobre las religiones afrocubanas. El objeto central de este texto es analizar el trabajo etnográfico de Lydia Cabrera a partir de la idea de que existe un contrapunteo, un diálogo, un juego metafórico, entre la identidad liminar de la propia autora -manifiesta en un sentido racial, cultural, de género, social y político- y su interés y dedicación a la aportación de los esclavos y la población de origen africano a la historia, a la cultura y, en última instancia, a la identidad misma de su patria cubana.

SEÑORAS DE LA TRADICIÓN. MUJERES FOLKLORISTAS EN CUBA.

In the history of Cuban anthropology, little attention has been paid to several women who have, nevertheless, obtained professional recognition from the international academic community. Calixta Guiteras Holmes is one such case, with her unique characters. Another less known but equally relevant woman was Carolina Poncet de Cárdenas, who formed a generation of highly active female pedagogues and folklorists. A different place is required to situate the life and work of a person who could be considered the modern founder of studies on Afro-Cuban religions, the writer and anthropologist Lydia Cabrera, who has only recently begun to be acknowledged by intellectual circles in official Cuban culture. An examination of these three figures is undertaken, and their contributions to anthropology are analyzed, opposing the hegemonic account of the history of science where the role of founders has generally been attributed to men. Likewise, the issues of institutional visibility and continuity and the lines of research in the Cuban academic world dedicated to anthropology and folklore are discussed, with the ultimate goal of bringing the contributions of these women researchers to the fore.

A sobrevivência de Sikán: imagens de uma lembrança sagrada na obra de Belkis Ayón

Este ensaio aborda a obra de uma artista cubana, Belkis Ayón (1967-1999), uma jovem negra, que, no breve tempo de sua vida, nos legou imagensperturbadoras, onde o sagrado excede os limites do mistério e do culto e se expandeno âmbito de uma vida comum e compartilhada. O tema da cultura abakuá, umasociedade secreta masculina que tem suas origens no longínquo Calabar, atravessaa iconografia da arte cubana. Tal vez, o primeiro expoente tenha sido o pintorespanhol Víctor Patricio de Landaluce, que residiu em La Habana até sua morte.No século XX, o culto abakuá, foi abordado por vários pintores cubanos: RenéPortocarrero, Mariano Rodríguez e sobre tudo Wifredo Lam. Belkis Ayón derivasó parcialmente dessa tradição: a pesar de acompanhar as cerimonias públicas eestudar os relatos da tradição abakuá nas obras de Lydia Cabrera, Fernando Ortiz eEnrique Sosa Rodríguez, a artista concebe, grava e imprime imagens que provêmde uma memória sagrada e ancestral. Ela imagina imagens a partir do relatoprimordial e assim oferece a Sikán uma sobrevida que excede o espaço restritopor onde espalha-se um secreto nascido à beira do rio Oyono, na Nigéria. Vinteanos depois da morte de Ayón, podemos detectar na sua obra as problemáticascontemporâneas de gênero, etnia, situação social e exclusão. Uma mulher capturao som com que se evoca o espírito e, por isso, é sacrificada. Será necessária outramulher para dar imagem e voz à lembrança sagrada sequestrada e apropriadapelos homens.

Afrocubanismo

Afrocubanismo constitutes an ideological shift in the valuation of Afro-Cuban forms of cultural expression and their acceptance on a national scale. From about 1927 through to the late 1930s, Afrocubanismo influenced all domains of élitist and popular art. At a time of fundamental changes in artistic expression, Afrocubanismo was partly nourished by international aesthetic trends in Madrid, Paris, and New York. A new interest in the non-commercial expression of Afro-Cubans inspired numerous works, from the ethnographic writing of Lydia Cabrera to the paintings of Eduardo Abela, Jaime Valls, and Wifredo Lam. The literary works of Alejo Carpentier and Nicolás Guillén belong to this Afro-Cuban moment, as do the musical theatre of Ernesto Lecuona and the symphonic compositions of Amadeo Roldán. Afrocubanismo involved, among other things, exchanges between national and transnational figures and forms of expression that included the influence of Cuban music on American jazz, Latin jazz, and rhythm and blues. This exchange culminated in the long relationship between Afro-Cuban poet Nicolás Guillén and North American poet Langston Hughes.