Performing Latinidad
At the end of the first day of class, I asked someone in the room if the course would be available the next semester or in the coming years. I wanted to take the class but wasn’t sure if it would fit…
Read More
Theme: Performing Arts
The artistry of the Güegüence
English + Español
El Güegüence has accompanied me for years, first as the colorful childhood memory of a folklore presentation I saw in Nicaragua in the 1980s, before I left the country, and then, years later, as one of my preferred research topics as I pursued my doctorate in Romance…
The Bearers
English + Español
Viñales’s spectacular natural beauty makes it one of Cuba’s busiest tourist attractions, but tourists don’t come to this mango grove, and the bus driver who brought us wasn’t happy about taking the beat-up road that leads here. Plus, it’s raining. No matter, there’ll be a party…
In the Footsteps of La Rebambaramba
English + Español
Tracing the journey of Amadeo Roldán’s Afro-Cuban ballet La Rebambaramba (1928) I arrived in Paris. Yes, in Paris, France… both the author of the original libretto, the Cuban writer and musicologist Alejo Carpentier, and the—also Cuban— choreographer Ramiro Guerra…
La Candela Viva
The drum beat is the pulse of Palenque de San Basilio; it is central to birth, death, marriage and other celebrations. In this Colombian town, drumming is about communion and…
Read More