Lydia cabrera He decided to give Afro-Cuban culture the place it deserved in the panorama of Cuba in the mid-XNUMXth century. At that time, still the yoruba religion and the African roots had a minimum of acceptance among the population, despite being quite widespread.
Lydia She was a Cuban ethnologist, researcher and storyteller and dedicated her studies to disseminating the presence and traces of African culture on the Island in its linguistic and anthropological aspects, which are unavoidable.
She was initiated into Afro-Cuban folklore by Fernando Ortiz, the most important ethnologist and anthropologist in Cuba.
Lydia, transcendental Afro-Cuban work
At a young age, Lydia cabrera began to write the social chronicle of the magazine Cuba y América under the pseudonym of Nena and in Paris he published, translated into French by Francis de Miomandre, his Contes nègres of Cuba in 1936, based on life story accounts of black folklore as a poetic recreation.
Many other works of his dedicated to promoting knowledge about the Cuban and African cultural mix were published in the French magazines Cahiers du Sud, Revue de Paris and Les Nouvelles Litteraires, and in the Cuban Revista Origenes, Revista Bimestre Cubana, Lyceum, Monday of Revolution and Bohemia.
Lydia, in her extensive literary work, also published books such as Why ... black tales from Cuba, which was also translated into French and is fully dedicated to studying the origins of Santeria in Cuba. By 1955 he published his compilation Old black sayings.
A trajectory in favor of the Cuban identity
Another of the ethnological books of Lydia cabrera, El Monte, collects the most important anthropological, religious and cultural foundations of the Afro-Cuban legacy.
These are some of his most famous works on Afro-Cuban culture:
- Black tales from Cuba
- Why? Black tales from Cuba
- El Monte
- Old black sayings
- Anagó, Lucumí vocabulary
- The secret society Abakuá, narrated by old followers.
- Otán Iyebiyé, the precious stones.
- Ayapá: Tales of Jicotea
- The sacred lagoon of San Joaquín
- Yemayá and Ochún
- Anaforuana: ritual and symbols of initiation in the secret society Abakuá
- Francisco and Francisca: jokes of old blacks
- Insomnia Itineraries: Trinidad de Cuba
- Congo Rules: Palo Monte Mayombe
- Koeko iyawó, learns novice: small treatise on Lucumí rule
- Stories for adults, children and the mentally retarded
- The Kimbisa Rule of the Holy Christ of Good Trip
- Loose Pages
It is good to clarify that Lydia cabrera She was an advanced thinking woman for her time, who gained the trust of the santeros in times when the secrets of the Yoruba religion were jealously guarded.
She also gave recognition to Afro-Cuban women in her works. In the stories of Yemayá, Ochún, Oyá, Obba and other goddesses of the Rule of Ocha portrays them as mothers and strong females endowed with femininity and great power.
