Talking about Race in Cuba: Four Trans-Atlantic African Diaspora Women Share Their Experience

• DOI: https://doi.org/10.13169/intejcubastud.7.2.0212
• Published date: 01 December 2015
• Date: 01 December 2015
• Pages: 212-235
• Author: Nataka Moore,Tiffany McDowell,Mildred Watson,Caridad Morales Nussa
• Subject Matter: racism,Afro-Cubans,community engagement

InternatIonal Journal of Cuban StudIeS 7.2 WInter 2015

ACADEMIC ARTICLES

TALKING ABOUT RACE IN CUBA: FOUR

TRANS-ATLANTIC AFRICAN DIASPORA

WOMEN SHARE THEIR EXPERIENCE

Nataka Moore, Tiffany McDowell and Mildred Watson

Adler University, USA

Caridad Morales Nussa

Towson University, USA

Abstract

Descendants of the African Diaspora have encountered different challenges to well-

being within their respective countries. In Cuba, it appears that while the Cuban

Revolution attempted to level the outcomes for all citizens, Black Cubans remain

marginalised and targets of discrimination. We, three African American and one Black

Cuban women researchers, used a roundtable approach to analyse our experiences in

Cuba. Using our individual reflections as data, the four of us sought to make meaning

of cultural identity and expression within Cuba, and impact on well-being. Implications

of this work can inform interventions for well-being of multiple African Diasporic

populations in North and South America.

Keywords: racism, Afro-Cubans, community engagement

Nataka (First Author): My Reflections on My Cuban Ancestry

My great grandfather was born in Cuba during the time of Cuba’s independence

from Spain in 1899. He was born to a Black Cuban mother and an African

American father who arrived as an American volunteer from South Carolina. In

his very early years, my great grandfather was raised by his mother in Cuba.

Around the age of 5, he came to live in the US and settled in South Carolina with

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his paternal grandparents. The circumstances that made him leave Cuba are

unknown but through a look at the lives of Black Cuban woman after Cuba’s

independence, any number of issues could have been likely, including an early

death of his mother. My great grandfather was an absentee father in the life of

my grandfather, so there was not much information passed down about him.

Even so, as a genealogist and psychologist, I became very interested in tracking

down what I could learn from my great grandfather’s life and the events sur-

rounding his birth during the independence movement in Cuba.

During my search, I came across a book in an antique store in Chicago that

was published in 1899 called Neely’s Photographs: Panoramic views of Cuba,

Porto Rico, Manila and The Philippines by Frank Tennyson Neely. The book

contains well over 75 images of the Spanish-American war with a substantial

focus of the book covering Cuba. At the bottom of the photos, the author made

captions that often explained the context of the pictures by telling the reader

who was in the picture and/or where the picture was taken. However, at times

the caption would be reflective of the author’s personal opinions about the peo-

ple in the pictures. What became significant for me about this book was my

reaction to the images and the captions of these with Black Cubans. White

Cubans in the book are referred to as Cubans, whereas Black Cubans are referred

to as Negroes. To me this reflected that Neely, a person with an etic perspective,

saw Black Cubans as not being citizens of Cuba nor as contributors to the fabric

of Cuban society. My question is this: if they are neither citizens nor contribu-

tors to Cuban society, then for Neely what were they?

For one photo, an image of Black Cubans gathering in Havana on a Sunday,

in their best clothes dancing likely to the rhythms that have contributed to music

and dance across the world, he provided commentary that answered my ques-

tion. In this photo, he stated, ‘Negroes are children of the fun and sun.’ I see

several problems with this statement: (1) the photo captured adults engaging in

a social affair, (2) the adults are being infantilised as they are called children, (3)

they are referred to as Negroes and not Cubans, and (4) the comment was pat-

ronising and likely reflects the overall lack of respect for the human rights of

Black people during this period. While I intellectually knew that Cuba’s history

with slavery and racism was very similar to that of the US, I was not ready to go

through another version of this story; I felt in the moments of reviewing the

book that I had undergone two different forms of historical trauma. Historical

trauma can be defined as experiencing trauma due to historical loss (i.e., slavery,

loss of culture, land, etc.) as a result of intergenerational transmission with dev-

astating impact on emotional, psychological and behavioural well-being (Brown-

Rice 2014).