Nationalizing Blackness: Afrocubanismo and Artistic Revolution in Havana, 1920-1940

340 Pages·1997·8.976 MB·English

by  Robin Moore

AFROCUBANISMO AND ARTISTIC
REVOLUTION IN HAVANA, 1920—194 0

NATIONALIZING BLACKNESS
PITT LATIN AMERICAN SERIES
Billie R. DeWalt, Editor
NATIONALIZING
BLACKNESS
SS SSS SSS SSS SS S SS SSS S oS SoS SSS TSTE
Afrocubanismo and Artistic Revolution
in Havana, 1920-1940
ROBIN MOORE
UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH PRESS
Published by the University of Pittsburgh Press, Pittsburgh, Pa. 15261
Copyright © 1997, University of Pittsburgh Press
All rights reserved
Manufactured in the United States of America
Printed on acid-free paper
100987654321
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data will be found at the end of this book.
A CIP catalog record for this book is available from the British Library.
Illustrations from the following collections, journals, and archives are reproduced by permission: the
Biblioteca Nacional José Marti; the Centro Odilio Urfé; the Museo Nacional, Palacio de Bellas Artes;
the Museo Nacional de la Música; the Oficina del Historiador de la Ciudad de la Habana; Bohemia;
Estudios Afrocubanos; Juventud Rebelde; and the personal collections of Francisco Bacallao, Alicia
Castro, Lazaro Herrera, Hilda and Raquel Rivero, and Avelina Alcalde Valls.
En el susurro del palmar
se siente el eco resonar
de una voz de dolor que al amor llama
Oh, patria mia
¿quién diría que tu cielo azul
nublara el llanto?
— ELISEO GRENET

CONTENTS
PREFACE 1X
Introduction 1
1 Afrocubans and National Culture 13
2 Minstrelsy in Havana: Music and Dance of the Teatro Vernáculo 41
3 Comparsas and Carnival in the New Republic: Four Decades
of Cultural Controversy 62
4 Echale Salsita: Sones and Musical Revolution 87
5 Nationalizing Blackness: The Vogue of Afrocubanismo 114
6 The Rumba Craze: Afrocuban Arts as International
Popular Culture 166
7 The Minorista Vanguard: Modernism and Afrocubanismo 191
Conclusion 215
APPENDIXES 229
NOTES 243
GLOSSARY 275
REFERENCES 289
INDEX 313