In This Issue:
Professional Exchange Or Cultural
Tourism
The Dark Side of Tourism
Mysticism and Religion
New Friends and Opportunities: African Heritage
in the Americas
Contemporary Arts-Cultural Roots
Dance & Music in Santiago de Cuba
"We Are NOT Extinct":Indians in
Cuba
I read with interest Robert Barnett's note in this issue of Elegua Newsletter.I have known Robert for over four years, he is a friend of the Cuban people, so I know his criticism is heartfelt
Cuba has worked very hard since the collapse of the Soviet Union to rebuild its
economy and give its people a better life. We appreciate the foreign joint venture
partners who have begun to work with us in Cuba and we welcome foreign visitors to
the island. I am well aware of the dangers of uncontrolled tourism, and in association
with the Ministry of Culture we are trying to monitor its impact on Cuba.
Most visitors come to Cuba for our superior beaches and the safety of our island. The visitors we most welcome are those who come to study and work with us to explore our history and cultural expression. In some countries this is called cultural tourism, but I don't like the phrase as it might imply the exploitation of cultural heritage. I like to think in terms of professional exchanges. It is for this reason that I have agreed to work with the Eleggua Project.
Eleggua Project now hosts more than five programs a year for professionals, academics, graduate and undergraduate students who wish to understand the cultural influences that have contributed to the creation of modern Cuba. I always enjoy reading the Eleggua Newsletter because I gain new insights and new perspectives on my own country that result from these professional exchanges.
I encourage academics at all levels of study and career to participate with Cubans in the exploration of their island's history and culture through the programs of the Eleggua Project. If this sounds like a blatant endorsement, it is. I support the work of the Eleggua Project in partnering Cuban and foreign scholars and I support the work they are doing to document and celebrate the cultures of my country. Eleggua Project participants are not considered tourists but delegates; this difference is significant
One of the most important contributions that the African peoples and their descendants have made to the culture of Cuba is, without doubt, the complex group of systems of beliefs and practices of religious "magic" woven into everyday life. This may be manifested as an active practice of ritual, or may be reflected in various idioms of popular culture, or professional life.
Regardless of expression, practitioners and others influenced by these African
derived belief systems and practices, have reached out to the world to offer several
of the most significant cultural contributions which Cuba has made to humankind.
These contriutions range through popular music and dance genres
such as "son' and "rumba", to the concerts of Alejandro Garcia Caturla,
the distinct musical instruments of the regions, the paintings of artists like Wilfredo
Lam and the important novels of Alejo Carpentier, to mention some of the most recognized
names.
I base my research from my home town of Santiago de Cuba, where I was born breathing the same air that feeds the spectrum of popular religions prevalent in the eastern part of the country. In this region live communities of Bantu heritage descended from the Kongo slaves brought predominantly to the eastern and central regions of Cuba. This specrum was enriched through the influences of Voudu which arrived in eastern Cuba with slaves being brought from Haiti as a result of the revolution there at the end of the 18th century. Still later Scientific Spiritism was brought from France by the works of Allan Kardec, and finding opportunity among the creoles and Kongo people grew and evolved into Cuban Cordón Spiritism. Meanwhile the derived beliefs of the Lecumi people of Yoruba origin, Regla de Ocha or Cuban Santeria, arrived with slaves through Cuba's eastern ports, and increased their influence in the eastern region through internal migration. As well, in the previous centuries a cult of the Virgin of Charity of El Cobre, had culminated with the Roman Catholic Church recognizing the Virgin as the patron saint of Cuba.
As a result of this richness of spiritual heritage and life, it is easy to understand why Fiesta del Fuego (Festival of Caribbean Culture), celebrated in Santiago de Cuba since 1981, has been marked by a strong religious and mystical accent which form a base for the preservation of these distinct manifestations of traditional popular culture. The Casa del Caribe, from its foundation in 1982, has had as its principal objective the study of the complex and related systems of manifested beliefs in the entire eastern region. The journal, Del Caribe, (in Spanish) has been a responsible vehicle of expression for a large number of Cuban and foreign researchers interested in the manifestations of religious thoughts.
I am currently
on faculty at the University of Colorado in Boulder teaching religions of Africans
in the Americas. Prior to coming to Boulder, I had been travelling to Cuba often
- perhaps twice a year - doing research on questions related to African-derived religions.
The African Heritage in the Americas study program
was not only an occasion for me to return to Cuba, but also to share experiences
and contacts with others who had been working in similar fields. This study program
turned out to be one of the most exciting that I have done, (other than those I organize
personally). The Eleggua Project has managed to put together in authentic fashion,
an outstanding exposure to those Cuban heritages derived from Africa and peoples
of African ancestry. I was impressed and pleased with Eleggua's ability to match
needs and desires of the tour delegates with the circumstances of life in Cuba. This
is important to me, not merely because of the delegates, but because the Eleggua
Project did not violate the cultural integrity of communities we visited. We were
participants; we were students; we were not intruders.
Another thing I liked about the African Heritage program was the fact that there was always a sense of contributing to the communities. I don't mean to suggest that individually we made personal donations. We pooled our resourses and then made a group contribution to each community we visited. I thought this was exceptionally senstitive and responsible, particularly given Cuba's current economic needs.
I am pleased with my experiences. I enjoyed myself. I met a new group of colleagues and associates, and am looking forward to having further contact with them. But most importantly, I'm certainly pleased with contacing new Cuban practitioners of African derived traditions as this represents an expansion of my network of collaborators. I intend to continue working with these new friends and contacts and I hope to continue working with the Eleggua Project, to bring other study groups to Cuba to see the dynamic nature of African-derived traditions in Cuba and the Americas
Hombros, siempre hombros,repeated
our instructors. They were members of Cutumba, a professional ensemble of sixty dancers
and musicians based in Santiago de Cuba. And they insisted that we keep our shoulders
circling as we moved through the dance phrases. This signature of the Cuban Haitian
dances of Voudu - a sensuous and seemingly effortless rolling of the shoulders -
would not come without exacting its toll on the uninitiated. Our screaming shoulder
muscles and the pools of sweat on the floor made that perfectly clear. But these
were dues willingly paid to approximate the fluid rhythms of our hosts, who remained
relentless, yet good-natured, in spurring us along. We North Americans needed to
"loosen up". This lesson would prove invaluable on many fronts during our
stay in Cuba.
Participants in the dance component of the Eleggua Project's music and dance workshop included a multi-ethnic array of professional dancers, university professors, graduate and undergraduate students, and dance scholars. In organization and professionalism, the workshop classes surpassed our expectations. Because music and dance are so closely interwoven in AfroCuban culture, the morning song class served entry into the complex rhythms that would soon surround us. The dance class which followed, accompanied by as many as ten musicians, was conducted by a master teacher with six assistants. There was abundant individual attention, and a good balance of repetition and new material.
Our afternoon lectures, conducted by Cutumba's resident Scholar, illuminated the specific AfroCuban traditions that we studied in the studio classes. This is one component of the workshop that will be expanded in future. Since most Cuban research in folkloric and popular traditions has yet to be translated for English speaking audiences, we couldn't get enough.
Our second studio class of the day focussed on Cuban popular dance. This was designed to allow us entry into the social milieu of Santiago, which is saturated with "son", the roots of today's "salsa." Material for these classes had application in any locale in which Cubans congregated socially and played music - not at all a rare occurrence. A couple of strategically placed steps, especially if the hips go in the proper direction, immediately transcends at least one barrier separating "touristas" from Cubans.
The workshop, of course had its glitches. There was no hot water in the hotel for the first several days, we had to enlist our translator to amass sufficient quantities of bottled water, and we were often subjected to the mercurial moods of our bus driver.
My strongest recollections, however, are of moments when things came together. I remember the vitality of a Cuban-Haitian "Gaga"performed by our Cutumba instructors, the history and elegance of a "Tumba Francesa" preserved in Guantanamo, the stylistic subtelties of a "son" or "changui" danced by an elderly couple. And the tour de force? Sharing ambulatory delirium of a "conga" with hundreds of Cubans through the narrow cobblestone streets of Santiago as part of the Fiesta del Fuego.
In these eastern mountains
of Cuba, region of Baracoa, Guatanamo Province, there are several enclaves of indigenious
comunity culture that have survived 500 years of colonization. This remote and yet
culturally important area of Cuba has been characterized by its historically rural
quality and its major historical import to Cuban movements of authocthonous liberation.
While the continued existence of several Native populations appears in the deep scientific record (Marti, Rousse, Arrom, Rivero de la Calle, Nuez), the assertion of complete extinction of Taino Indians in the Caribbean became commonplace in the academy throughout the twentieth century. Recently, however, some of these isolated Native groups have begun to represent themselves within Cuba and to communicate with other Native groups around the hemisphere. Cuban and international documentation was initiated, with several articles appearing in scientific journals. Most prominently, the Taino community at Caridad de Los Indios, near Guantanamo, has retained various Native dances and songs, as well as considerable oral history and understanding of ecological relationships. There are as well, Native populations near Bayamo, Santiago and Punta Maisi in this eastern-most triangle of Cuba. As a result of the indigenous revitalization now in process, the several Native-based community enclaves are now reaching out to each other to generate an awarenes of the remaining Taino identity and culture in the area.
While the Taino-descendant population is not dominant, this is a region of Cuba that has maintained the most sustainable indigenous agricultural traditions (the conuco system) and features an "old Cuba" flavor. The agricultural base of the region is largely self-sufficient farming, with families maintaining gardens and small animals. The Baracoa-Guantanamo region is a great living microcosm of the Cuban ethnogensis, rooted in the tri-raciality of Indigenous (Taino), Spanish, and African peoples. The natural history of the region offers nature walks in tropical forests, cultural exchanges with Native communities, ocean fishing and snorkelling and cultural/historical tours tracing the route of Columbus