Cuban Counterpoints

While Fernando Ortiz's contribution to our understanding of Cuba and Latin America more generally has been widely recognized since the 1940s, recently there has been renewed interest in this scholar and activist who made lasting contributions to a staggering array of fields. For the first time in English, this volume of essays demonstrates his impact on a staggering array of fields. Much of his most challenging and provocative thinking—which embraced simultaneity, conflict, inherent contradiction, and hybridity—has remarkable relevance for current debates about Latin America's complex and evolving societies.

While Fernando Ortiz's contribution to our understanding of Cuba and Latin America more generally has been widely recognized since the 1940s, recently there has been renewed interest in this scholar and activist who made lasting contributions to a staggering array of fields. This book is the first work in English to reassess Ortiz's vast intellectual universe. Essays in this volume analyze and celebrate his contribution to scholarship in Cuban history, the social sciences—notably anthropology—and law, religion and national identity, literature, and music. Presenting Ortiz's seminal thinking, including his profoundly influential concept of 'transculturation', Cuban Counterpoints explores the bold new perspectives that he brought to bear on Cuban society. Much of his most challenging and provocative thinking—which embraced simultaneity, conflict, inherent contradiction and hybridity—has remarkable relevance for current debates about Latin America's complex and evolving societies.

Chapter 1 Introduction
Chapter 2 Life and Education
Chapter 3 Fernando Ortiz, My Father
Chapter 4 Spanish Intellectuals and Fernando Ortiz (1900-1941)
Chapter 5 It All Started in Madrid
Chapter 6 Ethnography at the University of Havana
Chapter 7 Interpreting Cuban History
Chapter 8 Transculturation and Nationalism
Chapter 9 The Early Republic: Politics, Civic Culture, and Sovereignty
Chapter 10 The Political Ideas of Fernando Ortiz (1906-1933)
Chapter 11 Economic Historian and Editor of Cuban Classics
Chapter 12 Tobacco in the Contrapunteo: Ortiz and the Havana Cigar
Chapter 13 Social Sciences and the Law
Chapter 14 Economic Sociology and Ortiz's Counterpoint
Chapter 15 Transcultural Anthropology in the Américas (with an Accent): The Uses of Fernando Ortiz
Chapter 16 Poetry in the Presidio: Towards a Study of Proyecto de Código Criminal Cubano
Chapter 17 Racial Diversity, Religion, and National Identity
Chapter 18 The Term Afro-Cuban: A Forgotten Contribution
Chapter 19 Transculturation a la Ajiaco: A Recipe for Modernity
Chapter 20 Religion in the Work of Fernando Ortiz
Chapter 21 Literature and Music
Chapter 22 The Counterpoint and Literature
Chapter 23 Of How Fernando Ortiz Foudn and Elusive Maiden for an Enchanted Gentleman
Chapter 24 Comparative Analysis of Theoretical Symbols
Chapter 25 Stirring the Ajiaco: Changüí, Son, and the Haitian Connection
Chapter 26 Fernando Ortiz, Founder