Involvement in Afrocubanismo and The Preservation of Afro-Cuban Culture
For almost all of her life, Cabrera possessed a large interest in Afro-Cuban culture. She had been introduced to their folklore at a very young age by her Afro-Cuban nanny and Afro-Cuban seamstress. Three factors influenced her decision to study Afrocubanismo in her adulthood. The first influence was her experience in Europe, where studying African art became very popular. Secondly she was influenced by her studies in Paris, where she began to see the large influence that African art had on Cuban art. Thirdly she had a companion Teresa de la Parra, a Venezuelan socialite who she had meant while studying in Europe, who enjoyed reading Cuban books with her and they often found themselves studying about island together.
With her focus on thoroughly exploring Afro-Cuban culture, she returned to Cuba in 1930. She moved to a ranch La Quinta San Jose in the suburb of Havana, Marianao, located just outside the barrio Pogolotti where she conducted most her research on Afro-Cuban culture. Between 1937 and 1948, she published her second book of short stories Por Que...Cuentos negros de Cuba. For this collection, she participated in the culture of the Afro-Cubans and would record their religious rituals and traditions.
During the late 1950s she continued to publish several books about Afro-Cuban religion, especially focusing on the Abakuás. Being a secret society, the Abakuás were reluctant to talk to her about their religion. Since they do not accept women as members, Cabrera relied on the use of interviews to gain information for her book. It focused on the origins of the group, the myth of Sikaneke, and the hierarchy of its members. Somehow she managed to photograph their sacred drum, which is supposed to remain hidden at all times, to include within her research.
Read more about this topic: Lydia Cabrera
Famous quotes containing the words involvement in, involvement, preservation and/or culture:
“Juggling produces both practical and psychological benefits.... A woman’s involvement in one role can enhance her functioning in another. Being a wife can make it easier to work outside the home. Being a mother can facilitate the activities and foster the skills of the efficient wife or of the effective worker. And employment outside the home can contribute in substantial, practical ways to how one works within the home, as a spouse and as a parent.”
—Faye J. Crosby (20th century)
“What causes adolescents to rebel is not the assertion of authority but the arbitrary use of power, with little explanation of the rules and no involvement in decision-making. . . . Involving the adolescent in decisions doesn’t mean that you are giving up your authority. It means acknowledging that the teenager is growing up and has the right to participate in decisions that affect his or her life.”
—Laurence Steinberg (20th century)
“Men are not therefore put to death, or punished for that their theft proceedeth from election; but because it was noxious and contrary to men’s preservation, and the punishment conducing to the preservation of the rest, inasmuch as to punish those that do voluntary hurt, and none else, frameth and maketh men’s wills such as men would have them.”
—Thomas Hobbes (1579–1688)
“As the twentieth century ends, commerce and culture are coming closer together. The distinction between life and art has been eroded by fifty years of enhanced communications, ever-improving reproduction technologies and increasing wealth.”
—Stephen Bayley (b. 1951)