Lydia Cabrera
| Lydia Cabrera | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Born | May 20, 1899 Havana |
| Died | September 19, 1991 (aged 92) Miami, Florida |
| Nationality | Cuba |
| Fields | anthropologist |
| Known for | Afro-Cuban Poetry |
| Influences | European Vanguard |
| Influenced | Afrocubanismo Movement |
Lydia Cabrera (May 20, 1899 in Havana, Cuba – September 19, 1991 in Miami, Florida) was a Cuban anthropologist and poet.
Cabrera was a Cuban writer and literary activist. She was an authority on Santería and other Afro-Cuban religions. During her lifetime she published over one hundred books; little if any of her work is available in English. Her most important book is El Monte (Spanish: "The Wilderness"), which was the first major anthropological study of Afro-Cuban traditions. Published in 1954, the book became a "bible" for Santeros who practice Santeria, a blend of Catholic teachings and native African religions that evolved among former African slaves in the Caribbean. She donated her research collection to the library of the University of Miami. A section in Guillermo Cabrera Infante's book Tres Tigres Tristes is written under Lydia Cabrera's name, in a comical rendition of her literary voice. She was one of the first writers to recognize and make public the richness of Afro-Cuban culture. She made valuable contributions in the areas of literature, anthropology, and ethnology.
In El Monte, Cabrera fully described the major Afro-Cuban religions: the Regla de Ocha (commonly known as Santeria) and the Ifa’ cult, which are both derived from traditional Yoruba religion; and Palo Monte, which originated in Central Africa. Both the literary and anthropological perspectives on Cabrera’s work assume that she wrote about mainly oral, practical religions with only an “embryonic” written tradition. She is credited by literary critics for having transformed Afro-Cuban oral narratives into literature, which is, written works of art, while anthropologists rely on her accounts of oral information collected during interviews with santeros, babalaos, or paleros, and on her descriptions of religious ceremonies. There is a dialectical relationship between Afro-Cuban religious writing and Cabrera’s work; she used a religious writing tradition that has now internalized her own ethnography.
Born in Havana in 1899 as the youngest of eight siblings, she comes from a Cuban family of social and financial privilege in pre-revolutionary Cuba. Her father, Raimundo Cabrera, who was a writer, jurist, and lawyer, was a prominent man in society as well as an advocate for Cuba's independence. He was the owner and editor of the Cuban journal, Cuba y America. This news paper involved politics and her father wanted to become independent from Spain. Her mother, Elisa Marcaida Casanova, was a housewife and respected socialite. The family had many Afro-Cuban servants and child caretakers, through whom young Lydia learned about African folklore, stories,tradition,religions, and their mystical world. Her father was also the president of the first Cuban corporation, La Sociedad Económica de Amigos del País, founded in the eighteenth century. He owned a popular literary journal, Cuba y America, where Lydia got her first experience as a writer. At the age of thirteen, Cabrera wrote a weekly anonymous column that appeared in her father's journal. She covered topics relevant to her specific community, such as wedding announcements, childbirths, or obituaries.
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