Vodú: Haitian Religion and the Folkloric Imaginary in Socialist Cuba

G Viddal - New West Indian Guide/Nieuwe West-Indische Gids, 2012/
Conclusion
Haitian laborers and their descendants were once viewed in Cuba as dispossessed
and disadvantaged migrant workers holding firm to old-fashioned traditions
carried from their homeland, with conditions of privation and segregation
facilitating the preservation of time-honored customs. While preservation of
lifeways and customs has been attributed to isolation and poverty, the academy,
political actors, commerce, and tourism can influence the maintenance of
traditions. In the decades after the Cuban Revolution, the socialist government
opened a vehicle for the re-imagining of spiritual traditions through public
performance in the burgeoning arena of folklore. Professional performers such
as Toni Pérez and research institutions such as the Casa del Caribe invited
members of Haitian communities to share their music, dance, and traditions,
and to form folklore troupes. As the Special Period opened venues for contact
with the world outside Cuba, culture ministries, academic institutions, festival
producers, and conference programmers became active culture brokers, distributing
resources such as access to audiences and travel opportunities.
Haitiano-cubanos became increasingly active agents in the dissemination
of their culture to a larger public. Haitian culture in Cuba is braided
into the economy of folklore. Festivals and performance have become
important motivators in the preservation and renovation of Haitian spiritual
practices, music, dance, and language. The creation of folkloric dance and
music groups motivates new generations to learn customs associated with
their Haitian identity. People of Haitian descent in Cuba have found innovative
ways to work against the discrimination and marginalization they face.
In a country where national identity balances between socialist values and
endorsing the country’s rich legacy of African-inspired performance arts and
spiritual systems, Vodú has begun to take its place as a recognized element
in Cuba’s national identity and perhaps even in some circles, as the latest
frontier of the eco-artistic avant-garde.
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