In this Book
- Afro-Cuban Tales
- Book
- 2005
- Published by: University of Nebraska Press
Here readers will find a vibrant, imaginative record of African culture transplanted to Cuba and transformed over time, a passionate and subversive alternative to the dominant Western culture of the Americas. In this charmed realm of myth and legend, imaginative flights, and hard realities, Cabrera shows us a world turned upside down. In this domain guinea hens can make dour Asturians and the king of Spain dance; little fat cooking pots might prepare their own meals; the pope can send encyclicals about pumpkins; and officials can be defeated by the shrewdness of turtles. The first English translation of one of the most important writers on African culture in the Americas, the collection provides a fascinating view of how African traditions, myths, stories, and religions traveled to the New World—of how, in their tales, Africans in the Americas created a New World all their own.
Table of Contents
- Introduction to the English Edition
- pp. vii-xii
- Introduction to the Spanish Edition
- pp. xiii-xvii
- Bregantino Bregantín
- pp. 1-19
- Two Queens
- p. 29
- Papa Turtle and Papa Tiger
- pp. 30-56
- Los Compadres
- pp. 57-83
- Mambiala Hill
- pp. 84-96
- The Easy Life
- pp. 97-102
- Apopoito Miamá
- pp. 103-111
- Tatabisaco
- pp. 112-117
- Arere Marekén
- pp. 118-121
- The Green Mud of the Almendares
- pp. 122-126
- Hicotea’s Horse
- pp. 141-143
- One-Legged-Osain
- pp. 144-149
- The Amazing Guinea
- pp. 150-158
- The Letter of Emancipation
- pp. 159-162
- The Watchful Toad
- pp. 166-169