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1. A White Lady Called the Danza
- Wesleyan University Press
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c h a p t e r o n e A White Lady Called the Danza The Puerto Rican danza is a particular dance form that evolved from the English and European country dance (contradanza) and became transculturated in the Caribbean. While the term danza in Spanish usually refers to dance in general, in the Caribbean the danza is closely associated with the Cuban habanera or danzón, to which it is related. Most scholarship on the danza focuses on its much-debated origins, locating its genesis as far back as the cantigas of Alfonso X the Wise, as Samuel R. Quiñones does, or in the Spanish country dance, which entered Puerto Rico through Colombian immigration in 1813, as Cesáreo Rosa Nieves suggests.1 Historically, the danza became the national music of the island, representing in fact the hegemonic interests of the dominant class sector at the turn of the century and throughout its first half. At present the Puerto Rican danza is regarded more as an art form than as popular music or dance, thus following the dominant ideology that has constructed it as the dance that evokes the yesteryears of the haciendas, as many rum and cigarette advertisements produced in Puerto Rico continue to do. However, the danza has also evolved into new songs, with political content and social protest, and it has recently been revitalized by popular singers in Puerto Rico. The political value of this musical form as a vehicle for resistance against imperialism, against tyranny, and against hegemony has been systematically silenced throughout Puerto Rican history. The African heritage that forms part of its structure and musical texture also has been subjected to erasure through systematic efforts to whitewash Africanderived cultural elements from Puerto Rico’s social imaginary. A closer genealogical look at the danza as textualized in essays and literary texts since the late nineteenth century will reveal in more complex detail the patriarchal and hegemonic motivations underlying racial and gender- and classbased inscriptions. t h e d a n z a a n d t h e p l e n a / 8 • • • In 1849, Manuel A. Alonso published El Gíbaro in Spain, where he had lived for seven years.2 The fifth chapter of this first exemplar of Puerto Rican literature is dedicated to the “bailes de Puerto Rico” [dances of Puerto Rico], which he categorizes as three: (1) dances of society, which are no more than the echo or repetition of those of Europe (he includes the country dance and the waltz as examples); (2) the properly Puerto Rican– Creole hybrid dance forms, which Alonso names “bailes de garabato”; and (3) the “bailes de bomba,” the “least important” for the author, those of African origin that have not been “generalized ever.” Alonso, in fact, does not describe or mention examples of the last because, as he explains, black dances “do not merit inclusion under the title of this chapter, for even though they are seen in Puerto Rico, they have not been generalized” [no merecen incluirse bajo el titulo de esta escena, pues aunque se ven en Puerto Rico, nunca se han generalizado]. Thus, in 1849, writing from Spain, Alonso deems invisible and unimportant the cultural presence and production of the African population in Puerto Rico. Given their still unemancipated status as slaves, the “politics of inclusion” of African popular forms was surely not a consideration for his elite reading public. Historically, indeed, the plena, the popular Afro– Puerto Rican dance and song form, does not truly emerge as a singular, delineated musical form until the beginnings of the twentieth century, precisely when the African population migrates into the cities to constitute an emerging urban proletariat. At the time of Alonso’s writing, however, the bomba was performed as a primary musical expression for the slaves in the plantation societies. Alonso’s utter dismissal of this song and dance form ensues from the marginalized status of African cultural expressions, from their social construction as primitive, and from their invisibility in the national paradigm. Alonso engages centrally in the feminization of music as he describes the country dance being performed in Puerto Rico: Sus pasos adquieren mayor encanto con la gracia de las hijas del Trópico; es imposible seguir con la vista los movimientos de una de aquellas morenitas de mirar lánguido, cintura delgada y pie pequeño, sin que el corazón se delate queriendo salir del pecho. . . . Oh hijas de mi patria! nadie os iguala...