Afrocubanas: History, Thought, and Cultural Practices(Creolizing the Canon)

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.

Table of Contents:
Part One: History Lawsuits by Slave Women in Nineteenth Century Cuba / Digna Castañeda Fuertes Reconstructing Ex-slave Belén Álvarez’s Story / Oilda Hevia Lanier Women of Color in Santiaguera Colonial Society, A Commentary / María Cristina Hierrezuelo Part Two: Thought Women of Minerva / María del Carmen Barcia Zequeira Gratitude: To My Friends and Colleagues of the Journal Minerva / Úrsula Coimbra de Valverde Black Voices in Favor of the Independent Party of Color / Carmen Piedra Our Ethnic Values / Consuelo Serra What We Are / Inocencía Silveira The Black Cuban Woman / Gerardo del Valle Black Cuban Women and Culture / Catalina Pozo Gato Black Intelligence / Arabella Òña 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 / María Ileana Faguaga Iglesias Proposing an Inclusive and Non-sexist Gaz

About the Author :
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).

Review :
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. 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. 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. 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. 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.