Associate Professor of Hispanic Studies Edna Rodriguez-Plate recently presented a paper titled “Afro-Cuban Mythologies: Deities, Race, and Politics” at the international conference on Religious Conflicts and Coexistence. The meeting took place at Chonbuk National University in Jeonju, South Korea.
In her paper, Rodriguez-Plate explored how Cuban film and literature has reoriented Afro-Cuban religious and aesthetic practices in order to construct a national identity based on West African roots and traditions.
This included attention to contemporary films of Gloria Rolando and Eliezer Pérez Angueira. Rodriguez-Plate said that in these cultural productions it becomes clear how culture and religion are intertwined at the base of national constructions of history. This happens even within the parameters of Marxism, and more precisely after the social revolution of 1959, she noted.
