
Not in vain Fernando Ortiz Fernandez It is recognized today as the third discoverer of Cuba after Christopher Columbus and Alejandro de Humboldt.
And it is that this twentieth century Cuban anthropologist, jurist, archaeologist and journalist, studied in depth the historical roots-Afro-Cuban cultural and he added the important concept of transculturation to cultural anthropology.
His work was declared Cultural Heritage of the Nation in a ceremony that took place in the auditorium of the Colegio Universitario San Gerónimo, in the historic center of Havana, to commemorate the 138th anniversary of his birth.
Fernando Ortiz, Afro-Cuban
From a very young age, he defended the cause of blacks, as well as the vindication of indigenous heritage, which made him a determined representative of anti-racism in Cuba.
In addition, Fernando OrtizHe was an insatiable researcher of the processes of transculturation and historical formation of the Cuban nationality.
For 1940, Ortiz In his founding work "Cuban Counterpoint of Tobacco and Sugar" he disseminated the concept of transculturation, considered one of his greatest contributions to cultural anthropology.
And in 1952 he began the publication of the monumental work in five volumes "The instruments of Afro-Cuban music", an important addition to Afro-Cuban culture of all time.
Ortiz: extensive work on Afro-Cuban heritage
Ortiz Throughout his life and driven by an interest in studying the true roots of Cuban identity, he created and edited a large number of magazines.
Thus, he founded the Cuban Folklore Archives Magazine, in 1924, which he directed for a period of five years and was in charge of the founding and direction of the Surco Magazine, between 1930 and 1931, as well as the Ultra Magazine, between 1936 and 1947. .
Represented Cuba in important international events on ethnology and history such as:
- The Second National Congress of History, held in 1943,
- the International Congress of Caribbean Archaeologists, held in Honduras in 1945,
- the Inter-American Indigenous Congresses of Cuzco, Peru and La Paz, Bolivia,
- the International Congress of Anthropology and Ethnology, in Vienna, held in 1952,
- that of Anthropology and Ethnology, carried out in Vienna that same year and
- the International Folklore Congress, Naples, in 1954.
Fernando Ortiz, the third discoverer of Cuba, left an extensive work of Afro-Cuban cultural riches. These are some of his most important publications on the subject:
- "Immigration from the criminological point of view"
- The black witches (notes for a study of criminal ethnology)
- The rebellions of the Afro-Cubans
- The Batá drums of the Yoruba
- The Afro-Cuban cabildos
- Afronegrismos glossary
- The cocorícamo and other theoplasmic concepts of Afro-Cuban folklore
- Of Afro-Cuban music; a stimulus for your study
- Cuban Counterpoint of the snuff and the sugar
- The deception of the races
- The African of Cuban folk music
- The instruments of Afro-Cuban music. 5 vols
- The conga sect of the “matiabos” of Cuba
- History of a Cuban fight against demons
We recommend these works by Don Ortiz, so valuable and enriching in knowledge about the roots that identify us: