A remarkable book chronicling an understudied period in Cuban history, “Nationalizing Blackness: Afrocubanismo and Artistic Revolution in Havana, 1920-1940”, by Robin D. Moore is an intriguing study of Cuban popular music in the twentieth century. Moore dissects and explains how the music which is often associated with Cuba was considered at one time riffraff and lewd because of its African influence, origins and associations compared to the more sophisticated music of Europeans. Between 1920 and 1940, the unique and vivid expressions of Afro Cuban culture elevated in popularity on a grand scale. While poetry and painting is of particular interest, it is the reverberating music of presocialist Cuba that is the focus of this narrative.
