THOA^S ANDERSON

Carnival, Cultural Debate, and Cuban Identity in "La comparsa" and "Comparsa habanera"
Es inadmisible que las tradicionales comparsas de La Habana sean contrarias a la cultura popular. Precisamente esas diversiones colectivas, integran la cultura mas emocionalmente entrafiable del pueblo. Eernando Ortiz, Garta a Antonio BeruffMendieta^ Hay que convenir que para las formidables luchas que representa reivindicar al negro en todos los 6rdenes, el "arrollao libre" tras "Las Comparsas" o el desenvolvimiento ilimitado de "Las Congas" no constituye nada util, practico o progresista para el sufrido negro cubano. A nombre de esos "arroilaos . . . se volverdn a erguir las nefastas teon'as de la inferioridad racial y el retraso negro. Alberto Arredondo, El negro en Guba (143)

During the formative years of the Cuban Republic there was generalized sentiment among the white, middle-class majority that the repression of certain African-derived customs and traditions served the best interests of an emerging nation-state that strove to shed its colonial legacy and to forge an image of a people with strong ties to Western traditions. Even many middle-class blacks and mulattoes, such as the members of the Club Atenas, the Asociacion Adelante, and the Comite Conjunto de Sociedades de Color, tended to support such measures since they felt that the promotion of certain types of Afro-Cuban music, dance, and religious rituals gready jeopardized their own hopes of becoming flilly integrated members of Cuban society. In March 1916, for example, Ramdn Vasconcelos, a prominent mulatto intellectual, wrote a scathing editorial in the Cuban daily La Prensa about a traditional Afro-Cuhan comparsa that he had observed during pre-Lenten carnival celebrations in Havana. In it he made the following observations, which typified mainstream attitudes toward such spectacles:
Revista de Estudios Hispdnicos 40 (2006)

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Anderson [Eue] el espectaculo mas bochornoso, mas colonial que pudiera imaginarse . . . Y porque la farola, y el tambor y los cencerros y el relajamiento autorizado son coloniales, y por ende anacronicos, deben desaparecer en esta ^poca de renovacion y exaltacion de las virtudes ci'vicas . . . ^Es que vamos a recorrer, en sentido regresivo, el rosario de las verguenzas que combatio la revolucion? Admitamosque seri'a demasiado admitirque, por democratica tolerancia, se autorizase la formacidn de las comparsas. Pero, el resto del vecindario que repugna de ellas, jno merece alguna consideraci6n? ("Al primer tapon" 4)

Some twenty years later, in his study El negro en Cuba, Alberto Arredondo expressed similar concerns, which reflected Cuba's middle-class blacks' fear that too much emphasis on their African heritage would perpetuate prejudices and racism in Cuha:
"A nuevos tiempos, nuevas canciones." Y las comparsas, como libre expresion popular, como incontrolado arrollao de masas, como carnaval criollo, tuvieron su tiempo, su hora, su momento . . . No hay que oividar, tampoco, que las comparsas con libres "arroilaos"^justiHcables para algunos desde el momento que extraen del fondo de la sociedad al negro para lanzarlo como reproche a los blancos racistasestan intimamente vinculadas con lo colonial y lo negro. {El negro en Guba 136-37)

Like Vasconcelos and Arredondo, many middle-class Cuban blacks and mulattoes felt that these Afro-Cuban carnival hands, whose masqueraded participants traditionally danced through the streets of Havana playing various African-derived instruments during pre-Lenten festivities, were damaging to a nation striving for racial equality since they reinforced stereotypes and justified racial prejudices. From the earliest years of the Republic comparsas had been targets of puhlic condemnation and official criticism. In the early 1900s carnival celebrations in Havana were strictly regulated and traditional Afro-Cuhan troupes were rarely permitted to take part in them since government officials felt that they detracted from the "civility" of the new Republic. In his hook Nationalizing Blackness, Robin Moore points out that in March 1912 comparsas became the subject of widespread national condemnation and virulent press coverage after a brawl between two dance troupes left several individuals dead or wounded (69). Moore is careful to point out that the comparsas in question took place just two months before the onset of the Race War of 1912, hut he does not stress

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the impact of the brewing conflict on hoth official and mainstream attitudes toward the comparsas of 1912 and those of subsequent years. Indeed, it is clear that the latent fears of an imminent hlack rebellion in Cuha had a greater role in the nearly universal condemnation of AfroCuban carnival celebrations of 1912 than did the violent confrontations that involved only a few black participants. Moreover, it follows that the profound racism and fear of another Afro-Cuhan rebellion that were stirred up hy the Race War played a decisive role in the decision of Havana's Mayor, Fernando Freyre de Andrade, to han traditional Afro-Cuban comparsas in the opening days of 1913. Though it is heyond the scope of the essay to give a complete history of the Race War of 1912, a brief discussion of it essential to the following study of two afrocubanista poets and mainstream attitudes toward Afro-Cubans and their cultural manifestations during the early years of the Republic. Immediately after the defeat of Spain in 1898 Cuban blacks and mulattoes, who made up nearly 30 percent of the population, hoped that their decisive contributions to the Liberation of Cuha would be awarded with full participation in the construction of the new nation. In the early years of the twentieth century, however, their hopes were turned into frustration "hoth hy the policies of the US military occupations and Cuban administrations and by massive Spanish immigration" (Helg Our Rigbtful Sbare 3). In 1908 Evaristo Estenoz, a former slave and a participant in both the war of independence and the Liberal Party uprising of August 1906, founded the Partido Independiente de Color (PIC), whose primary intention was to defend the interests of Cuban blacks and mulattoes. The PIC's members did not advocate separatism, as many alleged, hut rather they demanded proportional participation in the government, comparable economic and social opportunities, and equal rights as Cuban citizens. Civen that the PIC was seen as a threat to hoth the Liberal and Conservative political parties, the Cuhan Senate in 1910 passed a hill, which had been penned by Afro-Cuhan senator Martin Moriia Delgado, that harmed the formation of political parties based on race, and thus outlawed the PIC. Soon thereafter thousands of Afro-Cubans galvanized in support of the PIC and threatened armed resistance if the hill remained in affect. In February 1912, just one month before that year's infamous carnival celebrations in Havana, Estenoz warned Cuban president Jose Miguel G6mez that he and the members of his banned party would rebel if the president did not revoke Morua's Law, as the hill was

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commonly known, hy April 22. Estenoz's demands were not met, and on May 20 1912 he, along with Afro-Cuhan activist Pedro Ivonnet and several hundred supporters of the PIC, led an uprising that was met with fierce resistance from the Cuhan army. In less then two months Cuhan troops massacred an estimated 3,000-6,000 blacks and mulattoes, many of whom were innocent citizens with no connections to the rebels.^ As Helg has observed, in the years leading up to the crisis and during the armed conflict itself the Cuban press virulently attacked Estenoz and the PIC, and spread malicious rumors that aimed to create an exaggerated sense of alarm and to stir up racial hatred throughout the nation. Numerous newspapers, for example, gave false reports of rapes and kidnappings of white women and children hy black men, provided exaggerated accounts of looting and destruction by hlack insurgents of Cuhan towns and US owned industries, and elaborated unfounded accounts of extensive Haitian involvement in the rebellion {Our Rigbtful Sbare 169, 197). Such observations are corroborated by the daily coverage of the conflict in Tbe New York Times, which quoted Cuhan president Josd Miguel Comez's report that "the [Cuban] press in general has exaggerated the importance of the uprising hy publishing false rumors and news" ("Comez Sees End" 1). The newspaper also reported in several articles that official Cuhan accounts of hlack violence and of alleged destruction and pillaging of US property by the rebels were highly exaggerated.^ For many years after the Race War of 1912 racial tensions in Cuhan ran high, and fear of Afro-Cuhans and their potential to mount another rebellion led to increasing efforts to control and suppress African-derived religions and cultural manifestations throughout the island. Helg speaks of a "hrujo scare," which was largely the product of widespread rumors of white children being murdered for witchcraftrelated rituals, which haunted the imagination of white Cubans well into the 1920s and led to the arrest of hundreds of alleged practitioners ofSanterta and other African-derived religions. In the months and years following the 1912 crisis traditional Afro-Cuhan comparsas, which had long been considered degenerate manifestations of Afro-Cuhan religion and culture, became targets of the campaign to rid the country of "atavistic" African-derived traditions. In 1913 traditional comparsas were banned along with "any dances associated with them or with abakud groups" (Moore 71). Moreover, all

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carnival celebrations that year were put under strict police vigilance and African-derived instruments were strictly forbidden. Three years later violence erupted among hlack participants during the highly regulated and decidedly inauthentic comparsas of 1916, and "authorities believed they had sufficient justification for their complete prohibition" (Moore 72). Thus began an official ban on traditional Afro-Cuban comparsas that would not be repealed for more than two decades. The reinstatement oi comparsas in 1937 was due, in large part, to the efforts of Cuba's leading ethnographer, Fernando Ortiz, and other members of the newly founded Sociedad de Estudios Afrocubanos. Ironically Ortiz and his cohorts had promoted the prohibition o( comparsas in the 1910s and 1920s but later argued that, as long as they were stripped of their "atavistic" trappings, comparsas and other African-derived traditions could be turned into integral symbols of Cuba's unique cultural heritage.

In the remaining sections of this essay I will focus on two poemsFelipe Pichardo Moya's "La comparsa," and Emilio Ballagas's "Comparsa habanera", which reflect in varying ways the political and cultural debates that surrounded the comparsa during the early decades of the twentieth century. First published in the Cuhan magazine Crdfico in 1916, Pichardo's Moya's poem was written just four years after the Race War of 1912, and thus corresponds to a period during which racial tensions in Cuha were acute and fear of Afro-Cuhans among the white mainstream was widespread. Moreover, at the time that Pichardo penned his poem comparsas were the subject of especially intense official criticism and negative press, and their suppression in Havana "was nearly total" (Moore 71). While "La comparsa" is significant for being a forerunner to the afrocubanista literary movement and "one of the first poems to explore the literary possibilities of Afro-Cuhan music" (Kutzinski 181), it is most noteworthy for its condescending tone, its demeaning portrayal of an African-derived Cuhan tradition, and its exposure of the deeply ingrained prejudices against Afro-Cuhans and their carnival traditions that reigned during the early years of the Republic. Emilio Ballagas's "Comparsa hahanera" was first published in 1934 and continues to he one of the most widely celebrated and anthologized poems of the cultural movement known as afrocubanismo, which flourished in the 1920s and 1930s. This important cultural and

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literary movement ostensibly aimed, among other things, to displace racial prejudices and misconceptions of African-derived traditions hy celebrating their contribution to Cuban culture and hy emphasizing "the unity of blacks and whites in the forging of the Cuhan community that was culturally mulato" (Davis 78)."^ In the introduction to his Antologia de la poesia negra bispanoamericana (1935) Ballagas suggested that the works in his anthology of seventeen Hispanic poets attested to the burgeoning desire, especially in Cuha, to understand and appreciate African-derived customs and cultural manifestations. ^ He also insisted that the poets, most of whom were white men like himself, aimed to replace stereotypical and artificial depictions of blacks by members of previous generations with more "authentic" images. Given that Ballagas included "Comparsa habanera" in his anthologyin a section titled "Evocaciones"the reader can assume that he viewed the poem as an example of his own concerted attempts to offer genuine portraits of Afro-Cuhans and to depict faithfully their contributions to the Republic's identity and culture. As we will see later in this study, however, "Comparsa habanera" is typical of much afrocubanista poetry in terms of its reinforcement of racial stereotypes and its failure to address in any way the national debate over comparsas or the countless other social, economic and cultural concerns that most Cuhan blacks faced in the 1930s.

Pichardo's Sinister Spectacle Vera Kutzinski is correct to note that it is somewhat ironic that Pichardo Moya's "La comparsa" was "written and published at a time when actual comparsas were banned in Cuha" (181). However, despite the fact that comparsas of that year were highly-regulated and decidedly inauthenticthe Afro-Cuban participants were not supposed to use traditional instruments or to perform African-inspired dances, fights broke out among hlack comparseros and, as had been the case in 1912, several individuals were injured (Moore 72). If we hear these details in mind, the brief note that follows that original version of Pichardo's poem"Havana, Carnaval de 1916"suggests that "La comparsa" was inspired at least in part by the author's own experience at the infamous carnival processions of that year, which were harshly condemned hy the local press, prominent intellectuals, and government officials. In

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keeping with contemporary prejudices and the ever-increasing distaste for all public displays of Afro-Cuban culture, Pichardo's poem calls attention to precisely the characteristics of traditional comparsas that contemporary audiences found repugnant: the mysterious and monotonous "incantations," the allegedly diseased nature of the dancingwhich he compares to epileptic seizures, and the disagreeable sounds of the music and singing. It has been argued that through "La comparsa" Pichardo attempted to revalue Afro-Cuhan customs that had long been considered inferior or primitive in Cuba (Mansour 117-19). However, from the opening lines Pichardo's poem can he read as a faithful reflection of the underlying racism and suspicion of blacks that lingered for years after the Race War of 1912. Indeed, a careful reading of "La comparsa" reveals that Pichardo, like most white, middle class Cubans of the day, viewed traditional Afro-Cuhan carnival processions as strange and foreboding spectacles that inspired fear instead of admiration:
Por la calleja solitaria se arrastra la comparsa como una culebra colosal. En el silencio de la noche hombres, mujeres, ninos, cantan con un mon6tono compas; los unos detras de los otros en una fila inacabable, van agarrados por los hombros con un temblor epilepsial. Los ojos brillan en las 6rbitas chispeando como un punal en la siniestra oscuridad, y los cuerpos se descoyuntan en una furia demoni'aca al impulso irresistible de los palitos y el timbal. Por la calleja solitaria se arrastra la comparsa como una culebra colosal. Vienen primero los muchachos Llevando hachones cuyas luces el viento hace temblequear; y un gran tumulto de mujeres, con los brazos extendidos, haciendo estremecer sus hombros y sus caderas, van detras. Suben las voces por encanto, y luego vuelven a bajar; la miisica, ronca y mon6tona, va evocando mil raras cosas. (106-07)''

In the first strophe Pichardo depicts a traditional line dancecommonly known as "arrollao"whose participants grahhed each other by

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the waist or shoulders as they twisted and coiled through the streets like a gigantic snake. We should note that this type of dancing was held by many critics to he especially offensive because it involved continuous physical contact that allegedly provoked the lascivious behavior of the typically inebriated dancers. The poem's refrain is significant since it at once focuses our attention on the provocative "arrollao" dancing and stresses the fact that this particular comparsa ensemhle slithers through a dark and desolate alley, and not, as was typically the case, a husy Havana street packed with rowdy revelers. In his Mapa de Ut poesia negra americana (1946), Emilio Ballagas reminds the reader in a brief introductory note to "La comparsa" that Pichardo dedicated his poem to the eminent Cuhan "afrologo," Fernando Ortiz. According to Ballagas, this indicated Pichardo's deliberate efforts to promote a new genre of poetry based on the celebration of Afro-Cuhan themes (106). However, though Ortiz was widely known as a champion of Afro-Cuban culture by the time Ballagas compiled his 1946 anthology, in his early writings the Cuhan ethnographer projected a decidedly less positive image of the island's black population and its African-derived traditions. In Hampa Afro-Cubana: Los negros brujos (1906) and Hampa Afro-Cubana: Los negros esclavos (1916), the two significant studies that he had written before Pichardo penned his poem, Ortiz had gone so far as to push for the elimination of certain "atavistic" Afro-Cuhan traditions in Cuha, and especially all activities related to brujeria, since he felt that they were hindering the progress of the young Republic. He insisted that traditional comparsa troupes typically hailed from the "inferior social layers" of Cuban society and he characterized their "ritualistic" dancing and singing as "desperately monotonous," "annoying," and "incomprehensible" {Los negros brujos 57-58). The introductory chapters oi Los negros brujos and Los negros esclavos are emblematic of Ortiz's views on Afro-Cuhans and their culture during the initial years of his career. The following passage, which was printed in the first editions of both books, is typical of the strong racist undertones that pervade Ortiz's works from the 1910s and 1920s:
En Cuba toda una raza entr6 en la mala vida . . . En sus amores eran los negros sumamente lascivos, sus matrimonios llegaban hasta la poligamia, la prostitucidn no mereci'a su repugnancia, sus familias carecfan de cohesion, su religidn los Uevaba a los sacrificios humanos, a

Carnival, Cultural Debate, and Cuban Identity la violaci6n de sepulturas, a la antropofagia y a las mas brutales supersticiones; Ia vida del ser humano les inspiraba escaso respeto . . . Pero la inferioridad del negro, la que le sujetaba al mal vivir, era debida a falta de civilizaci6n integral, pues tan primitiva era su moralidad, como su intelectualidad, como sus voliciones, etcetera. {Los negros brujos 16-17,
Los negros esclavos 13)

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In Los negros brujos Ortiz demonstrated especially open hostility toward all manifestations of superstitions by condemning witchcraft and its practitioners. In the chapter entided "Porvenir de la hrujeria," for instance, Ortiz argued for the criminalization of witchcraft-related practices, and recommended removing brujos from Cuban society:
Lo primero, pues, en la lucha defensiva contra la brujeria, ha de ser acabar con los brujos, aislarlos de sus fieles, como los enfermos de fiebre amarilla, porque la brujeria es esencialmente contagiosa . . . Desaparecidos aqueilos embaucadores, terminadas sus fiestas, danzas y salvajes ritos, desbaratados sus templos, descomisados sus importantes dioses, cortados todos estos tentaculos de la brujeri'a, que encadenan a sus creyentes al fondo barbaro de nuestra sociedad, podran estoslibres de atadurasir aligerando sus aiin no desafricanizadas mentes del peso de sus farraginosas supersticiones y subir a sucesivas zonas de cultura. (193)^

By dedicating "La comparsa" to the author of two lengthy studies of the Afro-Cuhan underworld, hoth of which are filled with observations like those cited above, Pichardo left us with an invaluable clue as to how to read and interpret his poem. Indeed, Ortiz's writings on Afro-Cuban traditions, and especially his condemnation of witchcraft and related ritual dancing and singing in Los negros brujos left an unmistakable impression on Pichardo, whose poem is filled with words and expressions"la siniestra oscuridad," "una furia demoni'aca," "suhen las voces por encanto," "un rapto de locura," "un temor del mas alld' (emphasis in the original)that evoke sorcery and the dark arts. Moreover, Ortiz's contention that witchcraft was like a contagious disease is echoed in what Kutzinski has correctly referred to as the "pathological undertones" (182) of "La comparsa." The dancers' epileptic shaldng, nervous contortions, demonic fury, and glassy eyes evoke a variety of mental and physical ailments. In many instances the specific vocabulary that Pichardo employs in his poem suggests a deht to Los negros brujos. While Ortiz compares

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Afro-Cuban ritual dancing to an "acceso epileptico," Pichardo speaks of the "temblor epilepsial" that overtakes his hlack comparseros as they become enraptured hy their ritualistic chanting. Likewise, Ortiz's reference to the "posesion demoni'aca" that is allegedly brought ahout hy incessant drumming (93-94), is echoed in the "furia demoni'aca" that Pichardo's Afro-Cuhan subjects display as they dance to strident drum beats. Even Ortiz's demeaning references to the exasperating monotony and the incoherence of the songs and music of comparsa troupes {Los negros brujos 57-58) are mirrored in Pichardo's poem. A section of "La comparsa" that portrays a group of crazed black women dancing hefore an elderly comparsero as he performs acts of sortilege, suggests the influence oi Los negros brujos at the same time that it reflects the stereotypes that served to justify the inferior status of blacks in Cuha:
Pasa una guardia numerosa que se va estremeciendo sus cuerpos con el mas liibrico ademan . . . Cesa la miisica de pronto, suben las voces por encanto

Entre dosfilasde mujeres que se contorsionan nerviosas como mordidas por Satan, va un alto anciano tembloroso en cuyos ojos luce el fuego de una mirada casi irreal. Lleva un cetro entre las manos y murmura con voz opaca un misterioso sortilegio que solo ^1 puede rezar, un misterioso sortilegio como un rezo de ritual que evoca la gloria del trono donde el reinaba cuando nino alia en su selva ecuatorial, entre las tribus de guerreros y de sagrados sacerdotes que lo adoraban al pasar . . . (107-08)

Especially noteworthy are the references to the lewdness of the dancers and the numerous icons of African-derived superstitions and witchcraft, which leave the contemporary reader with the distinct impression that Pichardo's attitude toward comparsas was very much in keeping with contemporary prejudices against Afro-Cuban religion and cultural manifestations. As Helg has observed, in the 1910s "whites produced myths and icons of fear in order to justify the subaltern position of Afro-Cuhans in society." Among the most common "icons of fear," all

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of which make their appearance in Pichardo's poem, were caricatures of the black brujo and hlack fidnigo, which conveyed, among other things, "the idea that Afro-Cuban culture was limited to magic [and] witchcraft," and distorted images of blacks as innately lecherous brutes {Our Rigbtful Sbare 16-18). In many ways Pichardo's poem reflects the fear of Afro-Cuhan brujeria and the supposed criminal activities associated with it that was especially prevalent in the early decades of the twentieth century. In terms of its evocation of the so-called brujo scare, the poem also echoes Pichardo's reading oi Los negros brujos, in which Ortiz cites a number of criminal acts that were blamed on practitioners of Afro-Cuhan religions, including the kidnapping and murder in 1904 of a white girl named Zoila Diaz, which was supposedly motivated hy the witch's desire to concoct a potion from the child's heart and blood (104).^ The Cuban ethnographer hacks claims that such kidnappings were a relative commonplace in the Cuhan countryside where, he notes, the brujos were especially savage and given to the commission of the most heinous crimes (105). To corroborate his observations, Ortiz cites newspaper reports from throughout the island on some flfty crimes allegedly committed hy practitioners of Afro-Cuhan religions between 1902-1906.^ Civen the widespread prejudices against alleged brujos in the early years of the Republic, Pichardo's depiction of a mysterious elderly sorcerer whose incantations result in the demonic possession of a crowd of hlack women can hardly he seen as a revaluation of a lost or forgotten African tradition as one critic has implied (Mansour 118-19). To be sure, certain imagery in Pichardo's poetic depiction of the comparsa"las somhras tiemhlan en las casas/con un temor del mds alld," for examplereinforces the reigning fear and suspicion of Afro-Cuhan traditions rather than promote respect for them. It is fair to say, then, that Pichardo, echoing Ortiz's early ethnographic and criminological writings as well as the type of biases that were commonly spread by the sensationalist press, was more interested in calling attention to the seamy side of Havana's hlack underworld than he was in extolling the positive contribution of Afro-Cuhans to the society of the young nation. This section of the poem, which portrays the possession of Afro-Cuhan women by spirits conjured through the sorcery of an aged practitioner of Afro-Cuhan religion, is also significant because it echoes certain aspects of what Kutzinski has referred to as Fernando Ortiz's

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"not-so-scientific accounts of Afro-Cuhan religious practices" (182).' In the chapter entitled "La hrujeria," for example, Ortiz insists that demonic possession was most commonly brought about in the midst of monotonous and incessant drumming. Moreover, the fact that the black women in Pichardo's poem are the ones who are most affected by the ritualistic music and chanting and, more importantly, hy the old witch's spell, reflects Ortiz's observation that genuine possession was experienced almost exclusively hy hlack women (94). It may seem odd to the modern reader that apart from the obvious reference to the elderly sorcerer's African roots in the above quoted lines, there are no other allusions to Africa or to the color of the comparseros' skin in Pichardo's poem. Though she does not elaborate on her point, Kutzinski correctly points out that "it was quite unnecessary for him [Pichardo] to resort to physical description to identify the dancers in the poem as Afro-Cuhan" (181). Indeed, given that most white Cubans were loath to take part in traditional comparsas like the one presented here, contemporary readers would have automatically envisioned hlack Cubans as the participants in Pichardo's foreboding spectacle. It could be argued, moreover, that Pichardo's omission of references to blackness simply underscores the poem's racist undertones. The conspicuous absence of the type of African ethnic markerssuch as "Yoruba," "Congo," "Carahali", which appear frequently in afrocubanista poetry may have been motivated by the poet's desire to dissociate Cuba's black population from its African past. By doing so Pichardo underscored the superficial nature of so-called Afro-Cuhan traditions that many felt had little place in a nation that was aspiring toward Western traditions and cultural manifestations. In this sense the overriding message of Pichardo's poem foreshadows opinions of the likes of Alberto Arredondo, who some twenty years later would argue that comparsas were demeaning throwhacks to a "defeated" era, and therefore had no place in contemporary Cuban history. "Comparsa habanera" and Ballagas's Quest for Authenticity While Pichardo's poem seems to have been inspired hy the poet's experiences during the Cuban carnival of 1916, Emilio Ballagas's "Comparsa habanera" evokes an Afro-Cuhan tradition that had been under official prohibition in Havana for nearly two decades." During

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the heyday of the afrocubanista movement Ballagas believed that unlike the costumbristas of the nineteenth century, the poets of his generation aimed to present accurate depictions of the most "substantial" and "authentic" characteristics and traditions of Cuba's hlack population. In the introduction to his 1935 compilation, Antologia de la poesia negra bispanoamericana, he summed up his opinion ahout Cuha's contribution to American poesia negra as follows:
En Cuba . . . hasta hace poco tiempo, el negro no habi'a sido objeto de una autdntica curiosidad cienti'fica y estdtica. Los dibujantes y escritores costumbristas de nuestras generaciones precedentes tomaban al negro como objeto gracioso y ex6tico de sus creaciones . . . Esa etapa superficial en que s61o se atendi'a al reflejo monstruoso del negro en el espejo falaz de la criatura ha dejado lugar a otra etapa de mis profiindo sentido en que la atencidn al afrocubano se produce de un manera opuesta a la anterior. Ahora se va en busca de lo mas caracteri'stico y substancial del individuo afrocubano: se va, con lente certera, a su psicologi'a, pero sobre todoy aquf la importancia del movimiento revalorizador actualse va al negro y a lo que le atane con un ansia comunicativa que no habi'a existido hasta ahora. (1617)

It is likely in part due to Ballagas's claims and similar ones made hy other poets and academics of that generation that, as Kutzinski astutely puts it, "Critics have tended to assume that the purpose oi poesia negra/ mulata in Cuba was to humanize racial stereotypes hy replacing them with more positive, purportedly realistic, portraits of the local black population" (154).'^ Observations in early essays hy critics Guillermo de Torre ("Literatura de color," 1937) and Juan Arrom ("La poesia Afro-Cubana," 1942) are emblematic of the opinion, which became increasingly widespread in the 1930s and 1940s, that afrocubanista poets (unlike European artists and intellectuals of the same era) had been largely successful in their efforts to offer genuine portrayals of Cuhan black culture. According to de Torre, negrismo in Europe was little more than an ephemeral fad, while in Cuba the movement had come to represent a genuine desire to revalue African-derived traditions (8). In his words, "La literatura cuhana . . . no se averguenza de estas notasy estas motasde color. Al contrario, tiende desde hace unos pocos afios a reivindicarlas dandolas su justo y original valor" (9). Arrom, for his part, expressed a similar view:

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Anderson La moda negrista, sin embargo, tuvo vida muy distinta en Europa a la que ha llevado en Cuba. Alia eran arios sorprendidos quienes vei'an las cosas africanas con la momentanea curiosidad del turista . . . El arte europeo s61o ansiaba sentir su tonicidad poniendose en contacto con el ignoto arte del salvaje. Y nada mas. En Cuba, por el contrario, lo negro tenia raigambre de cuatro siglos. El cubano bianco no vei'a en el negro al africano con collares de dientes de cocodrilo, sino a otro cubano, tan cubano como el, ciudadano de la misma repiiblica que juntos habian forjado a fuerza de machetazos. . . . Ambas razas se fusionan en lo artistico, como ya lo habi'an hecho en lo economico y politico, para producir esta modalidad literaria. (392-93)

After citing poems by Ballagas and Nicolas Guillen as emblematic examples of the authenticity oi afrocuhanismo, Arrom encapsulates his opinion of the poetry of this cultural movement as follows.- "Consiste esta poesia . . . en ver las cosas desde el punto de vista del negro, estar profundamente ligada a la musica, los ritmos y los sentires del afrocubano" (393). Though Ballagas surely envisioned his own poemas negros as sincere celebrations and accurate portrayals of the contributions that Afro-Cubans had made to the culture of the young Republic, many poems of the movement were motivated hy a hidden agenda of sorts. As Kutzinski has noted,
rather than being an image renovation, and a largely failed one at that, Afro-Cubanism was an attempt at making poetry a stage for nationalist discourse, not by turning it into a platform for political slogans but by tapping specific cultural institutions vi'ith a long history of resilience: the syncretic forms of Afro-Cuban popular music and dance became the new signifiers of the desire for cultural and political independence. (154)

We should note that the poets of the afrocubanista movement with the exception of Nicolas Cuillen, Regino Pedroso and Marcelino Arozarenadid not tend to express any real concern for the rampant social and economic hardships that plagued blacks in Cuba or to make reference to relevant cultural debates such as the banning of Africanderived instruments or the prohibition of traditional carnival ensembles. Indeed, though texts such as Jos^ Zacari'as Tallet's "La rumba" (1928),

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Ballagas's "Comparsa habanera," or Ramon Guirao's "Bailadora de rumha" (1934) were ostensibly conceived as sincere celebrations of the Afro-Cuban way of life, they were not always motivated hy genuine admiration or even hy a deep knowledge of Cuha's hlack citizens and their cultural heritage. Instead, many such "celebrations" of Afro-Cuban cultural manifestations reflected sociopolitical concerns of a different ilk. On the one hand, they revealed an ever-increasing desire to express the "new sense of populism and pride" that followed the 1933 revolution against Machado, whose administration had long been associated with acts of cultural repression such as the banning of African-derived musical instruments and traditional comparsas (Moore 81). On the other hand, in the wake of the abrogation of the Platt Amendment in 1934, afrocubanista depictions of black cultural traditions can also he construed as attempts to further disassociate Cuban society and culture from the United States. In a 1937 letter to the mayor of Havana, in which he called for the official reinstatement of comparsas in the Cuhan capital, Fernando Ortiz underscored what he and many other intellectuals saw as a need for a new sense of national pride, which he felt could be manifested through the celebration of autochthonous cultural traditions such as the comparsa-.
Los cubanos debemos de vivir para nosotros mismos, de acuerdo con nuestra propia conciencia, sin sentir ese deprimente "complejo de inferioridad," heredado de la ^poca colonial y esclavista . . . Los cubanos sabemos de sobra cuan frecuentemente somos denigrados todos, negros, blancos y mestizos, sin distinci6n y en conjunto, por ciertos extranjeros, con tanta mas sana cuanto mayor es el medro que sacan de Cuba, ora alegando pretensiones de una mi'tica superioridad n6rdica, o aria, o rubia, o celeste, o infernal, segiin sean los caprichos o los momentos hist6ricos de su agresividad o ensoberbecimiento. Y no deberiamos olvidarlo, prestandonos a hacer el juego a esa tarea de difamaci6n, despreciando lo nuestro solo por ser popular, modesto, imperfecto o traido por grupos distintos a los de la casta favorecida . . . ("Las comparsas populares" 13637)

To the above-mentioned motives behind the afrocubanista poetic enterprise, Kutzinski has astutely added that hy portraying African-derived traditions as original (and originary) contributions to Cuhan culture

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the poets of the movement effectively "contained and defused potential ethnic threats to national unification" (143). Regardless of what spurred Ballagas to compose "Comparsa habanera" in 1934, even a cursory reading of the text reveals that, while he may have aimed to offer a genuine portrait of an Afro-Cuban carnival troupe, his poem actually reflects contemporary prejudices against them by presenting patently stereotypical, two-dimensional images of the black participants and their dance, music, and rituals. At the same time, Ballagas's poem completely evades the heated socio-cultural debate that had surrounded the comparsa since the early years of the Republic. Like most oi \\is, poemas negros, "Comparsa habanera" exudes an air of superficiality, which is evident from the opening lines:
La comparsa del farol (bamba uenimbamba b6.) Pasa tocando el tambor. jLos diablitos de la sangre se encienden en ron y sol! A'ora bera como yo no yoro (Jalame la calimbanyd . . .) Y'ora bera como yombondombo (Jiileme la cumbumbany^ . . .)

In terms of it its prevailing tone Ballagass poem comes across as a decidedly less sinister depiction of a black carnival ensemble than "La comparsa." The poem's flashy imagery and its catchy rhythm, which led many critics to share Cintio Vitier's opinion that its verbal orchestration was among the richest that the afrocubanista poetry movement had to offer (xiv), contrasts sharply with the somber undertones of Pichardo's text.'' Ballagas's use oi jitanjdforas, nonsense words meant to evoke African languages and musical rhythms, and his exaggerated recreation of Afro-Cuban speech also set his poem apart from Pichardo's text. At the same time, though, these trademark stylistic devices oi afrocubanista poetry embody to a certain extent Ballagas's flawed conception of authenticity. In the various glossaries to his anthologies oipoesia negra, Ballagas indicated that most of the apparently African words in his poems were his own "intuitive" creations. Though they were meant to lend rhythm and realism to the poem, from a modern perspective Ballagas's (anciial jitanjdforas call attention not only to the superficiality

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of many of the poems, but also to the poet's limited firsthand knowledge of Afro-Cuban culture. Even though there are obvious differences between "La comparsa" and "Comparsa habanera," Ballagas's poem echoes to a certain degree Pichardo's portrayal of the comparsa as a purely Afro-Cuban phenomenon that exhibits no signs of Cuba's supposed cultural heterogeneity. In both poems, for example, the black comparseros are presented as eccentric performers in a public spectacle that attracts the curious yet more "civilized" gaze of the white poet/spectator, but does not include white performers:
La comparsa del farol ronca que roncando va jRonca comparsa candonga que ronca en tambor se va! Y . . . jSube la loma! Y ;dale al tambor! Sudando los congos van tras el farol. (Con cantos yorubas alzan el clamor.) Resbalando en un pati'n de jabdn sus piernas se mueven al vapor del ron. Con plumas plumero de loro parlero se adorna la parda Fermina Quintero. Con las verdes plumas del loro verdero. jLlorando la muerte de Papa Montero! La comparsa del farol ronca que roncando va, Ronca comparsa candonga bronca de la canadonga . . . jLa conga ronca se va! Se va la comparsa negra bajo el sol moviendo los hombros, bajando el clamor.

Ballagas's unequivocal depiction of the comparsa as a strictly black phenomenon appears to contradict a contention made by Ortiz

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in the mid 1930s. By then Ortiz supported the reinstatement of traditional carnival processions and argued that they were important symbols of Cuba's mixed-race identity. As he put it, "Las comparsas no son de negros, ni de blancos, ni de mestizos. En ellas entran todos los colores y tradiciones acumulados en nuestra masa popular" ("Las comparsas populares" 138). Much like other contemporary poems about Afro-Cuban carnival ensemblesPichardo's "La comparsa," Marcelino Arozarena's "La conga," and Felix B. Caignet's "La conga prohibida," just to name a fewBallagas's text belies Ortiz's idealistic view of the comparsa as a symbol of Cuba's "profusa heterogeneidad [cultural]" ("Las comparsas populares" 138) since the comparseros in all of these poems are clearly depicted as being of African descent.''' This is not to say, however, that the absence of white participants from Ballagas's "comparsa conga" is inaccurate. To be sure, it reflects a reality that Ortiz seems to have evaded in his 1937 missive, that is, that whites and blacks rarely danced together in the same comparsa ensembles. Alberto Arredondo would later deride Ortiz's unrealistic vision of the comparsa in an inflammatory editorial in the progressive AfroCuban newspaper, Adelante. As he put it, the white mennamely Ortiz and other members of the Sociedad de Estudios Afrocubanoswho so passionately pushed for the reinstatement of Afro-Cuban comparsas would never have considered being seen "arrollando" in public with their black fellow citizens ("El arte negro" 6). Moreover, the comparseros in Ballagas's poem are far removed from the idealistic image of black Cuban brothers"tan cubanos como el [el bianco] . . . ciudadano de la misma republica"that Arrom spoke of in his essay "La poesia afrocubana" (393). Their otherness is underscored most blatantly by the fact that they are repeatedly referred to as "congos"West Africans, but not as "afrocubanos" or any other terms that suggest a common bond with their white Cuban "brothers." Likewise, the poetic voice repeatedly refers to the carnival procession itself as "la comparsa negra" or "la comparsa conga," monikers that automatically remove whites from the picture.'^ Perhaps more than anything else, though, the black performers in Ballagas's poem are divorced from the white majority by the repeated references to rituals, superstitions and "primitive" beliefs like those introduced in the following lines:

Carnival, Cultural Debate, and Cuban Identity El santo se va subiendo cabalgando en el clamor "Emaforibia yambo. Uenibamba uenigo."

"Apaga la vela que'l muelto se va. Amarra el panuelo que lo atajo ya. Y jenciende la vela que'l muelto sali6! Enciende dos velas jQue tengo el Chang6!"

In these strophes Ballagas, despite his limited firsthand experience with African-derived rituals, attempts to recreate poetically the possession of a practitioner of an Afro-Cuban religion by a conjured spirit."" At the end of the brief ritual, the speakerwhose exaggerated bozal speech serves as another marker of his/her blacknessreveals that s/he has been possessed by Chango, the Lucumi oricba of thunder and lightning known for his bellicose and capricious temperament.'^ In Los negros brujos, which was still considered to be the definitive study of Afro-Cuban "witchcraft" when Ballagas penned his poem, Ortiz oflfers a fascinating explanation for the phrase "subirse el santo a la cabeza." He suggests that it derived from the common expression "subirse el alcohol a la cabeza" given the similarities between the epileptic fits ofthe possessed and the wild behavior of drunks (93). Ortiz's observation may explain in part the frequent portrayal of blacks in poesia negra as drunken revelers who dance and shake wildly to the incessant beat of drums. In "Comparsa habanera," for example, Ballagas refers to the comparseros' Ar:\xr]kenntss in several lines: "jLos diablitos de la sangre / se encienden en ron y sol"; "sus piernas se mueven al vapor del ron"; "Ronca comparsa candonga / bronca de la canadonga"; "La comparsa . . . de negros mojados en ron." Also in keeping with the common tendencies among the poets of his generation are the references to the black males as essentially physical beings who are driven by uncontrollable sexual urges, such as the demeaning portrait ofa sexually aroused comparsero, who is moved to a state of "fury":

68 Y la mira el congo, negro maraquero; suena la maraca. jY tira el sombrero! Retumba la rumba hierve la balumba y con la caiunga arrecia el furor

Anderson

The key word here is "caiunga," which Ballagas defines in Cuaderno de la poesia negra as an erotic desire intensified by a long period of sexual repression. Similarly demeaning images of black men and their carnal appetites appear in numerous afrocubanista poems.'^ The black women in "Comparsa habanera" are also portrayed as physical beings who, through their lascivious dancing, provoke not just the male comparseros, hut also the curious onlookers that crowd the streets as they pass by:
Bailan las negras rumberas con candela en las caderas. Abren sus anchas narices ventanas de par en par a un panorama sensual. . .

Referring specifically to these lines, Juan Arrom made the following observation in his 1942 essay "La poesia afrocubana":
Para ellos [los negros cubanos], amor es reproduccion . . . Creerlos inmoraies porque en su composicion hay mas de carne que de espiritu, es llamar inmoral al pajaro que se reproduce libremente en el bosque . . . La influencia telurica de sus llanos incendiados de sol los ha hecho como son, apasionados sin refinamientos, desbordantes del vigor prog^nico de los tr6picos. (399)

To this explicitly racist observation Arrom added that modern audiences should not he scandalized by poems such as "Comparsa habanera" since they captured the Afro-Cuhan's "natural" and "biological" way of heing, which, he contended, they could express only through overt sensuality (400). In addition to reflecting the typical mentality of contemporary white Cuban intellectuals, Arrom's comments are also significant hecause they implicitly distance hlack Cuhans from the white majority by rooting their idiosyncrasies to the "burning plains" of Africa.

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Many critics have read "Comparsa habanera" as a sincere celehration of traditional Afro-Cuhan carnival processions rather than shallow depiction of them, hut to the hest of my knowledge none has pointed out that Ballagas cut out a twenty-seven line section of the original 1934 edition ofthe poem from versions published soon after the reinstatement oi comparsas in Havana in 1937." Curiously enough, this lengthy section, which is unfamiliar to many readers, evokes the sinister undertones of Pichardo's text:
Los gatos enarcan al cielo el mayido. Encrespan los perros sombn'os ladridos. Se asoman los muertos del Canaveral. En la noche se oyen cadenas rodar. Rebriiia el relampago como una navaja que la noche conga la carne le raja. Cencerros y grillos, giiijes y Uoronas: cadenas de ancestro . . . y . . . jSube la loma! Barracones, tachos, sangre del batey mezcian su clamor en el guararey. Con luz de cocuyos y helados auliidos anda por los techos el "anima sola." Destras de una iglesia se pierde la ola de negros que zumban maruga en la rumba.

The predominance of images and terms related to Afro-Cuhan brujeria and "hlack superstitions" in these lines suggest that, like many Cuhans of the day, Ballagas was captivated by the "mysterious" and "supernatural" aspects of the comparsa. Through their ritualistic drumming the Afro-Cuhan participants conjure all sorts of spirits: their deceased slave ancestors, whose rattling shackles add to the cacophony of the comparsa; "giiijes y Uoronas," evil river spirits believed to bring had luck; and the "Anima sola," a soul from Purgatory, which was typically personified by the oricha Elegua in Afro-Cuhan rituals. The sudden emergence of these spirits indicates the culmination of the carnival procession at the same time that it directs the reader's attention to the "naive superstitions" of Cuban blacks. Though the "Anima sola" was typically invoked to ward off evil, Ballagas notes in the glossary

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to Cuaderno de poesia negra that the mere utterance of the term was enough to drive Afro-Cuhans to shout out in fear: "jSola vaya!" According to Ortiz, fetishes ofthe Anima sola were often hung from the doors of houses of Afro-Cuhan practitioners of witchcraft to bar the entrance of evil spirits {Los negros brujos 73). The marugas used hy Ballagas's comparseros are also symbolic of their fear of the supernatural, since these primitive maracas were allegedly employed most often in Afro-Cuhan rituals to chase away malevolent spirits (Ortiz Los negros brujos 92). It is worth adding that the gUije was supposedly held hy Afro-Cuhans to he an omen of an impending public calamity (Cuirao 192). Civen that traditional comparsas had developed a reputation for spawning violence, the giiije's appearance among the tumult of the procession could be construed as a sign of latent tension or looming unrest. It is not entirely clear why Ballagas chose to excise these lines from several post-1937 versions ofthe "Comparsa habanera." It is likely, though, that he was motivated at least in part by a lively exchange between members ofthe Sociedad de Estudios Afro-Cubanos, of which Ballagas was a founding member, and a prominent Havana politician. In a 1937 letter to Havana Mayor Antonio Beruff Mendieta, who had written to the members of the newly founded society asking for their feedback on a plan to legalize comparsas after nearly two decades of prohibition, Ortiz underscored the importance of embracing comparsas as symbols of Cuba's distinctive, mulatto identity. He argued, in fact, that the traditional comparsa should not he seen as a purely African-derived tradition, since it embodied the cultural heterogeneity that made Cuba unique: "Las comparsas . . . [son] mulatas, no porque sean compuestas precisamente por gente de color, sino por la profusa heterogeneidad de los aportes etnicos que en ellas se funden" (138). More importantly, in the same letter Ortiz emphasized the need for a stronger sense of national pride, which, he implied, could be expressed through unique Cuban cultural traditions such as comparsas. Despite supporting their reauthorization, however, Ortiz stressed the need for "a stable system of regulation" that would serve to transform comparsas into "valiosas instituciones de la vida habanera" ("Las comparsas populares" 141). Once comparsas were officially reauthorized in February 1937, white intellectuals began taking credit for having "saved" them from extinction. Jose Antonio Fernandez de Castro, a prominent member of the white cultural mainstream and the minorista generation, put it this way: "Afortunadamente y dehido a una campana estetica dirigida por

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Fernando Ortiz y secundada por E. Roig de Leuchsenring y otros intelectuales hlancos, estos espectaculos tan ti'picos y bellos, han vuelto a reproducirse en nuestras calles y paseos hahaneros" ("La literatura"
11).2"

After considering such details, I posit that Ballagas felt compelled to revamp his poetic rendition ofa carnival procession to make it more compatible with the evolving vision of the comparsa as a valuable vehicle for the expression of national pride and cultural autonomy. By cutting the slavery-associated images as well as those that most patently evoked African-derived witchcraft and superstitions, then, Ballagas effectively toned down a poem whose original version evoked too many of the shameful legacies of the colonial era. "We should point out, moreover, that the regulations imposed on comparsas after they were reinstated in 1937 were put in place largely to avert the possibility of their degeneration into "celehraciones de naniguismo " (Vasconcelos "Al margen" 34).^' According to Emilio Roig de Leuchsenring, the 1937 carnival celebrations exemplified how spectacles that in the past had evoked the repugnance of so many could be "elevated" to the level of admirable folkloric art hy stripping them of their most patently atavistic African elements (149). Ballagas's decidedly toned-down version of "Comparsa habanera" reflects the ever-increasing push among middle class Cuban intellectuals in the mid 1930s to civilize traditional comparsas hy shifting the focus from their most "primitive," slavery associated characteristics to their latent potential to inspire a sense of national pride and to reflect Cuba's distinctive cultural legacy.

Despite a number of tonal and stylistic differences, Felipe Pichardo Moya's "La comparsa" and Emilio Ballagas's "Comparsa habanera" are similar in their portrayal of traditional comparsas as manifestations ofthe subaltern status of Afro-Cubans and their cultural manifestations. While the modern reader might expect a poem about a carnival procession to evoke vibrant images of pleasure, merriment, and vitality, Pichardo's poetic rendition of a traditional comparsa comes across as a menacing ritual. With its sinister undertones and imagery "La comparsa" echoes the atmosphere of suspicion and condemnation that reigned in Cuba for years after the Race War of 1912. Moreover, it

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can also be read as a response to the incidents of violence among AfroCuban participants during the highly regulated carnival processions of 1916. When considering this text the reader should hear in mind that it corresponds to a time when racial tensions in Cuba were running high and comparsas themselves were the subject of a heated social and cultural debate in Havana. But to appreciate fully the meaning and significance of "La comparsa," the reader must also take into account that it was dedicated to Cuban ethnographer Fernando Ortiz, who by 1916 had written two important studies on the Afro-Cuhan underworld in Havana: Hampa Afro-Cubana: Los negros brujos (1906) and Hampa Afro-Cubana: Los negros esclavos (1916). In both studies Ortiz delved into what he referred to as the "mala vida" of Afro-Cuhans, and he argued that Cuban blacks could be freed from their criminal inclinations, "brutal superstitions," "primitive psychology," and "primitive morality" only through guidance by whites and exposure to a "superior [white] civilization" {Los negros brujos 16-17, 25-28). Even a cursory reading of Pichardo's poetic rendition of an Afro-Cuban carnival procession reveals that it echoes several aspects of Ortiz's studies, hut especially his strong prejudices toward Afro-Cuban superstitions and religious practices, and his disparagement of African-derived cultural manifestations such as traditional carnival ensembles. Emilio Ballagas's "Comparsa habanera" was penned during an era when certain Afro-Cuban traditions were becoming more widely accepted as valid forms of cultural expression in Cuba. However, his widely anthologized poem still exudes ambivalence toward Afro-Cubans and their culture. On the one hand its vibrant rhythm and colorftil images seem to be more in keeping with the ostensibly festive nature of carnival, and they suggest, at least on a superficial level, a celebration of Afro-Cuhans and their cultural legacy in the young Republic. On the other hand, Ballagas's stereotypical depiction of the black comparseroswho are marked by their exaggerated bozal speech, primitive superstitions, and unrestrained behaviorbelies his claims that his poesia negra embodied the desire among afrocubanista poets to replace negative portrayals of black Cubans by authors of previous generations with sincere and authentic images. Even the revised, post-1937 version of the poem, which has fewer witchcraft-associated images and no references to the shameful legacy of slavery, echoes the prevailing

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sentiment in Havana in the mid 1930s that African-influenced cultural manifestations would only be fully accepted as "vital" and "beneficial" components of Cuba's evolving national identity if they were tailored to fit the tastes and standards ofthe white, middle-class majority.
UNIVERSITY OF NOTRE DAME

NOTES
' Ortiz's 1937 letter to Antonio Beruff Mendieta, the Mayor of Havana, has been reprinted in the following two sources: Fernando Ortiz, Ramon Vasconcelos et al. "Las comparsas populares del carnavai hibuneio." Estudios Afrocubanos 5 (1945-1946):
1 3 0 ^ 1 ; Beruff Mendieta, Antonio et. al. Las comparsas populares del carnavai habanero,

cuestidn resuelta. Havana: Molina y Cia, 1937. 9-20. Citations in this essay are taken from the first document. ^ Figures for the number of blacks and mulattoes killed during the race war vary widely. Formoselle (146) cites sources that put the number of dead rebels at 3,000, but it is not clear if this figure includes the significant number of innocent civilians who lost their lives during the war. According to Helg, the exact number of dead will never be known, but she writes that "official Cuban sources put the number of dead rebels at more than 2,000," while "US citizens living in Oriente estimated it at 5,000 to 6,000." According to Helg, one of Estenoz's companions similarly guessed that around 5,000 Cuban blacks and mulattoes had perished (225). 3 "Comez Sees End of Cuba Revolt." New York Times 23 May 1912: 1. On May 25, for example. The New York Times reported that "The War Department received a dispatch from Jennings Cox, manager of mining properties ajuaragua [sic] . . . saying that the reports [of damage] had been much exaggerated and that everything was quiet around his properties, which have not been burned or pillaged" ("Washington Wants Facts." New York Times 25 May 1912:2). The following day another article countered Cuban claims of widespread looting and extensive destruction by reporting that "deparations thus far have been confined to petty pillaging, and no large works have been burned or molested" ("Mobilize Fleet to go to Cuba." New York Times 26 May 1912: 1). * The poetry written during this cultural movement has fallen victim to a somewhat confusing assortment of names. In his introduction to Orbita de la poesia afrocubana 19281937, for example, Ram6n Cuirao employs all of the following terms interchangeably: "poesia negra," "poesia afrocubana," "lirica oscura," "podtica afro-negrista," "poesia afrocriolla," "lirica afroantillana." In this essay I use two terms: "poesia negrista," which refers to poetry written throughout Latin America (including Cuba), and "poesia afrocubanista," which applies only to poems written by Cubans during the 1920s and 1930s.

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' Ofthe 17 poets in the anthology all but one, Federico Garcia Lorca, hailed from Latin America. Twelve of the poets were from Cuba. ^ Citations of "La comparsa" come from the following source: Emilio Ballagas, ed. Mapa de la poesia negra americana. Buenos Aires: Pieamar, 1946. 106-08. ^ Such opinions were not limited to Ortiz's first book. In several articles from the 1920s"La Antigua fiesta afrocubana del dia de reyes" (1920) and "Los cabildos afrocubanos" (1921) for exampleOrtiz either directly underscored the atavistic nature of Afro-Cuban carnival celebrations or included lengthy quotes by other authors who describe traditional comparsas with the most demeaning of terms. A citation from the 1920 essay, attributed to Aurelio Pdrez Zamora, is typical of those that Ortiz includedwithout further comment or contextualizationin his early writings on Afro-Cuban culture: Innumerables grupos de comparsas de negros africanos recorren todas las calles de la capital; la turba es inmensa; su aspecto horroriza . . . El ruido que forman los tambores, los cuernos y los pitos aturde por doquiera los oi'dos del transeunte . . . cantan con mon6tono y desagradable sonido en lenguaje africano, las memorias del pueblo: y centenares de voces, chiilonas unas, roncas las otras, y todas salvajes, responden en coro al rey etiope, formando un diabolico concierto dificil de describir. (14) * Ortiz further discusses the criminal nature of witchcraft in the final chapter ofthe study. See especially pages 18590. For a complete and more reliable history ofthe case of "la nifia Zoila" see Ernesto Chavez Alvarez's book El crimen de la nifia Cecilia: la brujeria en Cuba como fenomeno social, 2632 and Aline Helg, Our Rightful Share, 108-13. ' See chapter VIII, "Noticias de prensa sobre la brujeria" (150-79). '" When he wrote "Los negros brujos" Ortiz had had little firsthand experience with Afro-Cubans and their rituals. By 1906, Ortiz had lived in various European countries and had spent less than five years of his life in Cuba, most of them during his youth. " Ballagas did not include "comparsa" in the glossaries oi Cuaderno (1934) otAntologia (1935), perhaps because the term was so familiar to contemporary Cuban audiences. The definition that Ballagas provides in glossary to Mapa de la poesia negra americana, however, implies that his poem was meant to be an evocation of the Afro-Cuban carnival celebrations that were popular during the 19* century: "Conjunto de negros esclavos y libertos que el Dia de Reyes bailaban y cantaban al ritmo de tambores en calles y plazas. Las comparsas tal vez llevaran consigo sedimentos africanistas"(305).

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Civen that he was born in 1908, and traditional comparsas were officially banned by 1916, it is entirely possible that Ballagas never even witnessed a truly authentic AfroCuban carnival procession. '^ In the introduction to Orbita de la poesia afrocubana 1928-1937, Ramon Cuirao makes a similar observation: "La poesia afrocubana . . . entrana ya un acercamiento sincero, un deseo de acortar distancias, de salvar obstaculos que, por raz6n econ6mica mas que color o matices, impedi'an la simpati'a y la fraternidad. Este es a nuestro juicio el valor fundamental de la podtica negra" (xviii-xix). In the brief introduction to Mapa de la poesia negra americana (1946), which was published long after the heyday ofthe afrocubanista movement, Ballagas acknowledged that much ofthe so-called/xj^a negra ofthe Americas was little more than "artificial fabrication." He insisted, however, that the predominant tenor ofthe poems in his anthology was sincere and authentic (9). " Interestingly enough, the vitality of "Comparsa habanera" led Jos^ Antonio Fernandez de Castro to opine that Ballagas's portrait ofa traditional comparsa was less authentic than that presented in Pichardo's 1916 composition (17). ''' I should point out here that the poems by Arozarena and Caignet stand out among the texts in the afrocubanista movement that focused on Afro-Cuban carnival traditions since they both address, indeed confront, the ongoing controversy surrounding the comparsa. Marcelino Arozarena's "La conga" (ca. 1935) approaches the subject of traditional carnival celebrations from a unique perspective. Written as a response to the official banning of comparsas and congas in Havana, the poem exudes the socialmindedness that has lead many critics to compare Arozarena to Nicolas Cuilldn and Regino Pedroso. In his poetic rendition of a traditional congaa variety of carnival procession that was widely considered to be especially degenerate because ofits strong African elementsMarcelino Arozarena condemns the lingering prejudices against African-derived traditions. He depicts the conga as a valuable and necessary outlet for the pent up frustration felt by Cuba's black population after centuries of exploitation and cultural repression that have severed their ancestral ties to Africa. (See Marcelino Arozarena. Cancion negra sin color. Havana: Union, 1966. 39-41). "La conga prohibida" (1936), by Felix B. Caignet, is one ofthe finest poems by this Afro-Cuban composer, author of radio novels, and occasional poet. It is typical of his verse in terms ofits combination of sharp wit and acerbic social and political criticism. In the poem, which begins "jQu^ balbarida, Dio mi'o! / A d6nde bamo'a paral. . . ?/ A lo negro no han dejo / lo bianco sin calnabal"Caignet denounces the hypocrisy ofa society that allows congas to perform at rallies for white political candidates but prohibits their participation in carnival celebrations. (See Felix B. Caiq;nex. A golpe de maracas:poemas negros en papel mulato. Havana: np 1950. 61). " According to David H. Brown "congo/a" is a "generic ethonym used in Cuba to refer to 'Bantu' Africans from Central West Africa, that is, present-day Congo-Brazzaville/Republic of Congo (former Zaire)/Angola" (Annotated Clossary 60).

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'^ In the glossary to Cuaderno de la poesia negra Ballagas gives the following definition for the phrase "Subirse el santo": "Sentirse poseido el brujo o el creyente de sus practicas por el espi'ritu que invoca" (np). '^ Though there is no indication of the speaker's gender, possession was supposedly most frequent among women. According to Ortiz, "El santo da principalmente, como es natural, a las mujeres; los hombreas con frecuencia simulan el ataque, arrojandose al suelo, haciendo diab6licas contorsiones, sacando desmesuradamente la lengua, mostrando lo bianco de los ojos, etc., pero la simulaci6n se descubre facilmente" {Los negros brujos 94). The references to the lighting of candles reflect the allegedly common practice among brujos to place a lit candle in the mouth of possessed individuals {Los negros brujos 94). '* See for example, Jos^ Zacarias Tallet's "La rumba," Marcelino Arozarena's "La comparsa del maja," Josd Antonio Portuondo's "Rumba de la negra Pancha," Vicente Comez Kemp's "Fuego con fuego." " I was surprised to find that the original "Comparsa habanera" is included in Ballagas's Antologia de la poesia negra hispanoamerieana (1935), for example, but it is replaced by the truncated version in Ram6n Cuirao's Urbita de la poesia afrocubana (1938). The lines in question were also omitted from the version published in Mapa de la poesia negra americana (1946). The "toned-down" version appears in several subsequent anthologies. See Jorge Luis Morales. Poesia afroantillana y negrista. (1976) Rio Piedras: U of Puerto Rico P, 2001. 386-89; Idelfonso Pereda Valdez. Lo negro y lo mulato en b poesia cubana. Montevideo: Ciudadela, 1970. 104-06. Even in his seminal study. Nationalizing Blackness: Afrocubanismo and Artistic Revolution in Havana, 1920-1940, Robin Moore includes the truncated version of Ballagas's poem in his appendix despite noting 1934 as its date of composition. ^ On the other side ofthe issue, Alberto Arredondo, whose stance was typical ofthe black middle-class, argued that the white intellectuals and politicians who had "revived" traditional comparsas in Havana did not have the best interests of Cuba's black citizens in mind. He argued that granting Afro-Cubans the right to dance through the streets in carnival processions was in no way beneficial to them and could hardly be viewed as a step toward racial integration or economic equality in Cuba. Arredondo stressed, moreover, that these shameful public spectacles would continue to reinforce damaging stereotypes: lado practico, que parte beneficiosa se desprende de las comparsas para las masas negras? Confesamos que . . . "Las Comparsas" no han derivado beneficio al negro. Fuimos al Malec6n y al Prado a contemplarlas. Y . . . por donde quiera que creimos prudente meter la cabeza y necesario avivar el oi'do, escuchamos s6lo frases por el estilo de dstas: jY luego hablan de que el negro ha evolucionado! jA esta gente, conga.

Carnival, Cultural Debate, and Cuban Identity ron y lena! jSon unos degenerados! jEstan en la selva! jEn plena barbarie, estan los negros por civilizar! jQud se diviertan, que bailen conga ^qu^ otra cosa pueden hacer los negros.' ("El arte negro" 6)

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^' Accordmg to Brown, "The term Mhiguismo was applied during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, often indiscriminately, to numerous forms of social behavior and organizations considered to be 'delinquent' and criminal' by colonial authorities, and, later, the government ofthe republic." He adds that it "was associated by the white cultural mainstream and nationalist theoreticians with despotic irrationality, teeming Afro-Cuban barrios, malicious gangs, murder, savage black men with filed teeth, and dissipated white men fallen into primitive atavism and the lure of black women" (84).

WORKS CITED
Arredondo, Alberto. El negro en Cuba. La Habana: Alfa, 1939. . "El arte negro a contrapelo." Adelante 3 (1937): 5-6+. Arr6m, Josd Juan. "La poesi'a afrocubana." Revista Iberoamericana 4 8 (1942)379-408. Ballagas, Emilio. "Comparsa habanera." Cuaderno de poesia negra. La Habana: Ucar, CarcfayCi'a, 1934. N. pag. . Antologia de la poesia negra hispanoamerieana. Madrid: Aguilar, 1935. . Mapa de la poesia negra americana. Buenos Aires: Pieamar, 1946. Beruff Mendieta, Antonio et. al. Las comparsas populares del carnavai habanero, cuestidn resuelta. La Habana: Molina y Ci'a, 1937. Brown, David H. "The Afro-Cuban Festival 'Day of the Kings': An Annotated Glossary." Ed. Judith Bettelheim. Cuban Eestivak A Century of Afro-Cuban Culture. Princeton: Markus-Wiener, 2001. 41-93. Chavez Alvarez, Ernesto. El crimen de la nina Cecilia: La brujeria en Cuba comofendmeno social (1902-1925). La Habana: Ciencias Sociales, 1991. Davis, Darien. "^Criollo o Mulato?: Cultural Identity in Cuba, 1930-1960. Ethnicity, Race and Nationality in the Caribbean. Ed. Juan Manuel Carrion. Ri'o Piedras: Institute of Caribbean Studies, U of Puerto Rico, 1997. 69-95. Fermoselle, Rafael. Politica y color en Cuba: La guerrita de 1912. (1974). 2nd ed. Mexico City: Colibri, 1998. Fernandez de Castro, Jos^ Antonio. "La literatura negra actual de Cuba (1902-1934): Datos para un estudio." Estudios Afrocubanos. 4 (1940): 3-22. Fuente, Alejandro de la. A Nation for All: Race, Inequality, and Politics in TwentiethCentury Cuba. Chapel Hill: U of North Carolina P, 2001 "C6mez Sees End of Cuba Revolt." New York Times 23 May 1912: 1. Cuirao, Ram6n. Ed. Orbita de la poesia afrocubana: 1928-1937. La Habana: Ucar, CarcfayCi'a, 1938. Helg, Aline. Our Rightful Share: The Afro-Cuban Struggle for Equality, 1886-1912. Chapel Hill: U of North Carolina P, 1995.

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. "Race in Argentina and Cuba, 1880-1930: Theory, Politics, and Popular Reaction." Ed. Richard Craham. The Idea ofRace in Latin America, 18701940. Austin: U ofTexas P, 1990. 38-69. Kutzinski, Vera. Sugar's Secrets: Race and the Erotics ofCuban Nationalism. Charlottesville: UofVirginiaP, 1993. Mansour, M6nica. La poesia negrista. Mexico: Era, 1973. "Mobilize Fleet to go to Cuba." New York Times 26 May 1912: 1. Moore, Robin D. Nationalizing Blackness: Ajrocubanismo and Artistic Revolution in Havana, 1920-1940. Pittsburgh: U of Pittsburgh P, 1997. Ortiz, Fernando. Hampa Afro-Cubana: Los negros brujos. 1906. La Habana: Editorial de Ciencias Sociales, 1995. . Hampa Afro-Cubana: Los negros esclavos. La Habana: Revista Bimestre Cubana, 1916. . La Antigua fiesta afrocubana del "Dia de Reyes." 1920. Rev. ed. La Habana: Ministerio de Cultura, I960. . "Los cabildos afrocubanos." 1921. Orbita de Eernando Ortiz. Ed. Julio Le Riverend. La Habana: Union, 1973. 121-34. Ortiz, Fernando, Ramon Vasconcelos et al. "Las comparsas populares del carnavai \i3!o&ntto." Estudios Afrocubanos 5 {l^A'J-l^AG): 129-48. Pichardo Moya, Felipe. "La comparsa." Ed. Emilio Ballagas. Mapa de la poesia negra americana. Buenos Aires: Pieamar, 1946. 106-08. Roig de Leuchsenring, Emilio. "Las comparsas carnavalescas de La Habana en 1937." Estudios Afrocubanos. 5 (1945-1946): 148-75. Torre, Cuillermo de. "Literatura de color." Revista Bimestre Cubana 38 (1937): 5-11. Vasconcelos, Ram6n. "Al primer tap6n, zurrapas." La Prensa [Havana] 7 March 1916:4. . "Al margen de los di'as. Complejos." Beruff Mendieta 33-39. Vitier, Cintio. "Introducci6n." Obrapohica de Emilio Ballagas. Miami: Mnemosyne, 1969.