Enrique Patterson, a columnist at Miami's El Nuevo Herald, recently spoke at Baruch College in New York City about racial discrimination in Cuba. Patterson, who is Cuban-American, said Cuban culture has a tradition of racism that developed before Fidel Castro and has not ended under Castro's reign. Patterson said racism is preventing a transition to democracy.
Reviews Mullen's examination (Greenwood Press, 1998, 236p) of Afro-Cuban literature. Notes that this study is "perceptive" and "important" to the field of Afro-Hispanic literary criticism.;
African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
614 p, Cuba has been central to popular music developments throughout the Caribbean, Latin America, the United States and Europe. Unfortunately, no one has ever attempted to survey the extensive literature on the island's music, in particular the vernacular contributions of its Afro-Cuban population. This unprecedented bibliographic guide attempts to do just that. Ranging from the 19th century to early 2009 it offers almost 5000 entries on all of the islandâ¿¿s main genre families, e.g. Cancion Cubana, Danzon, Son, Rumba, and Sacred Musics (Santeria, Palo, Abakua, and Arara), as well as such recent developments as timba, rap and regueton.
Ann Arbor, MI:: ProQuest Information and Learning, Black Studies Center
Location:
African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
The author explores the history of Afro-Latino history, culture, and politics in the Americas, locating its origins in the invasion of the Iberian peninsula by African Muslims in the 8th century and noting how later Christian Portuguese and Spanish states used proximity to West Africa to develop trade which expanded the slave trade and plantation economies to Europe and throughout the Americas.
