The Long Reach of Haiti in Cuban Literature

doi:10.1017/9781009168359.037

36 - The Long Reach of Haiti in Cuban Literature

from Part V - Cuba and Its Diasporas into the New Millennium

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 31 August 2024

Elzbieta Sklodowska

Edited by

Vicky Unruh and

Jacqueline Loss

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Vicky Unruh: Affiliation:
University of Kansas
Jacqueline Loss: Affiliation:
University of Connecticut

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Summary

This chapter examines the reverberating presence of Haiti in Cuban literature, in the context of the inextricable political, economic, and cultural ties linking the two nations from the early nineteenth-century Haitian Revolution into the twenty-first century. Examined in writing ranging from sketches of everyday customs to ethnographic surrealism and fiction, the chapter showcases Cuban writers evoking a myriad of themes beyond the Haitian Revolution, including syncretic religious beliefs and spirituality (Joel James Figarola, Mayra Montero); musical genres and dances (Olavo Alén and Méndez Rodenas); the round-ups of Haitians and forced repatriations (Dalia Timitoc Borrero, Antonio Benítez Rojo, and Gloria Rolando); migration (Marta Rojas); the condemnation of the exploitation of workers, many of whom were Haitians (Luis Felipe Rodríguez, Lino Novás Calvo); ethnographic surrealism and the political impact of Vodou spirituality (Alejo Carpentier); and Haitian otherness (Mirta Yáñez, Abel Prieto, and Marcial Gala).

Keywords

Haiti in Cuban literature ethnographic surrealism ethnographic fiction synthetic religious beliefs and spirituality representations of musical genres and dances themes of migration and worker exploitation representations of Haitian otherness

Type: Chapter
Information: The Cambridge History of Cuban Literature , pp. 564 - 579

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009168359.037 [Opens in a new window]

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Print publication year: 2024

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