Afro-Cuban Lyrics and Thematics in the ‘Canción Cubana’ as Musical Genre

Abstract

The most direct predecessors of the well-known canción cubana arrived basically from Spain and Italy during the Colonial period. Nevertheless, a different and no less important pattern also emerged during the Colony thanks to the African presence on the island that came about as a result of four centuries of colonial slave trade. The wealth of Cuban musical genres that conceal an African presence is overwhelming; therefore, for this article, I have chosen to work on the genre of the canción cubana, which gathers several styles of the archetypal canción, from urban areas and from the countryside. Among the styles that adjust within the genre of the canción cubana it is of interest to mention the contradanza, and its offspring the habanera, the danzón, the bolero, the trova, the son, and the guaguancó. Needless to say, music has been the means to bring about the attainment of a creative joint venture between the two cultures of Cuba, the European and the African. As far as the Cuban experience is concerned, Africa’s Diaspora followed by several centuries of institutionalized slavery set in motion cultural, racial, and ethnic interchanges and a consequent hybridization, all of which continue to manifest themselves until today in all of the arts. This study shows the colossal positive results of this successful amalgamation; because, for the past five centuries, Afro-Cuban themes and language patterns have decisively broken apparently impossible cultural barriers to combine in pulsating lyrics the ebb and flow of what Cuba is all about.