Dancing and Being: Timba Music, Contested Spaces, and the Performance of Identity in Cuba.

It makes sense to study Cuban culture through music because in Cuba music is everywhere, as elemental as water and air. The Cuban musical form called timba is interesting to examine because of the moment of its birth, development and boom, a time of transformation and social crisis in which the Cuban phrase “seguimos en combate” (we are still at war) is particularly poignant, as well as because of the complex system of social relations that exists around the music. Along with the typical characteristics of Cuban son, timba has combined new sounds, instruments, new sections in the classic son format of introduction-body-montuno and, perhaps most significantly, has assumed a different attitude in conceiving and performing popular dance music. I contend that timba was born as a maroon music in the face of challenges posed by a radically changing Cuban society in crisis throughout the decade of the 1990s, in which it has been necessary for certain Cubans¬¬blacks and mulatos especially––to reaffirm their identity, presence, and importance in their own terms inside the culture and social structure of Cuba. The aggressive sounds, marginal themes, vulgar, coded lyrics and the at times eccentric or “ghetto” self representations are but affirmations of identity that intend not to destroy Cuban society but rather to find a just position within it, as has been the case for blacks and mulatos in Cuba since colonial times. Dancing and being––creating, dancing timba music as well as performing the self according to specific strategies in various spaces––Afrocubans extend an historical identity into the future which is in dialogue and tension with wider Cuban society.Ph.D.AnthropologyUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/60884/1/umiv_1.pd

Rebel Dance, Renegade Stance: Timba Music and Black Identity in Cuba

Rebel Dance, Renegade Stance shows how community music-makers and dancers take in all that is around them socially and globally, and publicly and bodily unfold their memories, sentiments, and raw responses within open spaces designated or commandeered for local popular dance. As an African American anthropologist, musician, dancer, and photographer who lived in Cuba, Vaughan reveals a unique perspective on contemporary Cuban society during the 1990s, the peak decade of timba, and beyond, as the Cuban leadership transferred from Fidel Castro to his brother. Simultaneously, the book reveals popular dance music in the context of a young and astutely educated Cuban generation of fierce and creative performers. By looking at the experiences of black Cubans and exploring the notion of “Afro Cuba,” Rebel Dance, Renegade Stance explains timba\u27s evolution and achieved significance in the larger context of Cuban culture. Vaughan discusses a maroon aesthetic extended beyond the colonial era to the context of contemporary society; describes the dance spaces of Cuba; and examines the performance of identity and desire through the character of the “especulador.”https://digitalcommons.csumb.edu/fac_books/1013/thumbnail.jp

Carlos Aldama\u27s Life in Batá: Cuba, Diaspora, and the Drum

Batá identifies both the two-headed, hourglass-shaped drum of the Yoruba people and the culture and style of drumming, singing, and dancing associated with it. This book recounts the life story of Carlos Aldama, one of the masters of the batá drum, and through that story traces the history of batá culture as it traveled from Africa to Cuba and then to the United States. For the enslaved Yoruba, batá rhythms helped sustain the religious and cultural practices of a people that had been torn from its roots. Aldama, as guardian of Afro-Cuban music and as a Santería priest, maintains the link with this tradition forged through his mentor Jesus Pérez (Oba Ilu), who was himself the connection to the preserved oral heritage of the older generation. By sharing his stories, Aldama and his student Umi Vaughan bring to light the techniques and principles of batá in all its aspects and document the tensions of maintaining a tradition between generations and worlds, old and new. The book includes rare photographs and access to downloadable audio tracks.https://digitalcommons.csumb.edu/fac_books/1014/thumbnail.jp