Lydia Cabrera and the Construction of an Afro-Cuban Cultural Identity - (Envisioning Cuba) by Edna M Rodríguez-Plate (Paperback)

About the Book

Lydia Cabrera and the Construction of an Afro-Cuban Cultural Identity

Book Synopsis

Lydia Cabrera (1900-1991), an upper-class white Cuban intellectual, spent many years traveling through Cuba collecting oral histories, stories, and music from Cubans of African descent. Her work is commonly viewed as an extension of the work of her famous brother-in-law, Cuban anthropologist Fernando Ortiz, who initiated the study of Afro-Cubans and the concept of transculturation. Here, Edna Rodríguez-Mangual challenges this perspective, proposing that Cabrera's work offers an alternative to the hegemonizing national myth of Cuba articulated by Ortiz and others.

Rodríguez-Mangual examines Cabrera's ethnographic essays and short stories in context. By blurring fact and fiction, anthropology and literature, Cabrera defied the scientific discourse used by other anthropologists. She wrote of Afro-Cubans not as objects but as subjects, and in her writings, whiteness, instead of blackness, is gazed upon as the "other." As Rodríguez-Mangual demonstrates, Cabrera rewrote the history of Cuba and its culture through imaginative means, calling into question the empirical basis of anthropology and placing Afro-Cuban contributions at the center of the literature that describes the Cuban nation and its national identity.

Review Quotes

"A genuine success in this work is the way in which the author brings to the fore Cabrera's deep engagement with the Afro-Cuban subject and an investedness in the telling of their stories. . . . A valuable contribution to the study of Caribbean ethnography." -- Canadian Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Studies

"A pioneering effort . . . intelligently focused on reading a variety of Cabrera's text -- all but one unavailable in English translation. . . . A valuable book." -- Journal of American Folklore

"An important book. . . . Offers an interesting and valuable biographic source for scholars and undergraduate students interested in Caribbean Studies, Cuban culture and literature, [and] the heritage of Africa in Hispanic America. . . . It brings light where knowledge was lacking." -- Latin Americanist

"The central thesis of this book is beyond reproach. . . . If Mangual-Rodriguez begins an Anglophone tradition of writing on Cabrera she will have done a real service to the memory of this great scholar." -- New West Indian Guide

About the Author

Edna M. Rodríguez-Mangual is assistant professor of Spanish at Texas Christian University, where she also teaches courses on Latin American literature, culture, and film.