Early Life and Education
Born in Havana in 1899, the youngest of eight siblings, she comes from a a family of social and financial privilege in pre-revolutionary Cuba, where her father, Raimundo Cabreras, was also a writer, jurist, lawyer, and a former fighter for Cuba's independence was a prominent man in society.Her father was the owner and editor of the Cuban journal which at the time was, Cuba y America which translates to Cuba and America. This news paper involved politics and her father wanted to become independent from Spain. Her mother, Elisa Marcaida Casanova, was a housewife and respected socialite. The family had many African American servants and child caretaker who, through them a young Lydia learned about African folklore, stories,tradition,religions, and their mystical world. Her father was also the president of the first Cuban corporation, La Sociedad Económica de Amigos del País, founded in the eighteenth century. He also owed a popular literary journal, Cuba y America, where Lydia got her first experience as a writer. At the age of thirteen, Cabrera wrote a weekly anonymous column that appeared in her father's journal. She covered topics relevant to her specific community, such as wedding announcements, childbirths, or obituaries.
Like the majority of wealthy Cubans in the early 1900s, private tutors came to the home of the Cabreras to educate the children. For a short period of time, she attended the private school of Maria Luisa Dolz. At this time it was not socially acceptable for a woman to pursue a high school diploma, so Cabrera finished her secondary education on her own.
By 1927 Cabrera found herself wanting to make money on her own and she wanted to become independent from her family. So she moved to Paris to study art and religion at L'Ecole du Louve She studied drawing and painting in Paris with theatrical Russian exile Alexandra Exter. Cabrera lived in Paris for 11 years, returned home in 1938.Once graduated from the art school, she chose not to become an artist like people had expected her to become. Instead she chose to move back to Cuba to study Afro-Cuban culture, especially their traditions and folklore.Lydia Cabrera is a creative writer who writes in order to retell the history of Cuba. She worked closely with Fernando Ortiz even though she was younger than him.
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