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Venceremos From AfroCubaWeb
There is an increasing focus on race & identity in Cuba, from both within and outside the island. Here we present some resources and references on issues relating to AfroCubans as these are complex and often poorly understood. We will be adding to this and welcome suggestions. Black Cubans The very term Spanish Cuban tends to hide the fact that Spaniards themselves have a strong African heritage, the result of being next to North Africa and receiving African culture over the millenia, including the 8 centuries the Moors occupied southern Spain, from 710 AD to 1492 AD. This gives rise to a famous quote from Simon Bolivar, himself a mulatto who was often held in contempt by "pure blooded" Spaniards: "We are no longer European just as Spain is no longer European, because of its African blood, character and institutions."
Chinese, Indians and Jews There is a very small, but still surviving Indian community, mostly in Oriente and consisting of Taino people, related to the Taino of Puerto Rico. According to Cuban researchers working over the past 20 years, Native Cubans survived in far greater numbers to a much later date than was commonly accepted: part of the continent wide myth of the "vanishing red man". There is also a Jewish community which has been reconnecting with Jews outside the island.
What Cubans say Flor Amalia, Donde Esta Dios? - a play on racism by playwright Amalia Gisela Arandia, A Panorama of Afrocuban Culture and History: One Way to Strengthen Nationality. Author Arandia is a researcher on race & identity issues at the UNEAC Miguel Barnet, Biography of a Runaway Slave. Author Barnet is head of the Fundacion Ortiz. Digna Castaņeda Fuertes, Between Race and Empire : African-Americans and Cubans Before the Cuban Revolution (1998). A professor at the University of Havana. Fidel Castro has discussed the topic on a number of occasions. Tomas Fernandez Robaina. Researcher Robaina is at the National Library and has authored numerous works on AfroCuban issues and race relations in Cuba: see his extensive bibliography Pablo Herrera Cuba's vibrant rap scene does not neglect the theme of racism, while in a peculiarly Cuban twist they are not anti-government. While we don't have much of Herrera's thoughts on the subject he does descibe this aspect of the rap scene in an article for Billboard. Alberto Jones. A Jamaican Cuban member of the West Indian Welfare Society in the city of Guantanamo, Cuba, and the director of the Caribbean American Childrens' Foundation in Palm Coast, Florida. Alberto Jones is actively making presentations at conferences and in the press on issues of race & dentity. We carry some of his media inserts and will be adding more. Rogelio Martinez Fure, A Co-Director of the Conjunto Folkorico Nacional and a well known ethnologist, Fure recently made an important announcement carried by Cuban media on the multiracial identity of Cuban culture at a UNEAC conference. (1998) Carlos Moore, Castro, the Blacks, and Africa (1989) Pedro Perez Sarduy. Afro-Cuba: An Anthology (1993)3. Seminars on Race & Identity in Cuba Today (Current) What do Blacks have in Cuba? (1996). An Open Letter to Carlos Moore (1990) Where did the Blacks go? - on the Pope's visit. (1998)Afro-Cuban Voices on Race and Identity in Contemporary Cuba (1999) What foreigners say Lisa Brock, Art Institute of ChicagoBetween Race and Empire : African-Americans and Cubans Before the Cuban Revolution (1998) James Early, Smithsonian Institution, Talking race in the revolution. Aline Helg, UT AustinOur Rightful Share : The Afro-Cuban Struggle for Equality, 1886-1912 (1995) Manning Marable, Columbia University, Revolution and Race in Cuba (1996) Robert F. Williams. We really need his words on Cuba. At present all we have is some biographical material. Foreign Organizations Trans-Africa, Washington, DC. Policy organization active in Africa and South America, Visited Cuba 1/99 with a strong delegation that included Randall Robinson, Danny Glover, Camille Crosby, Bill Fletcher, Bill Lucy. The Miami Herald, 1993 editorial on race reveals many misconceptions. Estudiosos debaten el tema del racismo, 6/26/99, shows the increasing interest in Miami in taking on Cuba over issues of racism. Contact details AfroCubaWeb
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