Fernando Ortiz: del positivismo a la transculturación

Abstract

This essay is intended to be part of the discussion on the construction of
national identities in the Caribbean and the ever-present controversy of the racial question
in the national projects of the region. In the case of the Cuban intellectual Fernando Ortiz,
we can see the transformation in his discourse regarding the contributions of Afrodescendant culture in the island of Cuba. At first Ortiz, influenced by the ideas of the
Lombrosian positivism binds the black population to what he calls the "low life" or to crime,
ignorance and immorality, alluding to the necessity of sanitizing this population through
the removal of any African cultural trait in order to integrate them into the Cuban national
project. However, some two decades later, after his experience in the political arena, Ortiz
dramatically changes position to appreciate and value the cultural contributions of Cuban
blacks to the national culture.