Transculturation and Cuban Revolution Notes

Transculturation vs. Assimilation and the Legacy of the Cuban Revolution

Understanding Transculturation

  • Definition by Fernando Ortiz: Ortiz, a sociologist and ethnographer, proposed transculturation as a more accurate term than assimilation to describe cultural transitions and acquisitions.

    • Critique of Assimilation: He argued that assimilation (where a powerful culture overtakes and erases less powerful parts) did not fit the vast cultural diversity he observed in Cuba. Assimilation implies a one-to-one dominance.

    • Cuba's Diversity: Cuba's cultural landscape was shaped by indigenous diversity, various European migrations, and forced migration of diverse African populations, leading to a complex mix of languages and cultures.

  • Components of Transculturation:

    • Initially, it involves an uprooting and loss (deculturation and change) for all individuals constructing a new culture in the Americas.

    • Consequently, it fosters the creation of new cultural phenomena (neoculturation).

    • Key Insight: Everyone involved is transformed by this process, even if power distribution is unequal.

      • Example: While Spanish was imposed as the language of politics (over Basque, Latin, Taíno, or Yoruba), even Spanish speakers in Cuba were changed. For instance, the governor of Cuba would be influenced by enslaved Africans' food culture, eating differently, making and listening to music in new ways, and potentially incorporating new words from indigenous plant life or place names into his vocabulary.

"Roma" and Transculturation in 1970s Mexico

  • Film Context: The film, set in Mexico in the 1970s, offers concrete examples of transculturation.

  • Cleo and Indigenous Language:

    • Example: Cleo, the indigenous domestic worker, sings a lullaby in Mixtec (her native language) to one of the children, Sofía, a tender and powerful moment.

    • Power Dynamics: Cleo and her friend, also from the same indigenous region, speak Mixtec in private spaces, adapting to the expectations of their non-indigenous employers.

    • Cultural Exchange: Sofía, the daughter of the non-indigenous family, learns indigenous words and nursery rhymes from Cleo, repeating them back – a