Description
Book SynopsisOriginally published in Spanish and edited by Cuban historian Daisy Rubiera Castillo and playwright and theater critic Inés María Martiatu Terry, this ground-breaking edited collection is the first work of its kind. It places the experiences of black and mulata women at the center of Cuban history. Including essays from a mix of well-known and newly published Cuban authors, the volume examines the lives of Afrocubanas from the late nineteenth century to the present. The volume’s contributors collect and interrogate the voices of black Cuban women and the political, cultural, social, and ideological contributions they have made to the history of their nation.
One of the unique qualities of Afrocubanas is that the text is the product of a grassroots community working group in Havana. A number of antiracist organizations emerged to fight racial inequality in light of Cuba’s new economic challenges after the fall of its chief trading partner, the Soviet Union in 1991. But, the Afrocubanas Project (founded in the mid-2000s) is one of the few groups that challenges racism and sexism together. The members of the Afrocubanas Project hail from a variety of professions, ages, and sexual orientations. They share a collective interest in challenging negative stereotypes about black women. This volume merges their activism and scholarship to offer a counter discourse to existing narratives about black women in Cuba while also creating and disseminating new knowledge about Afrocubanas.
There is no other published work in English devoted to analyzing the political and intellectual dimensions of black Cuban women’s thought across the island’s history. This text is essential reading for scholars and students of Africana Studies, Afro-Latin American Studies, Caribbean history, and courses focusing on black women in the Atlantic region.
Trade ReviewBy opening a much needed window into the lives, voices, and contributions of barely known Afro-Cuban female intellectuals and activists, this compilation makes a singular contribution to Afro-Cuban and to Afro-Latin American Studies. It is precisely from and through authors like those included here that we will be able to rethink the history of Latin America. -- Alejandro de la Fuente, Afro-Latin American Research Institute, Harvard University
Afrocubanas is an important historical document. It brings together many of Cuba’s contemporary Black feminist scholars to highlight the history and breadth of Black feminist thought in Cuba. This translation helps to make visible, and accessible, the groundbreaking work of Cuban Black feminist scholars.
-- Tanya Saunders, Associate Professor of Latin American Studies, University of Florida
Previously published (in 2011) by the prestigious Cuban publisher Editorial Ciencias Sociales, Afrocubanas: History Thought, and Cultural Practices is a beautiful and necessary collection of texts on Afro-Cuban female history and experiences that have been frequently overlooked in most works on Cuban Studies. As the first published book devoted to giving voice to Afro-Cuban women, it deserves to be published in English. -- Odette Casamayor-Cisneros, Associate Professor of Romance Languages, University of Pennsylvania
This English-language release of Afrocubanas is nothing less than thrilling. The granular analysis of archival sources by Cuba’s most innovative historians, the compilation of Afro-Cuban women’s writing throughout the twentieth century, and cogent discussions of black women’s lives in 21
st-century Cuba combine to make this book essential reading for anyone interested in race and gender in Latin America. -- Anasa Hicks, Assistant Professor of Caribbean History, Florida State University
Afrocubanas provides sources that are often inaccessible to students or ignored by scholars and teachers – those authored by black women from the non-English-speaking Global South. Those who teach on the topics of Latin America and the Caribbean; slavery and race; or feminism and gender should assign this book, for the voices in Afrocubanas have the potential to revolutionize your course. -- Kelly Urban, Assistant Professor of History, University of South Alabama
Table of ContentsPart One: History
Lawsuits by Slave Women in Nineteenth Century Cuba / Digna Castañeda Fuertes
Reconstructing Ex-slave Belén Álvarez’s Story / Oilda Hevia Lanier
Women of Color in Santiaguera Colonial Society, A Commentary / María Cristina Hierrezuelo
Part Two: Thought
Women of Minerva / María del Carmen Barcia Zequeira
Gratitude: To My Friends and Colleagues of the Journal Minerva / Úrsula Coimbra de Valverde
Black Voices in Favor of the Independent Party of Color / Carmen Piedra
Our Ethnic Values / Consuelo Serra
What We Are / Inocencía Silveira
The Black Cuban Woman / Gerardo del Valle
Black Cuban Women and Culture / Catalina Pozo Gato
Black Intelligence / Arabella Òña
Women in Santeria or Regla Ocha: Gender, Myths and Reality / Daisy Rubiera Castillo
Gender and Raciality: An Obligatory Reflection in Contemporary Cuba / Yulexis Almeida Junco
On Afro-Cuban Women Stereotypes: Construction and Deconstruction of Myths / María Ileana Faguaga Iglesias
Proposing an Inclusive and Non-sexist Gaze: Mulata Women, A Profane Invention? / Onelia Chaveco Chaveco
Hairs / Carmen González Chacón
Passing for a White Woman / Sandra del Valle Casals
The Revolution Made Blacks into People / Yusimí Rodríguez López
Human Race? Ah…. It Had to Be! / Yohmna Depestre Corcho
A Room of Our Own for Black Cuban Women / Yesenia Selier Crespo
Part Three: Cultural Practices
Oriki for Elder Black Women of the Past / Georgina Herrera Cárdenas
The Black Female Imaginary in Cuba / Aymée Rivera Pérez
Oppositional Binaries in Nancy Morejón’s Octubre Imprescindible and Cuadernos de Granada / Lourdes Martínez Echazábal
In Memory of Excilia / Coralia de Mercedes Hernández Herrera
The Thick Skin of Teresa Cárdenas / Leonardo Estupiñán Zaldívar
El Negrito, The Little Black Man and the Mulata in the Vortex of Nationality / Inés María Martiatu Terry
Popular Theater and Collective Resistance / Fátima de la Caridad Patterson
Catalina Berroa, The Audacious Trinitarian (First Female Composer of “Cultured” Music in the Nineteenth Century) / Isabel González Sauto
The Marathon Exists for Both Men and Women / Edelvis López
Making Dreams Come True Is Not the Same as Dreaming / María Elena Mendiola
The Contributions of Sara Gómez / Sandra Álvarez Ramírez
Belkis Ayón Manso, Between Heterogeneous Sensibilities / Lázara Menéndez Vásquez
Black Women in Sports / Irene Esther Ruiz Narváez
A Lexical Semantic Analysis on the Discourse of Women in Cuban Rap / Yanelys Abreu Babi and Anette Jiménez Marata
