Creolizing Contradance in the Caribbean - Temple University
Creolizing Contradance in the Caribbean - Temple University
Creolizing Contradance in the Caribbean - Temple University
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44 Peter Manuel<br />
dently this waltz-<strong>in</strong>spired development (which negrophobes could not blame on<br />
black culture) that provoked <strong>the</strong> 1849 Puerto Rican ban on <strong>the</strong> merengue and<br />
<strong>the</strong> vitriolic denunciations by Dom<strong>in</strong>ican essayists a few years later.<br />
While <strong>the</strong> <strong>in</strong>corporation of creole elements proved controversial, it enabled<br />
<strong>the</strong> contradanza <strong>in</strong> <strong>the</strong> Spanish <strong>Caribbean</strong> to become a celebrated emblem of<br />
local creole culture. The self-consciously creole character was particularly obvious<br />
<strong>in</strong> <strong>the</strong> colorful titles composers gave <strong>the</strong>ir contradanzas. Just as English<br />
country dances bore whimsical names, such as “Beggar Boy” and “Cuckolds All<br />
a Row,” so did Cuban and Puerto Rican composers give <strong>the</strong>ir works titles <strong>in</strong>vok<strong>in</strong>g<br />
vernacular local speech and culture, such as “Ay, yo quiero comer mondongo”<br />
(“Oh, I Want to Eat Mondongo [a local stew]”), “Man d<strong>in</strong>ga no va” (“Don’t<br />
Go, Mand<strong>in</strong>go Lady”), and “Yo soy isleño y vendo maní” (“I’m an Islander and<br />
I Sell Peanuts”). By <strong>the</strong> early 1840s, Cuban contradanzas were be<strong>in</strong>g explicitly<br />
promoted as express<strong>in</strong>g <strong>the</strong> charm of creole culture. Such pride <strong>in</strong> local culture<br />
was not synonymous with political nationalism, just as a modern Puerto Rican<br />
lover of local music might well support cont<strong>in</strong>uation of <strong>the</strong> island’s colonial status.<br />
Meanwhile, titles of some n<strong>in</strong>eteenth-century Cuban contradanzas were<br />
explicitly loyalist or even celebrated annexation by <strong>the</strong> United States. However,<br />
creole cultural nationalism served, at <strong>the</strong> least, as a precursor to and precondition<br />
of political nationalism, and <strong>the</strong> two sentiments certa<strong>in</strong>ly overlapped.<br />
Hence, despite <strong>the</strong> fear of ferocious Spanish persecution, by <strong>the</strong> 1890s <strong>the</strong><br />
Cuban danza had become implicitly or explicitly allied with <strong>the</strong> <strong>in</strong>dependence<br />
movement (Galán 1983: 172). Similarly, as Ángel Qu<strong>in</strong>tero-Rivera (2002) has<br />
described, <strong>in</strong> <strong>the</strong> latter 1800s <strong>the</strong> Puerto Rican danza became at least <strong>in</strong>directly<br />
associated with pro<strong>in</strong>dependence sentiment, especially <strong>in</strong> <strong>the</strong> sou<strong>the</strong>rn<br />
city of Ponce, with its nationalistic hacienda-own<strong>in</strong>g protobourgeoisie that cultivated<br />
<strong>the</strong> support of work<strong>in</strong>g classes and petty-bourgeois merchants and artisans.<br />
While <strong>the</strong> music scene <strong>in</strong> <strong>the</strong> capital, San Juan, rema<strong>in</strong>ed dom<strong>in</strong>ated by<br />
<strong>the</strong> military and <strong>the</strong> Church, a more varied and lively creole cultural ambience<br />
pervaded Ponce, a center for <strong>the</strong> agricultural export that was perpetually<br />
frustrated by imperial regulations. A vocal danza, “La bor<strong>in</strong>queña,” became<br />
<strong>the</strong> island’s an<strong>the</strong>m, whe<strong>the</strong>r with <strong>the</strong> official bucolic lyrics by Don Manuel<br />
Fernández Juncos or <strong>the</strong> militant ones penned by poet Lola Rodríguez de Tió<br />
<strong>in</strong> 1868. Even choreography came to acquire political overtones, as <strong>the</strong> collective<br />
Spanish-style contradanza, with its dictatorial bastonero, came to be associated<br />
by some people with despised Spanish rule, especially after Governor<br />
Pezuela attempted to ban its rival, <strong>the</strong> danza/merengue. The contentions surround<strong>in</strong>g<br />
dance styles were rem<strong>in</strong>iscent of those <strong>in</strong> early-n<strong>in</strong>eteenth-century<br />
Cuba, where <strong>the</strong> French-style contredanse was ei<strong>the</strong>r despised or embraced,<br />
depend<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong> part on one’s attitudes toward Spanish rule.<br />
In n<strong>in</strong>eteenth-century Cuba and Puerto Rico, nationalist sentiment was<br />
naturally directed aga<strong>in</strong>st Spa<strong>in</strong>, with its backward culture and economy and<br />
its despotic, corrupt, and exploitative governance. In <strong>the</strong> Dom<strong>in</strong>ican Republic<br />
dur<strong>in</strong>g <strong>the</strong> same period, <strong>the</strong> antagonist was Haiti, which rema<strong>in</strong>ed a mili-