Afrocubanas

Devyn Spence Benson; Daisy Rubiera Castillo; Inés María Martiatu Terry

doi:10.5771/9781786614827

Summary

Originally 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.

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Bibliographic data

Copyright year: 2020
ISBN-Print: 978-1-78661-481-0
ISBN-Online: 978-1-78661-482-7
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield, Lanham
Language: English
Pages: 356
Product type: Edited Book

1. Dedication Page No access
2. Contents No access
3. Acknowledgments No access
4. Editor’s Acknowledgments No access
5. Editor’s Introduction No access
6. Translator’s Note No access
7. Prologue No access
1. Notes No access
1. Chapter 1 Lawsuits by Slave Women in Nineteenth-Century Cuba No access
2. Chapter 2 Reconstructing Ex-Slave Belén Álvarez’s Story No access
3. Chapter 3 Women “of Color” in Santiaguera Colonial Society No access
1. Chapter 4 Women of Minerva No access
2. Chapter 5 Gratitude No access
3. Chapter 6 Black Voices in Favor of the Independent Party of Color1 No access
4. Chapter 7 Our Ethnic Values1 No access
5. Chapter 8 What We Are No access
6. Chapter 9 The Black Cuban Woman No access
7. Chapter 10 The Black Cuban Women and Culture No access
8. Chapter 11 Black Intelligence No access
9. Chapter 12 Women in Santeria or Regla Ocha No access
10. Chapter 13 Gender and Raciality No access
11. Chapter 14 On Afrocubana Stereotypes No access
12. Chapter 15 Proposing an Inclusive and Nonsexist Gaze No access
13. Chapter 16 Hairs No access
14. Chapter 17 Passing for a White Woman No access
15. Chapter 18 The Revolution Made Blacks into People No access
16. Chapter 19 Human Race? Ah . . . It Had to Be! No access
17. Chapter 20 A Room of Our Own for Black Cuban Women No access
1. Chapter 21 Oriki for Elder Black Women of the Past No access
2. Chapter 22 The Black Female Imaginary in Cuba No access
3. Chapter 23 Contradictory Binaries in Nancy Morejón’s Octubre Imprescindible and Cuaderno de Granada No access
4. Chapter 24 In Memory of Excilia No access
5. Chapter 25 The Thick Skin of Teresa Cárdenas No access
6. Chapter 26 El Negrito and the Mulata in the Vortex of Nationality No access
7. Chapter 27 Popular Theater and Collective Resistance No access
8. Chapter 28 Catalina Berroa, the Audacious Trinidadian No access
9. Chapter 29 The Marathon Exists for Both Men and Women No access
10. Chapter 30 Making One’s Dreams Come True Is Not the Same as Dreaming No access
11. Chapter 31 The Contributions of Sara Gómez No access
12. Chapter 32 Belkis Ayón Manso, Between Heterogeneous Sensibilities No access
13. Chapter 33 Black Women in Sports No access
14. Chapter 34 A Lexical Semantical Analysis on the Discourse of Women in Cuban Rap No access
Index No access Pages 333 - 346
About the Editor and Translator No access Pages 347 - 348
About the Authors No access Pages 349 - 356