Suchergebnisse

In Cuba, race, nation, and popular music were inextricably linked to the earliest formulations of a national identity. This article examines how the racialized discourse of blanqueamiento, or whitening, became part of a nineteenth-century literary narrative in which the casi blanca mulata, nearly white mulatta, was seen as a vehicle for whitening black Cubans. However, as the novels of Cirilo Villaverde and Ramón Meza reveal, the mulata's inability to produce entirely white children established the ultimate unattainability of whiteness by nonwhites. This article analyzes the fluidity of these racial constructs and demonstrates that, while these literary texts advocated the lightening of the nation's complexion over time, they also mapped the progressive "darkening" of Cuban music as popular culture continued to borrow from black music. (Cuba Stud / GIGA)

In Cuba, race, nation, and popular music were inextricably linked to the earliest formulations
of a national identity. This article examines how the racialized discourse of
blanqueamiento, or whitening, became part of a nineteenth-century literary narrative in
which the casi blanca mulata, nearly white mulatta, was seen as a vehicle for whitening
black Cubans. However, as the novels of Cirilo Villaverde and Ramón Meza reveal, the
mulata's inability to produce entirely white children established the ultimate unattainability
of whiteness by nonwhites. This article analyzes the fluidity of these racial
constructs and demonstrates that, while these literary texts advocated the lightening of
the nation's complexion over time, they also mapped the progressive "darkening" of
Cuban music as popular culture continued to borrow from black music.


En Cuba, y desde un principio, los discursos sobre raza, nación y música popular se
vinculan a los conceptos de una identidad nacional. En este artículo se examina la
incorporación del proceso discursivo del blanqueamiento a la narrativa literaria del siglo
xix. Dicho discurso asignó a "la mulata casi blanca" el papel de agente homogenizador,
responsable de fomentar el blanqueamiento del negro cubano. Sin embargo, como las
novelas de Cirilo Villaverde y Ramón Meza revelan, el poder reproductivo de la mulata
se ve limitado al no poder traspasar las fronteras raciales que establecían lo que implicaba
ser "blanco" en Cuba. Este artículo analiza la fluidez que caracteriza estas
construcciones raciales y demuestra que, mientras que estos textos literarios abogaban
por el blanqueamiento de la futura nación, también señalan cómo la música cubana se
fue "oscureciendo" progresivamente a medida que el elemento Afrocubano fue influyendo
en la cultura popular.