Controversy on the Mixing of African and Cuban Culture Essay

The personal narratives, â€Å"Afrocubanismo and Son† by Robin Moore, â€Å"Dance and Social Change, â€Å"Rumba† by Yvonne Daniel, and â€Å"Buena Vista Social Club† by Dir. Wim Wenders offer an extensive look at the Afro-Cuban music and dance. Moore writes his article based on the Son. Son is a mixture of African and Spanish influence. Daniel in both of her articles talks about rumba, which is a dance and music genre that originated in Cuba in the mid 1800s. She talks about the different kinds of rumba, which are the Yambu, the Guaguaco, and the vacunao. Wenders is providing us with an image of how Cuban musicians play their music, providing us with some the most popular songs from Cuba. Thousands of African slaves were brought to Cuba, and although treated like animals, their music has had a major influence on Cuban that any other type of music from other countries, creating a bond between both cultures. I found all three articles very informative. Moore, Daniel, and Wenders exposed a number of new information into my mind, and maybe into any other individual that didn’t had much knowledge about Cuban music and dance. As an example, I hadn’t thought about the fact that after much discrimination against Africans, they were going to end up mixing their music and dance with African music and dance. I really like the fact that Cubans ended up accepting part of Africans Culture. Although, we see that the government in many occasion prohibited the people to play the Son and many other influences from African Culture, it was not enough from them to stop the people from mixing both cultures. We also see in â€Å"Buena Vista Social Club† a man who brings together a group of mostly aging and forgotten artists. I don’t like the fact that political events and social issues have played a role in the segregation of these artists. I don’t believe that those people should have been discriminated in such way just because they were mixing both cultures. As the slaves were able to buy their freedom an increased interaction and ethnic mixing among Cubans and Africans was the result. As I was reading that both cultures began to combine, it came to my mind that African people really have a nice heart because by uniting with Cubans they are demonstrating that they had forgiven all the suffering they went through. An example of they unity is the son, and the different kinds of rumba mentioned by Daniel and Moore. We see that the people that were coming together were mostly from working class Cubans and Africans. I find it shameful that most rich people weren’t accepting African culture, and to make it worse ended up making people like those musicians that we see in Buena Vista to be forgotten. In reading Daniel’s articles, I was able to see how people enjoy dancing rumba and many other kinds of dances. And how people especially among the working class uses dancing and music as a way to blow off steam and have fun. Now, I can see why African were always dancing and singing, because that way they could forget about the pain and suffering that they were going through. I didn’t like the fact that the government was calling most of the dancing and music from Africa â€Å"immortal†. I don’t believe that it was appropriated to call their dancing that way. In conclusion, although there was a lot of controversy on the mixing of both cultures, it wasn’t enough to stop the people from mixing it. It was like a destiny meant by God to mix those cultures, to create not just Afro-Cuban culture, but Cuban Culture.