Cabrera, Lydia (1899-1991)

Lydia Cabrera (1899-1991) is now recognized as a unique figure among the founders of Afro-Cuban studies. From her first literary essays on the oral literature of the descendants of slaves in Cuba, she created a vast anthropological work devoted to the religious and spiritual world of Afro-Cubans. A white woman belonging to a bourgeois milieu and lacking a background in anthropology, she established real and profound dialogue with her informants and collaborators. Her books form the basis of humanistic knowledge, inseparable from the experiences of Afro-descendants in Cuba and the Caribbean in general.

Keywords: Folklore | Cuba | African-American studies | African-American religions | Oral literature | Religion | Belief | Rituals | Folk tales