Crossing the Straits It takes more than one step

Keeble McFarlane
Eleggua Project

It was the kind of event designed to shorten Jesse Helm's life dramatically: some ninety American academics spending a week in the bosom of the "thorn in his side", Cuba! And these Americans were curious, inquisitive, open-minded people who came to find things out, to learn and to connect.

The event was a convention of the Association of Black Anthropologists, co-sponsored by the Eleggua Project, which took place during the last week of July 2000. Participants included writers, poets, musicians, as well as the anthropologists who made up the majority. The gathering included a delegation from Britain, as well as individuals from Israel and the Netherlands. The focus of the conference was aspects of history, culture and people of the African Diaspora, and the papers and discussions reflected those wide interests. That focus was evident from the opening moments of the week, when a prominent Babalao, Jorge Padrón, conducted a Santeria cleansing ceremony to open the conference. The next day, the visitors traveled to his Santeria shrine in the Havana district of Cerro for a full-fledged ceremony and an evening of socializing.

As the formal part of the conference swung into full gear, participants heard about such diverse topics as ex-slave communities in Mexico; the blending of West African and European religions in the New World; the influence of the children of the Diaspora on present day Africa; the effects of colonial settlement on the indigenous diets of various communities in the Americas; trends in writing, music and culture among black communities in several countries; the movement of ex-slave populations among countries in the Caribbean and middle America and about the problems of relations among the races and sexes in modern-day life.

The learning was not confined to the meeting rooms, but went on in informal sessions outside and as the participants went about their daily business during the week. it was carnival time in Havana, which is showing signs of the increased economic activity of the past several years. More renovation and construction is going on than for many years before. The old city, a UNESCO World heritage site, appears to be one giant construction zone. The restored buildings, as well as the artisans' market, provided ready attractions for many of the participants.

The learning continued on the trips arranged by the organizers. The first was to the city of Matanzas, a couple of hours east of Havana, where the local Afro-Cuban troupe based at the museum, Palacio de Junco, presented dances depicting various aspects of Santeria figures and practices. Later the visitors traveled to the small town of Jovellanos where members of the extended Baró family presented less formal, but perhaps more spirited, traditional dances. The event was also quite an attraction for some of the townspeople who came to gawk, more at the visitors than at the presentation.

Grupo Folklorico Afrocuba portrays Santeria story of Chango

Monument to the first slave uprising in Cuba Triunvirato, Matanzas, Cuba

The visitors wrapped up the trip with a stop at a relatively new monument to the slaves who led the first uprising in Cuba against the Spanish oppressors of the 18th century. This striking monument at Triumvirato consists of a huge slab of concrete perhaps ten meters long by three wide and two high, bearing three huge figures another three meters high. There is a woman flanked by two men, one carrying a machete, breaking their bonds and calling on the other slaves to rise up and shake off the shackles of the Spanish plantation owners. A historian from Matanzas, Isabel Hernandez Campos, who had earlier presented a paper on slavery in Cuba, explained the events surrounding the uprising. A small museum on the isolated site contains illustrations and artifacts explaining the history of the uprising.

The other excursion was to Santiago, Cuba's second largest city and an important center in the island's African history. Santiago was the seat of the fight, in the latter part of the 19th century, to throw off the shackles of Spanish colonialism and to gain independence. It is also an important site for African cultural development in Cuba. It is here, too, that Fidel Castro launched his first blow against the regime of Fulgencio Batisita. On July 26, 1953, he led an assault on an army barracks in the center of town. Known as the Moncada, it now houses children instead of soldiers, having been turned into a school and one of the most important shrines to the revolution. The bullet holes on the front of the building are carefully preserved and many of the participants visited the site on the anniversary of the assault. While some toured the charming city which is much more compact than the sprawling Havana, others visited the church of El Cobre, erected in memory of Cuba's patron saint, Caridad del Cobre, and a monument to runaway slaves. Cobre (copper) was once an important industrial center based on mining - hence its name.

The visitors also witnessed the annual carnival, in which colorfully-costumed dance groups took over the streets. They took in a dance performance by the prominent local folkloric group, Cutumba, who presented an energetic and well-produced rendering of folk stories and legends gathered and synthesized for presentation at their own theatre by members of the dance company.

While participants visited Santiago, Fidel Castro held center-stage at the annual 26th of July Celebration in Havana. The huge Plaza de la Revolution Jose Martí, in Havana was full as hundreds of buses brought people in from outlying areas and people in the city converged on the square the hear the Maximum Leader recall those first fitful events of the revolution and the subsequent trials and triumphs. The closest the participants of the conference got to Fidel was watching the events on television at a small municipal airport while waiting for their flight from Havana to Santiago. They viewed pictures of Castro walking along the parade route in his traditional green army fatigues - and black and white running shoes!