To Whom It Belongs: The Aftermaths of Afrocubanismo and the Power overLo Negroin Cuban Arts, 1938–1958

Abstract

This article explores the impact of Afrocubanismo on the development of Cuba’s arts during the 1940s and 1950s. The article follows the discursive output of artists, intellectuals, and cultural policymakers of different racial backgrounds over the deployment of lo negro to construct cubanidad. It argues that, if the 1920s and 1930s experienced a movement towards the construction of a homogeneous mestizo Cuba, the following decades reveal an effort by some artists to desyncretize lo cubano. While some intellectuals constructed notions of authenticity that circumscribed black art to black artists, many white Cuban artists in turn embraced elite Hispanic heritage as their main creative language while valorizing some Afro-Cuban artists’ recreations of lo negro. The article also demonstrates that the scholarly debates about cultural appropriation in recent decades have a long history within the Afro-Cuban community. It shows how Afro-Cuban artists and intellectuals pioneered arguments about the exploitative use of lo negro to make national art and the central role of culture in shaping racial inequality.

Bola de Nieve

“…They celebrated lo negro as part of Cuba's mestizaje, seeking authority in Afro-Cuban cultural forms. SeeGarcía Yero 2022. When in 1958 he was asked which musical group he felt connected to, he bluntly replied: "To my continent: Africa … I am faithful to what is mine [Yo soy fiel a lo mío]." Not only did he assert his loyalty to his Afrodescendant roots, but he also celebrated Africa's centrality to the development of music worldwide: "The rhythm was not invented-Africa had it before anyone could even think of singing," he would say.51 He connected his Afrodescendant identity to the struggles of the African diaspora, explaining that "my symbol is the three Ns [mi símbolo son las tres enes] … Three Ns that very few people understand: negro, nuevo, and necio [black, new, and stubborn] … The three Ns that I carry as the initials of my soul.…”