Black in Cuba: Melanie Waingarten

One day somebody asked me, “are you first jewish or argentinian?“. This question got stuck in my head forever. Since then, all my questions were sorrounding my identity and my roots. Am I argentinian first? Jewish first? Latina? Caucasian? As soon as I arrived in this country, I realized how society is pushing us into boxes and asking to label ourselves. I relate this to the documentary “Black in Latin America: Cuba the next revolution”, portraying the experiences of black people in Cuba through their history. What it meant to be afroamerican in the 19th century? What it means to be afroamerican now? Why cubans would say “I am a Cuban, who is black”? And afroamericans, instead, would say “I am black”?

How was posible to have a black leader in the cuban political power and still experience racism? Carlos Manuel Cespedes was a black leader. Batista was a mulato. But this never changed the racial segregation.

Cuba suffered racism since the arrival of african slaves until 1940 were discrimination was criminalized. With the cuban revolution, the racism was declared over and Cuba became an island free of analfabetism, free healthcare and education. Now, everybody had the right to study.

But when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1989, the economy in Cuba collapsed too. This affected the island aggresively, and they start to rely on financial support of USA.  So, Cuba moved from one colonialism to another one. The spanish invasion ended and they thought they would become an independent republique but they didnt. However, they still kept an identity and minorities came from the underground and cultures started crossing. A new brownish blend was bringing a multicultural and multicolor phenomenon.

Nationality trascended racism and popular culture represented in music or food were celebrating the mixture and creating a new heritage.

Culture was changing the social attitude. They used music to keep social discrimination in the consciousness of the generation hoping to erradicate racism.

I never thought, until now, how important is food and music to a nation. It is defying our culture, our identity, is getting people together, to share, to celebrate, to raise their voices, music and food create powerful bonds. Music and food makes us less black and white and more humans.