Unbecoming Blackness

The Diaspora Cultures of Afro-Cuban America

Nonfiction, Reference & Language, Language Arts, Literacy, Social & Cultural Studies, Social Science, Anthropology
Cover of the book Unbecoming Blackness by Antonio Lopez, NYU Press
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Antonio Lopez ISBN: 9780814765494
Publisher: NYU Press Publication: November 26, 2012
Imprint: NYU Press Language: English
Author: Antonio Lopez
ISBN: 9780814765494
Publisher: NYU Press
Publication: November 26, 2012
Imprint: NYU Press
Language: English

In Unbecoming Blackness, Antonio López uncovers an important, otherwise unrecognized century-long archive of literature and performance that reveals Cuban America as a space of overlapping Cuban and African diasporic experiences.

López shows how Afro-Cuban writers and performers in theU.S. align Cuban black and mulatto identities, often subsumed in the mixed-race and postracial Cuban national imaginaries, with the material and symbolic blackness of African Americans and other Afro-Latinas/os. In the works of Alberto O’Farrill, Eusebia Cosme, Rómulo Lachatañeré, and others, Afro-Cubanness articulates the African diasporic experience in ways that deprive negro and mulato configurations of an exclusive link with Cuban nationalism. Instead, what is invoked is an “unbecoming” relationship between Afro-Cubans in the U.S and their domestic black counterparts. The transformations in Cuban racial identity across the hemisphere, represented powerfully in the literary and performance cultures of Afro-Cubans in the U.S., provide the fullest account of a transnational Cuba, one in which the Cuban American emerges as Afro-Cuban-American, and the Latino as Afro-Latino.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

In Unbecoming Blackness, Antonio López uncovers an important, otherwise unrecognized century-long archive of literature and performance that reveals Cuban America as a space of overlapping Cuban and African diasporic experiences.

López shows how Afro-Cuban writers and performers in theU.S. align Cuban black and mulatto identities, often subsumed in the mixed-race and postracial Cuban national imaginaries, with the material and symbolic blackness of African Americans and other Afro-Latinas/os. In the works of Alberto O’Farrill, Eusebia Cosme, Rómulo Lachatañeré, and others, Afro-Cubanness articulates the African diasporic experience in ways that deprive negro and mulato configurations of an exclusive link with Cuban nationalism. Instead, what is invoked is an “unbecoming” relationship between Afro-Cubans in the U.S and their domestic black counterparts. The transformations in Cuban racial identity across the hemisphere, represented powerfully in the literary and performance cultures of Afro-Cubans in the U.S., provide the fullest account of a transnational Cuba, one in which the Cuban American emerges as Afro-Cuban-American, and the Latino as Afro-Latino.

More books from NYU Press

Cover of the book Losing Our Religion by Antonio Lopez
Cover of the book The Third Asiatic Invasion by Antonio Lopez
Cover of the book Transnational Torture by Antonio Lopez
Cover of the book The Big Onion Guide to New York City by Antonio Lopez
Cover of the book Legalizing Prostitution by Antonio Lopez
Cover of the book The Race Whisperer by Antonio Lopez
Cover of the book Let Them Eat Prozac by Antonio Lopez
Cover of the book Snitching by Antonio Lopez
Cover of the book My Future Is in America by Antonio Lopez
Cover of the book The Emergence of Mexican America by Antonio Lopez
Cover of the book The Descent of the Imagination by Antonio Lopez
Cover of the book Comic Book Crime by Antonio Lopez
Cover of the book The Law and Society Reader II by Antonio Lopez
Cover of the book Body Panic by Antonio Lopez
Cover of the book Dear Tiny Heart by Antonio Lopez
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy