The Caribbean, a birthplace of many cultures stemming through their colonial roots and also through creolization on different islands. A time before this sense of “cultural unity” there were forms of resistance against their colonial ancestors/masters. Resistance in the history of the Caribbean, is a history told orally through generations of either the African enslaved or the indentured. The purpose of this essay will explain how dance in the Caribbean has been used as a tool of resistance through evolution from colonialism to the modern day society, by specifically looking at the dance history of Cuba. To compare the dance history in Cuba, this essay will also compare Cuba with some other dance cultures in different parts of the Caribbean. This essay will look at dance being used as a tool of communication, of liberation and freedoms and finally as a cultural spread all over the world, resulting in using dance as a solid form of resistance in Cuba.
The idea of dance being used as a form of communication is …show more content…
He says, “The plantation repeats itself endlessly in the different states of creolization that come out here and there in language and music. Dance and literature, food and theater. These elements are summed up in the Carnival,” (Benitez-Rojo, 1998). Which means that the mixing of cultures between the plantation and the owners on the fields were what caused creolization of different cultures, and the development of the Afro Cuban to Cuban culture in general. Benitez-Rojo also goes on to mention that the product of the music and dance; son, rumba and other styles were only sounds you would hear in the African communities living in Cuba, but when Cuba got the radio in the early 1920’s, They went on to popularize these sounds and the White Cubans made it apart of the culture today (Benitez-Rojo,
The idea of dance being used as a form of communication is …show more content…
He says, “The plantation repeats itself endlessly in the different states of creolization that come out here and there in language and music. Dance and literature, food and theater. These elements are summed up in the Carnival,” (Benitez-Rojo, 1998). Which means that the mixing of cultures between the plantation and the owners on the fields were what caused creolization of different cultures, and the development of the Afro Cuban to Cuban culture in general. Benitez-Rojo also goes on to mention that the product of the music and dance; son, rumba and other styles were only sounds you would hear in the African communities living in Cuba, but when Cuba got the radio in the early 1920’s, They went on to popularize these sounds and the White Cubans made it apart of the culture today (Benitez-Rojo,