Créolité and Cultural Cannibalism: Reconstructing
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CRÉOLITÉ AND CULTURAL CANNIBALISM: RECONSTRUCTING CUBAN IDENTITY IN THE WORK OF MARTA MARÍA PÉREZ BRAVO AND MARÍA MAGDALENA CAMPOS-PONS by Rebecca Maksym A thesis submitted to the faculty of the University of Utah in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Art History Department of Art and Art History The University of Utah December 2012 Copyright © Rebecca Maksym 2012 All Rights Reserved The University of Utah Graduate School STATEMENT OF THESIS APPROVAL The thesis of Rebecca Maksym has been approved by the following supervisory committee members: Elena Shtromberg , Chair 9/20/12 Date Approved Winston Kyan , Member 9/20/12 Date Approved Paul (Monty) Paret , Member 9/20/12 Date Approved and by Brian Snapp , Chair of the Department of Art and Art History and by Charles A. Wight, Dean of The Graduate School. ABSTRACT No matar ni ver matar animales (1985) created by Marta María Pérez Bravo and When I Am Not Here/Estoy Allá (1994) by María Magdalena Campos-Pons are two photographs inspired by Afro-Cuban mythology, particularly the beliefs and symbolism of Santería, a syncretic religious tradition stemming from the history of slavery and colonialism in Latin America. Most scholarship on the syncretic religions in Cuba is informed by Fernando Ortiz’s theory of transculturation, which contextualizes cultural mixing through the lens of European dominance. This tendency often ignores the reciprocity of cultural exchange between Africa, the Americas and Europe that has shaped creole identity, especially female creole identity. The main goal of this study is to reposition Pérez Bravo and Campos-Pons’s works within the context of creolization as a means to better understand the role of gender and Afro-Cuban tradition in different constructions of creole identity. This thesis proposes an interpretation of No matar ni ver matar animales and When I Am Not Here/Estoy Allá through the postcolonial trope of cultural cannibalism (first elaborated by Brazilian poet and playwright Oswald de Andrade in 1928), as a means of providing an alternative analysis of how the legacies of colonialism drive contemporary artistic production in Cuba. This study positions Pérez Bravo and Campos-Pons’s artworks as engaging the concept of cultural cannibalism, and thereby challenging the dominant interpretations of Afro-Cuban traditions through notions of transculturation. At stake is a more complex recognition of how colonial histories influence expressions of female Cuban identity. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT……………………………………………………………………………..iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS……………………………………………………………….vi Chapters I INTRODUCTION………………………………………………………………..1 Creoleness………………………………………………………….......................1 II SITUATING CONTEMPORARY CUBAN ART……………………………...10 Challenges and Changes: Cuba in the 1980s and 90s…………………………...10 Maternal Creoles: Constructions of Cuban Female Identity…………………….16 III AFRICA IN CUBA....…………………………………………………………...25 Santería and African Cultural Continuities……………………………………...25 Cuban Political History, Slavery, and Early Religious Practice………………...32 Recognizing African Agency through Santería....................................................35 IV CONCLUSION.....................................................................................................39 Cannibal Aesthetics...............................................................................................39 BIBLIOGRAPHY.............................................................................................................42 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to express my overwhelming gratitude to all those who gave me the opportunity to complete this thesis. First to the University of Utah’s Department of Campus Recreation Services, especially Mary Bohlig, Brian Wilkinson, and Rob Jones whose utter generosity, support, and encouragement helped pave the way for my studies in graduate school. My gratitude also goes to the Department of Art and Art History at the University of Utah for providing opportunities through teaching positions that supplemented my education. To my committee chair, Professor Elena Shtromberg, who has had a monumental impact on my life—words cannot express how thankful I am for your wisdom, dedication and inspiration. I would also like to thank my committee members, Professor Winston Kyan and Professor Monty Paret, whose advice, and at times skepticism, has helped foster my passion for and appreciation of Art History. Other major influences on my work have been Professor Alessandra Santos, Professor Dave Hawkins, and Professor Doug Jones. You all have truly influenced my research, creativity and academic success. My family and friends have also been tremendously supportive and patient throughout the process of writing my thesis. I am particularly thankful for my parents who continually encourage me to take on new challenges and never to be complacent. I also would like to extend a special thanks to my amazing friends Amanda Beardsley, Scotti Hill, Dana Hernandez, Jodie Johnson, and Darrell Henderson who have all read through multiple papers of mine and provided invaluable suggestions and criticism. My adoration and gratitude goes to the D-Man especially. Thank you for your continual patience, loyalty and companionship. vii INTRODUCTION Creoleness Créolité started in 1989 as a literary movement from the French Caribbean island of Martinique as an alternative to the Négritude movement.1 Unlike Négritude’s rejection of European colonial influences, Créolité was a movement that regarded Caribbean identity as plural and hybrid, bringing together indigenous, diasporic, and colonial histories, which included the region’s European heritage.2 In this sense, Créolité, or creoleness, transcends the myth of a single collective tradition linking all aspects of the African diaspora in Latin America, as Négritude (and other previous movements) had posited.3 It is this notion of plurality and hybridity that is useful in analyzing contemporary visual art from different parts of the Caribbean. 1 Tanya Barson and Peter Gorschlüter, eds. Afro Modern: Journeys Through the Black Atlantic, (London: Tate Liverpool, 2010): 182. Poets Aimé Césaire and Léon Damas were two founding members of the Négritude movement starting in the 1930s. Négritude was influenced by Surrealism and the Harlem Renaissance, and became a movement emphasizing consciousness of the importance of “blackness” and black identity through the collective celebration of African heritage. Négritude denounced European influences on Afro-American identity in order to challenge racism and bigotry stemming from colonialism. 2 Ibid.,180. Patrick Chamoiseau, Jean Bernabé and Raphaël Confiant started Créolité; this movement followed in the footsteps of Antillanté, another Caribbean cultural and political movement advocating ideas of hybridity and plurality started by Édouard Glissant in the 1960s. Créolité became an important alternative to Négritude in the early 1990s because it provided a more inclusive framework for discussing and expressing the effects of postcolonialism. Many of the Caribbean islands became independent around the 1950s and 60s, which led to a number of national and cultural identity “crises” in the subsequent decades, as these diverse populations suddenly needed to reexamine what it meant to be “Caribbean” without the strings of European colonialism. Chamoiseau, Bernabé, and Confiant developed Créolité as a way to address this exact conundrum by emphasizing the complex cultural and ethnic mixing that is crucial to Caribbean identity. 3 Here I am referring to Toussaint Louverture who led the Haitian Revolution (1791-1803) and helped transform a society of slaves into a self-governing nation who fully embraced their African heritage. The success of this revolution had a monumental impact on later Afro-American political and cultural movements in the early twentieth century. For example, Marcus Garvey’s establishment of the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) and the Back-to-Africa movement, which later influenced the Rastafari movement of the 1930s. In addition, W.E.B. Du Bois and his initiation of Pan-Africanism and to 2 Through an in-depth examination of Cuban artists Marta María Pérez Bravo’s (b. 1959) No matar ni ver matar animales (Neither to Kill nor to Watch Animals Being Killed) (1985-86), and María Magdalena Campos-Pons’s (b. 1959) When I Am Not Here/Estoy Allá (1994), this study investigates modes of representing creoleness by female artists. Creoleness offers an unconventional way of understanding the history and impact of European colonialism in the New World. Similar to other cultural movements like Négritude, Créolité, which can also be understood as a concept of creoleness, is a method of critiquing colonialization. However, Créolité departs from strictly black nationalistic mentalities by acknowledging the mixing and blending of diverse heritages that are integral to the histories and identities of the New World. Moreover, because men and a masculine voice largely dominate the study of creoleness, the place of women in this discussion is minimal leaving a substantial gap for further scholarship on the feminine experience and its expression. Marta María Pérez Bravo and María Magdalena Campos-Pons are two Cuban artists whose work reflects issues of creole identity and history. Both artists’ work offers an alternative way of representing creole identity by using their physical bodies as the main prop in their photographic performances of Afro- Cuban