Alejandro de la Fuente

Last updated

Alejandro de la Fuente is an academic and art curator. He is the Robert Woods Bliss Professor of Latin American History and Economics, Professor of African and African American Studies and of History at Harvard University. He is also Director of Afro-Latin American Research Institute at the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research at Harvard. [1] His research focuses on specializes in the study of comparative study of slavery and race relations. [1]

Contents

De la Fuente has curated several exhibits on race, serving as the author or editor of the corresponding publication: Queloides: Race and Racism in Cuban Contemporary Art (shown in 2010 to 2012 in Havana, Pittsburgh, New York City and Cambridge, Massachusetts); Drapetomania: Grupo Antillano and the Art of Afro-Cuba (2013 to 2016 in Santiago de Cuba-Havana-New York City, Cambridge, Massachusetts, San Francisco, Philadelphia, and Chicago) [2] and Diago: The Pasts of this Afro-Cuban Present (Cambridge, Massachusetts and Miami, ongoing). [3] [1]

Works

Books

Exhibit catalogues

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Afro-Cubans</span> Ethnic minority in Cuba

Afro-Cubans or Black Cubans are Cubans of sub-Saharan African ancestry. The term Afro-Cuban can also refer to historical or cultural elements in Cuba thought to emanate from this community and the combining of native African and other cultural elements found in Cuban society such as race, religion, music, language, the arts and class culture.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cuban art</span>

Cuban art is an exceptionally diverse cultural blend of African, South American, European, and North American elements, reflecting the diverse demographic makeup of the island. Cuban artists embraced European modernism, and the early part of the 20th century saw a growth in Cuban avant-garde movements, which were characterized by the mixing of modern artistic genres. Some of the more celebrated 20th-century Cuban artists include Amelia Peláez (1896–1968), best known for a series of mural projects, and painter Wifredo Lam, who created a highly personal version of modern primitivism. The Cuban-born painter Federico Beltran Masses (1885–1949), was renowned as a colorist whose seductive portrayals of women sometimes made overt references to the tropical settings of his childhood.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Juan Boza Sánchez</span>

Juan Boza Sánchez or Juan Stopper Sanchez was a gay Afro-Cuban-American artist specializing at painting, drawing, engraving, installation and graphic design.

Manuel Couceiro Prado was a Cuban painter and was a member of the Grupo Antillano.

Esteban Guillermo Ayala Ferrer was a Cuban painter and a member of the Grupo Antillano.

Grupo Antillano was a Cuban artistic group was formed by 16 artists, between 1975 and 1985, in Havana, Cuba.

Roberto Juan Diago y Querol was a Cuban artist specializing in photography, engraving, painting and drawing.

José Toirac is a Cuban artist specializing in painting, drawing, and installation.

Academia Nacional de Bellas Artes San Alejandro, is the oldest and most prestigious fine arts school in Cuba. It is also known as Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes "San Alejandro", Academia San Alejandro, or San Alejandro Academy. The school is located in Marianao, a suburb of Havana, and was founded in 1818 at the Convent of San Alejandro.

The Partido Independiente de Color (PIC) was a Cuban political party composed almost entirely of African former slaves. It was founded in 1908 by African veterans of the Cuban War of Independence. In 1912, the PIC led a revolt in the eastern province of Oriente. The revolt was crushed and the party disbanded. It is believed Esteban Montejo, subject of Miguel Barnets "Biografía de un cimarrón," was a member of this party, or had close associates who were.

Racism in Cuba refers to racial discrimination in Cuba. In Cuba, dark skinned Afro-Cubans are the only group on the island referred to as black while lighter skinned, mixed race, Afro-Cuban mulattos are often not characterized as fully black or fully white. Race conceptions in Cuba are unique because of its long history of racial mixing and appeals to a "raceless" society. The Cuban census reports that 65% of the population is white while foreign figures report an estimate of the number of whites at anywhere from 40 to 45 percent. This is likely due to the self-identifying mulattos who are sometimes designated officially as white. A common myth in Cuba is that every Cuban has at least some African ancestry, influenced by historical mestizaje nationalism. Given the high number of immigrants from Europe in the 20th century, this is far from true. Several pivotal events have impacted race relations on the island. Using the historic race-blind nationalism first established around the time of independence, Cuba has navigated the abolition of slavery, the suppression of black clubs and political parties, the revolution and its aftermath, and the special period.

Juan Roberto Diago Durruthy"Diago" is a Cuban contemporary artist who graduated at the Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes "San Alejandro," Havana. Grandson of artist Roberto Juan Diago Querol, his grandmother was a First Violinist in the Havana Symphony Orchestra. Born in an intellectual background, he nevertheless lived his childhood in a poor neighborhood, el barrio Pogolotti.

René de Jesus Peña Gonzalez is a Cuban artist specializing in photography, and exposed his pictures in different exhibitions in Cuba (Havana), Spain and in the US.

<i>Blanqueamiento</i> "Whitening" of a race, such as marrying a white person so as to have lighter-skinned children

Blanqueamiento in Spanish, or branqueamento in Portuguese, is a social, political, and economic practice used in many post-colonial countries in the Americas and Oceania to "improve the race" towards a supposed ideal of whiteness. The term blanqueamiento is rooted in Latin America and is used more or less synonymously with racial whitening. However, blanqueamiento can be considered in both the symbolic and biological sense. Symbolically, blanqueamiento represents an ideology that emerged from legacies of European colonialism, described by Anibal Quijano's theory of coloniality of power, which caters to white dominance in social hierarchies. Biologically, blanqueamiento is the process of whitening by marrying a lighter-skinned individual to produce lighter-skinned offspring.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Republic of Cuba (1902–1959)</span> Historical period in Cuba from 1902 to 1959

The Republic of Cuba, covering the historical period in Cuban history between 1902 and 1959, was an island country comprised the island of Cuba, as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. It was located where the northern Caribbean Sea, Gulf of Mexico, and Atlantic Ocean meet. The period began in 1902 following the end of its first U.S. military occupation years after Cuba declared independence in 1898 from the Spanish Empire. This era included various changing governments and US military occupations, and ended with the outbreak of the Cuban Revolution in 1959. During this period, the United States exerted great influence on Cuban politics, notably through the Platt Amendment. The post-1959 communist government refers to this era as the Neocolonial Republic while many Cuban exiles refer to this period as Free Cuba as opposed to the unfree socialist state.

Queloides is an ongoing cultural and curatorial project in Cuban art that seeks to highlight the persistence of racist stereotypes and ideas of racial difference in Cuban society and culture. Initiated in 1997 by artist Alexis Esquivel and by art critic Omar Pascual Castillo, who organized the exhibit Queloides I Parte, the project was later led by the late art critic Ariel Ribeaux Diago, who organized two important additional exhibits: Ni músicos ni deportistas, for which he wrote an award-winning essay, and Queloides (1999). Queloides or keloids are raised scars that, as many in Cuba believe, appear most frequently on the black skin. The title makes reference to the scars of racism, on the one hand, and to persistent popular beliefs that there are "natural" differences between whites and blacks.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Slavery in Cuba</span> Portion of the Atlantic Slave Trade

Slavery in Cuba was a portion of the larger Atlantic Slave Trade that primarily supported Spanish plantation owners engaged in the sugarcane trade. It was practised on the island of Cuba from the 16th century until it was abolished by Spanish royal decree on October 7, 1886.

Leandro Soto was a Cuban-American multidisciplinary visual/installation and performance artist. He was also a set and costume designer for theater and film. Soto studied at Escuela Nacional de Arte National Art Schools (Cuba) and Instituto Superior de Arte, University of Havana. As an educator he taught and lectured at various Higher Education institutions in the U.S. and abroad. Soto also founded a creative workshop, El Tesoro de Tamulte, in Tabasco, Mexico, from which professional artists emerged.

Ada Ferrer is a Cuban-American historian. She is Julius Silver Professor of History and Latin American Studies at New York University. She was awarded the 2022 Pulitzer Prize in History for her book Cuba: An American History.

Ariela Julie Gross is an American historian. She is the John B. and Alice R. Sharp Professor of Law and History at the University of Southern California Gould School of Law (USC).

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Alejandro de la Fuente". aaas.fas.harvard.edu. Harvard University. Retrieved 4 April 2017.
  2. Bronfman, Alejandra (2014-05-01). "Grupo Antillano: The Art of Afro-Cuba". Hispanic American Historical Review. 94 (2): 337–338. doi:10.1215/00182168-2641478. ISSN   0018-2168.
  3. Moreno, Gean (2020). "Juan Roberto Diago". Art in America. 108 (1): 83. ISSN   0004-3214 . Retrieved 22 December 2020.
  4. Helg, Aline (2002-05-01). "A Nation for All: Race, Inequality, and Politics in Twentieth-Century Cuba (review)". Hispanic American Historical Review. 82 (2): 386–388. doi:10.1215/00182168-82-2-386. ISSN   1527-1900. S2CID   145452158.
  5. Ferrer, Ada (2002-12-01). "Alejandro De La Fuente. A Nation for All: Race, Inequality, and Politics in Twentieth-Century Cuba. (Envisioning Cuba.) Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. 2001. Pp. xiv, 449. Cloth $55.00, paper $19.95". The American Historical Review. 107 (5). doi:10.1086/ahr/107.5.1605. ISSN   0002-8762.
  6. Geserick, Marco Cabrera (2012-09-07). "Havana and the Atlantic in the Sixteenth Century (review)". Cuban Studies. 42 (1): 239–242. doi:10.1353/cub.2011.0000. ISSN   1548-2464.
  7. Salvucci, Linda K. (2010-01-08). "Havana and the Atlantic in the Sixteenth Century (review)". The Americas. 66 (3): 428–429. doi: 10.1353/tam.0.0211 . ISSN   1533-6247.
  8. Jean, Martine (Winter 2009). "Book Review: Havana and the Atlantic in the Sixteenth-Century by Alejandro de la Fuente". Canadian Journal of History: 578–580. doi:10.3138/cjh.44.3.578.