Changing Values in Cuban Rumba, a Lower Class Black Dance Appropriated by the Cuban Revolution
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Changing Values in Cuban Rumba, A Lower Class Black Dance Appropriated by the Cuban Revolution Yvonne Payne Daniel In contemporary Cuba, a previously marginal cultural expres- celebration which is not generally related to religious rituals. sion now publicizes new paradigms in a complex process of It is believed that Rumba grew out of the social circumstances social change (1). Within institutional strategies of cultural of Havana city and the surrounding provinces of Havana and preservation and re-education, rumba, a dance of predomi- Matanzas. Unlike the large areas of small farming typical of nantly lower class black-skinned Cubans in the nineteenth Cuban settlement in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries century, has emerged as a national symbol of twentieth- and unlike plantation life which fully developed later in Cuba century Cuban society. The national status of rumba has been during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries (Deschamps enhanced and institutionalized through a series of monthly Chapeaux 1971 and Ortiz 1963), the urban capital contained public activities organized by the Castro government through a variety of people: slaves, mulattos, colonists, and free the Ministry of Culture. Cuba has chosen to promote a new blacks, especially from Spain. In the second half of the national and international image and it has done so through nineteenth century these groups, which were structurally rumba more than through any other folkloric dance (2). linked by the mulatto class (Martinez-Alier 1974), congre- Before the Revolution of 1959, Cuban ballet and modern gated after work at the docks, in the marinas, within urban dance received national acclaim while folkloric dances were patios, and in solares (crowded living quarters). With the not particularly encouraged to flourish. Since the Revolution, abolition of slavery in 1886, dark-skinned Cubans joined poor a shift of support and interest has occurred in Cuban cultural light-skinned Cubans in urban areas looking for jobs. All policies. Rumba, a dance and a dance complex, as I will groups adjusted to the particular conditions of free people in discuss later, is now promoted to express identification with a society based on color and class, but participated together African-derived elements that permeate Cuban culture. It is from time to time in communal gatherings called Rumba or supported to represent the interests of the working masses and Rumbon(es). to solidify participation of the artistic community in the social On the other hand, "rumba" is the name of a dance/music advancement of a new political system. Despite the ap- tradition that refers to a complex of related Cuban dances. propriation of this important cultural expression of the masses There are many dances in Cuba that came with Cuba's Native by the socialist revolution, rumba is not common within all American inhabitants, European settlers, and enslaved Afri- segments of the Cuban population. It remains a dance prima- cans, but the dances that evolved as Cuban creations are rily performed by dark-skinned Cubans with relatively little closely related in terms of movement, rhythm, and instrumen- direct participation from other segments of Cuban society (3). tal accompaniment. In the present essay these distinct dances Since 1979, rumba in Cuba has been promoted in ways that are categorized and those that are related are collectively other dances have not. Other dances, such as conga and son, called the rumba complex (see Figure 1, A16n 1984, and Le6n are easier to perform and involve the participation of a larger 1974:151-165). The complex comprises both dance and cross section of the total population. As rumba has been music structures because of the intimate relationship between appropriated and formalized in its presentation to a national both systems (4). and international public, it has shifted from a spontaneous, The rumba complex developed in the nineteenth century and improvisational dance to a prepared, manipulated dance. Yet, was transported from Cuba throughout the world. Since the rumba continues to forcefully embody a significant aspect of 1930s (Jahn 1961:84 and Benedict 1983:23) it has been mis- national culture for the Cuban people. The goal of this paper takenly considered separately as a single dance, called "rumba" is to deconstruct the meaning of rumba and its role in the or "rhumba," which is a popular ballroom dance. The ball- forging of a new Cuban national identity. room version uses traditional folkloric musical structure, but is decidedly different from traditional rumba dancing. What is Rumba? The Rumba gatherings, that is, Rumba as an event, provided The word, "rumba" or "Rumba," refers to an event, a dance, seeds for the development of the rumba complex, that is, and a set of related dances, identified here as a dance complex. rumba as dance/music. There are three basic types of rumba: On the one hand, "Rumba" is a festive event or collective yambu, guaguancd, and Columbia (see Martinez-Fure' 1982 Yvonne Daniel teaches dance and anthropology at Smith College and the Five College Consortium in Massachusetts. She has previously published on Haitian, Cuban, and Surinamese dance traditions and has a book forthcoming based on her dissertation research on Cuban rumba. She holds a BA in music, MA in dance, MA in anthropology, and PhD in anthropology from the University of California at Berkeley. Her areas of interest are circum-Caribbean societies, dance, aesthetic anthropology, and social inequality. Dance Research Journal 23/2 (Fall 1991) 1 Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. IP address: 170.106.40.40, on 26 Sep 2021 at 10:39:02, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.2307/1478752 called the Cuban national dance of the nineteenth century, is TYPES STYLES VARIATIONS a social couple dance. It is accorded one day of recognition (Danz6n Day) and rumba is accorded one-two weeks for a yambu Matancera rumba del tiempo de Espaha festival (Rumba Festival). Each of Cuba's thirteen provinces guaguancd Habanera batarumba celebrates its own culture once a year (Culture Week) with Columbia Santiaguera giribilla festivities that include rumba. In Havana and Matanzas de salon provinces, Rumba events including rumba occur twice monthly (ballroom) in addition to Culture Week and the Rumba Festival. No other del campo dances have an official place on the Cuban calendar; it is (traditional) extraordinary and noteworthy that dances, but particularly rumba, are given prominence through celebration along with FIGURE 1 national heroes and important historic holidays. Probably Rumba Complex danzdn was not encouraged because of its association with ballrooms and an elite segment of the social structure (8). This and 1986, A\6n 1984, and Moliner 1986 and 1987). In the first left rumba as a prime example for identification with the two, rumba focuses on the improvised chase between a male masses. and female dancer. In the third, traditionally a series of male dancers compete rhythmically with each other. Rumba spread The Basic Types and Variations of Rumba throughout and beyond Cuba, but it evolved due to the cir- Yambu is rumba that is characterized most often by the sound cumstances of particular locales. of a box drum, cajon. The terms "box rumba" and "rumba de There is much debate regarding exactly where or when the cajon" refer to the use of boxes when drums were prohibited dance complex began; there is now some agreement, how- by law. Historically, people used closets, table tops, spoons, ever, that it originated in Havana and Matanzas provinces in and especially codfish boxes to create accompaniment for the late 1860s (5). The two couple types emerged in urban their songs. In yambu the mood is danced seduction. Both areas and the male solo competitive type evolved in rural men and women actively partake of an enticing chase, dis- regions. The male dance development suggests the imbalance playing charm, poise, and attractiveness; the dance is pure of males and females in rural areas resulting from the charac- flirtation. ter and length of Cuban slave trading (Fraginals 1984:10-14) In guaguancd, a faster rumba with a different identifying (6). The male competitive rumba is also reminiscent of male basic rhythm, the vacunao, or "vaccination," is the goal. solo dancing that takes place in secret society gatherings, Cubans coined the word vacunao from vacunar, meaning "to called "Abakud" or "Carabalf" in Cuba. The relationship goes vaccinate, join or unite," which, in the dance, is seen as a further than two conforming structures of male solo dancing; gesture made by the man towards the woman—generally a the connection between Abakua and Columbia is pronounced pelvic thrust, an elbow jab, a kick, or the swift whip of a scarf. due to rumba gestures and movements that directly relate to Women dance with grace and seductiveness, but always try to the gestures and movements of Abakud dancing. avoid the vacunao by placing their skirts, hands, or scarves in The instrumentation and musical motifs, that is, drumming front of their genital area or by turning around completely to patterns, of the rumba complex also suggest evidence of deflect the men's attempt. Guaguancd is a chase, discussed Kongo-Angolan influence throughout Cuba. Each type within in terms of a metaphor in which a rooster stalks a hen. the complex is distinctive, however, but all utilize a capella The basic steps for the man and woman in both yambu and singing (singing without melodic instrumentation), specific guaguancd are related. The musical structure, the purpose percussion, and distinctive movement patterns. and the expressive qualities, however, differ. In yambii the Rumba, both as a dance and as an event, emerged as a Cuban dance consists of a cautious or calculated entrance of the creation, a Creole expression of the lower classes, an artistic woman with a slow, undulating pattern.