Afro-Cuban Religions in Cuban Literature

Abstract This chapter cites the influence of archival oralities of culture in correlation with Afro-Cuban religions featured in Cuban literature. It starts with a short overview of Manga-Mocha: cuento ñáñigo, representing Afro-Cuban themes in Spanish Caribbean literature. Even though the publication of Manga-Mocha was over a century ago, its thematic representation of Afro-Cuban religions has expanded into the portrayal of a strong communal identity in Cuban literature and culture. The conformation of a more diverse Cuban culture began with the gradual integration of Afro-Cuban values into the island’s sociopolitics during the second half of the nineteenth century. Moreover, Cuban ethnographer Fernando Ortiz’s sense of intermeshed transmutations also resulted in a complex system in which Afro-Cuban religions influenced the poetic and fictional representation of Cuban writers.