Lydia Cabrera
Encyclopedia
Lydia Cabrera was a Cuba
n anthropologist
and poet
.
Cabrera was born in Havana
; She was an authority on Santería
and other Afro-Cuban
religion
s. Over her lifetime she published over one hundred books; little if any of her work is available in English
. Her most important book is El Monte, (Spanish
: "The Wilderness") which was the first major anthropological study of Afro-Cuban traditions. Upon her death, she donated her research collection to the library
of the University of Miami
. A section in Guillermo Cabrera Infante's book, Tres Tigres Tristes, has a section written under Lydia Cabrera's name, in a comical rendition of her literary voice.
Like the majority of wealthy Cubans in the early 1900’s, 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 at L’Ecole du Louve 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
.
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 50’s she continued to publish several books about Afro-Cuban religion, especially focusing on the Abakuá
s. 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.
, as well as many years after the Revolution took over Cuba. Although she was never schooled in anthropology
, she takes a very anthropological approach to studying her subject matter. The main theme in her work is to bring focus to the once-marginalized Afro-Cubans giving them a respectable identity. Through the use of imagery and storytelling throughout her work she seeks to retell the history of the Cuban people through the Afro-Cuban lens. Generally, her work blurs the line as what society has deemed as “fact” or “fiction.” She attempts to pose ideas and theories that force people to question what they have been told.
following the Cuban revolution
led by Fidel Castro
. She moved to Miami, Florida
, where she remained until the rest of her life.
The real reason why she left is still unknown. Some claim that she left because of the lifestyle the Revolution was trying to instill. For many years, Cabrera had stated her dislike for the Revolution and socialist-Marxist ideology. Others claim she left because member of the Abakuás were hunting her down since she had made their secret society
public. Although the reason for why she left in unknown, she never returned and spent the rest of her life living in Miami until her death in 1991.
Cuba
The Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...
n anthropologist
Anthropology
Anthropology is the study of humanity. It has origins in the humanities, the natural sciences, and the social sciences. The term "anthropology" is from the Greek anthrōpos , "man", understood to mean mankind or humanity, and -logia , "discourse" or "study", and was first used in 1501 by German...
and poet
Poetry
Poetry is a form of literary art in which language is used for its aesthetic and evocative qualities in addition to, or in lieu of, its apparent meaning...
.
Cabrera was born in Havana
Havana
Havana is the capital city, province, major port, and leading commercial centre of Cuba. The city proper has a population of 2.1 million inhabitants, and it spans a total of — making it the largest city in the Caribbean region, and the most populous...
; She was an authority on Santería
Santería
Santería is a syncretic religion of West African and Caribbean origin influenced by Roman Catholic Christianity, also known as Regla de Ocha, La Regla Lucumi, or Lukumi. Its liturgical language, a dialect of Yoruba, is also known as Lucumi....
and other Afro-Cuban
Afro-Cuban
The term Afro-Cuban refers to Cubans of Sub Saharan African ancestry, and to historical or cultural elements in Cuba thought to emanate from this community...
religion
Religion
Religion is a collection of cultural systems, belief systems, and worldviews that establishes symbols that relate humanity to spirituality and, sometimes, to moral values. Many religions have narratives, symbols, traditions and sacred histories that are intended to give meaning to life or to...
s. Over her lifetime she published over one hundred books; little if any of her work is available in English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
. Her most important book is El Monte, (Spanish
Spanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
: "The Wilderness") which was the first major anthropological study of Afro-Cuban traditions. Upon her death, she donated her research collection to the library
Library
In a traditional sense, a library is a large collection of books, and can refer to the place in which the collection is housed. Today, the term can refer to any collection, including digital sources, resources, and services...
of the University of Miami
University of Miami
The University of Miami is a private, non-sectarian university founded in 1925 with its main campus in Coral Gables, Florida, a medical campus in Miami city proper at Civic Center, and an oceanographic research facility on Virginia Key., the university currently enrolls 15,629 students in 12...
. A section in Guillermo Cabrera Infante's book, Tres Tigres Tristes, has a section written under Lydia Cabrera's name, in a comical rendition of her literary voice.
Her life
The youngest of eight siblings, she comes from a very privileged white family where her father,Raimundo Cabrera, was a prominent man in society and her mother, Elisa Marcaida Casanova, was a respected socialite. Her father was a lawyer, jurist, writer, and 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 age thirteen, Cabrera wrote a weekly anonymous column that appeared in her father’s journal. She covered topics that were relevant to her specific community like wedding announcements, childbirths, or obituaries.Like the majority of wealthy Cubans in the early 1900’s, 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
Diploma
A diploma is a certificate or deed issued by an educational institution, such as a university, that testifies that the recipient has successfully completed a particular course of study or confers an academic degree. In countries such as the United Kingdom and Australia, the word diploma refers to...
, 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
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
to study art at L’Ecole du Louve 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
Afro-Cuban
The term Afro-Cuban refers to Cubans of Sub Saharan African ancestry, and to historical or cultural elements in Cuba thought to emanate from this community...
culture, especially their traditions and folklore
Folklore
Folklore consists of legends, music, oral history, proverbs, jokes, popular beliefs, fairy tales and customs that are the traditions of a culture, subculture, or group. It is also the set of practices through which those expressive genres are shared. The study of folklore is sometimes called...
.
Her Involvement in Afrocubanismo and the Preservation of Afro-Cuban Culture
For almost all of her life, Cabrera possessed a large interest in Afro-CubanAfro-Cuban
The term Afro-Cuban refers to Cubans of Sub Saharan African ancestry, and to historical or cultural elements in Cuba thought to emanate from this community...
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
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
, where studying African art became very popular. Secondly she was influenced by her studies in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, where she began to see the large influence that African art had on Cuban art
Cuban Art
Cuban art is a very diverse cultural blend of African, European and North American design reflecting the diverse demographic of the island. Cuban artists embraced European modernism and the early part of the 20th century saw a growth in Cuban vanguardism movements, these movements were...
. 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
Cuba
The Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...
in 1930. She moved to a ranch La Quinta San Jose in the suburb of Havana
Havana
Havana is the capital city, province, major port, and leading commercial centre of Cuba. The city proper has a population of 2.1 million inhabitants, and it spans a total of — making it the largest city in the Caribbean region, and the most populous...
, Marianao, located just outside the barrio
Barrio
Barrio is a Spanish word meaning district or neighborhood.-Usage:In its formal usage in English, barrios are generally considered cohesive places, sharing, for example, a church and traditions such as feast days...
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 50’s she continued to publish several books about Afro-Cuban religion, especially focusing on the Abakuá
Abakuá
Abakua or Abakuá is an Afro-Cuban men's initiatory fraternity, or secret society, which originated from fraternal associations in the Cross River region of southeastern Nigeria and southwestern Cameroon...
s. 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.
Main Ideas in Her Work
Her career spanned decades before the RevolutionRevolution
A revolution is a fundamental change in power or organizational structures that takes place in a relatively short period of time.Aristotle described two types of political revolution:...
, as well as many years after the Revolution took over Cuba. Although she was never schooled in anthropology
Anthropology
Anthropology is the study of humanity. It has origins in the humanities, the natural sciences, and the social sciences. The term "anthropology" is from the Greek anthrōpos , "man", understood to mean mankind or humanity, and -logia , "discourse" or "study", and was first used in 1501 by German...
, she takes a very anthropological approach to studying her subject matter. The main theme in her work is to bring focus to the once-marginalized Afro-Cubans giving them a respectable identity. Through the use of imagery and storytelling throughout her work she seeks to retell the history of the Cuban people through the Afro-Cuban lens. Generally, her work blurs the line as what society has deemed as “fact” or “fiction.” She attempts to pose ideas and theories that force people to question what they have been told.
Coming to the United States
She left the country shortly after the Revolution and never returned. She left in 1960 as an exileExile
Exile means to be away from one's home , while either being explicitly refused permission to return and/or being threatened with imprisonment or death upon return...
following the Cuban revolution
Cuban Revolution
The Cuban Revolution was an armed revolt by Fidel Castro's 26th of July Movement against the regime of Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista between 1953 and 1959. Batista was finally ousted on 1 January 1959, and was replaced by a revolutionary government led by Castro...
led by Fidel Castro
Fidel Castro
Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz is a Cuban revolutionary and politician, having held the position of Prime Minister of Cuba from 1959 to 1976, and then President from 1976 to 2008. He also served as the First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba from the party's foundation in 1961 until 2011...
. She moved to Miami, Florida
Miami, Florida
Miami is a city located on the Atlantic coast in southeastern Florida and the county seat of Miami-Dade County, the most populous county in Florida and the eighth-most populous county in the United States with a population of 2,500,625...
, where she remained until the rest of her life.
The real reason why she left is still unknown. Some claim that she left because of the lifestyle the Revolution was trying to instill. For many years, Cabrera had stated her dislike for the Revolution and socialist-Marxist ideology. Others claim she left because member of the Abakuás were hunting her down since she had made their secret society
Secret society
A secret society is a club or organization whose activities and inner functioning are concealed from non-members. The society may or may not attempt to conceal its existence. The term usually excludes covert groups, such as intelligence agencies or guerrilla insurgencies, which hide their...
public. Although the reason for why she left in unknown, she never returned and spent the rest of her life living in Miami until her death in 1991.
External links
- Lydia Cabrera biography
- Lydia Cabrera Papers at the Cuban Heritage Collection, University of Miami Libraries
- Digital images from the Lydia Cabrera Papers at the Cuban Heritage Collection, University of Miami Libraries
- Lydia Cabrera (1899-1999): Recapitulando en la alborada de su centenario (Spanish language link)