A re-visionist Her-story of De cierta manera ([1974] 1977): Reading Yoruba myth in Sara Gómez’s revolutionary classic1 | Intellect Skip to content
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Volume 18, Issue 2
  • ISSN: 2050-4837
  • E-ISSN: 2050-4845

Abstract

Recent scholarship on Sara Gómez has expanded upon existing discourse on her work beyond her singular feature film, / ([1974] 1977) to examine not only her earlier documentary shorts of the 1960s, but to demonstrate the impact that her body of work has had on a subsequent generation of Cuban filmmakers who continue her mission to critique the Revolution through an antiracist and feminist lens – contemporary filmmakers such as Gloria Rolando, Sandra Gómez and Susana Barriga. This article seeks to push this conversation forward by arguing several interrelated points: (1) that contains symbolic, visually embedded references to a specific (myth) about the Afro-Cuban Ogun and Ochún; (2) that holds this in common with Gloria Rolando’s (1991), which tells the in a more explicit manner, and therefore the two films warrant comparison and (3) lastly, that this interpretation of offers a novel take on a ‘classic’ Cuban revolutionary film, offering additional interpretive layers that do not the message of the film, per se, but complicate it by adding an additional filter through which to view and interpret it: that of Yoruba moral philosophy. The Afro-Cuban word in Cuban liturgical speech refers to a parable with a moral lesson, and is derived from the word , which means ‘[something] important’ in the language of West Africa. This article will attempt to answer how and why this particular myth is ‘important’ () to the reading of and argue for a broader re-centring and privileging of African-derived philosophical frameworks within Cuban intellectual history and popular culture.

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2021-06-01
2024-04-27
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A re-visionist Her-story of De cierta manera ([1974] 1977): Reading Yoruba myth in Sara Gómez’s revolutionary classic1
Studies in Spanish & Latin American Cinemas 18, 195 (2021); https://doi.org/10.1386/slac_00046_1
/content/journals/10.1386/slac_00046_1
/content/journals/10.1386/slac_00046_1
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  • Article Type: Article
Keyword(s): Afro-Cuban; Cuba; culture; Ochun; Ogun; orisha; Revolution; Yoruba

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