María Vicenta Borges Bartutis, University of Havana, Teresa Victoria Burunate Sánchez, University of Medical Sciences of Havana, Cuba

Introduction

Anthropology has studied the emergence of man in its different stages, although it will always be a difficult task. In Cuba, Don Fernando Ortiz (1881-1969) presented interesting disquisitions in his work Cuban Counterpoint (1940), to explain how Cubanidad emerged thanks to transculturation and the influence of two main crops associated with Cuban history, tobacco and sugar:

(…) Cubanidad is the quality of what is Cuban, and … what is 'lo cubano'.

(…) Perhaps … lo cubano is what is proper to this country and its people (…)

There is a drawback (…) Cubanidad is a sense of belonging to the culture of Cuba. And what is the characteristic culture of Cuba. (…)

Let's better use a Cuban simile and we will understand each other better, sooner and with more details: Cuba is an ajiaco.

Development

In Cuba, just like the ajiaco, the essential ethnic components are formed by the indigenous, the Spanish and the African, among others; for example, the patterns of African mythology, especially those of Yoruba origin or lucumí, as we popularly call it, have served to interpret and determine political events of great consequence.

Oddúa represents life and death in Cuba; he is a dual divinity: he also symbolizes organized force, government, execution. His date is January 1st, the day our Revolution triumphed. These elements contributed to our people relating the dove of Oddúa that perched on the shoulder of leader Fidel Castro when he delivered his first speech before the people. Adherents said without hesitation that the leader of our Revolution was a son of Oddúa, he was the chosen one.

Furthermore, the word ashé related to many rituals spells and magical conjurations, appears among the cultural codes with which Cubans communicate in certain circumstances referring to the significance of the Afro-Cuban religion, even among those who do not practice or despise it.

This term, although it is generally not translated with exactness and precision, probably because it is a rather abstract concept that goes beyond what simple lexicon can express. However, the meaning that underlies it is, in a way, equivalent in different cultures: ashé in Yoruba santería, aché in Afro-Cuban santería, and ashe in Portuguese.

In any case, it means a granted gift of virtue, all that is good; in a way it is power, luck, energy, strength, like the nature that underlies all human existence and the possibility of materializing it in concrete reality, through the achievement of our desires.

From these definitions the expressions are considered to propose to CASCA a tour through every corner in Cuba because even the most distant has its ashé. We are a multicultural country to which nature granted tremendous Ashé.

This information should be analyzed at least in two senses. First, it reflects on the multiple cultural codes: language and ways of saying things, norms of coexistence and social behavior, customs, family and group interaction, as well as the system of beliefs, superstitions and magical-religious procedures, in general terms; behavior that may be conditioned by traditional stereotypes.

These codes guarantee the capacity to respond, with the necessary automatism, to the alternatives that arise in each situation because, according to the villaclareño Casanova, every human act, from a simple handshake or a greeting gesture to the collective enactment of the drama of a wedding or a funeral, are ceremonies that require a sequence of actions, a duration and a meaning with a socially established margin of possible variables.

And he specifies that the violation of any of these elements turns the act into nonsense, into an incomprehensible absurdity for everyone in the best of cases, and causes serious and worrying misunderstandings in others.

A fact that draws attention in the logical processes of transculturation is the way each town receives the visitor, thus the anthropologist experiences the changing conditions of society. The rich diversity that characterizes each region of the country could be organized into packages so that they travel three days through Cuba and meet in Santiago de Cuba to present and cross experiences with initiatives. For example:

In Havana

• A tour of Havana's geology with Roberto
• A visit to Jaimanitas, the Olympus of FUSTER
• The Cabildo “Quisicuaba” with Dr. Alemán
• The creole in Cuba
• The secrets of Regla and Guanabacoa

On the Isle of Youth

• The pictography of Punta del Este identified as the central motif of the cave

In Matanzas and Trinidad (archaeological museum)

• Spaces linked to the Slave Route

In Cienfuegos

• Beny, the standard-bearer of “Vida”

In Santa Clara

• Remedios (The parrandas and its central museum)

In Banes, the capital of archaeology in Cuba, it is among the most important archaeological sites that contribute to the enrichment of the cultural heritage of those interested in this theme

• The chorro of Maita
• The chorro of Guaro (a waterfall that some researchers link to indigenous culture; it has not yet been determined whether this is by empiricism or analogy)
• The Indocuban museum of the city

Conclusions

The act of visiting other places would unify the interpretation of the content of the message of 'lo cubano'; that is, it proposes subjecting it to practical applications; that new mentality in equity, which will give way not only to novel contributions from men and women in relation to integration in an absolute and equal way, but will also open the path for the progress of the unity of a theme, 'lo cubano'.

This is an issue that has been discussed for quite some time, which is why these authors list the expectations that, in their view, would shape for the members of CASCA a more specific idea of 'lo cubano' and offer themselves as coordinators to help them shape and implement the idea.