a1546: Haitians in Cuba (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Elizabeth J. Chin <ejc@oxy.edu>

I just have returned from a great week in Cuba studying Haitian-Cuban
dance and music.  Comparing dance and music from the Haitian community
in Cuba with dance and music in Haiti was really fascinating.  Plenty of
Haitian-descended Cubans still speak Kreyol (I was able to practice with
one of the drummers, and boy am I rusty), while many Cubans learn the
Haitian songs phonetically, in Spanish-phonetic renderings of songs that
were virtually unintelligible to me.  I managed to get the songs in
passable Kreyol versions only after sitting down with the singers to get
them to slowly enunciate each syllable.  A line from "Panamam' Tombe"
was transliterated as "siguede ierra maseli pumue" for example!

 I enjoyed seeing how Haitian dances are "Cubanized," given distinctly
Cuban physical accents, hints of Rumba or Son thrown into the mix.  I
also heard a lot from the artists that I was working with about the
kinds of ethnic tensions within the Haitian community in Cuba, and
efforts to support and celebrate Haitian ethnic identity.  Apparently,
Kreyol is the most-spoken language in Cuba after Spanish.

While there are a number of wonderful folklore troupes in Cuba that
specialize in the Haitian-Cuban traditions, as well as the vocal group
Desandann, I haven't found a lot I the scholarly literature that focuses
on Haitians in Cuba.  I'd be interested to hear from people who have
sources, or who know more.


Elizabeth Chin
Associate Professor of Anthropology
Occidental College
1600 Campus Road
Los Angeles, CA 90041

(323) 259-2757
(323) 341-4969 (fax)