Copyright by Maya Janeen Berry 2016 The Dissertation Committee for Maya Janeen Berry Certifies that this is the approved version of the following dissertation: Afro-Cuban movement(s): Performing Autonomy in “updating” Havana Committee: Edmund T. Gordon, Supervisor Charles R. Hale Robin D. Moore Deborah Paredez Julie Skurski Christen A. Smith Afro-Cuban Movement(s): Performing Autonomy in “updating” Havana by Maya Janeen Berry, B.A.; M.A. Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of The University of Texas at Austin in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy The University of Texas at Austin May 2016 Dedication Moyuba Olofi Moyuba Olodumare Moyuba Eggun … Ibaye Valentín Márquez Quiñones Ibaye … Ibaye Alfonso Berry Ibaye Ibaye Marcos “Tita” Llerena Ibaye Ibaye Carmen “Abuela” Ayala Ibaye Ibaye Jonnie Booker Ibaye Ibaye Carl Bryan, Jr. Ibaye ... Acknowledgements Recently, I was asked how it felt to have my dream come true: I am graduating with doctoral a degree in Anthropology and will soon be a professor. The question was unsettling in a strange way. I don’t feel like my dream has come true because I earnestly never aspired to these professional goals as ends in and of themselves. The steps I have taken thus far were made with equal parts fear and dedication, wonderment and conviction, grounded in the assurance that only faith provides: faith in my ability to sense the contours of a path I was being led to follow. Although this moment is not a dream come true, per se, it is indeed a momentous milestone and public marker that my steps were not taken in vain. I am living a dream that I may have not had the individual foresight to imagine, but was able to nevertheless realize, due to the many overlapping institutions, people, and communities that supported me along the way. I honor this opportunity to express my appreciation in words. When thinking about the gratitude and admiration I have for my advisor, Edmund T. Gordon, I cannot help but well up with tears. I am afraid to even imagine the kind of scholar I would have become if it weren’t for his critical interventions in my intellectual and professional trajectory. Without any exaggeration, I have come into my own as black feminist due to his relentless commitment to understanding how patriarchy structures black experience, and how black liberation requires its dismantling. Ted taught by example that black struggle in the academy must necessarily see mentorship, not just knowledge production, as a key component of that process. Ted, words cannot express the place you hold in the bottom of my heart. Likewise, I thank Charles R. Hale for showing how scholars can uniquely contribute to struggles outside the academy, and how the process of engaging the contradictions that emerge as result can in turn contribute to necessary theoretical v development. Charlie’s steadfast generosity of spirit and energy is unparalleled. I thank both of these professors for the ways big and small that they have demonstrated mutual respect, solidarity, and sincerity towards me in ways that go far beyond the call of duty. I feel so privileged to have come into anthropology through their principled vision for what the discipline can do. It took a diverse committee of dedicated scholars to usher this work into its current state. I thank Julie Skurski for seeing this project through from beginning to end. I do not take for granted how her faith in me made the research with Yoruba Andabo possible, nor can I understate how the meticulousness with which she read multiple drafts elevated my rigor as a scholar of Cuba. The unlikely friendship that has developed over time between us is one I value deeply. The meaningfulness of the artistic collaborations over the years with Robin Moore is only matched by the impact of his scholarship on my intellectual imaginary well before we met. Working with Robin has been a real dream come true. Thank you, Deborah Paredez, for reminding me of Audre Lorde’s words when I needed to hear them (“Your silence will not protect you…”), so that I could hold on to my full humanity amidst dehumanizing circumstances both inside and outside the academy; and to Christen Smith for showing me a necessary glimpse of who I can become in the academy. I could not have everyone on my committee, but I have been nourished in profound ways from classes, collaborations, and/or ongoing conversations with João Vargas, Omi Jones, Jossianna Arroyo, Frank Guridy, Eric Tang, Cesar Salgado, Juliet Hooker, Simone Browne, and Minkah Makalani. Also, Dean Esther Raizen and her team at the College of Liberal Arts’ Dissertation Bootcamp gave me the jumpstart I needed for writing. I thank my undergraduate adviser at New York University’s Gallatin School, Asale Angel-Ajani, for planting the seed of structural analysis in my head early on and how it can be applied to understand human experience. She was a role model in the academy before I knew I vi needed one. I also would like to thank other professors I encountered during my undergraduate and master’s degrees at New York University who each had pivotal impacts on my thinking about diaspora, art, and performance: Lok Siu, Aisha Khan, André Lepecki, Randy Martin (Ibaye), José Muñoz (Ibaye), Jill Lane, Diana Taylor, and Karen Shimakawa. One of the most treasured outcomes of my master’s degree in Performance Studies was the friendship I have gained in Danielle Roper, whose brilliance is only matched by her sense of humor, generosity, consistent attentiveness. I give special acknowledgements to the fellows and staff at the NYPL’s Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture who I had the privilege to work for; they are Diana Lachatenere, Eric Darnell Pritchard, and Robyn Spencer. This up-close example of political commitment to archival research and mentorship of young black scholars is what made me fall in love with African Diaspora Studies as a global, interdisciplinary field. Research and training for this dissertation was generously funded by the Graduate School Diversity Fellowship at the University of Texas at Austin, the Ford Foundation Predoctoral Fellowship, and two summer travel grants from the Warfield Center for African and African-American Studies. I was also awarded several Professional Development Grants from the Graduate School at the University of Texas at Austin and a travel award from the Teresa Lozano Long Institute for Latin American Studies that that have allowed me to share my work at conferences and build a wider network of intellectual interlocutors. I give a special thanks to The Association for Feminist Anthropology for the Zora Neale Hurston Travel Award, which holds a special symbolic value for the tremendous honor its namesake carries in my development as a black woman artist- anthropologist. I am grateful for not only the material support provided by these awards, but the intangible consequences of such institutional affirmation. This has helped me to ensure that the many moments of people’s lives that were shared with me are more vii seriously considered by networks that exceed my personal reach, extending their impact in the world. The transient nature of anthropology makes friends come and go. We return in intervals, at different points in our life cycles. I am grateful for the mentorship and encouragement of Courtney D. Morris. She welcomed me into her life the summer I moved to Austin, which was also when she returned from fieldwork. She showed me a glimpse of what was attainable in terms of commitment to transnational community, knowledge production, partnership, and creativity without sacrificing one’s inner light. It is because of the examples of Courtney and the many amazing black women in the Diaspora Program in the Anthropology Department that I knew I could make it, because they had: Celeste Henery, Luciane Rocha, Haile Eshe Cole, Nedra Lee, Andrea Dos Santos, and Bárbara Idalissee Abdía-Rexach. Having these living, breathing, accessible, down-to-earth examples of black woman anthropologists was the most significant antidote to the infamous “imposter syndrome”. I am honored to have walked in your fierce footsteps. To those who I walked alongside in the program —Monique Ribeiro, Traci-Ann Witt, Chelsi West, Sade Anderson and Melissa Burch — you have been a constant source of joy in struggle. Elizabeth Velásquez Estrada, Sarah Ihmoud, Shanya Cordis, and Claudia Chavez (aka. “The Gang of Five): I admire each and every one of you for your brave commitment to feminist praxis and theory. I have been forever transformed by our collaboration and mutual care. In the African & African Diaspora Studies Department (now my home away from home), I am grateful for the intellectual solidarity of Angelica Allen, Kathryn Bedecare, Gustavo Cerqueira, Drea Brown, Natassja Gunasena, Pablo López Oro, Omaris Zamora, Caitlin O’Neil, Farid Suarez, and Dora Santana. To my other home away from home away from home, the Theater and Dance Department, I am equally grateful to Nicole Martin, viii Cassidy Browning, Abimbola Adelakun, and Dotun Ayobade. I extend a special thanks to fellow dancer-scholars Agatha Oliveira and Ninoska M’bewe Escobar for providing moral support for each other as we struggled to keep our bodies moving as we moved through graduate school. All radiance to Drea Brown and Chelsi West (aka black brilliance) for taking the meaning of writing buddies to a whole new level. To all of my intersecting circles of friends/comrades (in Anthropology, in Latin American Studies, and beyond) who are in but not of the academy, thank you for your company in struggles for a better world in different corners of the world.