Originally published in Spanish and edited by Cuban historian Daisy Rubiera Castillo and playwright and theater critic Ines Maria 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.
Dr. Devyn Spence Benson is an Associate Professor of Africana and Latin American Studies and the Chair of the Department of Africana Studies at Davidson College. She is the author of Antiracism in Cuba: The Unfinished Revolution (University of North Carolina Press, 2016). Dr. Karina Alma is an Assistant Professor in the Chicana/o Studies department at the University of California, Los Angeles. She coedited the anthology, U.S. Central Americans: Reconstructing Memories, Struggles and Communities of Resistance (Arizona University Press, 2017).
Part One: History Lawsuits by Slave Women in Nineteenth Century Cuba / Digna Castaneda Fuertes Reconstructing Ex-slave Belen Alvarez's Story / Oilda Hevia Lanier Women of Color in Santiaguera Colonial Society, A Commentary / Maria Cristina Hierrezuelo Part Two: Thought Women of Minerva / Maria del Carmen Barcia Zequeira Gratitude: To My Friends and Colleagues of the Journal Minerva / Ursula Coimbra de Valverde Black Voices in Favor of the Independent Party of Color / Carmen Piedra Our Ethnic Values / Consuelo Serra What We Are / Inocencia Silveira The Black Cuban Woman / Gerardo del Valle Black Cuban Women and Culture / Catalina Pozo Gato Black Intelligence / Arabella Ona 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 / Maria Ileana Faguaga Iglesias Proposing an Inclusive and Non-sexist Gaze: Mulata Women, A Profane Invention? / Onelia Chaveco Chaveco Hairs / Carmen Gonzalez Chacon Passing for a White Woman / Sandra del Valle Casals The Revolution Made Blacks into People / Yusimi Rodriguez Lopez 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 Cardenas The Black Female Imaginary in Cuba / Aymee Rivera Perez Oppositional Binaries in Nancy Morejon's Octubre Imprescindible and Cuadernos de Granada / Lourdes Martinez Echazabal In Memory of Excilia / Coralia de Mercedes Hernandez Herrera The Thick Skin of Teresa Cardenas / Leonardo Estupinan Zaldivar El Negrito, The Little Black Man and the Mulata in the Vortex of Nationality / Ines Maria Martiatu Terry Popular Theater and Collective Resistance / Fatima de la Caridad Patterson Catalina Berroa, The Audacious Trinitarian (First Female Composer of "Cultured" Music in the Nineteenth Century) / Isabel Gonzalez Sauto The Marathon Exists for Both Men and Women / Edelvis Lopez Making Dreams Come True Is Not the Same as Dreaming / Maria Elena Mendiola The Contributions of Sara Gomez / Sandra Alvarez Ramirez Belkis Ayon Manso, Between Heterogeneous Sensibilities / Lazara Menendez Vasquez Black Women in Sports / Irene Esther Ruiz Narvaez A Lexical Semantic Analysis on the Discourse of Women in Cuban Rap / Yanelys Abreu Babi and Anette Jimenez Marata
By 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 21st-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
