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Divine Utterances: The Performance of Afro-Cuban Santeria

Divine Utterances: The Performance of Afro-Cuban Santeria

Current price: $34.95
Publication Date: August 17th, 2001
Publisher:
Smithsonian Books
ISBN:
9781560989479
Pages:
312

Description

This compelling and personal exploration of Afro-Cuban Santería comes with a CD featuring 20 mesmerizing songs from prominent Afro-Cuban musicians that embody the book's themes

In Divine Utterances, Katherine J. Hagedorn explores the enduring cultural and spiritual power of the music of Afro-Cuban Santería and the process by which it has been transformed for a secular audience. She focuses on the integral connections between sacred music performances and the dramatizations of theatrical troupes, especially the state-sponsored Conjunto Folklórico Nacional de Cuba, and examines the complex relationships involving race, politics, and religion in Cuba. The music that Hagedorn describes is rooted in Afro-Cuban religious tradition and today pervades a secular performances that can produce a trance in audience members in the same way as a traditional religious ceremony.

Hagedorn's analysis is deeply informed by her experiences in Cuba as a woman, scholar, and apprentice batá drummer. She argues that constructions of race and gender, the politics of pre- and post-Revolutionary Cuba, the economics of tourism, and contemporary practices within Santería have contributed to a blurring of boundaries betwen the sacred and the folkloric. As both modes now vie for primacy in Cuba's burgeoning tourist trade, what had once been the music of a marginalized group is now a cultural expression of national pride.

The compact disc that accompanies the book includes examples of twenty songs to the orichas, or Afro-Cuban deities, performed by prominent musicians, including Lázaro Ros, Francisco Aguabella, Alberto Villarreal, and Zenaida Armenteros.

About the Author

Katherine J. Hagedorn is associate professor of music at Pomona College.

Praise for Divine Utterances: The Performance of Afro-Cuban Santeria

“A highly original work . . . that will stand out as the most thorough exploration of Santería music performance, both religious and theatrical.”—Raul Fernández, University of California, Irvine