Divine Utterances: The Performance of Afro-Cuban Santeria [With CD] (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781560989479)

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.

Author: Katherine J. Hagedorn
ISBN-10: 1560989475
ISBN-13: 9781560989479
Publisher: Smithsonian Books
Language: English
Published: 08/17/2001
Pages: 312
Format: Paperback
Weight: 0.94lbs
Size: 8.88h x 6.16w x 0.72d

Review Citation(s):
Reference and Research Bk News 02/01/2002 pg. 183