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University of Southern California Dissertations and Theses
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Empires of the habanera: Cuba in the cultural imaginary of Catalonia
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Empires of the habanera: Cuba in the cultural imaginary of Catalonia
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EMPIRES OF THE HABANERA: CUBA IN THE CULTURAL IMAGINARY OF CATALONIA by Galina Bakhtiarova A Dissertation Presented to the FACULTY OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements of the Degree DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY (SPANISH) August 2002 Copyright 2002 Galina Bakhtiarova R eproduced with perm ission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without perm ission. UMI Number: 3094303 UMI UMI Microform 3094303 Copyright 2003 by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights reserved. This microform edition is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. ProQuest Information and Learning Company 300 North Zeeb Road P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 R eproduced with perm ission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without perm ission. UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA The Graduate School University Park LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA 900894695 This dissertation, w ritten b y Galina Bakhtiarova Under th e direction o f h.fl... D issertation Com m ittee, an d approved b y a ll its m em bers, has been p resen ted to and accepted b y The Graduate School, in p a rtia l fulfillm ent o f requirem ents fo r th e degree o f DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY ..A u g u st— 6 .^ . 2.Q02. DISSER TA TION COMMITTEE Chairperson R eproduced with perm ission o f the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without perm ission. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This dissertation is made possible in part through generous grants from Amo Foundation and the Program for Cultural Cooperation Between Spain’s Ministry of Education and Culture and United States Universities. R eproduced with perm ission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without perm ission. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgements i List of Figures iii Abstract iv Introduction: 1 Chapter I : Catalonia and Cuba: Approaches to a Historical Discourse 30 Chapter II: Transculturations of the Habanera I: Transatlantic Journeys 67 Chapter III: Transculturations of the Habanera II: Inventions of Catalonia 145 Chapter IV: The Habanera in Catalan Film: Desires of an Empire 220 Chapter V: The Habanera in Catalan Fiction: An Empire’s Residues 253 Conclusion 287 Bibliography 292 R eproduced with perm ission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without perm ission. LIST OF FIGURES Fig. 1. Gran Casino de Barcelona. Advertisement. 2 Fig. 2. Book cover of Album de habaneras. 135 Fig. 3. Josep Maria Prim, La cana dulce. 171 Fig. 4. Josep Puig, Alla en La Habana. 176 Fig. 5. The giants El Pigat and La Lucia, Vilassar de Mar. 179 R eproduced with perm ission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without perm ission. iv ABSTRACT EMPIRES OF THE HABANERA: CUBA IN THE CULTURAL IMAGINARY OF CATALONIA Drawing on the central position that popular songs occupy in the cultural make-up of nations as imagined communities, this dissertation explores the habanera as an ambivalent cultural sign. Originated as a dance in the early nineteenth century and later transformed into a genre of popular songs, the habanera is bom in the process of transculturation that underlies the formation of Cuban culture and nationhood. Virtually forgotten in Cuba, this genre “returns” to Spain and survives in various regions with traditionally strong links to the old overseas empire. Once seen as a manifestation of tropical exoticism, the habanera, at the turn of the last century, is perceived by many as a trademark of “Spanishness,” as European composers exploit it as a “Spanish” theme in their works. In Catalonia, at the time of the renewed assertion of Catalan nationhood during the last years of the Franco dictatorship and the transition to democracy, the habanera becomes a new emblem of cultural self-fashioning comparable to the sardana, Catalonia’s traditional dance. Originally sung in Spanish, the habanera starts to develop in Catalan and adopts new subjects apart from the nostalgia for the lost tropical paradise associated with Cuba. In the 1990s, film productions, such as Antoni Verdaguer’s Havanera 1820, and popular fiction— Angeles Dalmau’s Habanera and Manel Alonso i Catala’s R eproduced with perm ission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without perm ission. V En el mar de les Antilles— underscore the habanera as a viable sign of Catalan identity. The phenomenon of Catalan habanera, with its evolution from imperial desire and nostalgia into national self-assertion through new songs created in the vernacular language suggests that the convergence of cultures— a process far from being simple- -entails constant metamorphoses of cultural signs, indeed, transculturations. But these do not stop with the formation of new nations and cultures, such as Cuba. They continue into the postmodern world by traveling back to the old imperial centers and having a boomerang effect on the ever shifting nature of cultural imaginaries. R eproduced with perm ission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without perm ission. 1 Introduction A reader who opened the Barcelona newspaper La Vanguardia during the summer weekends of the year 2000 could easily spot the following advertisement, in oversized font, occupying an entire page (see fig. 1): “El teu avi va anar a Cuba.” Tu puedes ir mucho mas cerca. Porque organizamos las noches marineras. Todos los viemes y sabados, una cena bufet de pescado y marisco, cantada de habaneras y para acabar la fiesta, el tradicional Cremat. En el gran casino de Barcelona disfrutar del mar es mucho mas facil, no hace falta que vayas a Cuba. (La Vanguardia 4 Aug. 2000, 12) One might ask to what meanings, exactly, does this hybridized bilingual sign point. Why would the advertisers of the “seaman’s nights” at the Barcelona Gran Casino evoke the memory of “grandfathers who went to Cuba” to appeal to the public, mixing the two languages spoken in Barcelona in a Spanish language newspaper? What has the singing of habaneras to do with the seaman’s nights and with Cuba, and what is traditional “cremat?” If one addresses these questions to the natives of Catalonia, the answers will inevitably and willingly mention grandfathers, great uncles, or at least some other family members who, in a not far away past, departed to Cuba in search for a better life and social advancement. That some of them were drafted into the army, not being able to pay off the infamous three hundred duros required to extricate oneself from the military service during the years of the last colonial war lost by the Spanish empire, does in no way hamper the mythical status of Cuba in the Catalan imaginary. R eproduced with perm ission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without perm ission. 2 1 2 I \ v a n g u a r d * \ bloch.es M a rin e r as “E l teu avi va anar a Cuba.” Tu puedes ir mucho mas cerca Porque organizamos fas noches m arineras; Todos 4ostVferbes y s5bados»; una cena bufet de pescado -y m ariseo^ cantada-'de h ab an eras y paravacabar : • ia fjestaf>el.tr.adiclon.al;eremat- En el GranvCasino: de Barcelona d isfru tar de! m ar e s mucho m as fficil, no hace falta que vayas a Cuba. | ENTRADA + CENA CON MARISCO + HABANERAS + C S EM AT s S . 5 0 0 PTAS (+IVA) J O C G r a n CasinO B A R C E L O N A Fig. 1. Gran Casino de Barcelona. Advertisement. La Vanguardia. 4 Aug. 2000: 12. The respondents will also most likely mention a playful error in the invitation to the “seaman’s nights” at the Barcelona Casino. Not “El teu avi va anar a Cuba,” but “El meu avi va anar a Cuba” (My Grandfather Went to Cuba), is the title and first verse of a popular Catalan habanera, sung almost without exception at every cantada VtfiRNES. 4 AGOSTO2fH)0 R eproduced with perm ission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without perm ission. 3 of habaneras that takes place in Catalonia. Since its first presentation to the public in 1971, this habanera, with a verse exceptionally significant for Catalans, “Visca Catalunya! Visca el Catala!,”1 has obtained the status of an emblem comparable perhaps to the Catalan national anthem “Els Segadors,”2 or to the sardana, Catalan national dance. One will also learn that cantada. literally “singing,” is usually applied only to the singing of habaneras and not to any other musical genre. The authors of the announcement in a Spanish language newspaper must have been certain that the quotation in Catalan is recognizable for any person who lives in Catalonia, or spends the summer there, when numerous cantadas take place in Catalan cities and towns. Habaneras, whose very name points to their connection with the Cuban capital city, Havana, once called Spain’s “beloved” colony, are sung all over Spain. Bom as a product of the transculturation that underlies the formation of Cuban culture and nation, habaneras continue their almost two hundred year history into the twenty-first century. The European country-dance arrives in the New World with European immigrants, and in Cuba, it fuses with African rhythms and gives birth to a 1 “Long live Catalonia! Long live Catalan!” 2 “Els Segadors” or “Cant dels Segadors” (Song of the Reapers) initially originated during the rising of the Catalan peasantry in 1640 headed by Pau Claris against the expense of maintaining Spanish troops billeted in Catalonia and also, indirectly, against feudal dues and privileges (Balcells 13). During the Renaixenca, Manuel Mila i Fontanals transcribes some verses that existed in oral tradition, and Francesc Alio composes music based on a folkloric song that already existed. The actual text, adopted by Catalan parliament in 1993 for the national anthem, dates back to 1899 and belongs to Emili Guanyavents, as stated on the Catalonia’s Regional Government official website <http://www.gencat.es/simbols/chimne.htm>. R eproduced with perm ission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without perm ission. 4 kind of song that “returns” to Spain and flourishes there for almost two centuries. At the turn of the twentieth century, the habanera is perceived by many as a trademark of “Spanishness,” as such European composers as Bizet, Ravel, and Lalo, among others, exploit it in musical pieces with the “Spanish” theme. In fact, substituted by other song genres in Cuba, primarily by the bolero, and virtually forgotten there in the twentieth century, the habanera survives in the “mother country,” where one can hear it in Alicante, the Basque Country, Cadiz, the Canary Islands, Castile, Catalonia, and Murcia. Different regions of Spain claim to sing the habanera with their own distinctive features. The Annual Habanera Choral Festival of Torrevieja, Alicante, celebrated since 1954 attracts choirs from all over the world and is broadcast nationwide. In the Basque Country habaneras are performed by traditional otxotes, groups of eight men divided into four voices. In Totana, Murcia, they are sung by female corales, a tradition dating back to the times of the massive packaging of fruit for export in this rural area. Catalan researchers of the habanera claim that, among other popular songs, habaneras were traditionally sung in taverns in Costa Brava towns by masculine trios without any musical accompaniment. In 1967, a group of enthusiasts of a small Costa Brava town, Calella de Palafrugell, organizes the first public cantada outdoors on the first Saturday of August, during the period of summer vacations traditional for Spain. The organizers of this event are motivated by a desire to preserve traditional forms of popular culture as they see them threatened by drastic changes brought about by the boom of the tourist industry. The success of a summer-night singing of R eproduced with perm ission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without perm ission. nostalgic songs that evoke sailors and mulatto women left behind on the beaches of the lavish tropical paradise exceeds all expectations. Groups of habanera singers evolve all over Catalonia. Some facts make one think of an outstanding place that this song genre occupies in Catalan popular culture. The now traditional Cantada d’havaneres de Calella de Palafrugell that first took place in 1967, in recent years attracts between thirty-five and forty thousand spectators to a town with a winter population of three hundred dwellers. The Mostra de l’havanera catalana in Palamos is another massive event that will be celebrated for the twenty-first time in 2002. According to the Ernest Morato Foundation (Palafrugell), created by habanera enthusiasts in order to recover and preserve the genre of the habanera as part of the Catalan national heritage, there are about eighty habanera groups in Catalonia today, which participate in more than three thousand cantadas that take place annually tPrimer cataleg 100). At the time of the renewed assertion of Catalan identity in the last years of the Franco regime and during the years of the transition to a democratic state, the habanera, traditionally sung in Spanish, starts to develop in Catalan, and acquires the status of a national emblem comparable to the sardana, the Catalan national dance. The phenomenon of Catalan habanera, a cultural sign broadly acknowledged at the end of the twentieth and into the twenty-first century as an emblem of Catalan identity, offers a privileged space for reflecting on the permutations of cultural signs that in different historical and sociological circumstances serve the needs of constructing national and cultural identities. R eproduced with perm ission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without perm ission. 6 Benedict Anderson in his model of nations as imagined communities emphasizes the unique role that poetry, songs and especially national anthems, which create a unique experience of unisonality, play in the realization of imagined communities: Singing the Marseillaise, Waltzing Matilda, and Indonesia Raya provide occasions for unisonality, for the echoed physical realization of the imagined community. (So does listening to [and maybe silently chiming in with] the recitation of ceremonial poetry, such as sections of The Book of Common Prayer.) How selfless this unisonance feels! If we are aware that others are singing these songs precisely when and as we are, we have no idea who they may be, or even where, out of earshot, they are singing. Nothing connects us all but imagined sound. (132-33) Drawing on the unique position that popular songs may occupy in the cultural imaginary of nations as imagined communities, I propose to explore the habanera as a cultural sign in Catalonia, a nation within the Spanish state that presents an exceptional example of a nationalism expressly based on the revival, in the nineteenth century, of its vernacular language and other forms of culture related to it. One might ask what connection is there between the popularity of songs with the name evoking their exotic origin in Havana, “divina perla de las Antillas” (divine pearl of the Antilles), and the construction of Catalan identity. For centuries, Catalonia has been self-fashioning itself as a nation of hard-working, rational and industrious laborers as opposed to the Castilian “Other,” with his “black legend” of slavery, misuse and abuse of the colonized world. The discourse evolving around the participation of Catalans in Spain’s colonial enterprise in Cuba, however, seems R eproduced with perm ission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without perm ission. 7 to point to the profound impact that this participation leaves on the Catalan cultural imaginary and challenges traditional identity construction. Exploration of this discourse may help to understand better the representation of the complex interrelationship between the colonized and the colonizer. If asked about Cuba, the Catalans will probably point to luxurious mansions facing the Mediterranean on the seaside promenades and main streets of Catalan coastal towns. In Sitges, one may go on a tourist route to visit the houses of Americanos, landmarks built by wealthy immigrants returning from Cuba. These immigrants receive the name of americanos or indianos and are surrounded by a flair of legends concerned with their wealth, houses, and women, sometimes of other races and from other lands. Some of the houses built by americanos are converted today into local museums with exhibits devoted to the maritime connection with the Caribbean. As for cremat, one will be fascinated by the solemn process of the preparation of this beverage, which evokes ancient pagan rituals of burning the evil. Free treats of cremat are an integral part of virtually every cantada of habaneras usually organized by municipal authorities. Cremat, Catalan for “burnt,” is a beverage made of rum with lemon peel and a little bit of cinnamon. The ingredients are put on fire and patiently burned to the point when the alcohol evaporates. To extinguish the fire, the masters of ceremonies use coffee beans. Does this alchemy and its ingredients remind one of an overseas connection? As one can imagine, Catalan fields do not produce coffee beans nor cinnamon, while rum is a traditional overseas import. If interested, one will easily learn that the founder of the famous R eproduced with perm ission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without perm ission. 8 Rum Bacardi, Facund Bacardi Masso, a native of Sitges, founded his rum empire in Cuba in the mid-nineteenth century. Indeed, he is one of those great grandfathers who went to Cuba. And he is not the only one. The exodus of Catalans towards Cuba took place over a prolonged period of time and left its impact not only on the material culture of the region, in the form of the mansions already mentioned, charitable foundations, monuments on the central squares of coastal towns, and street names, but it also seems to have left a profound impact on the spiritual make-up of the nation. A proof of it is the attention given to the contacts between Catalans and Cuba by researchers, journalists, writers and filmmakers in recent decades. Since the early 1970s, the last years of the Franco dictatorship, the so-called “dictablanda,” characterized by a weakening of repression against Catalan language and culture, the presence of Catalans in Cuba and Puerto Rico became the subject of studies, thesis, and conferences. With the transition to a democratic Spain, the Generalitat de Catalunya, Catalan regional government, sponsored five conferences, entitled Jomades d’Estudis Catalanos-Americans organized between 1985 and 1993. In view of 1998, the year when Spain and Catalonia were rethinking the impact of the Disaster, as the loss of the last colonies of the Spanish empire is known in Spain’s historical discourse, various exhibits were successfully held at the museums of Barcelona and other Catalan cities and towns.3 3 Catalunya i Ultramar: Poder i negoci a les colonies espanyoles (1750-1914), Museu Maritim, Barcelona (1995); “Americanos” “Indianos”: arquitectura i urbanisme al Garraf, Penedes i Tarragones (Baix Gaia), segles XVIII-XX, Biblioteca-Museu Balaguer in Vilanova i la Geltru (1998); Escolta Espanya: R eproduced with perm ission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without perm ission. If one continues to ask questions, which I have actually done, about the meaning of the sign “Cuba” for Catalans, one may hear a surprising yet shocking answer that “Cuba is the fifth province of Catalonia.” What are my respondents trying to say? Did they forget that Cuba obtained its independence from the Spanish, empire more than a century ago? Did they forget that in the recent forty years Cuba instigated, led and supported all kinds of national liberation movements in different, sometimes distant regions of the world? What does Cuba have to do with Catalonia, a nation within the Spanish state that for centuries has been consistently building and vigorously claiming its nationhood in opposition to the larger state? What kind of assumption is this? Is there any real basis for the claim of “the fifth province of Catalonia?” Can one trace how this belief was bom and what its consequences are? What lies behind repeated allusions to Catalan fortunes created overseas in the autobiographical prose of Catalan-born writers, as Juan, Lufs and Jose Agustfn Goytisolo? Interestingly, two novels published in 1999 share the same title Habanera, and there is a TV miniseries entitled Havanera 1820. Repeated references to the Catalan-Cuban heritage and issues related to Cuba in Catalan non-fiction, narrative and film, which explore the relationship between the nation that possesses a strong feeling of cultural identity directly connected to her language, and the last colony of the Spanish empire, make one think of a discourse nostalgically revolving around the memories of the colonial past. It is no secret that Catalunya i la crisis del 98, Museu d’Historia de Catalunya (1998). The catalogues of some of these exhibits had more than one edition. R eproduced with perm ission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without perm ission. 10 Cuba occupies a specific place in the relationship between Spain and its former colonies. Together with Puerto Rico and the Philippines, it remained formally united to the colonizer much longer than other colonies. From the time of the sugar boom of the early nineteenth century up to 1898, Cuba presented probably a unique example of a colony much more dynamically developed than its colonizer, and therefore exceptionally attractive for immigration. For more than a century and a half, Cuba projected an image of economic and financial prosperity due to the opportunities that it offered to business minded immigrants. Even after the years of the last colonial wars, in which Spain lost thousands of her children to the obstinacy of her leaders, willing to sacrifice people and common sense “up to the last man and the last peseta,” immigration continued. Multiple human contacts between the colony and the colonizer, repeated departures and returns of immigrants created a discourse that represents not only the image of Cuba as a commercial paradise but also as a nostalgically desired space of the past. In the cultural imaginary of Spain, Cuba continues to produce the image of a voluptuous paradise, with its alluring music, exotic palm-trees, fine beaches, and stereotypically sensual mulatto women. Drawing on Svetlana Boym’s multifaceted exploration of nostalgia, one may view the representation of Cuba in the peninsular cultural imaginary as “the island of utopia where time has happily stopped, as on an antique clock” (13). It is true that the discourse about Cuba as a nostalgically desired space of the past is not an exclusive prerogative of Catalonia. Immigrants from Galicia, Canary Islands, the Basque Country, Cantabria and other regions of Spain, which R eproduced with perm ission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without perm ission. participated in the colonial expansion, contributed to the articulation of this discourse.4 However, I am proposing to explore Catalan discourse related to Cuba and its impact on the cultural imaginary of Catalonia. Why Catalonia? Raymond Carr in the preface to his Spain: 1808 - 1975 apparently had to justify attention given to Catalonia in his work: “Thus, if the author has exaggerated the role of Catalonia, this is partly because Catalan historians have examined their past with greater care than the historians of some other regions” (vii). Catalan historians have not only examined their past with care, but also have consistently articulated the specifics of 4 It should be noted that other regions of massive emigration,— Asturias, Galicia, Cantabria— have contributed to the study of different aspects of immigration. The Archivo de Indianos in Colombres has extensively published recently. See, for example, Fernando Alos, Emigracion en el oriente de Asturias 1845-1860 v genealogfas de indianos (Llanes: Oriente de Asturias, 1992). Covadonga Alarez Quintana, Indianos v arquitectura en Asturias, 1870-1930 (Gijon: Colegio.de Arquitectos, 1991). Pedro Gomez Gomez, De Asturias a America: Cuba, 1850- 1930: la continuidad asturiana de Cuba (Colombres: Archivo de Indianos, 1996). Eduardo Mencos, La gran aventura de los indianos (Barcelona: Lunwerg, 1998). Marfa Cruz Morales Saro, Arquitectura de indianos en Asturias: exposition organizada con motivo de la inauguration del Archivo de Indianos de Colombres (Colombres: Principado de Asturias, 1987). Xose M. Nunez Seixas, Emigrantes. caciques, indianos: o influxo sociopolftico da emigracion transoceanica en Galicia (1900-1930) (Vigo: Xerais de Galicia, 1998). German Ojeda y Jose Luis San Miguel, Campesinos, emigrantes, indianos: emigracion v economfa en Asturias, 1830-1930 (Salinas: Ayalga, 1985). Maite Paliza Monduate, Olozaga egoitza: indianoen arkitekturaren adibidite bat Bizkaian: “Casa Rosada edo “Casa Encantada” Basagoiti Etorbidea, 20 (Getxo) (Bilbao: Aldundia, 1992). Manuel Pereda de Reguera, Indianos de Cantabria (Santander: Diputacion Provincial, 1968). Francisco Suarez Moreno, Indianos, arabes y emigrantes: apuntes para el estudio de los movimientos migratorios en La Aldea (Gran Canaria: Ilustre Ayuntamiento de La Aldea de San Nicolas, 1998). R eproduced with perm ission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without perm ission. 12 Catalan identity linking them to the region’s history.5 Yet this is not the only reason, as we shall see. Since the nineteenth century, Catalan history and identity are closely connected. To better understand Catalonia’s consistent strive for its identity and her relationship with the hosting Spanish state one should recall some major milestones in the history of this maritime community that once dominated the Western Mediterranean.6 The origins of Catalonia can be traced back to the ninth century when, in 878, Count Wilfred the Hairy unites under his rule the earldoms of Barcelona, Girona, Osona, Urgell and Cerdanya. In the middle of the eleventh century, Ramon Berenguer I (1035-76) creates the Catalan feudal state, which, as Balcells points out, together with England “constitute the most highly developed examples in Europe of the institutionalization of the structure of feudal vassalage” (4)7 5 Vicens Vives’s Noticia de Catalunya first published in 1954 is a paradigmatic example. 6 The historical account is based on the following sources: Albert Balcells, Catalan Nationalism (New York, 1996); John Hargreaves, Freedom for Catalonia? Catalan Nationalism, Spanish Identity and the Barcelona Olympic Games (Cambridge, 2000); Jaime Vicens Vives, Moments crucials de la historia de Catalunya (Barcelona, 1962); Noticia de Catalufia (Barcelona, 1980); Pierre Vilar, Cataluna en la Espafia Modema (Oxford, 1977). 7 Balcells further compares Catalonia of the Middle Ages with England as two most advanced models of a monarchy limited by the legislative power of a parliament representing the nobility, the clergy and the burghers (4). R eproduced with perm ission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without perm ission. Q Catalan historiography distinguishes the development of pactismo, a political system based on negotiation, and the formation of the Catalan parliament, known as the Corts, in the thirteenth century, as the most important achievements of Catalan social development of the epoch. The thirteenth century is also the time of a significant Catalan expansion in the Mediterranean. James I (1213-76), later by merit called the Conqueror, conquers the island of Majorca and forces the Muslims out, thus extending Catalan rule to the Balearic Islands. Later, the joint venture of Catalonia and Aragon brings Valencia to the Crown of Aragon as a new self-ruled kingdom. The successor of James I, Peter the Great of Catalonia, invades Sicily in 1282. Sicily will continue to be ruled as an independent but allied kingdom by his successors and will be annexed to the Crown of Aragon later, in 1397. The Catalan expansion through the Mediterranean culminated in the conquest of Sardinia, which began in 1323. Catalan dominion in the Western Mediterranean is tightly linked with its commercial expansion. Catalan merchants develop their trade through their representatives in the Mediterranean ports, the phenomenon frequently referred to as Catalan commercial diaspora. The Catalans developed a network of consuls in the Mediterranean ports who served as representatives of the Catalan merchants before the local authorities and looked after their compatriot’s interests. The Maritime Consulate in Barcelona not only coordinated the activities of the consuls, but also o Hargreaves offers a concise definition of pactismo: a notion that “rules are made by free agents entering into contracts of their own accord and that social life is based upon bargaining and negotiation between them, and not upon unilateral violence and imposition” (20). R eproduced with perm ission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without perm ission. 14 served as a corporation of merchants, a trade exchange and a court of justice. The Llihre del Consolat de Mar (Book of the Maritime Consulate) compiled the sentences of the Consulate and later constituted a foundation for the international mercantile law (Balcells 7). Catalan commercial and maritime prosperity led to the flourishing of its language and literature created in Catalan that gradually replaces Latin and Provencal as the language of culture and of the court. James the Conqueror imposed the use of Catalan in the royal chancellery, and ordered the chronicle of his reign to be written in Catalan (Balcells 8). At the end of the thirteenth century, the masterpieces of Ramon Llull (c.1233-1315), a Majorcan poet and thinker of universal dimension, are written in Catalan. Catalan literature will reach its peak in Valencia in the fifteenth century with the novel Tirant lo Blanc (1490) by Joan Martorell, included by Cervantes into the library of his ingenious hidalgo (129; pt. 1, ch. 6). Catalan Mediterranean expansion and prosperity last until the first half of the fourteenth century when Catalonia would be fragmented, control over Majorca and Sicily would be lost and, in the middle of the fourteenth century, the region would be mortally struck by the plague that led to an unprecedented decrease of the population and its overall debilitation. From a flourishing maritime city of 50,000 inhabitants in 1340, Barcelona would become a city of 20,000 by 1477. At the end of the fifteenth century the population of Catalonia was half of what it had been one hundred and fifty years earlier (Balsells 10). A civil war followed that divided the people and R eproduced with perm ission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without perm ission. 15 devastated the country (1458-62 and 1472-79). The consequences were economic stagnation and loss of cultural vitality, which affected the whole population. However, during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, Catalonia retained its own independent institutions, currency, customs, and tax system. Catalan continued to be the official language. In 1640, in the middle of the Thirty Years War, the Catalan peasantry revolts against the expenses of maintaining Spanish troops. The revolt is suppressed and Catalonia remains attached to the Spanish Crown, though Portugal gains its independence at the same time. According to Pierre Vilar’s theory of peripheral recuperation, the Catalan economy starts to recover at the end of the seventeenth century. One of the significant consequences and indexes of the recuperation is the creation, in 1680, of the Real Companfa de Barcelona and the beginnings of Catalan trade with the Americas, initially through Catalan representatives in Seville and Cadiz that laid a foundation for the development of an overseas commercial diaspora later in the nineteenth century. War was intermittent throughout the period. Catalonia participates in the War of the Spanish Succession, is defeated and, on September 11, 1714, Barcelona is compelled to surrender to the troops of Philip V.9 As the result of this defeat, all Catalan political institutions were abolished, Castilian laws were imposed, and the country was overburdened with taxation. The Catalan language is abolished from public use. Spanish, however, was not generally employed in 9 In the twentieth century the date of September 11 would be chosen as the Catalan national day. R eproduced with perm ission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without perm ission. 16 primary education and notary documents until the nineteenth century (Balcells 17). Yet the total loss of the remnants of autonomy has important repercussions for the economic revival of Catalonia. New markets, including interior markets in Spain and overseas in the Caribbean start opening for Catalan merchants and sailors. The raising of Andalusia privileges at the end of the eighteenth century and the growth of small Catalan maritime enterprises lead to an active participation of Catalans in Spain’s colonial expansion throughout the nineteenth century. The success of Catalan trade in the Caribbean lies beneath the foundation of Catalan industrial capital, as the historians of the school of economic history created by Jaime Vicens Vives show in the twentieth century. Catalan trade and immigration to the Caribbean leave its profound impact both on the economy and cultural imaginary of the nation. Why am I exploring the cultural imaginary of Catalonia? In Culture and Imperialism. Edward Said points out that culture does not only embrace “all those practices, like the arts of description, communication, and representation, that have relative autonomy from the economic, social, and political realms and that often exist in aesthetic forms, one of whose principal aims is pleasure,” but also is “a concept that includes a refining and elevating element, each society’s reservoir of the best that has been known and thought, as Matthew Arnold put it in the 1860s” (xii-xiii). In this second meaning, as Said points out, culture can be associated with a differential fact, something that “differentiates ‘us’ from ‘them,’ almost always with some degree of xenophobia. Culture in this sense is a source of identity, and a rather R eproduced with perm ission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without perm ission. 17 combative one at that, as we see in recent ‘ returns’ to culture and tradition” (xiii). This second meaning of culture can be associated with a nation or a state, sometimes aggressively. Apparently, Said refers to the rising of certain fundamentalist movements in recent postcolonial history. In this respect, Catalonia, whose strive for a national identity is based on language and culture, offers a privileged space for exploration. My focus is not history or sociology, nor is it musicology. Rather, I propose to explore the habanera in the cultural imaginary of Catalonia as a sign directly related to its language. Language is emphasized as a major pillar of nation’s formation in traditional and postmodern models. For Benedict Anderson, however, “the most important thing about language is its capacity for generating imagined communities” (emphasize added) as opposed to the way that “certain nationalist ideologues treat them— as emblems of nation-ness, like flags, costumes, folk-dances, and the rest” (122). The revival of the Catalan language and culture in the nineteenth century, known as the Renaixenca movement that coincided with the end of the Spanish colonial empire, is in many respects contingent with Anderson’s perception of the exceptional role of language for generating imagined communities. The economic success of the Catalan bourgeoisie in the nineteenth century, based in part on the capital created overseas, specifically in the Caribbean colonies, coincides, or perhaps triggers, the processes of recovery and revival of the Catalan language and culture. This revival is stimulated by the romantic interest of the intelligentsia in the literature and other forms of culture connected with the language R eproduced with perm ission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without perm ission. 18 that flourished in medieval times. By the nineteenth century, the language in which Martorell and Llull wrote their masterpieces, lost its significance as the language of education and literature, and was mostly used as the language of everyday communication lacking a grammar system and a literary form. Traditionally, Aribau’s poem “Oda a la Patria,” written in Catalan in 1833, is perceived as a starting point for the Renaixenya, the cultural movement intrinsically linked with the revival of Catalan language and literature. Albert Balcells argues, however, that the recovery of Catalan self-esteem and national identity associated with the Renaixenca can be traced backwards to the end of the eighteenth century when Catalan scholars started to sketch the history of Catalonia from the Middle Ages onwards. This work was done in Castilian, however, as this was the language in which the majority of the population was educated and read. The lack of standard rules for spelling and usage in Catalan was another obstacle for the creation and spreading of literary works. According to Balcells, for all these reasons, the literary growth of Catalan occurred later in prose than in poetry (25).1 0 Yet the merit of Aribau’s poem, which was preceded by a Gramatica i Apologia de la Llengua Catalana by Joan Pau Ballot published in 1814, and by a Catalan translation of the New Testament published in 1832, consisted in identifying language and homeland. This idea, formulated by Aribau “unintentionally,” in the words of Balcells, will later become one of the key 1 0 Balcells refers to the romantic works by Victor Balaguer and other “more learned studies, which were an integral part of the Renaixenca,” and were written and published in Castilian (25). R eproduced with perm ission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without perm ission. 19 ideas of Catalanism, a theory and a practice for the Catalan nationalist movement.1 1 From this time on, Catalan ideologists will emphacize language and the “fet diferencial,” differential fact of the Catalans, as two pillars of Catalan national identity, among which, “the least questionable [element] is language and the adhesion of Catalan people to their mother tongue” as Fransesc Cambo wrote in 1930 (qtd. in Conversi: 171).1 2 Thus for the Catalan philosopher Ferrater i Mora, “la personalidad catalana solo puede manifestarse con plenitud por medio del uso de su propia lengua. Cuando esta, por motivos que fuere, retrocede, o se deteriora, o se vicia, se encoge el modo de ser propio de Cataluna. El Catalan deja de ser Catalan” (“Una cuestion” 284). The idea of the core significance of the language for Catalan national identity is consistently discussed and propagated by the leaders of Catalan nationalist movement.1 3 1 1 See Balcells: “While for other nationalities, race or religion were to constitute the main sign of a distinctive collective identity, for Catalonia this role would be played by the language” (25-26). 1 2 Daniele Conversi offers an overview of the development of language as a unitary bond for Catalan nation (169-173). Among others, he quotes Rovira i Vergili: “ Of all the elements which constitute a nationality, language is the deepest, the strongest and the most decisive. That value, at once corporeal and spiritual, which Joan Maragall found in the word, turns language into the symbol and the lively expression of the personality of a people” (qtd. in Conversi: 171). 1 3 Conversi points out that the “tie between language and identity in Catalonia has been continually stressed up till the present, and in recent years, it has been increasingly emphasized” (172). He quotes an abstract from Jordi Pujol’s speech in March of 1989: “The language issue will indicate whether the relations with the central government are progressing or not[...] If some issue is absolutely crucial for Catalonia, it is its language and its culture, because they are the core elements of our identity as a people. Catalonia will not deem its historical grievance R eproduced with perm ission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without perm ission. 2 0 Language becomes the core of the Floral Games revived in 1859, Joes Florals, a poetry contest evoking ancient troubadour competitions. The impact of the Floral Games on the development and refining of the Catalan language, and on Catalan culture, is directly connected to the participation in them of such poets as Jacint Verdaguer and Joan Maragall, among others. Their contribution to the formation of the Catalan literary language can be compared to the enormous effort of syntactic, phonemic and semantic systematization realized by an outstanding linguist, Pompeu Fabra, originally a chemistry professor. However, the Renaixenqa, as Balcells points out, encountered a lot of difficulty due to the overall use of Spanish in the daily press and the success of serialized novels written and published in Spanish.1 4 Pierre Vilar compares the Renaixenca with the contemporary effort of Frederic Mistral in the neighboring Provence: The real question is how did this intellectual movement, of no greater literary value than that of Mistral, acquire a theatre, a press, institutions and finally leave its mark on a whole people instead of resolved until the cultural issue is settled [...] Catalonia did not want autonomy for political or administrative reasons, but for reasons of identity” (Declaration of Jordi Pujol, in El Pais, 2 March 1989, p. 14. qtd in Conversi 172). 1 4 See Balcells: “Newspapers and novels written in Spanish but published in Catalonia did more than the schools to foster diglossia and linguistic and cultural alienation. This was so, not only because the powerful Barcelona publishing industry catered for the widest possible market and thus worked exclusively in Spanish, but because, as in the case of the daily press, as long as the Catalan language remained unstandardized it was difficult to reach the average reader, even though Catalan was both his mother tongue and the language he normally spoke” (26). R eproduced with perm ission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without perm ission. 21 remaining confined to the work of coteries and ephemeral publications? (Spain: A Brief History 74). For Vilar, the answer lies in social and economic factors such as the “impotence of the Spanish State” and the “growing difference between the social structure of the Catalan area and that of the majority of the nation” (Spain: 75). However, the cultural aspect and the construction of the “differential fact” of the nation should not be overlooked, specifically in the case of Catalonia for its strongly emphasized sentiment of national identity. As Balcells points out, the Renaixenca “tended to express itself in a medievalized, archaic language, far removed from spoken Catalan” (25). Therefore he emphasizes the impact of the publications “with lesser literary pretentions” for the development and standardization of the Catalan language (26). These are the religious apologetics by the fervent priest and preacher Antoni Maria Claret (1807-1879),1 5 and the outstanding work of Anselm Clave, creator of the Euterpe movement that organized Catalan workers into numerous choral societies. The Euterpe movement along with other forms of organized collective time spending, asocianisme, is considered to be a distinctive feature of the Catalan society from the Renaixenca until today.1 6 The propensity of Catalans to 1 5 Antoni Maria Claret was appointed archbishop of Santiago de Cuba in 1851 and left the island in 1858. We will discuss his religious and literary activity in connection with the moral and ethical issues of Catalans in Cuba in Chapter Four. 1 6 See Giner: “Catalonia possesses an exceptional number of voluntary associations devoted to the most varied of peaceful pursuits: choirs, mountaineering clubs, pigeon-fancying clubs, small public libraries (privately founded), cooperatives of all sorts, philatelic associations, theatrical societies, local action groups, geographical and astronomical amateurs’ clubs” (10-11). See Hargreaves: “The R eproduced with perm ission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without perm ission. 2 2 create groups and associations of all kinds from the scout movement, hiking groups, football supporters, neighborhood associations, private libraries, and sardana dancing groups is emphasized as a distinctive feature of Catalan society and a basis for Catalanism, a theory and a practice of Catalan nationalist movement.1 7 The articulation of Catalan “uniqueness” takes place at the time when major Catalan urban centers, Barcelona, Reus, and Tarragona, as well as smaller towns, become a workshop for the architectural genius of Antonio Gaudf, Lluis Domenech i Montaner, and Josep Puig i Cadafalch. Catalan Modemisme, which coincides in time with Art Nouveau in Belgium and France, Jugendstill in Germany and Liberty in Italy may be viewed as a child of Renaixenca and an art movement with clear-cut nationalist connotation. Modemisme is claimed to contain signs and symbols related to Catalan identity: architectural shapes and motifs derived from historical styles and popular art, the ubiquitous Catalan coat of arms and the legend of the country’s patron Saint George, with its militant overtones. Modemisme may also be viewed as a successful attempt at creating an up-to-date culture in harmony with Europe. It is reflected in the numerous references to northern architecture and in technological intense private associationism of Catalan society and the proliferation of voluntary associations, many of them devoted to the maintenance of such traditions, rituals, games, dances and festivities is a key feature of Catalan culture” (22). 1 7 See Conversi: “Asociations of sardanistes (sardana dancers), folk-singers, hikers and excursionists, as well as choirs, alumni associations, hobby groups, private clubs, football supporters, and Scout and Guide gatherings all served to encourage Catalanist socialization” (133-134). See Balsells: “The social base of Catalanism consisted of choral societies, rambling clubs, sardana dancing groups, and even independent, nationalist associations, most of them local, though some covering wider areas” (52). Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 2 3 innovations involving the use of new materials, like sheet iron, industrial glass and reinforced concrete or improved brick building techniques. A number of Gaudf’s creations, including Parc Gilell are sponsored by the Giiell family whose financial capital has its origins in overseas commercial enterprise with deep roots in Cuba. An outstanding creative energy of a writer, artist and collector Santiago Rusinol who moved to Sitges in 1891 gives to this seafaring town, which already was the center of luminista artistic movement, a status of an important cultural center. Through a series of artistic activities organized by Rusinol— the Festes Modemistes (1892-1899) featuring exhibitions, theatrical performances, the rediscovery of El Greco paintings- -Sitges acquires the status of a cultural center which it maintains until today. Later in the twentieth century, Catalonia will be home to Picasso, Miro and Dali. At present, Catalonia hosts significant collections of paintings of all three artists. As the result of the systematizing efforts of Renaixenpa that reached its peak in the 1880s with the poetic genius of Jacint Verdaguer, dramas by Angel Guimera and the realist novels by Narcfs Oiler, not only did the language acquire a standardized form, but a set of characteristics of Catalan national identity that constitute the “fet diferencial” of the Catalans were formulated and propagated by the ideologists of Catalanism. Coined and first used by loan Maragall, this notion of the uniqueness of the nation is based on the attachment of the Catalans to their language, in which the literary masterpieces of the early Renaissance were written, and on their national character, a complex of beliefs, values and practices attributed Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 2 4 to the nation.1 8 As the philosopher Ferrater i Mora formulated it, the Catalans possess the following virtues: iroma (an ironic outlook on life), mesura (taking a measured, balanced view of things), continuitat (working persistently over the long term to achieve objectives), and seny (good, old commonsense).1 9 Seny, however, tends to be the most controversial of these qualities, as Catalan history arguably abounds in outbursts of rage and uncontrolled actions including the burning of churches and convents. The idealistic terms in which Vicens Vives and Ferater i Mora describe the Catalan national character definitely do not represent the richness of the national character. John Hargreaves mentions rauxa as “the other side of senv- -a propensity to seek relief, on occasion, from social constraint by indulging in uncontrollable emotion and outbursts of irrational behaviour: from getting drunk and fornicating to burning churches and convents” (22). It is also believed that Catalan national identity and the above mentioned virtues are represented through a number of cultural symbols. The most common of these symbols are the sardana, the Catalan national dance, such popular activities as the castells, building and competitions of human towers that involve hundreds of participants; and the Nova Canco movement of the sixties.2 0 Catalan national dance, 1 8 See Hargreaves p.22; Conversi p. 139; Giner p. 12. 1 9 See Ferrater i Mora, “Las formas de la vida catalana,” (Madrid, 1967) 239- 75. 2 0 The Nova Canco movement, which started in the sixties, combined highly politically charged auteur songs with the folk elements and flourished in the last decade of the Franco regime. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 2 5 the sardana is traditionally considered to be the most distinguished element of Catalan popular culture. One can see it performed regularly by the public that gathers in parks or central squares of Catalan cities and towns. In Barcelona, one can 0 1 join the sardana circle on Sunday mornings in front of the Barcelona cathedral. The outstanding significance attributed to the sardana for the national identity of Catalans is based above all on the role that the associations of the sardanistes played in the semi-clandestine organization of the Catalans during the Franco dictatorship when all forms of Catalan culture were abolished.2 2 Together with the Catalan language, the sardana was prohibited in some locales in and around Barcelona, but not in the countryside, according to Brandes: “No doubt because the dictatorship considered the sardana to be relatively innocuous, the dance was allowed to flourish as a form of what we might call ‘peaceful protest’ against the regime’s most 2 1 The sardana and the castells are believed to reflect the inclusiveness of the Catalans. See Brandes: “By stressing the inclusion of everyone who learns the rules, the dance is a microcosmic reflection of the general Catalan belief in ethnicity as an achieved status. However, the sardana also excludes those who neither know nor follow the detailed rules of the dance” (39). See Giner: “Some of these rituals like the sardana, the national dance, in which rich and poor, old and young, men and women, participate in one single unbroken circle, have still not left the busiest squares and thoroughfares of Barcelona, Perpignan, Tarragona, to this day” (10). Also see Hargreaves: “One can readily see it performed in village, town and city squares al over Catalonia today. Its contemporary political significance can be gauged from the fact that the Generalitat and the main nationalist party, CiU, promote the dance, and it is not uncommon to see hundreds of dancers on, say, a Sunday morning in the Parc Joan Miro, or a festival day in Poble Nou, dancing under the CiU banner” (101). 2 2 See Hargreaves: “Associations of sardanistes formed an integral part of the semi-clandestine social networks that circumvented Franco’s proscription of Catalan culture at the micro level, and the dance thereby played an especially important part in helping sustain Catalan sentiment and political identity” (101). Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 2 6 effective and oppressive campaign to eliminate the public use of the Catalan language” (35). At the same time, the sedate, collective, solemn and even asexual character of the sardana is supposed to reflect such aspect of Catalan national character as seny. a propensity for reasoning and common sense.2 3 The movement of the colies dels castellers, groups of builders of human towers, who compete in the squares of Catalan towns during the summer, is growing definitely in the late twentieth century as it embraces more participants outside of the traditional areas of Vails or Tarragona where it originated. Both the sardana and the castells are believed to represent the inclusiveness of the Catalan nation, and immigrants from other regions of Spain and other countries who live in Catalonia are welcome to participate. The three phenomena, habaneras, sardana and castells. have many common features. All three are relatively new cultural traditions. The sardana can de considered a child of the Renaixenqa as it was created at the peak of this cultural movement aimed at the revival of the language and other autochthonous 24 cultural forms. The creation of the new dance based on folkloric traditions of the 23 Hargreaves quotes Torras i Bages, an ideologist of Catalan nationalism of the turn of the twentieth century, who excoriated the growing popularity of the Andalusian flamenco in Catalonia as something radically opposite to the Catalan identity: “Nothing could be more antithetical to the Catalan character, or be more damaging to the severity and restraint of our race” (qtd. in Hargreaves 101). Also See Hargreaves: “Possibly more than most aspects of Catalan culture the sardana expresses what has been popularly depicted as the Catalan national character. Catalans like to think of themselves as disciplined, hard-working, efficient, and possessed of that quality they call seny. meaning something like good commonsense. They are often seen in the rest of Spain in less flattering terms, that is, as rather cold, calculating, mean and selfish” (103). Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 2 7 Emporda region in North-Eastern Catalonia is traditionally associated with the name of Pep Ventura (1817-1875). Ventura modified the traditional musical group, cobla, added to it a renovated instrument, the tenora, and created numerous sardanas, based on folkloric traditions that already existed for centuries. Launched at the Liceu Theater in 1859, the dance gradually acquires popularity and becomes “the most characteristic of Catalan dances,” in the words of Balcells (45). The origin of the habanera also takes place in the nineteenth century and goes through a process of constant transformations as I will explore in this dissertation. The three phenomena discussed above, the sardana, the castells and the habanera, are distinctly collective events and are experiencing growth and enhancement in recent decades not without the help of mass media. Salvador Giner stresses the significance of collective cultural phenomena as “symbolic acts of ethnicocultural affirmation” for “small ‘advanced’ stateless nations” (10). In this respect, Catalonia may be viewed, according to Giner, as “one of the very few industrial countries where the progress of technology and capitalism has not meant the relegation of a vast number of traditional festivities, dances and ritualistic games of all sorts either to remote rural areas, or to certain pockets of the popular classes” (10). However, while these relatively young cultural traditions have been studied and recognized in connection with the construction of the Catalan national identity, the role of the habanera in this 2 4 On the sardana as an invented tradition, see Stanley Brandes, “The Sardana: Catalan Dance and Catalan National Identity,” The Journal of American Folklore 103 (1990): 24-40. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 2 8 regard has been overlooked so far.2 5 I will argue that the habanera, a permutable cultural sign bom as a product of transculturation in the former colony, Cuba, continues its life into the twenty-first century in Spain and may be represented as a crucial sign for the construction of Catalan national identity alongside traditionally recognized emblems of this identity: the sardana, the castells, and the singing movements such as the Euterpe movement of the nineteenth century, or the Nova Canco of the 1960s. The phenomenon of the habanera in Catalonia, a region where popular cultural signs are not confined to folkloric relics, but are an integral and evolving part of social life, represents a privileged field for study and exploration. My research started with the exploration of approaches to a historical discourse concerned with the participation of Catalonia in Cuban colonial enterprise, which I discuss in Chapter One. A study of the origins of the habanera, a product of transculturation that underlies the formation of Cuban nation and culture, that may be explored as a vehicle of collective memory and nostalgia for the lost tropical 2 5 Salvador Giner, Albert Balcells, Daniele Conversi, John Hargreaves stress the significance of festivals and other forms of popular culture for Catalan national identity, however never mentioning habaneras. See, for example, Balcells: “[T]he symbols of Catalan identity have been reinforced during the last decade, a fact which causes surprise among most foreign visitors. Not only are many signs now written in Catalan but the vitality of popular festivals is playing a primer role in integrating the population into Catalan culture. One example is the success and proliferation of local teams of castellers, who compete with one another to build daring human pyramids, and whose popularity has now spread over a much larger area than that around Vails and Tarragona where they originated. Another very recent phenomenon, whose potential importance has been compared with the Nova Canpo movement of the 1960s, is the resounding success of Catalan rock groups, whose members write the words to their own songs” (191). Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 2 9 paradise in Catalonia is the subject of Chapter Two. In Chapter Three, I trace the permutations of the habanera in Catalonia as it becomes an emblem of Catalan cultural identity at the time of the recuperation of Catalan nationalism during the last years of the Franco dictatorship and the transition to a democratic Spain that acknowledges the heterogeneity of its nations. As I progressed in my research, I discovered that the habanera becomes an underlying grid for film-productions crucial for redefining Catalan identity, specifically for Havanera 1820 (1993, dir. Antoni Verdaguer) and La ciutat cremada (1976, dir. Antoni Ribas). In Chapter Four, I explore how these films reinvent history and contribute to the project of Catalan national cinema. In the last decade of the twentieth century, the habanera also becomes part of fiction, yet another permutation. In Chapter Five, I focus on two novels of the late twentieth century, En el mar de les Antilles (1998) by Manel Alonso i Catala (Pupol, 1962), and Habanera: El reencuentro con un oculto pasado antillano (1999) by Angeles Dalmau (Barcelona, 1960), which challenge and subvert stereotypes and myths of Catalan immigration to Cuba and the Caribbean. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Chapter One 3 0 Catalonia and Cuba: Approaches to a Historical Discourse No hay pueblo en La Habana: no hay mas que amos y esclavos. Los primeros se dividen en dos clases: la nobleza propietaria y la clase media comerciante. Esta se compone en su mayor parte de catalanes que, llegados sin patrimonio a la isla, acaban por hacer grandes fortunas; comienzan a prosperar por su industria y economfa, y acaban por apoderarse de los mas hermosos patrimonios hereditarios, por el alto interes a que prestan su dinero. (The Countess of Merlin, Viaie a La Habana [1844] 112) This dissertation is concerned with the cultural imaginary of Catalonia, a nation, within a larger state, that for centuries has been self-fashioning itself as a maritime community with strong overseas links and its own place in Europe, even if it often has been overshadowed by Spain’s central government. Catalonia’s continuous self-representation as an entity equal to European states may be explored through a discourse that relates to its involvement in overseas colonial expansion. This discourse is explicitly articulated at the end of the Franco dictatorship, which aimed to suppress cultural and national differences within Spain in order to create a monolithic nationalist state. The end of the dictatorship, the reemergence of various European nationalisms, and European Union integration lead to the reshaping of a historical discourse related to the participation of Catalans in Spain’s colonial enterprise. Through the emphasis that it places on its participation in the colonial enterprise in Cuba, Catalonia represents itself as an equal to established European Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 31 empires. This reshaping of the self-image of this nation without a state but with a heightened sensitivity to issues of cultural identity will be explored in this dissertation through the permutations of the habanera, a musical legacy from the time of colonial expansion, which becomes a relevant cultural signifier in Catalonia during the last decades of the twentieth century. However, before analyzing the habanera as a cultural signifier relevant for the self-fashioning of Catalonia as a nation it is necessary to explore the historical discourse related to this enterprise. The overview of the discourse concerned with the involvement of the Catalans in the Cuban colonial enterprise may help to rectify the origin of certain myths and stereotypes persistent in the cultural imaginary. As we will explore in the chapters that follow, in the late twentieth century, these myths and stereotypes are reinvented in Catalan cultural imaginary through popular songs, fiction and film. The epigraph to this chapter is taken from a work that strictly cannot be qualified as “historical discourse.” However, as a testimonial narrative, the Countess of Merlin’s observations of the role of Catalans in Cuban society can still be classified as “historical.” For a considerable time, perhaps until the publication of works by the historian Jaime Vicens Vives (1909-1960), the participation of Catalans in the Cuban colonial enterprise was confined to observations by travelers such as Merlin or John Wunderman— whose testimony of the entrepreneurial spirit of the Catalans in Cuba will be discussed later in this chapter— or the notorious apologetic work Los catalanes en America: Cuba by Carlos Marti, published in Havana in 1920. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 3 2 The publication of Marti’s book, which articulates a flattering and paternalist discourse towards the deeds of the Catalans in Spain’s “beloved colony” can be seen as a sign of the times. The first decades of the twentieth century are marked by an outstanding growth of Catalanism and the theorization of the Catalan nation. This theorization, as articulated by the leader of the Lliga Regionalista Enric Prat de la Riba (1870-1917), bears clear-cut imperialist intentions. In La nacionalitat catalana (1906), the leader of the conservative Catalan bourgeoisie theorizes the possibility of a Catalan exterior projection as a hypothetical consequence of its national 7f- institutionalization. Marti’s book, preceded by a letter-prologue in Catalan by another prominent ideologist of Catalan conservative nationalism Francesc Cambo,2 7 for all its limitations and flaws may be explored as the first attempt at reshaping the traditional historical discourse that excluded Catalonia from Spain’s colonial enterprise. Martf s ambitious project consisted of two parts. The first part, which covers the period from the conquest to the late nineteenth century, was supposed to 0 f\ Javier Tusell in an introduction to Prat de la Riba’s work published in 1998 points out that Prat de la Riba’s ideas ought to be seen in the context of imperialist conceptualization of Catalonia by Catalan nineteenth-century intellectuals, a state that, if it does not exist yet, will exist some day. Tusell also points out that Prat de la Riba’s imperialism may be seen as the projection of Catalonia on the Iberian peninsula through art, literature, and legal concepts (21-22). 2 7 Francesc Cambo i Batlle (1876-1947) assumed the leadership of the Lliga Regionalista upon the death of Prat de la Riba. A prominent industrialist, he is the author of the economic program of Catalan conservative nationalism. As the Minister of Economic Development of Spain (1918) and (1921-1922), Cambo promoted the development of the railroad infrastructure and the electrification of Spain. He died in exile in Buenos Aires. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 3 3 be followed by a second part dedicated to the activities of his contemporaries. This second part was never published.2 8 Marti traces the involvement of the Catalans in the overseas venture of the Spanish Crown back to the participation of Captain Pedro de Margarit and Brother Bemat Buil, a monk from Montserrat, in Cristopher Columbus’s second journey to the Americas. Foregrounding the role of the Catalans, Marti articulates a discourse that is contingent with Prat de la Riba’s imperialist theorizing. The representation of Catalan colonial enterprise in Cuba is explicitly viewed in Los catalanes en America: Cuba as part and parcel of the assertion of Catalan nation and identity. As Cambo puts it, the activities of the Catalans described by Marti represent a “live testimony of perennial national personality of Catalonia” (Cambo 5). It happens at the time of the renewed imperialist drive of major Western World nations after World War I, which is a crucial time for the assertion of Catalan identity in its continuous opposition to the hegemony of the Castilianized center. The apologetic discourse of Martf s book towards the successful immigrants who create immense fortunes in Cuba completely ignores and silences participation in the slave trade as a major source of the fortunes created in the first half of the nineteenth century. For all its errors, unintentional flaws and intentional silencing of negative aspects of the colonizing effort of See Martf: “Es el presente tomo un tributo de lealfsimo homenaje a nuestros antepasados en Cuba. En un nuevo tomo sabremos destacar los meritos, las energfas, la influencia, la actividad y los dotes de los contemporaneos. Los elementos representatives, las entidades y el nucleo valiosfsimo de catalanes residentes en Cuba apreciaran nuestro esfuerzo. Poseemos datos, biograffas, anecdotas y retratos en superior cantidad y en valiosa calidad” (326). Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 3 4 Catalans, Marti’s work may be viewed as the first attempt at asserting Catalan identity through the involvement in the colonial enterprise and through the articulation of imperialist intentions. The decades of the Civil War in Spain and the ensuing Franco dictatorship intent on building a monolithic nationalist Catholic state did not facilitate the discourse related to Catalan involvement in the colonial enterprise, the “established” prerogative of Castile. It is no secret that history always and everywhere has been a subject of interpretation and manipulation based on political or ideological needs. Spanish and Catalan historiography has had its share of manipulation. However, in the 1950s, while the official historiography continues to serve the needs of the Franco regime, Jaime Vicens Vives applies an innovative approach for the Spanish historiography based on statistical methods and a meticulous study of documentary sources. The oeuvre of this historian creates a methodology and a prominent school of economic history in Barcelona. Vicens Vives not only postulates basic 9 0 approaches to the history of Spain, but also makes a significant contribution to the theorization of Catalan identity in his work Noticia de Cataluna (1954), in which he argues that the accumulation of Catalan financial capital and the creation of prosperous industries in Catalonia in the nineteenth century were generated in the colonies (47). 90 See his highly acclaimed work Aproximacion a la historia de Espana first published in 1952. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 3 5 The other methodological pillar for Catalan historiography is the work by the French Hispanist Pierre Vilar, whose work Cataluna en la Espafia Modema (1962) was first published in France. From a Marxist standpoint, Vilar asserts that the development of Catalan industrial capital in the late nineteenth century is based on the fortunes created overseas and invested in Catalonia. The ideas of Vicens Vives and Vilar lay a foundation for Catalan historical discourse concerned with the relationship between Catalonia and the colonies in the Caribbean, specifically Cuba. In the decades following the death of Franco, Catalan projection to the colonies is the center of attention by historians who consider themselves to be the followers of the school of economic history designed by Vicens Vives and Vilar. With the liberalization of the dictatorial regime, a broader and more open discussion of the participation of Catalans in overseas expansion becomes possible. In 1973, Jordi Maluquer de Motes publishes “La burguesfa catalana i la esclavitud colonial: modes de produccio i practica polftica,” a pioneering work that serves as the catalyst for a discussion that focuses on colonial expansion and its consequences for Catalan economy and culture. Maluquer de Motes points out the connection between outstanding Catalan fortunes of the second half of the nineteenth century and Catalan overseas commerce, which included and prospered from slave trade. In the 1970s, Catalan involvement in Cuban colonial enterprise becomes the subject of dissertations, books, articles and conferences that discuss the role of the Catalans as the protagonists of overseas commerce, their participation in the development of the Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 3 6 •2 sugar industry, crucial for Cuba, and the involvement of the Catalans in the slave trade whose profitability becomes a cornerstone for notorious Catalan fortunes created overseas. Between 1985 and 1993, with the sponsorship of the revived Generalitat de Catalunya, the Catalan regional government, Comissio Catalana del Cinque Centenari del Descobriment d’America organizes five conferences entitled Jomades d’Estudis Catalanos-Americans, at which different aspects of Catalan involvement in Cuba are discussed and whose proceedings are published. In this chapter, I will explore how the historical and sociological discourse related to Catalan involvement in Cuba reinvents Catalan nation and identity. Catalan historians divide the participation of Catalans in the overseas colonial expansion into certain periods of larger or lesser activity and financial, social and cultural repercussions. Though it is relatively difficult to offer strict temporal limits, certain boundaries aimed at reshaping the traditional discourse were established. Thus the period prior to 1778, when the Cadiz privileges were raised,3 1 is explored as the period of early Catalan involvement in the overseas enterprise. Since the 3 0 Cuban historian Manuel Moreno Fraginals, whose work El ingenio is a vast study of Cuban sugar industry and of its repercussions for the formation of the Cuban society, formulates in a very precise way the importance of sugar industry for Cuba. In Cuba/Espana Espafia/Cuba, historia comun, he calls Cuba “la sociedad que el azucar formo,” the society formed by sugar (199). 3 1 Since the time of early conquest and colonization, the 1560s, the Spanish Crown controlled trade with the colonies through Andalusia cities, Seville and Cadiz, the only Spanish ports from where ships organized in fleets could sail to the Americas. The fleet system functioned with different regularity since the 1560s until the eighteenth century. Only in 1778, Charles III signs Reglamento y Aranceles Reales para el Comercio Libre, which officially permits trade with overseas territories of the Spanish Crown from other ports than Cadiz. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 37 nineteenth century, Romantic Catalan historiography articulated the position of Catalan exclusion from the colonial expansion due to the notorious testament of the Catholic Queen, Isabella, that privileged Castilians in the colonization of the new lands. This discourse is questioned by Vicens Vives in Noticia de Catalunya (1954). He argues that the Catalans did not participate in Spanish colonial expansion not so much because of the legal limitations created by the Spanish monarchy at the beginning of the sixteenth century, but because of the financial weakness and lack of capital in Catalonia. Vicens Vives’s argument is indicative of his clear-cut intention of comparing Catalonia to European states in the context of Catalan relationship with the Crown of Castile: Porque hay que decirlo, de una vez para siempre: es una lamentation absurda la que se ha venido haciendo durante el ultimo siglo respecto a la exclusion jurfdica de los catalanes del comercio con America. Quiero admitir que sea un hecho cierto; mas aun, admito incluso que la monarqufa de los Austrias monopolizo aquel trafico en manos de los burgueses andaluces. Pero los menos versados en historia economica saben hasta que punto los franceses, los holandeses y los italianos supieron aprovecharse de aquel monopolio para hacer pasar el oro americano de las areas espanolas a sus bolsillos sin que el gobiemo de la monarqufa hispanica pudiera mover un solo dedo para evitarlo. Si los catalanes de los siglos XVI y XVII hubieran dispuesto de capitales o industrias, y posefdo espfritu de empresa, de un modo u otro se las habrfan ingeniado para obtener el mismo provecho objetivo que alcanzaron otros, tambien extranos a la Corona castellana. Si no lo logramos, no es que no lo supieramos hacer; simplemente, no disponfamos de capitales para sobomar a los mercaderes sevillanos o “convencer” a la monarqufa. (46) Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 3 8 In addition to his theory of the commercial and financial weakness of Catalonia in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, Vicens Vives offers a “technical” explanation of the lack of Catalan overseas activity before the end of the seventeenth century. British historian Jan Read quotes it in his book The Catalans; There was a technical factor which made commerce between the Mediterranean coast and Columbus’ newly-discovered America an impossibility. It was the following: it was not feasible for a caravel to make the passage of the Straight of Gibraltar from west to east, against current and winds, without losing much time and risking men and ships. It required the nautical revolution of the early eighteenth century, especially the introduction of sails known as foes and an enlarged cruising range before the Mediterranean peoples could hope to participate in the American trade, (qtd in Read: 121) Vicens Vives’s assertion of the weakness of Catalonia as opposed to the prevailing theory of the legal power executed by Castile becomes a foundational thesis for works by historians who consider themselves to be the followers of the school of economic history and explore the contacts between Catalonia, the Spanish Empire and its colonies. The works by Otte, Delgado Ribas, Martinez Shaw, Maluquer de Motes, Fradera, and Sonessen explore the participation of the Catalans in Spanish colonial expansion prior to 1778, the year of the official end of the Cadiz privileges. Drawing on Vicens Vives’s theory, Carles Martinez Shaw argues that the legal exclusion of Catalans from American trade is a legend created by Catalan nationalistic discourse in the nineteenth century (“Cataluna y el comercio” 223). Martinez Shaw discusses three major arguments of this discourse, as pointed out by Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 39 Delgado Ribas earlier: (1) Catalonia played a major role in the so-called Discovery through the participation of the alleged— Columbus, Juan Caboto— or real Catalans (Father Boil)3 2 and financial support of the expedition by Luis de Santangel; (2) despite this protagonism, the country, “el pars,” was excluded from the benefits gained in the New World; (3) Catalan economic decadence in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries is the consequence of this exclusion (“Cataluna y el comercio” 223). Further Martinez Shaw argues that the legal restrictions imposed by Queen Isabella’s testament were raised even before the liberalizing measures of Charles V by Ferdinand’s authorization to all subjects of his crown a transit to the Americas as of March 5, 1505, (“Cataluna y el comercio” 228). Enrique Otte shows that Catalan merchants and sailors found ways of commerce with the Americas through Seville and later Cadiz as early as the first half of the sixteenth century (Otte 459-80). According to Martinez Shaw, who insists that the absence of Catalans from active expansion to the colonies is a pure legend (Cataluna en la carrera 15), the creation of the Real Companfa de Barcelona in 1680 may be viewed as the starting point for the Catalan bourgeoisie to participate in colonial trade (Cataluna en la carrera 10). In 1702, Philip V grants the Catalans a right to ship their merchandise to the Americas with two ships annually. These ships, however, had to join the Spanish fleet in Seville until 1717, and afterwards in Cadiz, and set sail from Andalusian ports. As the result of the War of the Spanish Succession (1702-1713), Catalonia 3 2 In Martf s Los catalanes en America: Cuba, this last name is spelled as Buil, while in Martinez Shaw it is Boil. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 4 0 loses in 1714 the remnants of its regional autonomy. However, new vast markets, both in Spain and Europe, open up for the products of incipient Catalan manufactures. In the early eighteenth century, Catalan merchants start establishing their representatives in Cadiz in order to ship their merchandise to the Americas on Spanish ships. According to Josep Fradera, this arrangement allows the Spanish Crown to exercise complete tax control and double monopoly through the Spanish merchant fleet, on the one hand, and through the privileged Houses of Commerce of Seville and Cadiz, on the other (“Els Catalans arriben tard” 6). At the same time, the Catalans who engage in commerce and fully depend on the merchandise brought by the Spanish ships start to establish themselves in some overseas ports, thus laying the foundation for the Catalan commercial diaspora. Drawing on Pierre Vilar’s theory of peripheral recuperation, it is generally agreed that by the late eighteenth century, Catalonia manages to recover economically and demographically from the devastation initially caused by the plague in the fourteenth century and later aggravated by the wars, in which Catalonia continuously participates in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. By the end of the eighteenth century, Catalonia accumulates enough manufactured products to start the expansion to other markets, which, with the liquidation of the Cadiz privileges in 1778, include vast overseas markets. Catalonia starts to export agricultural produce and products— wine, brandy, dried fruit, wax— to the colonies. The products of Catalan incipient industries, such as paper and printed calico, are destined mostly to the Spanish interior market and, specifically, Madrid (Fradera, Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 41 “Els Catalans” 7). By the time Charles III signs on October 12, 1778 the Reglamento y Aranceles Reales para el Comercio Libre, Catalan merchants and owners of commercial fleet are ready to expand their commerce, or diaspora, overseas. In the words of Fradera, the Catalans arrive late, but with power, “amb forga,” to the colonial high road (“Els Catalans” 6). The term diaspora applied to Catalan commercial system overseas originates as the definition of the Catalan system of commerce in the Mediterranean. The peak of Catalan commercial activity in the Western Mediterranean is the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. From as early as the thirteenth century, Catalan merchants establish their representatives in Mediterranean ports and dominate the Western Mediterranean trade up to the second half of the fifteenth century, when it slowly declines (Vicens Vives, An Economic History 201-210). The organization of Catalan trade in the form of a commercial diaspora is represented as another differentiating trait of Catalan nation comparable to such distinctive features of Catalan identity as pactismo, a system of civic agreement between the citizens and the ruling administration, or the Corts, a parliamentary system claimed as original to Catalonia. In Noticia de Cataluna (1954), Vicens Vives distinguishes the naval and commercial expansion of Catalonia in the Mediterranean as a factor comparable to the most relevant traits that constitute the “differential facts” of the Catalans: Si el proceso historico debilito nuestras fuerzas en el preciso instante en que el Atlantico se ofrecfa con todas sus tentadoras empresas, no por ello hemos de silenciar las notables realizaciones que emprendimos durante los siglos XIV y XV en el Mediterraneo Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 4 2 occidental. En ellas vimos precisamente, una de las facetas mas finas y sensibles del espfritu de nuestro pueblo, similar a la solution pactista del nexo politico entre el Estado y los ciudadanos que hemos examinado anteriormente. (90) In the tripartite model of Spanish overseas immigration proposed by Maluquer de Motes, Catalan immigration to Cuba is characterized as a commercial diaspora, as opposed to other models of immigration characteristic of different ethnic groups of the Spanish population: La instalacion de los canarios constituye una expansion de frontera. El establecimiento de los catalanes, una diaspora comercial. La partida de los gallegos y asturianos se justifica, en cambio, por la busqueda de recursos de apoyo para una explotacion familiar rural economicamente inviable por sus reducidas dimensiones, en un contexto de sobrepoblacion relativa y de oferta limitada de trabajo. (Nation e inmigracion 67) Catalan immigration and commercial enterprise in Cuba are most active between 1778, the year when the Cadiz privileges were eliminated, and the beginning of the 1870s, the time of the first Cuban war for independence. During most of the period of Catalan commercial enterprise in Cuba, trade technology still preserves the atavistic features of the seventeenth century trade. On the one hand, travel by sail ships presupposes slow and high-risk trips. On the other, payments in form of bills of exchange require the travel of merchants together with their merchandise and means of payment. This arrangement leads to a vast network of agents of absolute reliability, generally belonging to the same family who are able to connect directly, man to man, the markets on both sides of the Atlantic. The Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 4 3 Catalans, with their longstanding tradition of commercial diaspora in the Mediterranean, project their experience to the Atlantic. The massive expansion to the Caribbean starts at the end of the eighteenth century and achieves its climax in the middle of the nineteenth century (Yanez, Saltar con red 49). The lead in commerce during the first stages of overseas expansion belongs to the population of the Catalan coastal towns. According to Delgado Ribas, at the end of the eighteenth century, twenty four per cent of all Catalan immigrants were from Barcelona, twelve per cent from Mataro and thirty five per cent from Sitges and Vilanova combined. He explains this phenomenon by the general process of specialization, which takes place on the Catalan coast during the second half of the eighteenth century (“Els comerciants Catalans” 75-76). Powerful overseas commerce generates conditions that allow Catalan sailors and merchants to visit American ports continuously for many decades. These “liaisons” create strong links between Catalans who establish residence in overseas ports and those who stay in their native towns. Continuous voyages of Catalan ships from coastal towns to the Americas, mostly to the Western Caribbean, make it possible for generations of Catalans from coastal towns to be aware of the opportunities which offer themselves to those eager to abandon their homes and assume the risk of crossing the seas, “cruzar el charco” (Yanez, Saltar con red 48). Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 4 4 Catalan immigration is also viewed as a classic example of chain immigration. The first destination for an immigrant typically would be the established House of Commerce of a relative or a family friend, from where, having accumulated the initial capital, an immigrant would proceed to open his own business. According to Delgado Ribas, forty-three per cent of Catalan immigrants would settle on the Antillean islands, while one quarter of the immigrants would conduct their business in the River Plata area (“Els comerciants Catalans” 75-76). Yanez emphasizes the continuity of three relevant features of the early Catalan immigration: the protagonism of merchants and sailors from the coastal towns of Catalonia; the form of diaspora assumed by immigration; and specific territories chosen for immigration (Saltar con red 47). Catalan immigration to the West Indies is stimulated by high attractiveness and grows steadily until the second half of the nineteenth century. Delgado Ribas has studied 1,263 known cases of early immigration between 1765 and 1820. Later, in the central decades of the nineteenth century, the average number of immigrants equals or exceeds a thousand per year (Yanez, Saltar con red 51). With the growth 3 3 The concept of chain immigration was defined by John and Leatrice Mac Donal and further developed by Samuel L. Baily on the examples of Italian immigration in Argentina and New York. See: John MacDonald and Leatrice MacDonald, “Chain Migration, Ethnic Neighborhood and Social Networks,” The Milbank Memorial Fund Quarterly, (42, 1, 1964) 82-96. Samuel Baily, “Marriage Patterns and Immigrants Assimilation in Buenos Aires (1882-1923),” Hispanic American Historical Review (61, 1, 1980) 33-48. “Patrones de residencia de los italianos en Buenos Aires y Nueva York,” Estudios Migratorios Latinoamericanos (1, 1985) 8-47. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 45 of immigration its structure changes. If at the beginning immigration is the prerogative of merchants and sailors, by the 1850s immigration includes representatives of almost all social strata and professional occupations. However, the majority of immigrants are young unmarried men, sometimes starting at the age of twelve, who come from an urban milieu and in many cases possess a profession. The numbers of immigrant women are significantly lower than those of men. Male immigration, in all periods for which data is available, always exceeds eighty per cent of the total of immigrants. In most cases, women immigrate to reunite with family members (Yanez, Saltar con red 56-61). With the raising in 1827 of the Reglamento del Comercio Libre that limited the stay in the colonies to three years with an obligatory return to Spain, immigration becomes more stable. The state loses control over immigration after 1835, the year when the issuance of passports is delegated to local authorities. This liberalization opens doors to massive immigration. However, due to the absence of statistical data, it seems problematic to calculate the amounts of immigrating Catalans, and data quoted by researchers differ. Yanez uses the study by Perez Murillo who found in the Archivo General de Indias 2,475 embarkation licenses of Catalans who traveled to Cuba between 1800 and 1830. Most of them proceeded to the Indies to work in commerce and were demanded by a family member. Out of 4,249 Spaniards whose licenses were found in the Archive, the Catalans constitute 58.2 percent (Yanez 53). Based on this data, Yanez speculates that Catalan immigrants constitute 58.2 per cent of Spanish immigration between 1830 and 1835; 10.4 per cent in 1860 and 10.8 per Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 4 6 cent in 1861 (Saltar con red 53), while the population of Catalonia never exceeds 10 per cent of Spanish population.3 4 Yanez builds his hypothesis of the leading role of Catalans in the Spanish colonial enterprise in the first half of the nineteenth century on three factors that coincided in time: the weakening of the Spanish colonial system as the result of the revocation in 1827 of the Reglamento del Comercio Libre; the recovery of the Catalan merchant marine with the renovated strength of naval construction; and economic expansion in Cuba based on sugar production (Saltar con red 54). Since the late eighteenth century, Cuba presents exclusive opportunities for economic growth and development due to its flourishing sugar industry. The shifting of the world sugar production from the French colony of Saint-Domingue after the slave revolt of 1791, converted Cuba into the major sugar producing country in the world and created enormous opportunities for outstanding growth and development on the island. The steady growth of the Cuban sugar industry, on the one hand, and the continuation of the Spanish colonial dominion on the other, constitutes two major factors that add to the attractiveness of immigration. In the collective conscience of Spain and Catalonia, the continuous journeys back and forth of successful immigrants create an aura of relatively rapid wealth behind the counter of a comer store. 3 4 Maluquer de Motes gives the number of 8,703 Catalans residing in Cuba in 1859. According to Yanez’s calculation based on partial data offered by Jacobo de la Pezuela, the number of the Catalans residing in Cuba between 1858 and 1860 was of about 10,681, which represents 15.6 per cent of the “peninsulares,” immigrants from the Iberian Peninsula, and 9.1 of all Spanish immigrants (Saltar con red 84). Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 4 7 According to Yanez, there was no other peninsular group that possessed technical and professional capacities to benefit from the opportunities offered by customs duties protection to the Spanish merchant marine as the Catalans. By the 1850s, Catalonia had a merchant fleet with experienced crews and captains who knew very well the mechanisms of Atlantic commerce. Not only did they possess the know-how of navigation and commerce and had established representatives in the Caribbean ports since the beginning of the century, they also possessed social and cultural cohesion that allowed them to act as a group of interest. Maluquer de Motes, Yanez, and Moreno Fraginals insist on specific relations within the Catalan ethnic group in Cuba which add to the success of the immigrants. Cooperation and subordination, closely linked to cultural identity according to Yanez, distinguishes the Catalans from other competing groups (Saltar con red 91). According to the Cuban historian Moreno Fraginals, the Catalans constitute a differentiated ethnical group that preserved its distinct cultural identity in Cuban society, as opposed to all other Spaniards, denominated “peninsulares” in Cuba: El Catalan, a su llegada a Cuba, entraba en contacto con su grupo etnico diferenciado dentro de la poblacion peninsular en la Isla, que en la ideologia polftica era colonialista y en la dimension social asumfa los valores burgueses. Mediante la cohesion de los elementos regionales, la solidaridad etnica reforzaba la ideologia polftica y evitaba, o por lo menos entorpecfa, que el grupo Catalan se integrase en las subculturas del grupo criollo receptor. La fuerza del prejuicio hacia el negro y hacia el criollo los llevo a adoptar los marcos de referencia de la cultura de sus antepasados: es decir, afianzarse en sus rafces. Esta fue la razon del exito y la persistencia de la Sociedad Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 48 de la Beneficencia de Naturales de Cataluna, fundada en 1840 y que aun existe. El Catalan fue el unico grupo migratorio cuya herencia etnocultural sobregiro el concepto de lo espanol peninsular adquiriendo una connotacion especffica dentro de la sociedad. (Cuba/Espana 221) “Specific connotation” refers to the perception of Catalans in the Cuban society as merchants who create their well-being through years of hardships and hard work. The aura of the specialization in commerce and the wealth of the Catalans nurture the “legend” of Catalan prosperity in Cuba that gradually propagates in Catalonia and beyond it. Testimony of a specific position of Catalans in Cuban society can be found in various literary sources dating back to as early as the 1840s. The Countess of Merlin’s observation about Catalans as those who arrive to the island of Cuba without patrimony and create immense fortunes there— used as an epigraph to this chapter— is taken from her Viaie a La Habana first published in 1844. North American traveler John G. Wundermann, repeatedly quoted by Catalan researchers, also publishes his Notes on Cuba in 1844. He describes Cuban trade of the period as concentrated in the hands of the Catalans who are generally referred to as the “Spanish Jews:” [...] the sale of groceries and provisions is monopolized by Catalans. These latter, are an industrious, shrewd, economical class; and have, perhaps in consequence of these qualities, received their sobriquet of Spanish Jews, which can only be construed into a compliment to the Israelite. A large portion of the commerce of the island is in their hands, as well as a very great part of its wealth. In the interior of the island they appear to monopolize every branch of trading, from the pack of the humble pedlar to the Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 4 9 country tienda with its varied contents; and in the maritime towns, many a commercial house, whose ships cover the sea, is theirs. (42-43) The historical and sociological discourse of the last decades of the twentieth century continuously privileges the Catalans as the protagonists of immigration to the Caribbean colonies in the first half of the nineteenth century. It is repeatedly stressed that having started with merchant marine trafficking, the Catalans gradually diversify and increase their interests with the growth of their fortunes, and subsequently occupy a prominent position in the Spanish colonial elite of Cuba. This assertion leads Yanez to the following statement: “Es posible que sea una exageracion decir que Cuba y Puerto Rico fueron colonias catalanas mas que espanolas, pero en el siglo XIX no es desmedido afirmar que el colonialismo espanol no se hubiera sostenido igual sin el concurso de los catalanes” (Saltar con red 79). Maluquer de Motes not only stresses the importance of Catalan presence in Cuba during the first two thirds of the nineteenth century, but also points to the commercial specialization of this minority group and to their close connection with the economy of their native region: Aparece en forma dispersa en el territorio y concentrada en labores asociadas al desarrollo y financiacion de la plantation azucarera y de la economfa de exportation. Su principal dedication a la intermediation comercial se define en la creation de un mercado interior, complementario de los flujos de extraction del azucar y de intemacion de alimentos y manufacturados para el consumo interior. Un comportamiento compacto, de mutuo apoyo entre sus miembros, refleja, en fin, la pertenencia a una diaspora comercial asociada a las relaciones exteriores de la Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 5 0 economfa de su region de procedencia. (Nation e inmigracion 93) The collective perception of Catalans in Cuba as merchants is even reflected in Cuban idiomatic expressions. The word Catalan in nineteenth-century Cuba is used to signify the owner of a comer store. Fernando Ortiz’s Nuevo catauro de cubanismos (1974) offers the following definition of the word Catalan: Catalan. En Oriente, sinonimo de bodeguero. Antano fue sinonimo de “bodeguero”, modesto comerciante de vfveres, que entre nosotros es cabeza de turco de befas y bromas, como en Madrid el hortera. Por eso se canto la guaracha: A 1 pasar por un barranco, Grito un negrito bozal: ;Ay, mi Dio! Quien fuera branco, Aunque fuera Catalan!35 (132) In the first half of the nineteenth century, el Catalan also becomes one of the protagonists of Cuban comic theatre. Moreno Fraginals explains: El teatro bufo, que reflejo como ninguna otra manifestation artfstica la realidad cubana, hizo de “el Catalan” su personaje clave en contrapunto con “la mulata de rumbo” y “el negrito” sagaz y oportunista, que era una vision disimulada y despectiva del criollo. Fue necesaria la enorme migration del ultimo tercio del siglo XIX para que “el Catalan” fuese sustituido por “el gallego” en el teatro. (Cuba/Espana Espana/Cuba 221-22) In Catalonia, the prosperity of those who immigrate to Cuba and return with fortunes— americanos or indianos as they are denominated at home— gradually creates 35 This popular refrain is quoted virtually by every author who writes about the presence of Catalans in Cuba. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 51 an aura of legend nurtured initially by oral tradition and later through literary representations. In these literary representations, most of which are dramatic works, the figures of indianos3 6 or americanos are frequently associated with a slave trade that is condemned by the authors.3 7 In Catalonia, the myth of prosperity associated with immigration to Cuba is reinforced through the actual contribution of these returning immigrants to the material culture of Catalonia. Urban projects, T O railroads, public buildings, hospitals and private villas are built with the capital created in the colonies. Even today, the names of Josep Xifre, Salvador Sama, Panxo Marti, Antonio Lopez y Lopez, and Joan Giiell are still associated with the prosperity of Catalan financial capital in the second half of the nineteenth century, and are also directly linked to some landmarks of Barcelona and coastal towns of Catalonia.3 9 -5 Following the tradition started in the literature of the Spanish Golden Age, with such acclaimed contributors as Lope de Vega, the figure of indiano is a recurrent character in Spanish and Catalan narrative. On the figure of the indiano in Lope de Vega, see Jaime Martinez Tolentino, El indiano en las comedias de Lope de Vega, (Kassel: Reichenberger, 1991). 3 7 For a discussion of the figure of negrero in Catalan literature of the nineteenth century, see Josep Fradera, “La figura del negre i del negrer en la literatura catalana del XIX,” “Dossier.” L’Avenq 75 (1984): 56-61. o o It is constantly stressed throughout the works devoted to Catalan participation in Spain’s colonial enterprise that the first railroad in Spain between Barcelona and Mataro was built with the capital created in Cuba. It happens in 1848, while the first railroad in Cuba is built in 1837. 3 9 For a discussion of the architecture of indianos or americanos see Imma Julian, Cristina Cadafalch and Carmen Grandas, “Academicisme i modemitat en l’arquitectura dels indians a Catalunya,” V Jomades d’Estudis Catalanos-Americans. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 5 2 In the pioneering work that opens the discussion of the role of Catalonia in the Spanish colonial enterprise, “La burguesfa catalana i la esclavitud colonial: modes de produccio i practica polftica,” Maluquer de Motes shows that exceptional wealth and prosperity, which led to the creation of powerful financial institutions as Banco Hispano Colonial in 1876, the General Tobacco Company of the Philippines and the Transatlantic Company— all three the property of Antonio Lopez y Lopez, the Marquis of Comillas, who establishes his headquarters in Barcelona after returning from Cuba— could hardly be reached behind the counter of a comer store. For centuries, slave trade represented an incomparable source of wealth because of its profits. The Spaniards join it later than other nations, but they manage to profit from it probably longer than their colleagues from countries where strong Protestant abolition movements manage to put an end to the infamous trade at the beginning of the nineteenth century. Historians and investigators who write about the participation of the inhabitants of the Peninsula, and particularly of the Catalans, in the slave trade agree that it is inseparable from the whole complex of commerce based on and serving the interests of the growing Cuban sugar industry. In El Ingenio (1964), Moreno Fraginals explores the development of Cuban sugar industry as based completely on servile labor. However, the Spaniards and the Catalans join the trade later than the (Barcelona, 1993) 225-233. Jaime Aymar Ragolta, “La huella americana en Barcelona,” Barcelona, puerta europea de America (Barcelona. 1993) 183-201. “Americanos” “Indianos”: arquitectura i urbanisme al Garraf, Penedes i Tarragones (Baix Gaia), segles XVIII-XX, ( Vilanova i la Geltru, 1998). Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 5 3 Portuguese, the Dutch, the French and the English. Maluquer de Motes and later Fradera explain this delay by the fact that the Spanish colonial system until the end of the eighteenth century was based almost exclusively on indigenous labor. With the major shift of sugar industry from Saint Domingue to Cuba and Puerto Rico after 1791, and with the devastation of indigenous population in the Spanish Caribbean, the constant bringing of labor hands becomes a necessity. The policy of plantation owners in Cuba was to bring male slaves capable of enduring the hard work required at the plantations. As a consequence, lack of procreation leads to a constant necessity of new import of slaves from Africa. Fradera sees in it one of the reasons for a certain symbiosis between traders and plantation owners (“Catalunya i Cuba” 42). The Real Orden of January 25, 1780, authorizes all Spanish subjects to participate in slave trade from Spain or any other neutral country. The authorization is legal until September 22, 1817, when Spain and Great Britain sign a treaty, which definitely prohibits slave trade and establishes a transition period until 1820. However, as it has happened many times in history, the prohibition leads to an even stronger activity and bigger profits. Catalan participation in the trade and African traffic, started legally in the last decades of the eighteenth century, is consolidated between 1810 and 1820, and achieves its maximum strength and efficiency at the beginning of the forties, after which it gradually declines (Moreno Fraginals, El Ingenio 262-269; Fradera, “Catalunya i Cuba” 42-47). Fradera calculates that during thirty years of legal trafficking between 1789 and 1820, 146 Catalan ships Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 5 4 transported a total of 30,696 slaves to Cuba, which constitutes 15.08 percent of all slaves brought legally to the island and 21.74 percent of slaves brought under Spanish colors (“La participacio catalana” 124). The prohibition of traffic critically changes its organization. Maluquer de Motes, Moreno Fraginals, and Sola show that it is concentrated in the hands of powerful negreros such as Salvador Sama, Panxo Marti, Pau Forcade, Josep Marfa Borrell, and Miquel Pous.4 0 On the other hand, Maluquer de Motes and Fradera argue that not only the financial empires of Antonio Lopez y Lopez or Salvador Sama, but also many other small or medium Catalan fortunes, have their origin in Catalan trade tightly linked to slave trade. The enormous profitability of the slave trade is a major factor of attractiveness for the continuation of business after the legal prohibition. Catalan ships set sail from coastal cities carrying such traditional exports as wine, brandy, wax, and dried fruit, and they follow the triangular route stopping at African coasts to pick up the “cargo” of Africans, victims of endless intertribal wars. From there, the live cargo, which after 1820 is called “bags” or “coal” in log books, proceed to Cuban ports, most frequently to Havana. According to Maluquer de Motes and Fradera, the most important contribution of traffic to the Catalan economy should be examined from the perspective of its integration into Catalan exterior trade. From the first 4 0 See Jordi Maluquer de Motes, “La burguesfa catalana i la esclavitud colonial: modes de produccio i practica polftica,” Recerques 3 (1974), 83-136. Manuel Moreno Fraginals, El ingenio: Compleio economico social cubano del azucar (La Habana: Ciencias Sociales, 1978) 262-69. A. Sola, “Tres notes entom les actituds i valors de l’alta burgesia barcelonina a mitjan segle XIX,” Quaderns de flnstitut Catala d’Antropologia 3-4. (1981): 123. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 55 expeditions to African coasts, the profits of slave trade become a fundamental means to compensate for the losses incurred on Catalan American commerce by the saturation of colonial markets and rivalry with other merchant marines, as well as by the raising of freight and insurance costs as the result of insurgent privateering. On the other hand, the benefits of overseas trade, in which Cuba played a key role, compensate the permanent deficit of Catalan trade during the nineteenth century generated by expensive imports of European manufactures, energy resources, machinery and food which could not be compensated by interchange with the Spanish interior market. Catalan foreign trade, in contrast to other Spanish foreign trade, was based on two poles, colonial and American trade on the one hand, and European trade on the other. The Africans constitute one of the major items of American commerce after wine. Traffic, on the one hand, is a source of profits for a vast circle of Catalan commerce, on the other, is a decisive factor in maintaining a complex system of exterior relations (Fradera, “Catalunya i Cuba” 46-47). The participation of Catalans in the colonial enterprise and slave trade, which is represented as an inseparable part of this enterprise, becomes the subject of a multifaceted discussion in Catalan society at the end of the twentieth century. As I already mentioned, the Comissio Catalana del Cinque Centenari del Descobriment d’America organizes five Jomades d’Estudis Catalanos-Americans from 1985 to 1993. In 1984 the magazine of historic studies L’Aveny publishes a set of articles about the involvement of the Catalans in slave trade under the title “Dossier.” Fradera’s “Catalunya i Cuba en el segle XIX: el comerg d’esclaus,” which I broadly Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 5 6 quote, is part of this “Dossier.” In the same magazine, Armengou offers an overview of the iconography of some Catalan negrero ships from the funds of the Maritime Museum of Barcelona. Rovira Fors, Director of the Parrish Archive of Canet de Mar, in an article about the brigantine “Tellus” built in Canet de Mar and used for slave trafficking, offers his perspective on the participation of Catalans in the slave trade. The author comes from a family of “veritable sea wolves” who, in the nineteenth century, engaged in all types of maritime labor from fishing to coastal sailing or trading. According to this author, the participation in slave expeditions, which was difficult to resist for their great profitability, required certain “heroism” on behalf of the participants because of the numerous difficulties and perils that this type of ventures involved for their participants. Rovira Fons also argues that the treatment of Africans by their transporters was not always as brutal and inhuman as described in some works of fiction and film: Existf, malauradament, un comportament infrahuman en alguns capitans i tripulacions, pero hi hague-a part de raons humanitaries i etiques que, en alguns casos i encara minimament, deurien funcionar-un interes logic i raonable a no malmetre la “mercaderia”, i es procurava evitar morts i malalties i que els negres no arribessin fets malbe als ports de destf. (54) This perspective explicitly seems to be seeking acquittal for the deeds of the past, but it also evokes a traditional discourse towards slave traffic, called in the log books of negrero ships “comercio de ebano,” black wood commerce. As early as in 1926, Arturo Masriera points out that there are two types of discourse about Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 5 7 negreros. Some authors represent them as “humanitarians” who care for their merchandise in order to profit from it: Puestos en el piano de un dulce optimismo, anaden estos autores que el negro, al poner el pie en un buque negrero, era alimentado, cuidado y atendido, con solicitud, sino caritativa, por lo menos utilitaria, ya que su valor en el proximo mercado, dependfa del estado de nutrition, salud y lozama con que llegase al mercado. Y asf, las duchas, las danzas y conciertos, la alimentation sana y abundante, y hasta las lecciones de lectura y escritura, no faltaban a bordo de los buques negreros. (152) Masriera points further to the reverse side of the discourse about the overseas fleet that condemns all sailors as ruthless negreros. This type of discourse, according to Masriera, starts with their representation in Heinrich Heine’s poetry that was translated into Catalan in 1878, Antoni Altadill’s Barcelona v sus misterios,4 1 and finally, Las inquietudes de Shanti Andfa by Pfo Baroja (153-154).4 2 The publication 4 1 In the novel Barcelona y sus misterios (1860) by Antoni Altadill, the protagonist is a young republican deported to Cuba by the Principato’s authorities. In a mixture of a mystery and adventure novel reminiscent of Eugene Sue, he is shipwrecked and saved by a ship that transports slaves. Thus the young idealistic protagonist gets in contact with the brutal world of the slave trade. The figure of the captain of the ship, a brutal negrero who sells the protagonist into a ten-year slavery in Africa, is contrasted to the idealism of the protagonist. According to Fradera, the figure of the captain evokes the figure of Pedro Blanco, an infamous Spanish negrero (“La figura del negre” 59). 4 2 At the same time, one may turn to El Ingenio by Moreno Fraginals, who quotes the report to the Real Consulado compiled by the officers of the port of Havana— among them doctor Tomas Romay— about the condition in which the Africans arrive to Cuba during the period between 1808 and 1820. Moreno Fraginals characterizes this period as a transition period from British to Spanish trafficking. As an example, the Cuban historian mentions a trip by a Spanish frigate Amistad that took on board seven hundred thirty three slaves in Africa and lost five Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 58 by Rovira Fons seems to be indicative of a desire to understand and not judge the past from today’s perspective. One can also view this publication of the time of renewed assertion of Catalan identity at the time of the transition to democracy in Spain as one of the sources that continue to nurture the construction of Catalan identity tightly linked to maritime culture: Ser navegant era el rol i la sortida brillant en la vida d’aquell temps. Una generacio de navegants- agosarada i valenta. Tambe ho foren, anys mes tard, els “americanos”o “indianos”; un alter tipus de vida i d’aventura relacionada amb America i el mar. La generacio dels “americanos” constitui'ren el veritable suport a la nissaga de fabricants i empresaris de 1 ’epoca industrial. (55) Another aspect of Catalan colonial involvement alongside the participation in the slave trade, as maintained in the historical discourse of the late twentieth century, is an emphasis on important positions in the Spanish colonial administration occupied by some prominent Catalan merchants, bankers, industrials and landowners in Cuba and Puerto Rico. In consequence, as Yanez points out, Catalan bourgeoisie becomes a natural ally of the Spanish colonial authorities and major beneficiary of the Spanish colonial system (Saltar con red 82). Catalan historians show the grounds hundred forty five during the trip that lasted for fifty-two days. The surviving one hundred eighty eight presented such a deplorable picture that it provoked wrath in doctor Romay who gave them vaccination upon arrival to Havana (264). The frigate Amistad. called schooner in some sources, seemingly continues its infamous business into the late 1830s. The revolt of Africans on board of the Amistad in 1839 becomes a significant event for the American judicial system. In 1997, the story of Amistad becomes the subject of an opera, with music by Anthony Davis and libretto by Thulani Davis, and of an acclaimed film produced by Steven Spielberg in 1998. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 59 for the unanimous colonialist positions of the Catalan bourgeoisie during the nineteenth century. The decade of the 1860s is marked by the weakening of Catalan immigration to Cuba, on the one hand, and by the development of Catalan industrial capital, on the other. In the Catalan discourse of the late twentieth century, following the ideas of Vicens Vives and Vilar, nineteenth-century Catalonia is represented as a center that accumulates financial capitals generated in the colonies. The growing accumulation in Catalonia of financial capital created in the colonies is so strong that in the 1870s it provokes a fear among the contemporaries of converting Cuba into a Catalan “factory.”4 3 The end of the nineteenth century may be viewed as the third period of Catalan overseas involvement. Catalan historiography explores a whole set of factors which affect the changes that characterize participation of the Catalans in the colonial venture at the end of the nineteenth century. One of these factors is the 4 3 Cesar Yanez quotes documents published by Ines Roldan de Montaud in La Hacienda en Cuba durante la guerra de diez anos (1868-1880) testifying to the controversy provoked by the creation of such financial giant as Banco Hispano- Colonial in Barcelona in 1876: “Desde el 1 de noviembre [1876] el delegado del Banco [Hispano-Colonial] en La Habana, [...] quedaba en posesion de recaudacion de las rentas de aduana. Desde aquel momento, y en tanto durase el contrato, todos los productos obtenidos en las mismas quedaban a disposicion del delegado. La sociedad nombro una serie de agentes en las diversas aduanas para fiscalizar las operaciones. Podia nombrar tambien los auxiliares que creyese oportunos para que la contabilidad de aduanas se llevase al dfa y con exactitud. Tenfa tambien derecho a proponer el ministro de Ultramar el cese de cualquier empleado de aduanas y el nombramiento de otros nuevos[...] Con aquellas atribuciones en el nombramiento de empleados se coma el riesgo— dirfa uno de los Diputados que mas se opuso a la ratification del contrato en las Cortes— ‘de convertir aquello en una factorfa comercial reducida al punto en donde tuviera el domicilio el prestamista,’ habfa el peligro de que Cuba llegara a ser pura y simplemente una factorfa catalana con perjuicio del resto de la nation y de la isla misma.” (qtd in Saltar con red 50) Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 6 0 crisis of Catalan shipping companies that did not manage to shift successfully to the new maritime technologies brought into practice with steamships in the late sixties.4 4 The obsolete sail shipping technology, together with the growing abolitionist movement in Spain, lead to the loss of profitability in the traffic,4 5 and as a consequence of all overseas commerce. Another crucial factor is the “cotton hunger” provoked by the Civil War in the United States, which leads to the temporal stagnation of the Catalan textile industry and the subsequent crash of the Barcelona stock exchange in 1866. However, the crucial event for the relationship between the metropolis and the “loyal colony” is the first war for Cuban independence (1868- 1878), the following years of instability, and the colony’s final rupture with the metropolis in 1898. 4 4 See Raymond Carr’s analysis of Catalan society in Spain: 1808— 1975: “[T]he relatively large class of ship owners, a striking element in Barcelona society and throughout the Catalan littoral in the fifties and sixties, had gone by 1898. As was their habit, Catalan protectionists blamed its disappearance on the refusal of the Madrid government to protect ‘national’ shipping; in fact most Catalan shippers lacked the capital to finance the change from sail to steam” (435). 4 5 A known case of an attempt at continuing slave traffic is the case of Pere Mas i Roig, a captain from the coastal town of Vilassar de Mar in the province of Barcelona. Known under the nickname “El Pigat” (The Freckled), Mas i Roig makes a failed attempt at slave trafficking with a steamship right before the Glorious Revolution of 1868 (Masriera 160, Fradera “Catalunya i Cuba” 44). The figure of El Pigat deserves special mention. In 1998, his native town chooses him and his legendary mistress La Lucfa, a mulatto woman allegedly brought by him from the Caribbean, to be the prototypes for the gigantic figures that represent their town during annual festival processions, festes majors (see fig. 5). Mas i Roig is also one of the protagonists of the three part documentary Retrats d’indians produced by the Catalan network TV-3 and first aired on July 11, 18 and 25, 2001. We will discuss the representation of El Pigat and La Lucfa in Chapter Two while exploring the representation of the relationship between Catalan men and Cuban women in the cultural imaginary of Catalonia. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 61 With the war and the changes in the economic situation of Spain and Cuba, the structure of immigration transforms itself. In Cuba, voluntary immigration, motivated by factors of attractiveness, is replaced by a massive arrival of soldiers recruited by the Spanish government or participating in the volunteer troops. During the years of the wars in Cuba between 1868 and 1899, many immigrants remigrate to the United States, New Orleans in particular. The financial capital, however, as Vicens Vives argues, tends to return to Catalonia, thus leading to the creation of prosperous industries in Catalonia based on financial capital generated in the colonies (Noticia de Cataluna 47). The names of Lopez y Lopez, Xifre i Casas, Salvador Sama i Torrents, Fontanals, Canela i Raventos and others4 6 are associated both with overseas trade and with Catalan financial capital. Maluquer de Motes argues, however, that not only the above mentioned financial giants but also small merchants, owners of bodegas, ship owners and officials return to Catalonia with relatively important fortunes (“La burguesfa catalana” 112). According to Raymond Carr, by 1894, sixty percent of the Catalan export trade was to Cuba. Therefore the loss of the colony seemed to threaten economic disaster in Catalonia (Spain 397). Financial interests of the Catalan conservative bourgeoisie deeply rooted in Cuba lead to their loyalty and defense of Spanish A n colonial interests. The defense of protectionism, which in Spain meant the 4 6 An extended list can be found in Maluquer de Motes, “La burguesfa catalana i la esclavitud colonial: modes de produccio i practica polftica” (Recerques, 3, 1974) 112. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 6 2 prohibition of imports, especially textile, from other countries while in Cuba gave tax privileges to Spanish merchants, becomes “the creed of Catalonia” in the words of Carr (Spain 201). The Catalan bourgeoisie viciously protects its interests in Cuba. One of its ideologists is Joan Giiell i Ferrer, a successful proprietor and entrepreneur, whose fortune created in Cuba was invested in Catalonia. He is the founder of the dynasty that later, at the beginning of the twentieth century, patronizes the work of Antoni Gaudf in Barcelona, including the Parc Giiell. A man of many talents, Giiell i Ferrer publishes a number of pamphlets, which clearly express the positions of the Catalan bourgeoisie of the time, and put him into a position of a strong defender of integral protectionism and, as a consequence, of the Spanish colonial system. Maluquer de Motes quotes the pamphlet “Rebelion Cubana,” published by Giiell i Ferrer in 1871, in which the latter argues that Cuban independence was not only unjustified, but also “not convenient” for Cuba. According to Giiell i Ferrer, the vast majority of Cuban revolutionaries were adventurers and people without fortune “que tenfan horror al trabajo y escesivo (sic) amor a los goces, y quieren obtenerlos pronto y sin fatiga” (qtd. in “La burguesfa catalana i la esclavitud colonial” 114). The Catalan bourgeoisie was willing to pay the price of maintaining Spanish troops in 4 7 For more details on protectionism and Catalonia see Carr’s Spain: 1808- 1975: “Catalan industrials had long been protectionists, but it was the revolutionary change to doctrinaire free trade in the budget of 1869— the handiwork of a Catalan, Figuerola— which brought them into a prolonged and bitter agitation. The demand for the restoration of protection became, in the seventies and eighties, the demand of all classes in Catalonia. Backed by the most powerful pressure group in modem Spain, the Fomento del Trabajo Nacional, the crusade was preached with all the moral overtones characteristic of the early free traders” (539). Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 6 3 Cuba. Carr mentions such groups of powerful interests as the agriculturalists of the Institute of San Isidro and the industrialists of the Fomento del Trabajo Nacional, who set up a “Permanent Commission for the Defense of Spanish Interests in Cuba” (Spain 309). Moreno Maso mentions that Catalan financial moguls invested 39,150 pesos duros. a substantial amount for the time, to finance the so-called Voluntary Battalions. The list of sponsors opens with the name of Antonio Lopez y Lopez,4 8 whose company, the famous Compania Transatlantica, will carry Spanish troops to Cuba during the war, and contains the names of other outstanding financial figures such as Salvador Sama i Torrents, Josep M. Sarra and Joan Jover i Serra, whose capitals are directly connected to Cuba. Public opinion and the press conduct a vast recruiting campaign. Moreno Maso quotes a promotional leaflet designed to present the campaign as a short-term triumphant war against “the corrupted children of the mother country:” “alia en Cuba, hijos espureos de la Madre Patria, raza degenerada y corrompida, asestan sus punales contra los buenos espanoles con la mas perfida ingratitud, la mas infame rebelion. Los Batallones de Voluntarios Catalanes volveran victoriosos, cubiertos de gloria y vuestras madres os recibiran orgullosas” (60-61). The participation in the Voluntary Battalions is represented by the military propaganda of the time as an advantage over being recruited to the regular army, for 48 The protagonism of Lopez y Lopez in the creation of Catalan industrial capital based on colonial trade has become an icon of the links uniting Catalonia and overseas colonies. The controversy and the revelation of Lopez y Lopez’s involvement in slave traffic are in the center of attention since the first openly critical biography written by his brother-in-law Francisco Bru in 1885. See La verdadera vida de Antonio Lopez i Lopez, por su cunado Francisco Bru (Barcelona: Leodegario Obradors, 1885). Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 6 4 their substantially higher salary and an opportunity to emigrate at the state’s expense. It is especially attractive for those who lose their jobs because of the stagnation of cotton and railway construction industries in Catalonia at the time. The Spanish goal of formally maintaining Cuba as its colony was achieved after nine and a half years of devastating guerrilla warfare in a tropical climate where infectious diseases, insects and climatic conditions were the natural and undoubted allies of the mambises, the Cuban insurrects. Specifically, the case of the Voluntary Battalions, according to Moreno Maso, is exceptionally tragic. None of those few who returned ever received any of the promised benefits. Moreno Maso quotes a letter written in 1895 shortly before the beginning of the new war to the members of the Union, a charitable association created in 1892 to help improve the deplorable life conditions of the former voluntaries: [Cjonocidas son todas las penalidades sufridas en aquel mortffero clima, como lo atestigua el sencillo dato de que de los 3.600 hombres que partieron, sanos robustos llenos de vida, solo resta el oxfgeno de 160, cargados de achaques y enfermedades a consecuencia de aquella Guerra civil que duro nueve anos y medio [...] (qtd. in Moreno Maso 75) However, the Ten Year War was only a prologue to the Disaster of 1898, as the loss of the colonies in Cuba, Puerto Rico and the Philippines at the price of thousands of lives of young Spaniards is called in the history of Spain. The Disaster had specific repercussions in Catalonia. The weakening of the Spanish state and its inability to maintain the empire on the one hand, and thousands of lost lives and crippled soldiers returning home from an involuntary “trip” to the former colonies on Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 6 5 the other, create conditions for a nationalistic rupture of Catalonia from the Spanish state. Catalanism, which is seen by some today’s scholars as part of Regeneracionismo,4 9 a movement of the intelligentsia that called for the regeneration of Spain, saw in the Cuban defeat a foreseeable outcome of the secular faulty politics of centralism imposed by the Spanish state. On the other hand, there was a structural change inside the Catalan nationalistic forces. Until the loss of Cuba, while the substantial forces of the Catalan bourgeoisie were strongly supportive of the colonial politics of the Spanish Empire, it was impossible to advocate for Catalan self- government while denying it to Cuba. But by 1899, as Balcells points out, the Catalan high bourgeoisie was more willing to listen to the regionalist and regenerationalist message of the radical Catalan nationalists. This alliance between the intellectuals and the financial capital will lead to the strengthening of the nationalist movement.5 0 In the words of Raymond Carr, “Catalanism could no longer be neglected: it was to dominate and distort Spanish politics for the next half century” (Spain 538). The historical and sociological publications overviewed in this chapter appear at the time of the renewed assertion of Catalonia as a nation with a strong maritime tradition that has its roots in the medieval domination in the Mediterranean. Through the discourse that foregrounds the participation of the Catalans in the colonial 4 9 See Conversi p.26. 5 0 For a discussion of the Catalan Nationalism and of its relationship with the Disaster see Dfez Medrano 94-105; Conversi 25-27. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 66 enterprise that includes the infamous slave trade, Catalonia strives to assert its place among the colonial and imperial powers of Europe even though it does not historically possess colonies or constitute an Empire. In the chapters that follow I will explore how the historical and sociological discourse about Catalan involvement in Cuba is articulated and reinforced in the last decades of the twentieth century through popular musical culture, film and fiction. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Chapter Two 6 7 Transculturations of the Habanera I: Transatlantic Journeys En Cuba tierra hermosa del ardiente sol, bajo su cielo azul, adorable triguena entre todas sus flores la reina eres til (“Tu,” lyrics by Feman Sanchez, c. 1894) Tecla se llamo la mulata que yo camelaba con sal. De la mismita Habana la pobre Teclita era natural. (“Tecla,” anonymous, no date) The epigraphs to this chapter are taken from two habaneras that are sung to the same music created by the Cuban composer Eduardo Sanchez de Fuentes in 1890. “Tu,” with lyrics by Feman Sanchez, became extremely popular during the turbulent time when Cuba fought for its independence from Spain and is perhaps the most famous of the Cuban habaneras. “Tecla,” sung in Catalonia to the same melody by Sanchez de Fuentes with the lyrics by an anonymous author, is traditionally perceived as an intrinsic part of Catalan folklore of the twentieth century. The transformation of the Cuban habanera “Tu” into the Catalan “Tecla” and the processes underlying it make one think of the continuation of the complex Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 68 phenomenon of mutual influence and fusion of cultures, defined by the Cuban scholar Fernando Ortiz as “transculturation.” The habanera, a cultural sign whose very name invokes its overseas origin, is claimed by the Catalans at the end of the twentieth century as one of the emblems of their cultural identity. The privileging of the habanera in the discourse about Catalan culture is explicitly stated in the habaneras created in recent decades in Catalonia. Among the examples that we will discuss in Chapter Three, one can quote the habanera “El mar i la patria” by Antonia Vilas, which explicitly points out the singing of the habanera as a sign of Catalan identity: I mentre feinegen, la mar juganera bressola la barca i els seus tripulants entonen alegres un cant d’havanera que deixa entreveure que son Catalans. (Mar endins 70). At the end of the nineteenth century, however, the habanera is generally perceived as a trademark of a “larger” Spanishness when European composers Bizet, Debussy, Saint Saenz, Lalo, Ravel, Laparra among others, repeatedly return to it in their works dedicated to Spain. Virtually forgotten in Cuba, the habanera continues its life in Spain, from where its roots were once transplanted into the musically fertile Cuban cultural soil. In Catalonia, in the last decades of the twentieth century, the habanera, traditionally perceived as a legacy of colonial times, strives with new subjects and in a new language, Catalan. The habanera may well be a moveable cultural sign whose constant permutations lead to the creation of new cultural forms and meanings. The exploration of the habanera as a cultural sign highly relevant for Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 6 9 Catalan cultural identity can be pursued from a double perspective. In this chapter, I will take a closer look at a long-standing debate about its origins, comparable perhaps only to the debate about the origins of its closest musical relative, the tango. I will also discuss the ways of the transmission of the habanera that may be directly connected to Spain’s colonial expansion and to the participation of the Catalans in the colonial enterprise. I believe that the exploration of the discourse about the origins and the ways of transmission of the habanera will help to support my thesis of the significance of the songs that evoke the lost tropical paradise for the cultural imaginary of Catalonia and for the construction of its cultural identity. In Chapter Three, I will explore the transculturation of the habanera as a cultural sign in Catalonia in the twentieth century as it becomes one of the emblems of Catalan cultural identity. “Transculturation” is an important concept in the discussion of the habanera. Still difficult to find in dictionaries and encyclopedias of the English language, it is defined by Encarta World English Dictionary as “the change in a culture brought about by the diffusion within it of elements from other cultures.” The concept of transculturation was coined by the Cuban scholar Fernando Ortiz whose interests lay in a broad field of sciences that included anthropology, history, criminology, ethnography, lexicography and music, among other disciplines. In Contrapunteo cubano del tabaco v el azucar (1940),5 1 Ortiz introduces the term “transculturation” 5 1 The first English edition was published in 1947. Both editions were preceded by a favorable Introduction by Bronislaw Malinowski, one of the most Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 7 0 and opposes it to already existing concept of “acculturation.” Seemingly focusing on the transculturation of tobacco and sugar, two crucial elements that originate in Cuba and conquer the world as a kind of “guilty” pleasures, Ortiz transposes the concept of transculturation to the analysis of a broad range of cultural elements that constitute the formation of Cuban nation and culture. Discussing the history of Cuba as the history of “intermeshed transculturations,” Ortiz reflects on the contribution of each cultural group that participated in the formation of the Cuban nation. The Spaniards, one of major contributing sources, according to him, were representatives of different cultures and themselves “tom loose” from Iberian Peninsula and “transplanted to a New World, where everything was new to them, nature and people, and where they had to readjust themselves to a new syncretism of cultures” (98). Ortiz considers his neologism, “transculturation,” to be more appropriate to describe the complex processes that lie underneath the creation of the new cultures of the colonial world than “acculturation” because it not only transfers the meaning of an acquisition of another culture, as does the term acculturation, but it also identifies other processes inseparable from the formation of nations and cultures in the colonial and postcolonial history. Among these processes he mentions “deculturation,” a loss of an uprooted culture, and “neoculturation,” “the consequent creation of new prominent figures in American anthropology of the time. Malinowski embraced the term transculturation and promised to use it “constantly and loyally” whenever he had occasion to do so (lvii). However, Fernando Coronil in his Introduction to the Duke University Press Edition of Cuban Counterpoint: Tobacco and Sugar (1995) discusses the undercurrents lying beneath the apparent amicability of Malinowski, making a specific point that the latter hardly ever used this term, and Ortiz’s necessity to recur to his authority. I quote the Duke UP 1995 edition. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 71 cultural phenomena” (102-3). Reading Ortiz’s work in the twenty-first century, one cannot help seeing that the convergence of cultures, a process far from being simple, leads to constant metamorphosis of cultural signs— indeed, transculturations,— which do not stop with the formation of new nations and cultures of the colonial and postcolonial world, but continue into the twenty first century.5 2 One can see that Ortiz emphasizes the creativity of cultural unions that give birth to new cultural forms. In order to introduce his neologism, and probably being conscious of the limited range of readers that he can achieve in his Spanish-language work, Ortiz recurs to the authority of Bronislaw Malinowski. The latter postulates that “the result of every union of cultures is similar to that of the reproductive process between individuals: the offspring always has something of both parents but is always different from each of them” (102-3). Ortiz applies the concept of the constant creation of cultural phenomena not only to Cuban, but also to all Latin American reality bom as a product of the hybridity of converging cultures. The habanera may be a very good example of transculturation that continues into the twenty-first century. Born in the process of the transculturation that took place in Cuba during the decades of the growth of the society, “formed by the sugar,” in the words of Moreno Fraginals, it crosses the Atlantic and retumes to the Iberian Peninsula from where its roots were once transplanted into the New World. The assimilation of the habanera by the Catalans as a sign of their cultural identity makes 5 2 The concept and the theory of transculturation in recent decades has been widely applied to cultural and literary studies. See, for example, Angel Rama, Transcuturacion narrativa en la America Latina (Mexico 1982). Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 7 2 one want to explore in detail the intriguing story of the origins of the habanera, a permutable cultural sign. In 1946, Alejo Carpentier publishes La musica en Cuba, which he himself considers to be the first history of Cuban music (14). In this book, Carpentier argues two concepts crucial for the story of the habanera: the creation of new musical forms in Cuba as the result of the contact of three cultures that constitute Cuban reality, and the significance of Cuban musical culture for the world. Carpentier emphasizes the transformation that the dances brought from the Iberian Peninsula with the immigrants undergo in America and the new character that they acquire as the result of their contact with the African and the mestizo cultures on the Cuban soil. He also stresses their reverse route to Europe in the form of a novelty: Modificadas en el tempo, en los movimientos, enriquecidas por gestos y figuras de origen africano, solfan hacer el viaje inverso, regresando al punto de partida con caracteres de novedad. Tambien nacfan, en el calor de los puertos, bailes que no eran sino reminiscencias de danzas africanas, desposefdas de su lastre ritual. Pero America, en el perfodo de formation de sus pueblos, dio mucho mas de lo que recibio. (62) The story of the habanera with its overwhelming success on both sides of the Atlantic supports Carpentier’s conviction that America gave much more than it received. The hypothesis that I propose suggests that transculturation, as formulated by Ortiz, goes far beyond the formation of colonial cultures and has its boomerang effect on the cultural identity of nations whose role in the initial transculturation cannot be underestimated. The phenomenon of the Catalan habanera, booming, as it Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 7 3 were, in the last four decades of the twentieth century, and into the twenty-first, can be seen both as a vehicle and as a product of transculturation, a process that continues to create new cultural forms and identities, which I explore in this dissertation. The habanera, whose very name is a reminder of its exotic origin in the capital of Spain’s “beloved” colony,5 3 is bom as the result of the encounter of three major elements that constitute Cuban cultural hybridity: Spanish melodies and dances that arrive in the colony with the colonizers; African musical culture brought in with the slaves; and the remnants of the Antillean indigenous cultures. By the end of the nineteenth century, it becomes popular in the “New” and in the “Old” World. The popularity of the habanera at the end of the nineteenth century can only be compared to that of its closest musical relative, the tango, some decades later. The origin of both musical forms, the habanera and the tango, seems to be the prevalent topic in most research about these two musical phenomena with identical rhythmical characteristics, a parallel history and significant cultural repercussions not only for their spaces of origin but also, due to their universal appeal and popularity, for a global cultural space. The origins of the habanera provoke discussions and polemics long before Carpentier’s book, in which the habanera receives particular attention from the very first pages. Spanish composer and musicologist Felipe Pedrell (1841-1922), French 5 3 For Nicolas Slonimsky, habanera means “Havana air” (57). Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 74 musicologist D’Harcourt, Cuban composer Eduardo Sanchez de Fuentes, author of the habanera “Tu,” German ethnomusicologist Albert Friedenthal (1862-1921), Argentinean music scholar Carlos Vega discuss the habanera as a significant part of Cuban and Latin American musical culture. Cuban musician Natalio Gal an in his book Cuba y sus sones5 4 (1983) offers a concise overview of various approaches to the origins of the habanera. According to Galan, “a la habanera se le han adjudicado los orfgenes mas diversos e incongruentes que una pesadilla historica pueda sonar en noche de tradiciones confusas o endilgadas tesis huidizas” (225). As Galan points out, Pedrell associated the nostalgic rhythm with the Basque zortzico, while D’Harcourt believed that the rhythm belonged to the music of the Incas, and even of the ancient Asian cultures. Sanchez de Fuentes found its ancestors in the Cuban pre- Columbian music, fiercely and tellingly denying the African elements in it, while the Argentinean musicologist Carlos Vega also places it before the discovery of the Americas, observing that this specific rhythm can be found in the Cancionero de palacio.5 5 Friedenthal imputes it to the Antillean Negroes, while Ballanta-Taylor 5 4 Natalio Galan (Cuba, 1917 - New Orleans, 1984) was a musician and a researcher. According to Guillermo Cabrera Infante who wrote a prologue with a provocative title “Una historia inaudita” to Galan’s book, the latter was hired by Carpentier as the principal researcher for his book La musica en Cuba, published in 1946 (Prologo xviii). Carpentier acknowledges Galan’s help in the transcription of some of Sala’s scores (14). Galan’s book may be read as a history of Cuban musical culture. Perhaps due to Galan’s situation of a political exile in the USA, his work remains unnoticed by the official Cuban musicology. 5 5 Galan refers to El Cancionero de palacio, a collection of 450 polyphonic compositions that represent a broad spectrum of the lyrics of various regions of Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 7 5 agrees with him illustrating it with numerous musical examples of African-American music. Sanchez de Fuentes negates African influence, arguing that the slave rhythm did not uproot in the Cuban folklore (225). Carpentier, who supports the African influence on Cuban musical culture, explains Sanchez de Fuentes’s position as a reflection of a general racist attitude of the Cuban society of the first years of the republic (La musica 286). Some authors, however, believe that the rhythm of the habanera, present in El Cancionero de palacio points out to the arrival of the rhythm to the Americas as early as at the time of the discovery and conquest. For Galan, the habanera is not only a Cuban-born genre but also the representation of the Cuban cultural identity. Apparently unsatisfied with the definitions of the habanera in encyclopedias and dictionaries, Galan offers his own allegoric definition of the habanera, “con N, jamas con N”5 7 (240). Comparing the habanera to Cecilia Valdes, the mulatto protagonist of Cirilo Villaverde’s novel Cecilia Valdes o La Loma del Angel, he projects the metaphor of hybridity associated with the racial syncretism of Cuban nation on the habanera as a cultural sign and emphasizes the “mestizaje” of its Spain of the Reconquista period found in the library of Madrid Royal Palace in 1870 and first published in 1890. 5 6 Linares discusses the arguments of the defenders of the Arabic influence present in El Cancionero de palacio in “Algunas ideas sobre la habanera” I Trovada de Habaneras: Ponenecias presentadas a la mesa redonda. Mayorga, 6 y 7 de agosto, 1993, 10-11. 5 7 Nicolas Slonimsky in his Music of Latin America (1945) considers the exotic tilde over the “n” found in some dictionaries and music publications as “the offense,” even more aggravated when a phonetic transcription “habanyera” is offered as in quoted by him the Funk and Wagnalls Dictionary (57). Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 7 6 roots: “Habanera, por su genealogfa, fue la mulatica musical mas presumida de Cuba” (240). Through Galan’s representation of the debate about the origin of the habanera one can see that the hybridity of the habanera may hardly be doubted. What is debated, however, is the space where the genre is bom and the means of its transmission. From the publications about habaneras in the recent decades on both sides of the Atlantic, it seems obvious that the opposition lies not so much in the opposition of the spaces of origin, the colony versus the center of the Spanish Empire, but in the opposition of a certain space of origin versus the so-called genre of “ida y vuelta,” go and return. Marfa Teresa Linares points out this opposition in her article “L’Havanera d’anada i tomada,” published in the book L’Havanera: Un cant popular (1995). However, this article by one of the most respected Cuban musical historians, is preceded by her other article, entitled “Cuba: Orfgens.” This order somehow represents the hierarchy of the priorities in this debate. Linares agrees to the hypothesis expressed by the Spanish musicologist Arcadio Larrea, in 1972, that the habanera together with other Latin American popular genres is a genre of “go and return,” indebted to the Spanish tonadilla. This form of theatrical song performed as an interlude between the acts of a bigger dramatic piece or at the end of one arrives to Cuba with numerous Spanish theatre groups as early as in the eighteenth century. The other imported predecessor of the habanera is the contradanza, the most popular dance of the eighteenth and early nineteenth century. The impact of the Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 7 7 tonadilla and of the contradanza are pointed out by Carpentier who mentions that between 1790 and 1814 more than two hundred tonadillas were performed in Havana (La musica 97). At the same time, Carpentier stresses the significance of the reverse route of the peninsular dances exported to the colony, which return to their place of origin with an air of novelty. This idea supports his crucial argument that America gave much more than it received (La musica 62). The spreading and the transformation that the country-dance bom on the British Isles in the early seventeenth century undergoes in the Caribbean appear to be one of the most striking examples of transculturation. Slonimsky uses the expression “surprisingly enough” to qualify the metamorphosis of the British country-dance into the Cuban habanera: The English country-dance became the contredanse in France, and this in turn was called contradanza in Spain, or later, simply danza. When imported by the Spaniards into Cuba, it became the danza habanera, that is, the dance of Havana, and then was reintroduced into Spain as habanera. During the Spanish-American war, a popular dance “Habanera del cafe” appeared, which was the prototype of the tango. (56) Slonimsky’s version describes the metamorphosis of the country-dance in a very concise manner. By the end of the seventeenth century, the dance, in which couples form a circle, a square or two lines and perform a set of rather complicated movements or figures, conquers Europe and becomes the favorite in the ballrooms of the growing middle class. In Spain, with the ascension of the Bourbon house to the throne in 1701, the country-dance is practiced alongside with rigadoons, minuets, Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 7 8 gavots, and other dances that cross national frontiers in Europe and become accepted both in the ballrooms of the nobility and of the bourgeoisie (Lapique, “Aportes” 155). Gradually, the country-dance becomes the most popular among them all, and, with those who travel to the colonies, it reaches the Antillean Islands. By the second half of the eighteenth century, the contradanza becomes an intrinsic part of entertainment in the Criollo society that blossoms alongside with the boom of the Cuban sugar industry. Thus the initial gradual permutation of the country-dance before it even transforms into the habanera creates a certain genealogy of transculturations of cultural signs. Though it is generally agreed that the country-dance is the “parent” of the habanera, opinions differ regarding to how it arrives in Cuba. Carpentier argues that the country-dance arrives in Cuba with the Francophone fugitives from Saint- Domingue after the revolt of 1791 and takes roots in the East of the island, Oriente province (La musica 125).5 8 Cuban historian Zoila Lapique mentions that this idea is subsequently almost unanimously repeated by musicologists and historians who write about Cuban music (“Aportes” 153). She argues, however, that the country- dance arrives in Cuba from Spain in the middle of the eighteenth century, and it is known in Havana, the gateway of the Americas, approximately fifty years prior to the massive arrival of Saint-Domingue refugees to the Oriente province. According co In an interview published in 1985, Carpentier acknowledged the necessity of a “complete revision and expansion” of the book. See Timothy Brennan, Introduction, Music in Cuba (Minneapolis, 2001) 6. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 7 9 to Lapique, it is in Cuba that the Spanish country-dance acquires the rhythmic pattern of the African origin, the conga, a style of performance cultivated by the mulatto and negro musicians of the time bom in Cuba. The Franco-Haitian contribution arrives fifty years later while the country-dance had already been acclimatized for a substantial time in Havana (“Aportes” 154). The assimilation of the African-born rhythm, the conga, by the European country-dance upon arrival to the Antillean islands can be considered a crucial point for the process of transculturation underlying the formation of the Criollo culture. The convergence of the European country-dance and of the African bom rhythm creates the so-called pattern of the tango, a combination of a dotted quarter note, followed by a sixteenth note, followed by two eights. This pattern changes radically the character of the European country-dance adding to it what may be perceived as a joyful and sensual tempo that transforms it into a new voluptuous dance of the tropics, or the “zona torrida,” as it was called by Andres Bello. The growing popularity of public dances, especially in Havana and in the Oriente province, leads to the proliferation of music bands consisting mostly of black and mulatto musicians bom in Cuba. Music performed by them gradually transforms into a new generic form of a country-dance that contains the alluring tango pattern. This new dance receives the name of contradanza cubana, the Cuban country-dance. Within a Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 8 0 historically short period of time, probably a couple of decades, the suffix contra goes out of fashion and the word danza,5 9 dance, prevails (Lapique, “Aportes” 165). In Cirilo Villaverde’s novel Cecilia Valdes o La Loma del Angel, one can find repeated testimony of the popularity and significance of the Cuban danza, characterized by Villaverde as “sentimental y bulliciosa” (94). For Villaverde, the metamorphosis that the Spanish dance undergoes on the Cuban soil makes it hardly possible to recognize its origin: “sin mas demora, comenzo de veras el baile, es decir la danza cubana, modification tan especial y peregrina de la danza espanola, que apenas deja descubrir su origen” (101-02). Villaverde attributes an exceptional importance to danza, which, according to him, is the best representation of the character, customs, social and political situation of the Cubans (240). Villaverde’s assertion of the importance of danza makes one think that he perceives it as a relevant sign for the cultural identity of the Cuban nation in the process of its formation: El estilo es el hombre, ha dicho alguien oportunamente; el baile es un pueblo, decimos nosotros, y no hay ninguno como la danza que pinte mas al vivo el caracter, los habitos, el estado social y politico de los cubanos, ni que este en mas armoma con el clima de la isla. (240) 5 9 Among the definitions of the word danza in Diccionario de la lengua espanola de la Real Academia Espanola (1992), one can find under number three a laconic: habanera. Habanera, in its turn, is defined by this dictionary as: “4. f. Baile de origen cubano, en compas de dos por cuatro y de movimiento lento. 5. Musica y canto de este baile.” Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 81 The dance also serves as a vehicle of communication between different social groups in Villaverde’s novel. The white male protagonist of the novel visits the dances of the high society of Havana as well as an event entitled cuna, which, as Villaverde explains, was a meeting of “individuos de ambos sexos de la clase de color, sin que se les negase tampoco a los jovenes blancos que solfan honrarlos con su presencia” (92). Among the most interesting features of the Cuban danza as Villaverde sees it, is perhaps the erotic character of it, which the author connects directly to the restrictive moral and ethical laws of the Criollo society based on the cultural traditions that arrive from Spain: La cubana danza sin duda que se invento para hacerse la corte los enamorados. En si el baile es muy sencillo, los movimientos comodos y faciles, siendo su objeto primordial la aproximacion de los sexos, en un pais donde las costumbres moriscas tienden a su separation; en una palabra, la comunion de las almas. Porque el caballero lleva a la dama casi siempre como en vilo, pues que mientras con el brazo derecho la rodea el talle, con la mano izquierda le comprime la suya blandamente. No es aquello bailar, puesto que el cuerpo sigue meramente los compases; es mecerse como en suenos, al son de una musica gemidora y voluptuosa, es conversar mtimamente dos personas queridas, es acariciarse dos seres que se atraen mutuamente, y que el tiempo, el espacio, el estado, la costumbre ha mantenido alejados. (239-40) In the first Cuban lexicographical source, Diccionario provincial casi- razonado de vozes y frases cubanas compiled by Esteban Pichardo,6 0 one can find a 6 0 Pichardo publishes his first dictionary of Cubanisms in 1836, subsequently amplifies and reedits it in 1849, 1862 and 1875. The edition quoted here is based on 1875. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 8 2 detailed definition of danza. Pichardo calls it the favorite dance of all the Antilles, which can be found both in the capital, as well as in “el mas indecente Changiii (sic) del ultimo rincon de la Isla” (222). According to the author, the country-dance has a peculiar and noted, “afamado,” musical style. Pichardo describes various figures of the dance in detail and notes that the music can be both a composition of the most agreeable opera fragments, as well as “cantos vulgares.” Pichardo offers a rather extensive list of adjectives to describe this music, including into it such seemingly mutually exclusive adjectives as, “alegre, triste,” followed by “sentimental,” and “enamorada” (223). This search for the most adequate means of verbal representation apparently leads him to the conclusion with which he finishes his vocabulary entry, that the Cuban dance can be felt, not described (223). Pichardo’s search for the most adequate means of representation points to some crucial characteristics of the sensual and voluptuous dance that gradually becomes a seal of the exotic tropical paradise. In 1911, the German musicologist Albert Friedenthal publishes a collection of Criollo dances and songs from different countries of Latin America, and his commentary about Criollo music. His collection consists of six notebooks, which contain lyrics of songs in Spanish with translations into French, German and English. The introduction and commentary to these songs are also in French, German and 61 English. This multilingual edition perhaps points to an ambitious project of 6 1 Albert Friedenthal, Stimmen der Volker in Liedem. Tanzen und Charakterstiicken, (Wien, 1911). Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 8 3 acquainting the broad European public with Criollo music. Friedenthal can be considered one of the first defenders of the “Africanism” in colonial culture. The habanera receives particular attention in his collection and in his commentary. Discussing the Cuban dance, Friedenthal acknowledges the African influence in it, and argues that “there is nothing like it in Europe, not even in Spain. This is only another reason for supposing that its origin must have been limited to the torrid zone, where the climate forbids lively dancing” (ix). Through Friedenthal’s representation of habaneras in the form of the dance, one can see how the myth of the voluptuous tropical dance continues to be created: The swaying of the hips back and forth is, next to the steps, the main feature. This swaying must be done very gracefully. The only difference between a negro tango and the habanera as danced in fashionable society is in the movements of the hips. In the negro dance they are usually very obscene. The incomparable fascination exerted by an habanera dance on the beholder cannot be depicted in words. The dancers are closely clasped in each other’s arms, not a word is spoken, only murmurs tender and low are perhaps exchanged, not meant for other ears. There is no singing either during this dance; it would break the spell. The whole breathes ardent desire and love. To see a dance like this in the marble courts of the aristocratic Creoles, or better still under the drooping branches of the palm-trees in the moonlight of a tropical night, is a sight never to be forgotten, (x) Friedenthal’s gaze— his fascination with the exotic and erotic dance— reflects an already formed by his time tradition of the perception of Cuba, its landscape, its music and its women as signs of a voluptuous tropical paradise. The habanera, with Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 8 4 its dotted and languid rhythm, explicitly plays a significant role in the creation of the image of this tropical paradise.6 2 This image and the perception of the Gran Antilla as a voluptuous tropical paradise cannot be separated from the outstanding economic situation of Cuba throughout the nineteenth and the first half of the twentieth century. One should not forget that Cuba, in the nineteenth century, (as well as in much of the twentieth) is the center of world sugar production. In addition to this, Havana is the port of entry for virtually all the ships sailing and, later, steaming from Europe to the Americas. Therefore, the music generated in this crossroads point finds its way both to the other ports of the Americas as well as back to the “mother country,” Spain. Thus one can distinguish two main routes of export of Cuban music: on the one hand, oral transmission by sailors and merchants passing through Havana on their way to Yucatan and the River Plata region, on the other, printed Cuban musical scores are exported to other countries of the Americas and, naturally, back to Spain with the constant coming and going of immigrants and colonial functionaries. The scores appear under different names: contradanza cubana, contradanza habanera (in Mexico), danza americana (in Spain). All these names refer to the same genre of a dance that is triumphantly conquering the world. Its popularity and triumph are directly connected to the sensual metamorphosis that the country-dance undergoes in fiO In his introduction to the song “Maria Dolores,” which he calls “Tango from Cuba” and later addresses as the habanera, and which is a popular in the nineteenth century habanera “Maria la O,” Friedenthal notes: “A mulatto girl is here, as usual in most of the West Indian songs, the central figure” (V.2, 15). Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 8 5 the colony. The initial European country-dance, in which complicated figures were performed in a square or two rows by participants who faced each other, presupposed strict boundaries, which limited or eliminated sexual expression. However, americanas return to Europe with the dotted rhythm of African origin that converts the limiting and asexual dance of the middle-class ballrooms into a voluptuous and sensual mimetic expression of sexual movements. In Cuba, the four or more partner dance, in which partners are interchanged, gradually leaves its place to the danzon.6 3 a dance performed by two partners. The triumph in Europe is understandable, as the fascination with everything that comes from the New World and the “guilty” pleasures of overseas products, among which are tobacco, sugar and spices, is enhanced by the sensuality of the new dance, which offers a rather free mimesis of sexual feelings and movements. The “go” and “return in a new form” creates conditions for a constant and continuous metamorphosis. This metamorphosis makes Galan structurally build the story of the habanera in his book on its capability for a constant change. Though Galan does not manipulate the concept of transculturation, he treats the habanera as a product of a process of constant change through addition or removing of elements. The chapter about the habanera in his book is therefore characteristically entitled “La habanera como requetemetaplasmo” (The Habanera as a Super Metaplasm).64 Galan 6 3 Diccionario de la lengua espanola de la Real Academia Espanola (1992), defines danzon as, “Baile cubano, semejante a la habanera. Musica de este baile.” Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 8 6 mentions that in Mexico, in 1836, the term contradanza habanera was used, then it is simplified to danza habanera, and finally in the 1850s it becomes a simple habanera. Thus while Cuba was exporting its musical scores as country-dances or dances, it propagated three words, contradanza. danza and habanera, until the simple habanera came into use, which designated something peculiar, though indefinable, “algo peculiar aunque indefenible.” In an ironic manner, Galan suggests that should the Spanish government accept in its newspapers the combination “danza cubana,” the Cuban dance, in the middle of the nineteenth century, the habanera would be called “cubana” today because of the logical suppression in the metaplasm (229). Galan recreates the following comparative chart first proposed by the Argentinean musical scholar Carlos Vega, which shows the transformation that the term and the genre underwent over the period of forty years during the first half of the nineteenth century: Contradanza Contradanza a la habanera Contradanza habanera Danza Danza a la habanera Danza habanera Cancion Cancion a la habanera Cancion a la habanera Habanera (229). One can notice that our story of the habanera so far has been concerned only with the metamorphosis of the dance. According to Cuban historian Zoila Lapique, the year 1841 brings about the beginning of a new chapter in the history of the 6 4 Metaplasm is defined by Webster’s New Collegiate Dictionary (1976) as “alteration of regular structure usually by transposition of the letters or syllables of a word or of the words in a sentence.” Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 8 7 habanera. In 1841, at the cafe La Lonja, located in the heart of Havana at the beginning of O’Reilly Street at the Plaza de Armas, close to the Captain General’s Palace, the country-dance was for the first time accompanied by a verse sung to the tempo of the dance (“Presencia” 173). Lapique considers this fact to be the beginning of a new Cuban genre, the habanera. On November 13, 1842, the literary newspaper La Prensa publishes the text of a song, which Lapique explores as one of the first habaneras. Though it resembles the Spanish couplet, it is the first piece for voice and accompaniment that has a clear tango pattern until then reserved only for the dance (“Presencia” 174). The quoted text, simple and straightforward, represents an example of a woman’s monologue: Yo soy nina, soy bonita, Y el pesar no conocf; Yo soy nina, soy bonita, Y el pesar no conocf. Pero anoche, jay mamita!, Yo no se lo que sentf. Mi corazon latio asf... jAy!, yo creo que se agita Porque el amor entro en m l Mamita, sf, mamita, si No lo dudes, el palpita Porque el amor entro en m l Mamita, sf, mamita, si No lo dudes, el palpita Porque el amor entro en ml Porque el amor entro en m l (qtd. in “Presencia” 173-74) The female discourse in the first person seems to be a feature common to the original habanera. In the middle of the twentieth century, Marfa Teresa Linares recovers some traditional habaneras from elderly informants in Cuba that also represent Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. female discourse. We will discuss these rare habaneras that survive in closed environments in Cuba later in connection with the current habanera phenomenon in Catalonia. In the meantime, it should be noted that Lapique in the same article quotes a note about “El amor en el baile ” from the same issue of La Prensa. In this contemporary commentary, the song is described as a phenomenon that represents the ambiance of the Cuban capital, “una cancion enteramente habanera.” It is also stated in the note that “El amor en el baile ” expresses “todo el sentido abandono de los tropicos, que solo pintan con verdad la naturaleza y las voluptuosas danzas de Cuba” (qtd. in “Presencia” 174). Thus at the time of the formation of the Cuban cultural identity, the habanera is acknowledged as an intrinsic part of this identity. Another interesting aspect is that this commentary, dated to 1842, is addressed to female readers, “nuestras amables lectoras.” It makes one think that women are the primary consumers of both the songs and perhaps of the “literary newspaper” of the time. In the habaneras that survived the oblivion and are popular currently, the female narrative voice is almost completely lost and is substituted by the predominance of the male protagonist and narrator, while the figure of the female is confined to the place of an object of lust and desire. The new modality of the song genre accompanying the dance arrives to Havana from Spain, according to Lapique.6 5 However, as she points out, it is in 6 5 Lapique mentions an anonymous master of ceremonies “un famoso maestro de baile y bastonero,” who brought it from the Spanish Court and Madrid ballrooms to Havana. However, she has not been able to find either the name or any more information about this person mentioned in La Prensa (“Presencia” 174). Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 8 9 Havana that these songs acquire a new rhythmical pattern that will triumph later throughout the world. This pattern is the already mentioned combination of a dotted quarter note, a sixteenth note and two eights notes, which constitute the basis of the Cuban country-dance, of the habanera song, and of the Argentinean tango later on.6 6 Subsequently, the novelty of the singing that accompanies the dance, brought to Havana from Madrid, returns to the Iberian capital. Lapique quotes a letter written by a Cuban visitor from Madrid and published in El Faro Industrial de La Habana in 1848. According to this document, one can find the habanera wherever there are dances or “reuniones particulares,” private gatherings (“Presencia” 177). The author of the letter is pleased to hear in Madrid a Cuban song “La loterfa,” called in Madrid a ten go. which is sung by the blind,6 7 the young people and by everybody, “todo el mundo.” Lapique notes that it was called ten go mistakenly instead of tango and it imitated the speech of the Afro-Cubans (“Presencia” 177). As time passes, the mixed genre of dance and song disappears, while the popularity of the song written in a two-four time constantly grows. By the last 6 6 Spanish musicologist Faustino Nunez offers an overview of the presence of this pattern in various musical genres in Spain and Europe in his work “Omnipresencia de la habanera,” which is part of a two volume collection La musica entre Cuba v Espana, that explores a broad panorama of musical links between Cuba and Spain. Nunez’s work is entitled “La vuelta” and follows “La ida,” written by the Cuban musicologist Maria Teresa Linares, in which she discusses the formation of the Cuban musical culture from the perspective of the concept of transculturation. (si We will discuss the role of the blind in the transmission of the habanera later. The blind wondering from one locality to the other, in the nineteenth and in the first decades of the twentieth century, will be one of the important “agents” spreading the habanera together with other songs of their varied repertory all over Spain. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 90 quarter of the nineteenth century, the habanera is perceived throughout the world as a “trademark” of Spanishness, as European composers, Bizet, Debussy, Saint-Saenz, Ravel, Albeniz, Laparra among others, exploit it in their works as a Spanish theme. “Pieces in the form of the habanera” seem to add exotic Iberian flair to their work. The habanera as a Spanish theme is present in Camille Saint-Saenz’s works for piano and violin (1875); in Claude Debussy’s “La soiree dans Grenade, Iberia” first performed in 1903 in Paris; in Maurice Ravel’s “La Rhapsodie Espagnole” (1907). The rhythm of the habanera can also be observed in Isaac Albeniz’s Rapsodia cubana (opus 66) and in the piece “Cuba (capricho)” that is part of his Suita espanola (1886). Manuel de Falla’s 4 piezas espanolas (Andaluza. Cubana. Aragonesa, Montanesa) (1908) includes, as one can see, a Cuban piece as a part of the Spanish suite.6 8 The French composer Raoul Laparra (1876-1943), in 1908, creates a libretto and music for an opera, entitled Habanera, in which the habanera is the major musical theme. The most famous piece, by all accounts, appears to be Georges Bizet’s “Habanera” from his acclaimed opera Carmen (1875), a story that has itself “attained the status of myth.”6 9 It is said that Bizet,7 0 while living in Seville in order to collect material for 6 8 Xavier Febres quotes Vladimir Jankelevitch who believes that “Cubana” is an allusion to the habanera of salons and to Criollo sentimentality (qtd. in Aixo es 55). 6 9 See Nelly Furman, “The Languages of Love in Carmen”: “Carmen may be the only story of operatic origin to have attained the status of myth: for the Carmen we know best is not the Merimee novella of 1845; the legendary Carmen is the love story enacted in Georges Bizet’s opera of 1875” (168). Furman gives a footnote to Dominique Maingueneau, Carmen: Les racines d’un mythe (Paris, 1984), 11, and Jean Roy, Bizet (Paris, 1983), 3. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 91 his opera, heard the melody, which he thought anonymous perhaps for its popularity, but which, in fact, belongs to Sebastian Iradier, one of the most intriguing and mythical figures in the history of the habanera. Scarce information about this composer on the one hand and extreme success of some of his creations on the other, give birth to legends and allegations that continuously reappear in various publications, ranging from PIo Baroja’s memoirs to encyclopedias and musical dictionaries. Even the date of birth of this Basque composer is uncertain. Friedenthal mentions 1809 (33), the date that reappears in some recent publications such as Diccionario de la musica espanola e hispanoamericana (2000), published by the Sociedad de Autores y Escritores de Espana, while other publications including Natalio Galan (1983) mention 1819 as Iradier’s date of birth (225). The piece that Bizet adopted for the aria of Carmen is “El arreglito.” Iradier, however, is also the author of the famous “La paloma,” (“Cuando sail de La Habana”), and of “La Negrita,” another habanera, whose theme, according to Linares, sounds in the Svmphonie Espagnole by Edouard Lalo (“Algunas ideas” 12). The story of the two most famous habaneras attributed to Iradier, “El arreglito” y “La paloma,” in itself presents a privileged space to reflect about transculturation. The habanera “El arreglito” is perceived and used by Bizet as an autochthonous Spanish motif, while the popularity of “La paloma” in Mexico in the 1860s creates the myth of an 7 0 Bizet’s “inspiration” is mentioned virtually by every author who writes about habaneras. See Alejo Carpentier, La musica en Cuba 277; Natalio Galan, Cuba v sus sones 231; Emilio Grenet “Musica cubana: Orientaciones para su conocimiento y estudio” 74; Nicolas Slonimsky Music of Latin America (56-57), subsequently repeated by other authors. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 9 2 autochthonous Mexican song. In 1911, Friedenthal publishes his study of the “Creole” songs, as he calls them, in which he insists, in a form of revelation and discovery, on Iradier’s authorship of this extremely popular and therefore considered anonymous song (33). As I mentioned, Friedenthal’s study is a trilingual edition with the text in German, French and English. The adjective “Creole” that he uses in his English version, “Kreole” in German and “creole” in French, geographically applies, according to him, to the “popular music of Mexico, Central and South Americas and the West Indies” (v). Therefore one can see that Friedenthal’s perception of “Creole” is much broader than Criollo as applied to the culture and music that originate in Cuba. Friedenthal creates his own myth about Iradier and his connection to the “Creole” music, which in its turn seems to be constantly repeated afterwards. Friedenthal attributes to the Basque composer a broad connection with Cuba and Mexico. In Friedenthal’s words, “it is known for sure” that Iradier accompanied General Chacon from Spain to Cuba in 1861. Further, though there is no evidence or data about Iradier’s presence in Mexico, Friedenthal speculates that he might have been there. This supposition is based on the use of the Mexicanism “guachinanga” in the lyrics of the song and on the overwhelming success of “La paloma” in Mexico where it was supposedly first interpreted by the Spanish diva Concha Mendez in 1863 (34). Pfo Baroja publishes his biographic essay about Itadier as part of his Reportajes in 1948. He admits that he does not possess any concrete data or details about Iradier. It seems that the only document available to Baroja, in addition to some comments in letters by literary personalities of the time— Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 9 3 Merimee’s letters are mentioned in this respect— is a notebook that Baroja receives from Iradier’s nephew. This notebook contains notes about the last years of the composer’s life: “Estas referencias y alguno que otro dato me han servido para formarme una idea, aunque no muy completa ni detallada, de la vida del autor de ‘La paloma’” (152). Baroja unites Iradier with the troupe of Patti and Gottschalk that travel in the Americas in the 1850s. According to Gal an, there is no mention of Iradier in Gottschalk’s Notes of a Pianist published in 1881 (230). Gottschalk gives his concerts in Havana in 1857. Baroja admits that between 1854 and 1864 there is no information about Iradier. Baroja’s memoirs may be perceived as a tool that creates a myth not only about the life of a composer of popular songs who, being a Basque prefers to write his name with the afrancesada “Y,” but about the role of a Spanish and precisely of a Basque composer in the creation of a cultural sign initially denominating the colonies and subsequently becoming a seal of Spanishness. The legend of the presence and even “immigration” of Iradier to Cuba will be continuously repeated. However, no proof or veritable testimony of Iradier’s travel or presence in Cuba could be found so far. Linares believes that if Iradier lived in Cuba where he possibly created “La paloma” and later “El arreglito” y “La Negrita,” close in time to the publication of “El amor en el baile,” this must be the culmination point of the genre, which started to spread all over the Americas and Europe immediately (“Algunas ideas” 8). According to Galan, “La paloma” was published in Madrid, without date, in the late forties or early fifties, when its author was a successful music teacher and performer in this city. Galan also thinks that there is no Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. reason for Iradier to travel to Havana or Mexico neither in the forties, fifties or the sixties. He mentions, however, that in Luis Victoriano Betancourt’s La Habana de 1810 a 1840, “La paloma” figures as one of the songs sung in this city during these thirty years. Therefore Galan asks the question, if the song was sung in Havana before Iradier publishes it, or if he used a melody already known and popular (230). It seems that there are more questions than answers in this complicated and intriguing story, which suggests more research and investigation. One might perceive the first verse of the song “Cuando sail de La Habana, valgame Dios,” on which all these speculations and “mythology” are based, as nothing more than a play of imagination. It represents, however, the reality of thousands of Iradier’s compatriots at the time. One may ask whether it is important to know, one hundred and fifty years later, whether Iradier ever traveled to Cuba or Mexico, as the first verse of “La paloma” states: “Cuando sail de La Habana.” Beyond the biographic, it seems that most important is the discourse created through the initial verse of his famous song, which alludes to the reality of Spain where a major part of the masculine population try, in a voluntary or involuntary way, their fortune overseas, and therefore find themselves in the process of a constant go and return. The overwhelming popularity of both melodies until today, that of “La paloma,” translated, sung and posted on the Internet in all possible languages including Russian, Polish and Japanese, and that of “El arreglito” immortalized by Bizet, makes them crucial for the cultural imaginary not only of Spain, but also for the rest Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 9 5 of the world that perceives these two melodies as a trademark of “Spanishness,” not really distinguishing between the Spanish, the Cuban and the Mexican. Carpentier argues that the habanera never was a melody peculiar of Havana or Cuba. He compares the name of the genre to that of cubism, which was never called so by the artists who created it (La musica 276-77). The name was bom outside of Cuba as the consequence of the export of the Cuban country-dance. For Carpentier, major contributors to the creation of Cuban national music, Manuel Saumell (1817-1870) and Ignacio Cervantes (1847-1905), are also the contributors to the proliferation of the habanera, Cuban genre par excellence. The habanera will acquire a crucial significance not only inside but also outside of Cuba with Eduardo Sanchez de Fuentes’ outstandingly popular habanera “Tu,” that for its long and voluptuous melody, could be sung as a romance, in contrast to the traditional country-dance, almost impossible to sing for its vivacity (La musica 277). Carpentier asserts that Sanchez de Fuentes gave to the habanera “un sello propio,” “his own seal,” liberating it from the country-dance (La musica 283). However, it should be noted that the melody of “Tu” was created in 1890, significantly later than habaneras by Iradier and the mentioned above musical pieces by Bizet, Saint-Saenz, Debussy, Albeniz. It means that by the time of the overwhelming popularity of “Tu” with lyrics by Feman Sanchez written in 1894, the habanera already exists as a cultural sign that embraces a popular song as well as “cultural” piece on both sides of the Atlantic. Carpentier admits it decades later. In his essay “America Latina en la confluencia de coordenadas historicas y su repercusion en la musica,” first published Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 9 6 in 1975, he points out the significance of “Tu” as a representation of what may be perceived as the popular spirit, the folklore, the music of the people, yet calling it the first “gran best-seller mundial de la musica latinoamericana” (17). Due to the constant intense contact between the colony and the colonizer, which brought about a displacement of hundreds of thousands of young men during the nineteenth century, it seems difficult to establish national or regional boundaries of the genre or weigh where they are more popular. However, the twentieth century and the dramatic change in the relationship between Cuba and Spain bring about a new page in the history of the habanera and a shift of its leading role from the former colony to the former empire. Habaneras return to Spain and gain major popularity there, while in Cuba the genre is gradually lost, substituted by other song forms, primarily by bolero.7 1 Linares explains the loss of the genre in Cuba by a constant metamorphosis of Cuban musical culture, and the necessity of satisfying certain esthetical functions. If such function or necessity does not exist any more, a genre may be lost or substituted by another one. According to Linares, this is what happened with the habanera in Cuba: La musica que canta el hombre del pueblo ejerce en el la satisfaction de llenar una funcion, una necesidad estetica. Si no existe esta funcion de manera coherente, se sustituye por otra y aquella desaparece. Esto ocurre con la musica del pasado, que la 7 1 About the dominance of the bolero in Cuba see “La Ida” in La musica entre Cuba v Espana: La ida/ La vuelta by Marfa Teresa Linares and Faustino Nunez (Madrid, 1998) 94-111. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 9 7 escuchamos cantada por ancianos para los cuales tiene un sentido, y, aunque reconozcamos su belleza y sus valores, tenemos un su lugar otras canciones que ocupan nuestros gustos. Tal parece que esto acontecio con la habanera, cancion sencilla del pueblo que tuvo un gran desarrollo en la segunda mitad el siglo XIX, vinculada a la danza cubana. (“Algunas ideas” 6) In the book L’Havanera: Un cant popular. Castor Perez Diz applies this idea to explain the viability and the popularity of the habanera in the twentieth century in different parts of Spain. However, before exploring the functions of the habanera in Spain where it remains popular throughout the twentieth century it is necessary to discuss the routes of its arrival and transmission in the “mother-country.” These routes may be directly connected to the self-representation of nations involved in colonial enterprise. As a major source of transmission of music that bears the signet of the “beloved” colony one can explore abundant musical scores of dances a la Americana or a la Havanaise found in musical libraries throughout the world (Lapique, “Presencia” 178; Galan 321). In addition to this “written” or “cultural” way of transmission, two other media of spreading the habanera are traditionally pointed out: oral transmission by sailors, soldiers and immigrants who serve as liaisons with the overseas colonies, or rather “provinces” of Spain before 1898, and Spanish autochthonous lyrical theater, the zarzuela. These two major sources of spreading the habanera are in the focus of constant polemics and debate alongside the debated origin of the habanera. The protagonists of “go and return” are traditionally represented as prosperous indianos or americanos, or as those who constitute a completely opposite group, that of the soldiers of the last colonial war of Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 9 8 the Spanish empire. The eco of the disaster as the result of Spain’s last colonial war may be heard one hundred years later in Spain in the colloquial expression, “Mas se perdio en Cuba,” “More was lost in Cuba.” Following the idea of Arcadio Larrea, Linares sees a connection between the popularity of habaneras in coastal regions of Spain and the links of these regions— Andalusia, the Basque Country, Canary Islands, the Cantabric Coast, Catalonia, Levante— with overseas colonial trade (“L’Havanera d’anada” 21-22). Looking back at publications about the habanera, however, one can see that this connection was pointed out and discussed significantly earlier, as the first collection of habaneras, entitled Album de habaneras, was published by Xavier Montsalvatge, Nestor Lujan and Josep Maria Prim in 1948. In the prologue to this colorfully illustrated book, Nestor Lujan’s outlined some ideas, which will later be developed in publications about the habanera.7 2 Lujan believes that fishermen and workers of the cork industry enterprises in the Costa Brava towns sing songs that arrive there with the seamen and sailors returning from overseas. The exotic overseas vocabulary has an exceptional impact on the imagination of those who never had a chance to leave their native towns: “Toda la Costa se ondulo, rumorosa de estos ritmos y de su frondosa y deslumbrante fraseologfa exotica” (viii). The exotic phraseology creates a link with 79 Lujan’s contribution to the story of the habanera is seemingly underestimated. According to Febres, Album de habaneras for its limited edition- only a thousand copies were published— went unnoticed outside of a small circle of bibliophilists. However, Febres admits that the prologue by Lujan “pointed opportunely the lines of interest of the genre” (Aixo es 96). A facsimile edition of Album de habaneras was released in 1998. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 9 9 overseas tropical paradise not only for those who participate in overseas adventure, but also for those who never traveled overseas. The inland population preserve and pass over these songs to the younger generations, although or perhaps because this exotic vocabulary represents for them not more than a play of imagination. Lujan points out that as time passes the popularity of the exotic songs vanishes, and gradually only fishermen who are waiting at sea by their nets or spend long winter nights at fishermen’s taverns maintain the genre, as no other type of entertainment is available at the time. Another means of spreading the habanera is the zarzuela, Spanish autochthonous musical theatre. Early zarzuelas, called so after a royal palace where they were initially performed as court entertainment, intertwined dramatic pieces with musical numbers. By the 1880s, the zarzuela grows into the most popular synthetic genre of Spanish lyrical theater that includes a variety of musical forms among which a significant space is allocated to the habanera. The success and popularity of the zarzuela makes Xavier Febres argue that in Catalonia the theater, and specifically the zarzuela, becomes the main way of spreading the habanera (“Dos o tres” 8). Febres believes that the transmission by returning immigrants and sailors is not more than a popular myth as habaneras, surprisingly, were not cultivated in the maritime centers of the Maresme or Garraf regions directly connected to the overseas trade, but in the Emporda region, where they were sung by local fishermen and workers of the cork industry who did not travel overseas. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 1 0 0 It seems that both means of transmission, oral and through theater are viable, as one cannot deny the importance of oral ways of transmission in the pre mass- media era, or the exceptional popularity of the zarzuela that flourishes both in the “mother country” and in the colonies. Among the zarzuelas that gave birth to some habaneras are Don Gil de Alcala by Penello Moreno; La verbena de la Paloma by Breton; Marina7 3 by Camprodon (libretto) and Arrieta (music); Cadiz by Chueca and Yalverde; La Gran Via by Chueca; Los sobrinos del capitan Grant by Carrion and Caballero; El tambor de granaderos by Rogel; Nina Pancha by Romea and Valverde; El gorro frigio by Nieto. They contained habaneras not necessarily under this name, but often as canciones, danzas americanas, americanas or tangos americanos (Febres, “Dos o tres” 8-9, Guerra Sierra 88-89). Not only Spanish but also Cuban zarzuela generates habaneras: El submarino by Ignacio Cervantes; Los saltimbanquis by Manuel F. Perez de la Presa; La borrachera by Jorge Anckermann; La cancion del mendigo by Eliseo Grenet; El hijo del Camagiiey by Mann Varona; La plaza de la Catedral by Ernesto Lecuona. Even today one may hear in Catalonia the habanera “Lamento esclavo” a piece from a zarzuela by Eliseo Grenet, which is a lamento, grievance, another genre developed in Cuba in the nineteenth century. In his forward to the second facsimile edition of Album de habaneras (1998), Xavier Montsalvatge notes that it was not easy to make his informants, fishermen of the Costa Brava 7 3 According to Andreu Navarro, the opening night of this zarzuela in Madrid on September 21, 1855, was a failure, and it later became popular in the provinces. Later, it was transformed into an opera by Arrieta with the collaboration of Miguel Ramos Carrion on the libretto. (L’Havanera 95, 103) Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 1 0 1 region, sing “authentic” habaneras, while they tended to show to him and to his friends involved in the project of collecting twenty best habaneras that they were familiar with what Montsalvatge calls “some zarzuelas and banalities that were fashionable at the time” ('Album v). Zarzuelas dominate the stages in Spain for decades, however, it should be noted that they are available to those who live in the cities that have theatrical stages. In the rural areas, the songs find other ways of transmission. Teresa Perez Daniel in her book Castilla canta habaneras (1991) offers an overview of these means of transmission. According to Perez Daniel, the primary source of the transmission of the habanera in Castile, due to the “simple and home-loving Castilian character,” is the tradition of singing at family gatherings at the table together, as well as singing habaneras to lullaby a child. The second source is the blind, who travel from one locality to the other, singing romances, ballads, couplets. The blind also sell the texts of the popular songs, not necessarily habaneras, in the form of pliegos de cordel, lyrics printed on separate folded sheets of paper.7 4 According to Mendoza Dfaz-Maroto, it was women who bought, read and very often learned by heart the contents of these popular sheets sold by the blind (19). As the third means of transmission Perez Daniel points to the singing in taverns, a primarily masculine 7 4 The phenomenon of the popularity of pliegos de cordel offers an opportunity to reflect how oral and written traditions converge. About pliegos de cordel as “literature for the illiterate” see Francisco Mendoza Dfaz-Maroto, Panorama de la literatura de cordel espanola. (Madrid, 2000.) The Centro Etnografico de la Diputacion de Valladolid in the city of Valladolid, Castile, has a broad collection of pliegos de cordel with various habaneras. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 1 0 2 domain, especially in winter during long hours of seasonal leisure in a prevalently rural Castilian environment. The fourth means of transmission in her classification are traveling musicians who entertain at local holidays and country fairs and carry their music from one locality to the other. Choirs and choral societies, whose repertory included various habaneras is followed in her classification by the zarzuela and the opera, which are a popular source of transmission primarily in the city. Last she mentions las murgas, las rondallas, street musicians who play at local festivities mostly in rural areas (28-31). The transmission of habaneras cannot be separated from certain esthetical functions, which are fulfilled by the nostalgic songs invoking the lost tropical paradise of the former colonies. As I mentioned, Perez Diz discusses some of these functions in the book L’Havanera: Un cant popular. He points out habanera’s ability to satisfy more than one need as one of the most important factors of the viability and popularity of the genre on the Iberian Peninsula and Canary Islands. Among these needs he distinguishes two primary functions, that of the songs of labor and of leisure (43). Together with other songs, habaneras traditionally fulfilled an important function as labor songs, specifically in the working environments where monotonous and silent process of production permitted minimal “entertainment” for the benefit of the workers, such as reading out loud or singing. This habit of alleviating the working environment seems to play a crucial role in the story of the habanera. The songs with explicitly masculinist discourse of the nostalgia for the lost tropical paradise represented by a female figure of another race were Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 1 0 3 traditionally cultivated in male working environments such as that of cork cutters of the Emporda region in Catalonia7 5 and of Huelva in Andalusia. In the agricultural town of Totana, Murcia, however, women sort and prepare fruit for export and these female groups become the cultivators of the exotic overseas heritage.7 6 The role of women in the preservation of habaneras is also continuously stressed in Torrevieja, Alicante,7 7 where habaneras are traditionally sung as lullaby melodies.7 8 The idea of the viability of habaneras through certain functions seems to be convincing. However, the viability of songs, some of which are about a hundred and fifty years old, and the continuation of the tradition through the creation of new songs in a similar style suggest some other possibilities. It seems that in Catalonia where new ~ In the second half of the nineteenth and in the beginning of the twentieth century, the city of Palafrugell was the world center of the cork manufacturing industry that supplied with its products not only the wineries of Spain and of adjacent France but also exported them all over the world. In the 1960s it became the site of the revived Catalan habanera and the host of the Cantadas that attract between thirty and forty thousand spectators annually. About the cork industry in Palafrugell, see Santiago Hernandez i Bague, El mon del suro (Girona, 1987). 7 6 About Totana and a strong habanera tradition in this Murcian town see Gines Rosa, Habanera: Canto de Cuba, nostalgia de Totana (Totana, 2000) 83-93. 7 7 Torrevieja is the site of annual International Competitions of Habaneras and Polyphony celebrated since 1955 and broadcast nationwide in Spain. About the tradition of habaneras in Torrevieja, sung by polyphonic choirs, see Ricardo Lafuente Aguado, La habanera en Torrevieja (Alicante, 1984). no Among other functions Perez Diz discusses the function of singing while sitting on after a meal “el cant de sobretaula;” the singing of habaneras as serenades to the beloved woman; their transformation into “civilized” music, “canto culto,” represented by pieces of Cuban, Spanish and French composers who cultivate habaneras as a piece for piano or other chamber instruments; and finally that of polyphonic singing. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 1 0 4 habaneras have been continuously created for the last four decades, the habanera fulfills other, more subtle esthetical necessities, such as, for example, collective memory about the past. The reinvention of the past, in its turn, contributes to the task of nation’s self-representation. The proliferation of the habanera in Catalonia therefore constitutes a privileged space for exploration as it is directly connected with language, an issue crucial for Catalan identity. The revival of the habanera in Spanish and the proliferation of new habaneras in Catalan at the end of the twentieth century suggest that transculturation is a continuous process, which not only underlies the formation of nations and cultures of the New World, but also has its boomerang effect on the cultural identities of nations that once contributed to the initial formation of cultures of the “New” World. This new phase of transculturation of a cultural signifier that returns to the space from where its constituting elements were once exported with the protagonists of Spain’s colonial expansion, takes place during the grim and turbulent decades that follow the loss of the last colonies. Minor colonial conflicts, in which Spain is involved at the beginning of the twentieth century, and the continuous sacrifice of young men in these conflicts lead to an outburst of popular wreath in Barcelona in the fall of 1909 when convents and churches are burnt during a week that enters history as “La setmana tragica,” the Tragic Week. Later, the strive for a republic, generated in Catalonia, is suffocated during a fratricide civil war followed by forty years of a dictatorship aimed at creating a mono-cultural nationalist and catholic state. Catalan national identity becomes the target of the Francoist eliminating machine. The Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 1 0 5 national dance, sardana, considered to be innocuous by the authorities apparently because it does not involve linguistic expression so much feared and hated by the Franco nationalist machine, is frequently recognized as the only cultural survivor of the epoch. The reason why the sardana survives lies perhaps in the fact that it is perceived by the dictatorship as a regional dance and thus it falls within the Francoist concept of regional cultural peculiarities cultivated by the regime in its last years in order to stimulate tourism, which becomes Spain’s major industry. Due to the “negligence” of the Francoist repressive machine to the sardana as a cultural signifier, it plays an exceptional role in the organization of the Catalans and in the preservation of their national and cultural identity during the years of the Franco regime. The exceptional role of the sardana and of the associations of the sardanistes in the “peaceful protest” of the Catalans during the years of the proscription of the Catalan language and of other forms of culture associated with the language is constantly stressed in studies dedicated to Catalan culture (Hargreaves 101; Conversi 8). The impact of the habanera, however, is ignored by studies dedicated to Catalan cultural identity. The years of the Franco dictatorship in Catalonia are also the years of the survival of the habanera. Maintained in remote areas such as Costa Brava fishermen’s villages, the habanera acquires new relevant features during the decades that can hardly be qualified as easy or exuberant with entertainment. The exploration of the habanera in Catalonia cannot be separated from an exceptionally relevant for Catalan identity issue of the Catalan language. Catalonia, a nation within the Spanish state that is continuously claiming its cultural identity Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 1 0 6 and its differentiating fact as opposed to the Castilianized culture and the dominance of the imposed Castilian language, not only assimilates the habanera in Spanish as a cultural signifier but also transforms it into an emblem of its cultural identity. Traditionally, habaneras in Catalonia were sung in Spanish even by those whose main and sometimes only language was Catalan. Since the late 1960s, however, habaneras are massively created in Catalan. The creation of new habaneras in Catalan leads to a controversy and a debate in the seventies and in the eighties as for the “authenticity” and the right to exist of the new songs in the vernacular language. The center of the habanera activity in Catalonia is associated with the town of Palafrugell, in the province of Girona. In the 1850s it becomes the center of the growing cork manufacturing industry that alongside with economic prosperity brings to the region significant cultural activity. According to Xavier Febres, zarzuelas and operas are frequently performed in Palafrugell in the second half of the nineteenth century. Febres quotes Historia del gremio corchero by Ramir Medir, who mentions that on the occasion of the beginning of railroad construction in January of 1878, the theatre of Palafrugell offered presentations of two operas, Verdi’s La Traviata and II Trouvatore. In the 1920s, Palafrugell’s public could see three zarzuelas a week with the frequent participation of famous and popular artists. At the same time, “in cafes and taverns, the music-loving workers of cork industry sang all Cuban, seamen’s and Catalan songs of their repertory.” According to the same source, this repertory Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 1 0 7 79 exceeded two hundred songs, most of which were Cuban, some were barcaroles, some may be called seafaring songs, and Catalan songs. “The ones preferred by our people were Cuban songs” (qtd. in Febres 79). As Febres continues to quote from Ramir Medir who testifies to the fact that habaneras were spread primarily by americanos who lived in Begur, a coastal town of Girona province, he seems to contradict his own theory of the zarzuela as the main source of spreading habaneras in Catalonia. Medir mentions that numerous americanos who lived in Begur cultivated the habanera and even notated the songs in their songbooks. Habaneras were most beautifully and most frequently sung in the taverns of the industrial towns of the region. Medir’s account points out two major styles of the habanera interpretation historically cultivated in Catalonia, that of choral polyphony and that of more austere “tavern” interpretation typically by three voices without any instrumental accompaniment. This style of singing the habanera is currently claimed as the peculiar Catalan style of interpretation. The proliferation of polyphony and choral singing in Catalonia dates back to the year 1850, a starting point for Claverian movement, named after its founder Jose Anselm Clave (1824-1874). Clave believed that music and choral singing could be a media to elevate the cultural level of workers and give them an opportunity for individual development and personal promotion. He organizes his first choral society, Fratemidad, in 1850. It changes its name to Euterpe after the muse of music 7 9 Barcaroles are Venetian gondolier’s song or melodies in imitation of these. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 108 in 1857, and by 1864, Euterpe Choral Society embraces 85 chorals. The choral society of the workers of cork industry of Palafrugell, La Taponera, was founded in 1859.8 0 The repertoire of the chorales includes a broad variety of songs of different genres, and habaneras are among them. The scores of pieces performed by La Taponera include habaneras together with sardanas, barcaroles, rancheras, boleros, jotas, waltzes, tangos and other genres (Perez Diz 47-8; Febres, Aixo es 85-6). One should bear in mind that the repertoire of chorales and even of smaller groups, trios that sing in taverns— considered to be the basis for the revival of the habanera in Catalonia— were never limited to habaneras only. They sang tangos, waltzes, polkas, mazurkas and other songs. Polyphonic singing in Catalonia is similar to styles cultivated in other regions of Spain: the Basque otxotes. groups of eight men singing in four voices, or choral groups of Torrevieja and Totana. The port of Torrevieja, Alicante, is the center of the salt industry that exported it all over the Mediterranean and to the Americas via Cuba at the end of the nineteenth century. In 1955, it becomes the site of International Festival of Habaneras and Polyphony. This happens not without the help of the Francoist propaganda machine represented by Juan Aparicio Lopez, who at the time of the organization of the first Festival of Torrevieja occupied in the Q 1 Franco administration the post of General Director of Press. Since then, this 8 0 The history of this society is part of the permanent exhibit of the Museum of Cork Industry of Palafrugell. The scores of La Taponera were catalogued in the Municipal Archive of Palafrugell by Perez Diz. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 109 festival, celebrated annually, attracts choral societies from all over the world, is broadcast nationwide, and plays a significant role in the cultivation of the polyphonic genre. Each choral is required to sing one mandatory habanera, a fact criticized by the detractors of the Festival as a gimmick for the chorales to participate in what actually is a Festival of Polyphony. The Basque style of polyphonic, four voices singing of the habanera by groups of eight masculine voices, the otxotes, can also be considered similar to this style of choral performing. La Coruna, Guecho (Vizcaya), San Vicente de la Barquera (Santander), and Totana (Murcia) are sites of annual festivals of habaneras, polyphony and seamen’s songs.8 2 In Catalonia, the extremely strong tradition of choral societies dating back to the Euterpe movement was abruptly terminated during the years of the dictatorship. Yet patrons of fishermen’s taverns of the Costa Brava towns continued to sing habaneras as the only means of entertainment available at the time. The environment of purely male encounters— women did not visit taverns— creates peculiar characteristics that are claimed to distinguish Catalan style of the habanera as 8 1 See Jose Bema Quinto, Memorias del I Cert amen Nacional de Habaneras de Torrevieja, 1955, (N.p.m.d.), p. 23. The author points out that the idea of Certamen was generated by a group of merchants of Torrevieja to attract tourists who tended to spend summer in other towns because of lack of services and tourist attractions in Torrevieja (23). The function of attracting tourists through habaneras was successfully fulfilled in Torrevieja. Today it is one of the most overpopulated summer destinations for visitors not only from Spain but also from all over Europe, including traditional German and growing Russian contingents. 8 2 More about festivals of the habanera all over Spain can be found in “Gufa de la habanera ” in Gines Rosa, Habanera: Canto de Cuba, nostalgia de Totana, (Totana, 2000), 170-75. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 110 opposed to other regions of Spain where they are also popular. The defenders of the peculiarity of the Catalan habanera usually present two arguments. As opposed to the polyphony cultivated in other regions, at Costa Brava, trios consisting of a tenor, a baritone and a bass usually sang habaneras without any musical accompaniment. The only accompaniment consisted of tapping with the palm of the hand on the table. The other defining characteristic of the Catalan habanera is the environment of fishermen’s taverns, a space that due to historical and social factors presupposed a purely and exclusively male participation and presence. Being the one and only type of entertainment available in small towns and a traditional place of encounter for men, this space can be seen as austere, on the one hand, and as frivolous and male- oriented on the other. The exclusive atmosphere of male encounters generates certain representations and stereotypes. In the first place, it refers to the representation of the protagonist of the nostalgic songs, a brave soldier or a sailor whose life is associated with the sea and overseas travel. The antagonist, is the “Other,” the female, specifically a mulatto woman, an eternal object and counterpart of the masculinist discourse of habaneras cultivated in a tavern environment. Songs that invoke the years of military service and overseas travel become a window to the exotic world full of palm trees, sensual mulatto women and brave sailors. The habanera gives a chance to the listeners and singers to forget for a moment of a friendly gathering the limitations and sometimes scarce reality of the post-war Spain and give full freedom to their imagination. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. I l l Surprisingly enough, this intimate style cultivated in small groups by fishermen of the Emporda region through the years of the civil war and the Franco dictatorship gave birth to a completely new massive phenomenon of the Catalan habanera. Since the late 1960s, habaneras become an almost unavoidable and mandatory part of numerous local festivals that take place in Catalonia in summer on stages by the beach or at central squares of towns. The intimate style of interpretation cultivated in fishermen’s taverns transformed into a massive entertainment with megawatt amplification and collective waving of white handkerchiefs by the public during the singing of the virtually obligatory and emblematic now “La bella Lola.” During the singing of “El meu avi” the audience usually stands up, puts their hands on each other shoulders and sways side to side, thus reenacting the unity of the nation. The collective participation in the habanera singing may be compared to the participation in the sardana circle where seemingly everybody can join. The sardana and the castells, competitions in building human towers, are considered to be the emblems of Catalan cultural identity for their inclusiveness, among other features. However, to dance the sardana one should know its rather complicated rules and be able to follow the rhythm, a task far from being easy. The participation in the colles dels castellers, groups that build human 8 3 See Brandes: “By stressing the inclusion of everyone who learns the rales, the dance is a microcosmic reflection of the general Catalan belief in ethnicity as an achieved status. However, the sardana also excludes those who neither know nor follow the detailed rales of the dance” (39). Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 112 towers, requires systematic training. The participation in the singing of habaneras seems to be an easier task for the masses. One might ask how did the intimate singing of nostalgic songs by fishermen transform into the massive cultural phenomenon. The discourse about the habanera generally maintains that a crucial point for the history of the habanera is the publication and public presentation of the book Calella de Palafrugell i les havaneres that took place in 1966. This collection was prepared and published with the funds of its compilers, Joan Pericot, an architect who spends summers in Calella de Palafrugell, Ernest Morato, a native of Calella deeply interested in the cultural traditions of his native town and a singer of habaneras himself, and Frederic Sires, a musician and author of the habanera “La gaviota,” one of the most popular today in Catalonia.8 4 The authors of this book saw their task in preserving the folklore of their small town. The presentation of this book turns into a spontaneous cantada, singing of habaneras. During this memorable night, a suggestion of organizing an annual event in Calella is enthusiastically accepted, and the year 1967 starts the tradition of Cantadas of Calella, celebrated for the thirty-fifth time in 2001. The success of Cantadas of Calella de Palafrugell may be considered as a crucial starting point for the growth and proliferation of the Catalan habanera as a cultural 8 4 Sires composes “La gaviota” in 1926 to his own lyrics in Spanish. This was the way his generation perceived and interpreted the habanera. In the seventies it was translated into Catalan and is performed now in both languages. However, the Catalan variant provoked a harsh reaction on behalf of the defenders of Calella style, who try to maintain the tradition of the “authentic” habanera, which means to them the habanera in Spanish. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 113 phenomenon all over Catalonia, even in remote inland areas where they were not cultivated historically. However, another important event that happened two decades earlier, precisely the compilation and publication of the first album of habaneras by Xavier Montsalvatge, Nestor Lujan and Josep Maria Prim seems to be continuously overlooked by those who write about the phenomenon of the Catalan habanera. The motivation of the compilers of Calella de Palafrugell i les havaneres (1966) lay in their preoccupation that the intrinsic culture of the area would be lost with the development of a cmcial for Spain social phenomena of tourism that changed the aspect and social and cultural structure of various regions of the country. Yet a similar preoccupation generated a similar initiative two decades earlier, in 1948. It did not trigger an all-national movement as the Cantadas of the sixties did, but one should not forget the difference in the social situation between 1948 and 1967. In the forties, with the slow recuperation from the civil war wounds, the well to do bourgeoisie of big cities start to go to small fishermen’s villages to spend summer weekends and vacations. These veraneantes, summer dwellers who own or rent on an annual basis second residences on the fashionable Costa Brava, cultivate and maintain their own collections of habaneras in the form of typed or sometimes hand written songbooks. Their role may be viewed as a role of Mecenas, with their interest for the folklore of fishermen’s villages. It so happens that one of those summer visitors is renowned composer Xavier Montsalvatge, a native of Palafrugell, who frequently visits the Costa Brava while living in Madrid. The interest and Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 114 creative energy of Montsalvatge— and of two of his friends with whom he shares interest and enthusiasm for the habanera, writer Nestor Lujan and artist Josep Maria Prim— opens a new stage in the history of the habanera. The luxury edition of the first Album de habaneras with a sensitive prologue by Nestor Lujan and brilliant and somewhat frivolous illustrations by Prim is published in 1948 and almost immediately becomes a bibliographic rarity. In 1964, Montsalvatge publishes the same habaneras in a collection entitled Habaneras de la Costa Brava. This edition did not have a prologue or illustrations. The facsimile edition of the first album was released in 1998 as a collaboration between Fundacio Ernest Morato and the Generalitat de Catalunya as part of the activities of the Comisio 1898. In his autobiographical notes, Montsalvatge confesses that habaneras that he heard once in 1945 in Calella de Palafrugell opened to him a whole world of overseas images. They not only motivated him to notate and publish a collection of the most popular habaneras on the Costa Brava, but also in a certain way suggested the style of his “Canciones Negras” and gave birth to the antillanismo of some of his works (Papeles 71-75). Montsalvatge’s collaborators in this project are Nestor Lujan, a writer with broad interests in popular culture that include among others a history of gastronomy, and Josep Maria Prim, a brilliant artist and illustrator with an extremely sensitive perception of the Mediterranean and of his native Emporda, both of which constitute the predominant subject in his paintings. The contribution of the three refined “gourmets” of the habanera who worked on this project, Lujan, Montsalvatge and Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 115 Prim, is especially valuable if one takes into consideration the historical circumstances under which the project was undertaken in 1948. As Lujan formulates it, the project was completed during the days of their lives “mas bien opacos y de una tristeza espesa y agobiadora” (vii-viii). For Lujan, habaneras sung at Costa Brava are a separate genre that finds its roots in the songs brought from overseas, but which acquired a completely new form as the fishermen of the Lower Emporda appropriate these songs and sing them in their own new way. This position that Lujan elegantly argues makes one think of the continuity of the process of transculturation that the songs related to overseas experience undergo upon their return to the Costa Brava region. With a very clear vision of the process of transculturation of a cultural sign, Lujan argues that Catalan fishermen and workers appropriated the exotic overseas folklore and made it part of their culture: Estan completamente transformadas por el genio popular y hoy son patrimonio intrfnseco de quienes las recuerdan a su manera y las cantan segun su modo peculiar de sentirlas. Y siendo cierto que sin nuestros Pescadores catalanes estas habaneras, enriquecidas por el romanticismo de la antigua navegacion de altas velas y por la evocation de una tierra paradisfaca perdida para siempre no existirfan, la forma mas autentica de ellas es la que hemos recogido antes de que se perdiera definitivamente. (x) Lujan also asserts as one of the factors for the viability of the habanera, in addition to the memory of coastal fishermen, a certain interested participation on behalf of summer dwellers of coastal towns, in other words, representatives of Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 116 affluent bourgeoisie who cultivate the interest in folklore. At the same time, the concern that the songs will be lost with the growing tourist boom is already present in Lujan’s essay at the time: Porque lo que es evidente es que iban perdiendo de una manera insensible. Quedaban como una marchita diversion de las generaciones mas maduras, ahogadas por el oleaje espumeante de las canciones estrepitosamente actuales. Pero su encanto es tan grande que ha vuelto a prender en los ciudadanos que van en los veranos a la Costa, agotados por la vida modema mas activa y fosforescente, como una cosa nueva. Y esta persistencia autoriza su coleccion en un album, y que de ellas quede memoria. Lo que tiene, pues, de mas merito este album es este intento de fijar estas habaneras en su mejor momento, es decir, cuando ya transformadas hasta una cosa peculiarmente popular, dentro de un juego musical ampurdanes, estan a punto de olvidarse. (x) The objective of the compilers does not seem to go beyond their desire to capture a certain moment of the existence of a cultural phenomenon that may be extinguished without a possibility of revival. However, the completion of this project achieves results that go far beyond what the authors proposed. It not only helps to preserve songs cultivated as a nostalgic evocation of the exotic past, but brings habaneras to a new stage of existence: from the oral form of transmission they acquire a new status of folklore that has a written form. The analogy with Cancionero de palacio and other collections of Spanish traditional lyrics is transparent, as these anthologies preserve poetry that already existed for decades or even centuries in oral tradition. In addition, in the Album de habaneras this transformation into a new literary existence is enhanced by imaginative illustrations Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 117 accompanying each of the twenty songs. The pictorial images by Prim make a statement of imagination directly related to the discourse of the songs that evoke overseas adventure of the Spanish Empire and create a new tradition of illustrating the habanera, which will be followed in other collections of habaneras. In addition to being practically the first compilation of habaneras sung in Spain ever published,8 5 the Album de habaneras also generates a pattern, which will be continuously repeated as new collections of habaneras are published. Songs collected by Montsalvatge and his companions were presented in the album as a fact of existing folklore without any reference to authorship of the songs. Though this pattern may be criticized as a negligence on behalf of the compilers of the album, it shows how a cultural signifier bom as the result of constant permutations once again is transformed, now into the folklore of Costa Brava fishermen. In order to defend themselves against accusations of negligence, Nestor Lujan offers an explanation of the lack of reference to authors of music and lyrics. According to Lujan, the compilers of the album saw their task in recovering and notating songs that for decades belonged to oral folklore and were passed on by fishermen. Fishermen learned them as they heard them from other cantores. singers, without knowledge or references of authorship. As in any oral tradition, the melodies and the texts undergo dramatic changes as they are passed from one generation of singers to the other. In Lujan’s words, the authors that initially created these songs would hardly ever 8 5 Febres mentions that a collection of habaneras that contained 142 songs, some of which were in Catalan, was published in 1927 (Aixo es 97-98). However, this collection cannot be found either in private collections or in libraries. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 118 recognize them in Montsalvatge’s notation of what he heard from Catalan singers in 1948 (x). This observation seems to be exceptionally important for the understanding of permutations of the habanera. Through the collecting effort of Montsalvatge, Lujan and Prim, one can see that habaneras by the 1940s become a form of folklore. They become a new form of popular culture distant from the “cultural” habaneras by European composers cultivated at the end of the nineteenth century. The effort of those who perceived the habanera as a seal of Spanishness at the turn of the twentieth century seems at this point of the history of the habanera to be a stylization of the Volksgeist. of the spirit of the nation, represented in the Album de habaneras through habaneras as they are sung and passed on by fishermen. With the publication of the Album de habaneras, the foundations of the habanera as a trademark of Catalan cultural identity start to be laid in a very peculiar way. This peculiarity consists, on the one hand, in the adaptation and assimilation by the Costa Brava fishermen of the languid and sensual rhythm of the habanera the way they perceived any kind of music, which, according to Lujan, is in the rhythm of the sardana, the only type of music familiar to them. On the other hand, in Catalonia, where the adherence to language forms the basis of the cultural identity, the story of the habanera seems to be characterized by a linguistic discrepancy. Habaneras continue to be sung in Spanish, the language of the military service of some of the singers and of the exotic tropical paradise that these songs evoke in the imagination of those who sing and listen to them. For their importance, these two characteristics, Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 119 the adaptation of the rhythm of the habanera by the singers and the broad audience, and the linguistic controversy surrounding the songs deserve special attention. Both, Lujan in his prologue of 1948 and Montsalvatge in his introduction to the 1998 facsimile edition, mention the immense difficulty of musical notation as many melodies seemed to combine parts from different songs and were sometimes completely transformed by their interpreters. This tendency, however, created surprising effects, in the words of Lujan. Despite all kinds of musical and textual mixtures— one song could combine parts of completely different, both musically and textually, fragments— and the fact that the interpreters had no musical proficiency and did not use any musical instruments, habaneras in Costa Brava never lose their “natural harmony.” Lujan sees the specific transformation that habaneras undergo in the Costa Brava towns in the adaptation by the Catalan fishermen of the Cuban rhythms through their own feeling “a su clara manera de sentir” (viii). And this feeling, according to him, the only way to feel the music in the Lower Emporda area, is the sardana. Thus the dance and the melody that is claimed by the Catalans to be one the most significant emblems of their cultural identity seems to play, according to Lujan, an exceptional role in the transculturation of the exotic tropical rhythms into the popular songs of fishermen’s folklore. For Lujan, habaneras “evanescentes, languidas y sensuales, de una sensualidad lactea y extasiada con un tremolo de senos de mulata,” are transformed by the pattern of the sardana, which he characterizes as “concreto, preciso y luminoso” (viii). Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 120 As one can see, the traditional perception of the habanera as a representation of the stereotypical images of the sensuality of a mulatto woman are explicitly present in Lujan’s analysis. At the same time, he clearly sees the mechanism of transculturation that the habanera undergoes upon return from overseas to the Costa Brava: “El instinto rftmico, antiguo y precioso de las costas mediterraneas, fue deformando la melodfa dandole rotundidad, restandole fuego aterciopelado y afirmando en cambio su llamear retorico” (viii). Thus the milieu of the tavern seems to change not only the rhythmical accents of the songs that evoke the blaze of the tropics, but also their structure, converting them into a rhetorical discourse about the lost tropical paradise. The transculturation of the habanera in the Emporda region is not limited to the melodic adaptation of the habanera under the influence of the autochthonous austere rhythm of the sardana. Perhaps the linguistic aspect of the transculturation of the habanera is the most intriguing one. Lujan asserts that the fishermen hardly understood the lyrics of the songs that they were singing. Their native and most often only language was Catalan. Spanish, if learned during the military service, was allegedly since then long forgotten. Lujan asserts that the language of the habanera, a floral and “rebuscado” Spanish of the end of the nineteenth century created by professional masters of the genre was hardly understandable for the Catalan fishermen: “Porque los textos primitivos de estas obras asf musicales como literarios tenfan un autor no solo culto, sino de oficio cotidiano, casi mecanico, manipulador de las flores artificiales de la cancion amorosa” (ix). Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 121 Lujan confesses that the task of finding the authors of original songs seemed too boring to him and that he soon, probably too soon, abandoned it, confident that what he was hearing was a very far approximation to what might have been originally created (ix-x). However, he mentions that the easiest to find was the name of “Eugenio Alvarez Fuentes” as the author of the lyrics and music of the song “Tecla” in a “different form” that is notated in the album (x). Apparently Lujan’s sources were not too accurate and he is confused by the authorship of the habanera “Tu” by Eduardo Sanchez de Fuentes and Feman Sanchez, who wrote the lyrics to already existing music in 1894. This argument of his discussion, however, points to the metamorphosis that the habanera undergoes in the process of transculturation. In Catalonia, “Tecla” has been sung for decades with lyrics strikingly different from the original text by Feman Sanchez, so popular in Cuba during the war of independence. The juxtaposition of the two texts makes one think of transculturation as a process that does not end with the formation of the cultures of the New World. It also suggests a reflection about the role that the habanera plays in Catalan discourse about Cuba, once commonly referred to as “the fifth province of Catalonia,” on the other: Tu” “Tecla,” En Cuba la isla hermosa del ardiente sol, bajo su cielo azul, adorable triguena de todas las flores la reina eres tu. Fuego sagrado guarda tu corazon y el claro cielo Tecla se llamo la mulata que yo camelaba con sal De la mismita Habana la pobre Teclita era natural. Recuerdo un dfa que juntitos los dos en la manigua Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 122 su alegria te dio. Y en tus miradas ha confundido Dios de tus ojos la noche, y la luz de los rayos del sol. La palma que en bosque se mece gentil tu sueno arrullo, y un beso de la brisa, al morir de la tarde, te desperto. Dulce es la cana, pero mas lo es tu voz que la amargura quita del corazon. Al contemplarte, suspira mi laud bendiciendote, hermosa sin par ; Ay! porque Cuba eres “Tu!” nos juramos amor. Llego el momento para Espana embarque y confieso que fui muy cruel porque alia la deje. De dalias, violetas, heliotropo y jazmm, un camino te hare de amapolas, camelias, claveles y rosas te lo adomare. De palmo a palmo pensamientos habran donde comprenda que tus pies pisaran. Sobre un geranio yo te hare descansar y en tus manos, mi bien, te pondre un ramito de azahar. (A Cuban Love Song 2) (Album 81) “Tu,” with its explicit comparison of the nation, “isla hermosa del ardiente sol,” with a beautiful woman, “adorable triguena,” who is the “queen of all its flowers,” can be seen as a “foundational” text in miniature if one takes into consideration the historical period when it was created and became popular. The year 1890 when sixteen-year old Sanchez de Fuentes (1874-1944) composes the musical score is the turbulent time of the continuous war for independence from Spain in Cuba. The lyrics, according to Tamara Martin, were written in 1894. By 1895 the song becomes universally popular in Cuba among those who fight on both sides of the war of independence.8 6 The simile of the “island of burning sun” with 8 6 As I mentioned earlier, Carpentier characterizes “Tu” as the first great bestseller of Latin American music (“America Latina” 17). Josep Conangla Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 123 the beloved/adored woman is transparent and points to the metaphor of motherland as a beloved woman. The representation of Cuba as an “island of burning sun” asserts the self-fashioning of Cuban nation as an independent entity as opposed to the dominant Spanish Empire. This self-representation is enhanced by the attributes of a tropical landscape that represent it. The tropes: “cielo azul,” “claro cielo,” “la palma que en bosque se mece gentil,” “el beso de la brisa,” “dulce es la cana,” add to the unique representation of land, “isla hermosa,” and culminate in the metaphorical fusion of the adored woman and land: “porque Cuba eres tu.”8 7 These tropes evoke the verses of the maximum representative of Cuban modernism Jose Marti and of Jose Maria Heredia, whose poetry, contemporary to Cirilo Villaverde’s foundational novel Cecilia Valdes o La Loma del Angel, represents the assertion of Cuban nationalism. Comparing the two texts, one can see that “Tecla,” with its exuberant enumeration of flowers, seems to represent one of those “rebuscado” texts, in the words of Lujan, that were characteristic of the creations by professional habanera authors of the end of the nineteenth century. Linares mentions that different versions characterizes “Tu” in his book Memorias de mi iuventud en Cuba: Un soldado del eiercito espanol en la guerra separatista (1895-1898) as “conocida, admirada y cantada por todo el mundo latino culto” (217). 8 7 Tamara Martin retells an anecdote about the title of this habanera. Sanchez de Fuentes improvised the title “Tu” when asked by a young lady, what is the title of the melody that he was playing. The lyrics were composed later by his brother Feman (23). Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 1 2 4 of the lyrics of “Tu” existed on the Spanish side (“Algunas ideas” 12).8 8 Perhaps “Tecla,” notated in 1948 by Montsalvatge and sung with slight variations of the text in Catalonia until today, is one of those versions popular on the Spanish side. One can make a connection between Nestor Lujan’s idea that the fishermen adopted the songs “a su clara manera de sentir,” according to their own way of feeling them, when one looks comparatively at these two habaneras. The title of “Tecla” refers to the object of nostalgia explicit in this song. This object is a mulatto woman with a name popular in Catalonia, Tecla. The protagonist/ narrative voice “swore love” with her in the manigua which in this song seems to be an evocation of Cuban landscape, while for the Cubans it has an explicit connotation of a space of military combat against the Spanish troops. As many other habaneras sung in Spain, “Tecla” evokes nostalgia for the lost tropical paradise through the figure of a desired female, a mulatto woman from Havana. The mulatto woman as an addressee or a desired object is the central figure in the traditional habanera. Habaneras tend to tell a story of a male protagonist, a soldier or a sailor, of his sentiments, of his deeds and of his nostalgia for the adventures left behind in an exotic overseas space. Through this nostalgic discourse the habanera constructs the identity of those who participate in Spain’s colonial expansion. The construction of identity always presupposes the presence of the QO Linares publishes a slightly different text from the one that I quote, which is understandable if one takes into consideration oral transmission. See Maria Teresa Linares, “Algunas ideas sobre la habanera,” I Trovada de Habaneras: Ponencias presentadas a la mesa redonda (Mayorga, 6 y 7 de agosto, 1993) 12. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 125 opposed “Other.” The discourse of the traditional habanera virtually always involves a woman who is of other race and land, due to the historical circumstances of colonial expansion and war. The convergence of two major ethnic groups in Cuba, represented by white male immigrants from Europe and black female slaves from Africa, lead to the formation of new population originated in the colonies, the mulattoes. Love and desire for the woman left behind in the Caribbean means love and desire for the native woman, the exotic mulata. Colonialism, as Robert I. Young stresses, was a machine not only of war and administration, “it was also a desiring machine” (98). Sexual desire represented in songs, an exceptionally relevant form of popular culture, becomes part of the cultural imaginary of nations involved in colonial expansion. Desire and nostalgia for a mulatto woman become a relevant feature of the habanera cultivated in the former colonial empire and contributes to the creation of the myth of exceptional sexual qualities of mulatto women. This myth bom during the time of colonial expansion continues its existence into the twenty-first century. The woman of another land and race as an object of desire is implicitly associated with the nostalgically desired overseas “paradise” in the collective imaginary of nations that participate in the process of colonization. The habanera cultivates this myth throughout the twentieth century and, as we will see later, gives birth to narrative and cinematographic representations that reinterpret this myth in the late twentieth century. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 126 An object of desire and lust in the traditional habanera, a mulatto woman is desired and despised at the same time. This ambiguity of love and condemn, desire and contempt are a relevant feature of colonial discourse. The origins of the legend of mulatto women lie in the hybridity that characterizes the formation of the nations of the New World. The English word “mulatto,” according to Websters Concise Dictionary (1997), is of Spanish origin and is derived from the Spanish mulo. As defined by Diccionario de uso del espanol by Marfa Moliner, mulo is “animal hfbrido, hijo de burro y yegua o de caballo y burra.” It seems that the very etymology of the word associated with animals traditionally perceived as the representation of stubbornness or stupidity, on the one hand, and a great capacity to endure hard work on the other, gives the term applied to humans ambivalent connotations. On the one hand, the mulatto woman for her physical characteristics is perceived as an incarnation of exotic beauty. At the same time, the racial theories of the eighteenth and nineteenth century consider her to be inferior to the “pure” races.8 9 Yet, in the ninetenth century Cuba, a number of projects are proposed for the blanqueamiento. whitening, of the society through the unions of peninsular 8 9 While discussing the etymology of the term mulatto in English, Robert J. C. Young mentions that Edward Long, a Jamaican slave-owner who wrote an influential History of Jamaica in 1774, associated the term with biological characteristics of a mule, a hybrid incapable of procreating: “Some few of them [Mulattos] have intermarried here with those of their own complexion; but such matches have generally been defective and barren. They seem in this respect to be actually of the mule-kind, and not so capable of producing from one another as from a commerce with a distinct White or Black” (qtd. in Young 8). Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 127 immigrants and black women.9 0 Even now this policy is reflected in an explicitly racist language related to ethnicity in Cuba. The adjective “adelantado,” advanced, is applied to mulattos with more explicit white features, while “atrasado,” backward, applies to those who possess more black features. In the nineteenth century, the figure of mulata becomes central to Cuban narrative and theater. The passion and suffering of a young mulatto woman Cecilia Valdes is the subject of the novel by Cirilo Villaverde Cecilia Valdes o La Loma del Angel. The protagonists of Cuban popular theater, teatro bufo, in the first half of the nineteenth century are la mulata del rumbo, el Catalan and el negrito. These three characters represent three major groups that constitute Criollo society. According to Moreno Fraginals, el Catalan, will later, with the change in the structure of immigration, be substituted by el gallego, and represents all the penfnsulares, immigrants from Spain, while el negrito represents the Criollo population (Cuba/Espana 221-22). At the same time, la mulata grows into a highly coveted object and an emblem of sexual desire. This desire, however, for strong racial prejudice, is inseparable from contempt towards its object. Despised as a race, however, desired as a sexual legend,9 1 the Cuban mulatto woman, becomes the 9 0 See Moreno Fraginals, Cuba/Espana Espana/Cuba. historia comun (Barcelona, 1998) 230-31. 9 1 Discussing the origins of the myth of the mulata, Cuban historian Moreno Fraginals mentions the protagonists of Cuban narrative and folklore Cecilia Valdes, Rosa la China, Marfa de la O, La Mulata Rosa, La Mulata Marfa, Belen, La Mulata callejera. He also quotes the Countess of Merlin: “Las mulatas, ;ah!, las mulatas[...]De ellas es la calle” (qtd. in Cuba/Espana 219). On the one hand, the Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 1 2 8 center of the nostalgic discourse of the habanera that arguably represents what Robert J. Young defines as “colonial desire,” “a covert but insistent obsession with transgressive, inter-racial sex, hybridity and miscegenation” (xii). The motives of “colonial desire” and nostalgia for the island of tropical paradise are explicit in ‘Tecla.” The paradisiacal image of Cuba is enhanced by a rich and somewhat baroque enumeration of flowers, an attribute of lavish tropics: De dalias, violetas, heliotropo y jazmfn un camino te hare de amapolas, camelias, claveles y rosas te lo adomare. Some floral images, however, have a strong connection and connotation in Spain, from where the narrator projects his nostalgic discourse: Sobre un geranio yo te hare descansar y en tus manos, mi bien, te pondre un ramito de azahar. The metamorphosis of this song seems to point to the processes of transculturation that continue in the “Old” as in the “New” World. Perhaps more importantly, it points to the passage from the “foundational” nationalism, repeated invocation of sexual qualities of the mulatto woman reinforce the desire for possessing her, on the other, exclude a possibility of a legal union or socially accepted relationship with her: “La mulata, despreciada como raza, pero deseada como leyenda sexual, perfecciono sus dotes femeninas e hizo una profesion perfecta del sexo. No porque fuera diversa de la blanca, sino porque era una forma de erguirse por encima de la miseria y el desprecio. La vida de soltero de los hombres repercutio sobre sus costumbres de casado. Y fue habitual y orgullosa demostracion de virilidad (estamos ante una sociedad profundamente machista) tener la esposa blanca y la amante mulata en otro barrio” (Cuba/Espana 218-19). Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 129 characteristic of the Cuban poetry of the time when Cuban nationhood is articulated, to something else that is hard to define but is redolent of imperialist nostalgia. During the war of independence in Cuba, “Tu,” with lyrics charged with emotion that compares the beloved land of burning sun to an adorable “triguena” who is the queen of all the flowers, becomes the hymn of those who fight for its independence from Spain. Catalan version sung in Spanish and imported from Cuba most likely with those who return after the war, clearly represents the discourse of crying over what was lost in Cuba, “mas se perdio en Cuba,” through an evocation of a figure of a legendary mulatto woman. What is noteworthy, however, is the fact that in Cuba “Tu” is forgotten as almost all other habaneras, while “Tecla” in Catalonia continues to be part of the repertoire of habanera singers. In recent years, due to research and publications of Catalan researchers of the habanera, many habanera groups perform both songs. “Tecla” may serve as a starting point to discuss one of the most delicate issues of the phenomenon of the habanera in Catalonia. Although there is evidence of existence of habaneras in Catalan as early as in 1868, 9 2 traditionally, habaneras in Catalonia were sung in Spanish even by those whose native, and in many cases the only, language was Catalan. The traditional singing of habanera in Spanish is the subject of debate and numerous attempts at explaining it. For Lujan, the paradox consists in the fact that these songs are preserved in the region where Spanish is 9 2 See Ana Vicens, “La primera havanera en catala data de 1868,” Diari de Girona 9 Sept. 1993. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 130 hardly spoken, and the little that is spoken has nothing to do with the “pompous and literary” language of these songs (xi). Xavier Febres who maintains the viewpoint that cork industry workers were the major force in the preservation of the habanera, explains it by the popularity of the zarzuela, performed in Spanish (“Dos o tres” 8). For Lujan, the explanation of the linguistic discrepancy between the language spoken by the singers and the language, in which the songs were sung, lies in the harmonious sensuality of the songs that prevailed over the lyrics for the fishermen who sung them: Pero a la vez, si los Pescadores catalanes cantaban calidamente era por pura delectacion sonora; las palabras no las comprendfan apenas. El castellano era hace medio siglo, lfricamente, un idioma floral, de invemadero, desmedulado y blando; cuando este lenguaje llego a la cancion habanera frfvola y ademas manejada por plumas de oficio, consiguio la filigrana mas rebuscada. (viii) Lujan tells an anecdote that will later be reiterated by other authors. One of the legendary habanera singers of Costa Brava, Pep Gilet, used to sing the first verse of “Tecla” with the following words, “Tecla se llamo la mulata que yo quemelaba con sal,” instead of, “Tecla se llamo la mulata que yo camelaba con sal,” as it was sung by other singers. When Josep Maria Prim mentioned to him that the word “quemelaba” had no meaning in any language and that the right word would be “camelaba,” Pep replied, “jVaya si no! Que me lava con sal; la mulata que me lavaba con sal” (xi). Lujan believes that fishermen felt the melodic sensuality, “la sensualidad sonora,” of words but not their meaning. However, these songs continue Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 131 to exist preserved and fashioned by these fishermen whose Spanish was extremely limited: No es extrano, pues, que los Pescadores influyeran la sensualidad sonora de las palabras, pero no su significado; sea como fuere, ellos han conservado estas canciones y a traves de ellos, estilizadas por ellos, llegan hoy a nosotros con un regusto extrano, nostalgico y salobre. (viii-ix) The debate about language will continue with the development of habanera tradition in Catalonia and the creation of new habaneras in Catalan. Before we discuss these developments, it is necessary to mention that Nestor Lujan formulates other approaches and ideas that seem to be crucial for the analysis of the habanera and its place in the construction of Catalan national identity. Lujan makes an important statement when he sees habaneras as a part of the essential existence of the Catalans who sing these romantic and declamatory songs with a certain ironical approach, “con una sombra de zumbona sonrisa en los labios” (xi). This statement evokes irony, which as philosopher Ferrater i Mora formulated it, is one of the components of the so-called “fet diferencial,” differential fact of the Catalans.9 3 Together with seny, which may be rendered as a good commonsense, continuitat, continuity in actions and approaches to achieve objectives, and mesura, taking a measured, balanced view of things, ironfa describe in idealistic terms what differentiates the Catalans from the “other,” which is apparently the Castilian. 9 3 About irony as a constituting part of Catalan national character see Ferrater i Mora, “Las formas de la vida catalana,” (Obras selectas, Vol 1, Madrid, 1967) 267- 75. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 132 Referring apparently to the secular conflict between Catalonia and the domineering Castilianized state, Ferrater i Mora regards ironfa as a means of confronting the reality, which was not always favorable for the Catalans: La ironfa era un modo de afrontar la perplejidad proponiendose no echarse la cabeza contra cualquier muro. Si en el fondo de todo estado de crisis humana hay una especie de desesperacion, puede admitirse que la ironfa, cualquiera que sea su forma, es un modo de escapar, o tratar de escapar de esta desesperacion. (272) Developing his idea of ironical approach as a part of the differentiating fact of the nation, Ferrater i Mora believes that ironfa may be a means of combating the bad effects of crisis and perplexity. In this case, and this is, according to him, the case of the Catalan national identity, or in his words, Catalan way of living, “forma de la vida Catalan a,” irony may have a therapeutic effect and help overcome crisis. Thus, Lujan’s perception of the ironic approach of the Catalan fishermen towards the songs that they interpret, is contingent with the structure of Catalan national identity, continuously stressed by the Catalan ideologists, in which the ironical approach to life is distinguished as one of the constituting parts of this identity. Another important issue delineated by Lujan in 1948 is the crucial vitality of the habanera in Catalonia as live folklore that is part of the cultural identity of the nation: “El gran valor que pueden tener es que seguramente es el unico lugar del mundo que siguen siendo folklore vivo, donde han conservado una razon vital de existir” (xi). One should bear in mind that he writes it in 1948, when the Franco regime is trying to eliminate all attempts of associations, which lead to the dispersion Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 133 of choral societies in Catalonia. The only type of associations tolerated by the dictatorial regime were the Associations of the Sardanists, seen as innocuous by the regime aimed at eliminating all traces of the Catalan national identity. These associations are considered to have played an outstanding role in the preservation of this identity. Therefore, Lujan’s perception of the significance of the habanera at the Costa Brava region is consistent with the theory of symbolic acts of ethnicocultural affirmation of collective identity of small nations through folkloric acts and massive festivities, continuously stressed by the ideologists of Catalan national identity.9 4 The impact of the Album de habaneras on the evolvement of the habanera in Catalonia is not limited to the insight of Lujan’s story not aggravated with profound research, but definitely touched by talent and an intrinsic ability to evaluate a cultural phenomenon in its totality. This book, and I am talking now about a book as a physical object and an object of bibliographic value, creates a persistent pattern for future publications about habaneras, which will be repeated by different compilers not even once or twice. The already mentioned Calella de Palafrugell i les havaneres (Palafrugell, 1966), that will be ensued by Las mas bellas habaneras (1979; Barcelona, 1995) and Quadem d’havaneres, (Girona, 1983) will follow the pattern 9 4 See Giner: “The people of such small ‘advanced’ stateless nations must find their collective identity by falling back on the institutions of their civil societies, as public and state institutions are alien and often hostile to them. This search for a common identity and strength results also in the conscious participation of the people in many symbolic acts of ethnicocultural affirmation. In this respect Catalonia must be one of the very few industrial countries where the progress of technology and capitalism has not meant the relegation of a vast number of traditional festivities, dances and ritualistic games of all sorts either to remote rural areas, or to certain pockets of the popular classes” (10). Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 1 3 4 generated by Album de habaneras in many aspects. All of these publications consist of an explanatory prologue and sometimes commentary to the songs, a collection of texts and scores, and evocative illustrations. A similar pattern of a prologue and a collection of musical scores and lyrics is preserved in other publications dedicated to the habanera, however without any significant visual contribution, though sometimes QC with photos of certain personalities or groups of singers. This allows one to speak of a certain bibliographic phenomenon generated by the creators of the Album de habaneras. This bibliographic form can be examined as an organic fusion of three aspects: explanatory commentary, notated songs and pictorial images. The lavish and evocative illustrations by Prim, Martinell, Pericot and Lozoya make one think that the songs nostalgically evoking desired mulatto women are capable of generating a new genre of pictorial images that represent a colonial past that seems to be long lost, but exists, however, in the imagination of new generations that perceive it both through songs and through pictorial images. Not only Prim’s evocative full-color illustrations, but also the general aspect of this book, which simulates a box of colonial merchandise par excellence, Cuban cigars, evocatively called “Habana,” suggests a nostalgia for the long lost tropical paradise (see fig. 2). 9 5 See Ricardo Lafuente Aguado, La habanera en Torrevieja (Alicante, 1989). Teresa Perez Daniel, Castilla canta habaneras (Barcelona, 1991). Emilio Temprano, ed. Habaneras (Madrid, 1996). Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. KAYIER MOOTSMJvOTGE JOSEF M.FBtM B B m m h Fig. 2. Book cover. Album de habaneras (Barcelona: Omega, 1998). Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 136 The cover of Calella de Palafrugell i les havaneres, created by Joan Pericot.,9 6 with its light beige color and vertical blue stripes on it, is designed to represent the uniform of soldiers of the last colonial war lead by Spain in Cuba. The title of the book is placed in the central vignette thus alluding to a label on a rum bottle, another traditional colonial merchandise and a consolation for soldiers and sailors on their long trips. The lyrics of the songs in this book are printed on thin sheets of paper of different colors, imitating pliegos de cordel. the “literature of the illiterate,” which proliferates during the time of the colonial wars. Pericot’s monochromatic drawings are intentionally modest in style as opposed to the luxury of the full color illustrations of the Album de habaneras. However, tropical landscapes, mulatto women, palm trees and sailors are present here too. Chronologically next publication, Las mas bellas habaneras, (1979) edited by Ricard Balil9 7 evokes those legendary songbooks that notorious habanera fans are known to keep. This impression is enhanced by the quality of paper on which songs are printed or more exactly are written in cursive. The paper is intentionally rough and yellow as of cheap notebooks, or of pulp fiction in its North American analogy. The texts are accompanied by illustrations, which are also monochromatic, as if the 9 6 Joan Pericot was an architect to whose talent and professionalism Calella de Palafrugell owes a great deal of its buildings and to whose advocacy it owes the preservation of its Mediterranean aspect with buildings that do not exceed the height of ten meters. In the prologue to the book, Pericot mentions that his father participated in the Cuban war. (19) 9 7 The second edition was published in 1995. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 137 whole notebook is written in conventional blue ink. The drawings very explicitly complement the stories told in the charged with sentimentality songs of this collection. This intentionally monostylistic approach makes these illustrations an intrinsic and organic part of this publication. The forth collection of habaneras, Quadem d’havaneres, published in 1983, is prepared by a group of some of the most respected personalities in the world of the Catalan habanera. Musical scores are notated by Ricard Viladesau, a composer of sardanas and habaneras who created some of the most popular new habaneras; the prologue and commentary to the songs is written by Lluis Racionero, Director of the Biblioteca Nacional; full-color illustrations are by Josep Martinell, an artist who has created a whole gallery of images related to habaneras; while Josep Bastons, a prolific composer and artistic director of the group of habanera “Peix Fregit,” is listed as an advisor to this publication initiated by Enric Sabater of Dasa Edicions, a publishing house that specializes in art books, specifically in Salvador Dali publications. The world of the habanera on paper is not limited to these lavish publications. Many habanera groups publish their own songbooks, so that the Q O audience can sing along. In recent years, pictorial images are not confined only to illustrations in the collections of habaneras, but also include posters for major 9 8 Since 1993, a ticket to the Cantada of Calella de Palafrugell includes a songbook and a white handkerchief to wave during the singing of an emblematic “La bella Lola” always sung as the finale together with “El meu avi.” I will discuss the public’s participation and, particularly, the waving of the kerchiefs, which may be seen as an actual reenactment of a cultural myth, in Chapter Three while analyzing the current habanera phenomenon in Catalonia. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 1 3 8 habanera events, almanacs with lyrics and pictures, as well as series of postcards edited by Fundacio Ernst Morato. The cultivation of the habanera at the Costa Brava region during the first half of the twentieth century can be perceived as a bridge between the cultural phenomenon originated at the end of the Spanish Empire and the phenomenon of the Catalan habanera of the end of the twentieth century explored in this dissertation. As I mentioned, twenty years after the publication of Album de habaneras, a complete bibliographic rarity by 1966, the publication of Calella de Palafrugell i les havaneres and the ensuing celebration of the first massive cantadas in Calella de Palafrugell may be seen as a starting point for reshaping the world of the habanera in Catalonia. The compilers of Calella de Palafrugell i les havaneres. which contains thirty songs, are motivated by the same fear that Montsalvatge, Lujan and Prim in the forties, that of the disappearance of a cultural sign under the pressure of social changes brought about with the tourist boom. All the included songs, as in Montsalvatge’s album, are in Spanish and are presented as “traditional” or “popular” without any mention of authorship. Redolent of the same air that surrounds the romance, this anonymity asserts the folkloric character that the habanera acquires at the Costa Brava. Focusing on the songs sung in one small town, the compilers could not foresee the consequences of their modest initiative. The Cantadas of Calella de Palafrugell are notorious for a highly romantic Mediterranean ambiance for the performing of habaneras. The stage for performers is placed on the beach rocks surrounded by the sea, part of an exclusive “rugged” Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 1 3 9 landscape of the Costa Brava.9 9 The public sits on the beach, on the balconies and on the roofs of the waterfront houses, or in the fishermen’s boats located both on the beach and in the bay. The massive participation of the audience is overwhelming. Calella, with a winter population of three hundred people, is not prepared to accommodate thousands of spectators on the first Saturday of August, a traditional time for summer vacations. Therefore, since 1979 Cantada is celebrated on the first Saturday of July in order to decrease the flow of spectators. However, the change of the date does not change the situation. The event continues to attract between thirty and forty thousand of spectators every summer. The success of the Cantada goes far beyond the local boundaries of the Emporda region and triggers interest towards the habanera all over Catalonia. It should be noted that semi-organized groups of singers existed in small coastal towns long before 1968. According to Febres, the group Cap de Creus was formed as early as in 1946 and regularly sang in the restaurants and bars of its native Cadaques. Though this group never performed outside of Cadaques, they recorded a long play record in 1979 (Aixo es 90). A trio of fishermen regularly singing in taverns of L’Escala in the forties and in the fifties is described in Josep Pla’s short story “Aigua de mar.” Groups Cavall Bemat and Els Pescadors de L’Escala were formed in 1965. The first record with the habaneras “La paloma,” “La bella Lola,” 9 9 Cala both in Catalan and in Spanish means a small bay or cove. Calella means a smaller cala. Costa Brava where Calella de Palafrugel is located is famous for its rugged coastline consisting of small bays. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 140 and “La cana dulce” was released in Palafrugell in 1962,1 0 0 four years prior to the publishing of Calella de Palafrugell i les havaneres (Febres, Aixo es 101). Perhaps the changes in Spain’s political and social situation, during the years of the “dictablanda,” the last years of the Franco dictatorship, and the tourist boom of the sixties may be viewed as an important factor that plays a major role in the evolvement of the habanera as a massive phenomenon in Catalonia. The singing of fishermen’s songs that invoke the times long gone seems to fulfill the necessity of a meaningful entertainment during pleasant summer nights at fashionable sea resorts. The success and popularity of Calella’s Cantada lead to an unprecedented growth of habanera performers all over Catalonia and, more importantly, to the creation of new habanera in Catalan. In the eighties and nineties, a tendency to the stability of performance at numerous habanera events, at festes majors, and simply as part of nightly entertainment in coastal towns during the summer, reinforced by free offerings of cremat in small plastic cups usually paid for by municipal authorities, 1 0 0 Spanish cinematographers have constantly shown interest for the habanera. The director Jose Marfa Elorrieta releases his Habanera in 1958. The protagonist of this film is the daughter of a rich indiano who continues to live in the Caribbean while his daughter studies in a Catholic school in Spain. Desperate to see her father and her native Cuba, she escapes from the monastery, dresses in a man’s attire and hides on a ship that sails to Cuba. Of course she finds her love on board the ship and of course a number of habaneras in zarzuela style are performed all along this musical film. In 1962, director Alfonso B alcazar releases La bella Lola with Sara Montiel in the principal role. In this version a la espanola of Une dame aux camelias, under this title this Franco-Italian-Spanish co-production was released in France, Sara Montiel performs some of the most popular habaneras, “La cana dulce,” “La bella Lola” and “La paloma.” Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 141 converts the singing of habaneras into a second profession and a business for hundreds of men and some women. The most relevant feature of the transculturation of the habanera in Catalonia is the switch to Catalan, as the adherence to the native language represents a crucial issue for Catalan identity. The use of Catalan as the language not only of everyday communication, but also as a language of literature represented through poetry, narrative and drama is continuously stressed by Catalan ideologists as a major pillar on which Catalan identity is based. The other crucial aspect of this identity is the fet diferencial, differential fact. These two aspects are reinforced in the collective imaginary of Catalonia since the time of the Renaixenpa. Therefore, the permutation of the habanera, now created in Catalan mostly, is of crucial importance for the understanding of the process of transculturation and of its role in the construction of Catalan identity. By the beginning of the seventies, only a few years after the first Cantada (1967) triggered an immense interest in the cultural legacy of the past represented in the traditional habaneras, the boom of the new habanera and its overwhelming popularity leads to a conflict between those who defend the traditional way of singing them in Spanish and the rapidly growing trend of the Catalan habanera. As I mentioned, habaneras were traditionally sung in Spanish, even so by people whose primary language was Catalan. The explanation of this long-standing phenomenon may be sought in the habanera’s origin in Cuba and arrival to Catalonia with the americanos and the soldiers of the colonial wars, as well as in the Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 1 4 2 overwhelming popularity of the zarzuela, which was also performed predominantly in Spanish. Some habaneras in Catalan were known and sung long before the current boom. However, the defenders of the traditional habanera consider that the genre should be preserved in its historical form, which presupposes, according to Joan Pericot, three characteristics: rhythm, the Spanish language and amatory subject (Bassa Camps 63). in an interview published in 1980, Pericot, to prove his point, compares the habanera to the sardana and considers it to be a “disaster” if the sardana were sung in Spanish or any other language but Catalan. He also ridicules the contemporary trend of the translation of popular habaneras into Catalan, precisely the Catalan version “La Coloma” of Iradier’s “La Paloma.” In this context, the trajectory of the habanera “La gaviota,” created by Frederic Sires, a collaborator of Pericot and Morato in the publication of their now famous book and one of the founders of the acclaimed habanera group Port-Bo, is of special interest. Sires composed the song in 1928 to his own lyrics in Spanish. Until recent decades it was sung so by the avis, grandfathers, as the older generation of habanera singers is called in Catalonia. Currently it is frequently performed in Catalan and is introduced as an autochthonous Catalan-language habanera under the title “La gavina.” Pericot also had a strong opinion on another important aspect of the habanera, that of its subject, which, according to him, should only be love (Bassa Camp 63). Therefore, an object of his harsh criticism is the habanera in Catalan “Calella de les havaneres,” presented for the first time that year (1980). This habanera seems to represent an Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 143 explicit shift in the subject of habaneras that now tend to express the patriotic feelings for the native land through the singing about the small motherland, a small town, a bay or a beach. Calella de Palafrugell, commonly associated with the genre of the habanera, is represented as a nostalgically desired space in at least four habaneras created in recent decades. I will discuss them in more detail in Chapter Three. Interviewed by the same author, Ernest Morato is more tolerant about the issue of the language, in which habaneras should be sung. He believes that habaneras should reflect the historical period from which they are inherited and thus speak of mulatto women and of love, after which he confesses that he prefers to hear them in Spanish (Bassa Camps 72). Looking back at this debate of the eighties, one can see that the habanera continues to be a sign related to the memory of the nation which once constituted an Empire “where the sun never set.” The revival of the habanera in Catalonia with its nostalgia for the mulatto woman left behind in the tropical paradise may be explored as the perpetuation of the myths of colonial times and a certain “nostalgia-for-empire,” which, as we will see in Chapters Four and Five, is explicit in Catalan film and narrative that reinvent the habanera in the late twentieth century. The bitter comments of two personalities considered today in Catalonia the driving force behind the revival of the habanera,1 0 1 reflect the undercurrents in the habanera movement initiated by an aspiration of a group of enthusiasts to preserve the musical phenomenon that may be perceived as a vehicle 1 0 1 The Foundation for the development and preservation of the habanera created by its enthusiasts in 1995 is named after Ernest Morato. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 1 4 4 for the collective memory of the nation. Apparently, the phenomenon created through their initiative and active participation, was no longer under their control by 1980 and underwent a new metamorphosis— yet another transculturation. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 145 Chapter Three Transculturations of the Habanera II: The Inventions of Catalonia Quan el Catala sortia a la mar els nois de Calella feien un cremat; mans a la guitarra solien cantar: Visca Catalunya! Visca el Catala! (“El meu avi,” music and lyrics by J. L. Ortega Monasterio, 1968-1971) The epigraph to this chapter is taken from a habanera probably familiar to each and every Catalan. For its mass appeal, “El meu avi” is often referred to as the second anthem of Catalonia. This habanera speaks of the Catalans who perished during the last colonial war of the Spanish Empire. One of the first habaneras created in Catalan in the sixties, it contains a verse that made it exceptionally important for the Catalans at the time when Catalan language and culture were still discriminated against by the Franco dictatorship, “Visca Catalunya! Visca el Catala!” “El meu avi” is important for my discussion as Ortega Monasterio in this songsketched some subjects that will be massively developed in the new Catalan habanera. The seventies, even before the democratic changes in Spain after the death of Franco in 1975, are the time of the proliferation of a completely new type of the habanera, started with the overwhelming success of “El meu avi,” composed in 1968 by Ortega Monasterio and presented to the public in 1971. These new habaneras are characterized not only by a switch to Catalan, the use of which was prohibited for Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 1 4 6 decades during the dictatorship, but also by a significant change in the subjects and themes of the habanera. The subjects of new habaneras have a broad range now. The historically patriotic “El meu avi” evokes the participation of Catalans in the colonial war and at the same time praises the motherland, Catalonia. A significant number of habaneras assert national and personal identity through the praising of seafaring professions. The subject of new habaneras may also be love for the small motherland, the towns of Catalonia. These geographic points of significance are directly associated with the habanera, which explicitly starts to acquire features of a sign relevant for Catalan identity in the last decades of the past century. In Catalonia, the sixties and the seventies are the time of an exceptional popularity of a song movement known as the Nova Cango Catalana, whose political repercussions go beyond anyone’s expectations, in the words of Salvador Giner (62). This movement of songs charged with political protest starts with the evolvement of a group of singers and songwriters that call themselves Els Setze Jutges, after a traditional Catalan tongue twister.1 0 2 Having started with translations of songs in the style of Joan Baez and George Brassens, soon they turn to highly politically charged texts by Catalan authors. During the last years of the dictatorship and during the transition from a totalitarian regime to democracy in Spain, the Nova Cango Catalana 1 0 2 Johnston explains that the rhyme “Setze jutges mengen fenge d’un penjat” (Sixteen judges eat the liver of a hangman) emphasizes the phonemes that are not found in Spanish, and thus makes fun of the inability of Spanish speakers to pronounce some Catalan sounds. He believes that the irony was likely missed by the authorities, but not by Catalans (220). Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 1 4 7 becomes exceptionally important for the assertion of Catalan identity. For those who do not express their feelings of protest or do not use a proscribed Catalan language in public for fear of losing their job or undergoing some other kind of repressions, the attendance as spectators at concerts gives an opportunity to become a part of protest. The impact of the Nova Cango movement on the expression of Catalan collective identity and the uniting effect of the Nova Cango for Catalan opposition during the 103 last years of the dictatorship are continuously emphasized. The perspective of the Nova Cango as a phenomenon highly relevant for the collective conscience of the Catalan nation is contingent with Benedict Anderson’s perception of poetry, songs and national anthems as an important marker of collective identity of nations as imagined communities. As I mentioned, Anderson sees in singing the same songs an effect of unisonality, which can be perceived as a sign of collective national identities. In addition to its contribution to the assertion of Catalan identity within Catalonia, the Nova Cango also helps for an extensive recognition of the Catalan language and of Catalans outside of Catalonia. According to Giner, the Nova Cango made the language and its people “known, liked, and to some extent, better understood all over Spain” (63). Thirty years later, however, the exceptional popularity of Els Setze Jutges, Joan Manuel Serrat, Llufs Llach, Raimon, Maria del 1 0 3 About the role of the Nova Cango for the promotion of Catalan language and for the assertion of Catalan national identity see Albert Balcells, Catalan Nationalism (New York: St. Martin’s, 1996) 146; Salvador Giner, The Social Structure of Catalonia (London: Anglo-Catalan Society, 1984) 62-63; Hank Johnston, Tales of Nationalism: Catalonia, 1939-1979 (New Bmnswick, NJ: Rutgers UP, 1991) 178-183, 220. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 1 4 8 Mar Bonet in the sixties and in the seventies can be seen as the sign of the time that terminated with the change of political and social situation. Some of the artists who started their careers as part of the Nova Cango continue to be active and stage spectacular shows until now. Perhaps the most active are Maria del Mar Bonet and Joan Manuel Serrat.1 0 4 The Nova Cango fulfills its function of social protest against cultural repressions and lack of democratic freedoms under the dictatorship and gradually loses its actuality with the weakening of political and social confrontation after the transition to democracy in Spain. Thus, Linares’s theory about the functions that are fulfilled by popular songs and music seems to find its confirmation in the story of the Nova Cango Catalana. The habanera, however, continues to be an intrinsic part not only of massive summer entertainment, but, with graduate oblivion of politically charged Nova Cango and practical disappearance of traditional Catalan songs other than the danceable sardana, turns into a vehicle of assertion of Catalan cultural identity. In this chapter, I will explore how new Catalan habaneras assert Catalan nationhood and identity. Catalan habanera follows the tradition of nostalgic love songs and thus continues to fulfill the function of emotional refuge for those who sing and listen to them. It also develops new subjects and a new linguistic form in the vernacular 1 0 4 Joan Manuel Serrat, the thirteenth of the “sixteen judges,” continues to be perhaps the most prolific and popular author and singer who sings both in Catalan and in Spanish. Due to his refusal to sing in Spanish in 1968 at the prestigious Eurovision festival he entered into a prolonged conflict with the Franco regime and lived in exile in Mexico where he continued his career and gained immense international popularity. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 1 4 9 language, the adherence to which constitutes a major criteria for Catalan identity. For its popularity and significance for Catalan cultural identity in recent decades, the habanera can be compared to the sardana. a major and broadly recognized emblem of the cultural identity of Catalans. The current state of the habanera phenomenon in Catalonia can be characterized as an entity consisting of several components that are organically intertwined and, as a total, present the whole of the cultural phenomenon that can be defined as the Catalan habanera. These components are: traditional habaneras in Spanish; traditional habaneras in Catalan; new habaneras in Catalan; new habaneras in Spanish; other songs performed by the groups that identify themselves as habanera singers. Numerically, the largest group is that of new habaneras in Catalan. My own collection of texts, which I have gathered from songbooks of the Cantada d’Havaneres of Calella de Palafrugell, songbooks edited by habanera performers, booklets accompanying compact disks, and manuscripts— courtesy of authors Josep Bastons, Andreu Navarro, Castor Perez Diz and Antonia Vilas— includes over one hundred thirty texts. Next in quantity is the repertoire of traditional habaneras in Spanish. Primary sources for my research are the collections of habaneras Album de habaneras (1948); Calella de Palafrugell i les havaneres (Palafrugell: Port-Bo, 1966); Las mas bellas habaneras (1979; Barcelona: Librum, 1995); Ouadem d’havaneres, (Girona: Dasa, 1983); songbooks of Cantada d’Havaneres of Calella de Palafrugell, booklets accompanying compact disks. The total of texts that I analyzed is around eighty. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 1 5 0 Some of these songs, however, may belong to other genres: sardanas, valsets, short waltzes popular in Catalonia, boleros are traditionally performed by groups that identify themselves as habanera singers. Thus one can see that the notion of the habanera has a broader meaning in Catalonia, sometimes identified as canco marinera. mariner’s songs. I tried to separate these other genres that are included in the repertoire of habanera groups into the category of “Other.” However, it is not always easy and it is possible that some songs that I treat as the habanera may strictly belong to other musical genres. As I see my task not in strict musicological analysis, but in the analysis from the perspective of placement of a cultural phenomenon within its historical and sociological context, I am interested in the texts and in the discourse that they produce. The group of “Other” includes sardanas, ballades, boleros, corrandes— satirical songs similar to couplet— and other songs. It should be noted that within the sardana genre there is a subdivision into long and short sardanas, as well as into those that are dance only or song only. Two smaller groups are new habaneras in Spanish and traditional habaneras in Catalan. By traditional in Catalan I define those that were known and sung in Catalonia long before the boom of the seventies. This group is the most difficult to define, as there is very little information about it. Febres mentions a collection of habaneras published in 1927 that contained various habaneras in Catalan, however this collection is lost and is not available (Aixo es fhavanera 97-98). My collection does not pretend to be exhaustive. I am well aware that there are many habaneras that I do not know or do not analyze in this work. As of Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 151 September 2001, the online catalogue of Biblioteca de Catalunya contained three hundred fifty two titles of compact disks by Catalan groups that sing habaneras. I tried to select the most frequently performed habaneras basing my choice on the programs of the Cantada d’Havaneres of Calella de Palafrugell that are available starting from the year 1993 through 2001, and on the discography of groups of the habanera Port-Bo, Peix Fregit, L’Espingari, La Gavina, Mar Endins, Alba, Cavall Bemat, Els Pirates, Els Pescadors de l’Escala, a compact disk of Mostra de l’Havanera Catalana de Palamos. My selection of discography is a small part of what is available at Catalan marketplace currently. The proliferation of groups and songs is so significant that it is probably unrealistic to try to compile an exhaustive list. The recent catalogue of habanera groups compiled and edited by Fundacio Ernest Morato,1 0 5 without date, includes fifty-five groups of habanera singers. I tried to analyze the most popular songs based on the frequency of their occurrence in songbooks.1 0 6 1 0 5 Fundacio Ernest Morato was created in Palafrugell in 1994. It sees its goal in gathering documentation and materials about the habanera and promote investigation of the habanera that will eventually lead to the creation of the museum of the habanera (Cataleg 10). 1 0 6 As an example of a variety in the habanera development and of the affirmation of the significance of the habanera for the collective conscience of the nation one may look at the compact disk Si vius a Catalunya (1997), recorded by a children’s group Espineta. This group of children not older than fifteen, judging by their photo, sings habaneras that were apparently written for them. On the photo in the booklet accompanying this disk, six teenagers, four girls and two boys dressed in stylized sailor’s striped tee shirts, are sitting around a model of a sail ship. The front page of the booklet contains a painting of a maritime landscape recognizably of the Costa Brava, with its rocks, small bays and sailboats. The habaneras recorded on Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 1 5 2 While analyzing the songs I tried to select the most frequently performed, most popular and therefore probably the most paradigmatic habaneras. If one looks at the programs of Cantada d’Havaneres of Calella de Palafrugell from 1993 to 2001 one can see that there is a repeated pattern of the finale of Cantada when all the participating groups sing together two habaneras, “La bella Lola” and “El meu avi.” The first one is a traditional habanera in Spanish, notated by Montsalvatge in the Album de habaneras (1948); the second one, as I already mentioned, was created by Jose Luis Ortega Monasterio in 1968 and was sung for the first time in public at the Cantada d’Havaneres of Calella de Palafrugell in 1971. These two habaneras seem to reunite the most characteristic features of two major trends in the current Catalan habanera that can be defined as “Traditional Habanera in Spanish” and “New Habanera in Catalan.” Therefore it seems reasonable to center my analysis of the phenomenon of Catalan habanera around these two songs, each of which seems to become a cultural sign whose significance goes far beyond their esthetical value. “La bella Lola” contains the characteristics that distinguish and define the traditional genre. It is performed in the classical for the habanera two four time, the lyrics are in Spanish, and the subject revolves around the encounter with a woman left behind in an overseas port. In addition to these characteristics, one can distinguish other features relevant for the genre of the traditional habanera. These features are the predominance of the masculinist discourse, on the one hand, and the this disc are dedicated to the sea, Catalonia, Penedes, one of the geographic regions of Catalonia, Barcelona. This disc may be viewed as a clear-cut attempt at asserting the maritime identity of the nation through the habanera performed by teenagers. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 1 5 3 ability to tell, in a concise form, a story, with which both the performers and the audience identify themselves, on the other. The narrative voice in the traditional habanera is almost exclusively masculine and the figure of a woman represents an object of love or desire. In an attempt to classify the traditional habanera one may probably organize them in groups according to the subject of their discourse, which most frequently involves the relationship with a female. The largest group, approximately thirty-five habaneras in my analysis, is that of habaneras where the narrative voice asks the woman for love. The other large group of twenty-five habaneras tells a story of love, separation or subjects related to military service or overseas travel. Significantly smaller is the group of seven habaneras that revolve around a Cuban theme of negritos, Afro-Cubans, and represent their speech. The origin of these habaneras is related to the Cuban zarzuela of the end of the nineteenth century. The woman in the traditional habanera may be an object of description, a protagonist of a story or an addressee. In all these situations, she may be addressed in a variety of ways that frequently reflect racial characteristics and almost always appraise the beauty of the object of love or desire: “mulata linda,” “mujer celestial,” “ joven bella,” “triguena,” “linda habanera del alma mfa,” “prenda querida,” “negrita muy zalamera,” “nina hermosa angelical,” “encantadora criatura,” “criollita del alma,” “la cubanita,” “Lola dulce prenda,” “Colombiana,” “cotorrita del alma,” “cubanita preciosa,” “primorosa hermosura,” “linda mulata,” “mulata angelical,” “cubana de mi ilusion,” “ingrata mal pagadora,” “una nina hermosa da gusto y Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 1 5 4 placer,” “nena, nenita del alma,” “negra,” “nina hechicera,” “nina pimsima,” “mi bella aurora,” “Chiquita,” “mi dulce amor,” “amada del corazon,” “la reina de mi querer,” “la reina del placer,” “la hermosura del bien,” “la rosa sin color,” “las ninas de medio color,” “vida mfa,” “consuelo de mi querer,” “hermosfsima mujer,” “mulata hechicera,” “nina bonita.” Habaneras with female narrative voice, though, as I mentioned, they existed in Cuban tradition and were practically completely lost with the loss of the genre there, were not performed until recently in Catalonia. In recent years, some women singers include in their repertoire habaneras “Yo soy guajira,” “A mi no me gusta el coco,” “Vivir en La Habana.” These habaneras were recovered by Marfa Teresa Linares in Cuba in the 1940s.1 0 7 Linares transcribed some habaneras that she heard from ancianas. older women, in which the narrative voice is explicitly feminine (www.arrakis.es/-miguelhc/). They were first recorded by Liuba Marfa Hevia, a Cuban singer and author on a compact disc, entitled Habaneras en el tiempo (1995). These habaneras, however, are performed in Catalonia by a small circle of singers only. The habanera “Veinte anos” by Marfa Teresa Vera, a Cuban author and singer (1895-1965), is probably the most well known one and might be considered a representation of a feminine discourse of love. However, for the ambiguity of its narrative voice, it is now often performed by male singers or groups of the habanera. In an interesting twist of the history of this habanera it was translated into Catalan by 1 0 7 Sanchez de Fuentes quotes “Yo soy guajira” in Vieios ritmos cubanos: La letra en nuestras canciones (Habana, 1937) 18. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 1 5 5 Andreu Navarro as a tribute to the late Narcisa Oliver, poet and author of lyrics of some of the most poetic new habaneras in Catalan, and is sung now both in Catalan and in Spanish. The dialogue of the two voices is a very rare case either, the female’s part in most habaneras is transmitted through indirect representation by the male protagonist, who in most cases possesses the predominant voice, that of the narrator. The stories told in traditional habaneras may represent the separation or the reunification of the narrator with the adored or desired woman, frequently of other race, mulata; may represent the farewell to the mother country that is either Cuba or Spain; or may tell a story of events that take place in the exotic overseas environment. The separation and the farewell are frequently imposed on the protagonist due to military service and thus are beyond his control, as in the famous habanera “Adios mi peninsula hermosa:” “Adios mi peninsula hermosa: adios que el deber me llama. Adios que me voy a La Habana, a luchar, a luchar por la nation. (Mar endins 121). Sometimes, the farewell is to the beloved Cuba that is directly associated with the physical existence of a desired woman: Cuba tierra donde naci, bajo tu hermoso sol, playas donde yo aspire, los perfumes de amor, de una hermosa mujer. Adios, Cuba querida, Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 1 5 6 son tus playas de plata, en tus olas se retrata, la imagen de mi amor. (XXXII Cantada 6) In this strophe, as in many other strophes of traditional habaneras, Cuba, with its silver beaches, is associated with the representation of love. The two strophes quoted above are notated in Montsalvatge’s Album as the habanera entitled “La perla de Cuba” (29). However, in the songbook of Cantada d’Havaneres of Calella de Palafrugell (1998) one finds a longer version of this habanera entitled “Adios, Cuba querida” presented by the group El Taper. This version contains two above mentioned strophes plus a story, in which the encounter with land, the return to a port is associated with the figure of a woman who represents this land: Tres dfas y tres noches cruzando el mar, hemos llegado a tiempo para Ultramar yo de placer lloraba, lloraba de placer encuentro a una Americana (sic) que de mi se enamoro y al verla tan hechicera le dije no llores, no. Linda habanera del alma mfa ven a mis brazos con alegrfa ven a mis brazos con ilusion. (XXXH Cantada 6) Alegrfa, that can be rendered in English as ecstasy and pleasure, and ilusion, which presupposes eagerness, excitement and hopeful anticipation, are perhaps the notions broadly conveyed in the habanera and constitute the core of their liveliness and viability. The habanera “La bella Lola” explicitly represents these features: it tells the story of a sailor or a soldier at war and of his reunification with the desired woman in an exotic port. This encounter is seen through his eyes and told in his Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 1 5 7 language. The major emotion conveyed by this song is the pleasure associated with the encounter with the female. The female is an object of description and desire, and also an addressee in some versions of this habanera. The textual analysis of this, and of many other traditional habaneras, may be difficult for reasons related to the oral transmission of habaneras. Due to oral transmission and linguistic problem that many Catalan singers of the habanera experienced with lyrics in Spanish, the language that they did not speak normally, there exist many different variations of texts. Sometimes in towns such as Palamos, Calella de Palafrugell and Begur, that are located only minutes apart by the twenty first century means of transportation, the same songs are sung with slight or significant textual differences. “La bella Lola” can be explored as an example of such differences. Generally, and perhaps. due to the notation by Montsalvatge, the first strophe is sung as follows: Despues de un ano de no ver tierra porque la guerra me lo impidio, me fui al puerto donde se hallaba la que adoraba mi corazon. The first strophe offers an explanation of events that is brief and transparent to anybody familiar with Spanish history. The mention of the war reminds the audience of the participation in Spanish colonial wars at the end of the nineteenth century. War definitely is an obstacle, as it deprives the protagonist of an opportunity to see not only his beloved woman, but also firm land for a year. The hyperbole of not being able to see the land and the beloved woman creates the effect of the unjustified suffering of the protagonist, which invokes numerous victims of Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 1 5 8 the last colonial war conducted by the Spanish officials “up to the last man and the last peseta.” The refrain of this habanera alludes to the sensual enjoyment and pleasure of the long-anticipated encounter. The first instant of the greeting on behalf of Lola with her emblematic today for Catalonia kerchief, brings the sailor pleasure, perhaps mixed with vanity as other sailors can observe him and Lola together. The sailor’s pleasure is collectively embraced today in Catalonia when the public participates in the performance of this song massively waving white handkerchiefs during the singing of the refrain, thus actually reenacting the cultural myth each time when this habanera is performed. The pleasure achieves its culmination when the woman approaches and embraces the protagonist. The trope of maximum pleasure is enhanced by the hyperbolic metaphor of a death of love when the narrative voice/ protagonist believes that he dies of pleasure in the woman’s arms, which evokes another trope frequent in Spanish poetry, that of morir de amor, to die of love: [Ay! que placer sentfa yo, cuando en la playa saco el panuelo y me saludo. Luego despues se vino a mf me dio un abrazo, y en aquel lazo cref morir. The refrain in Montsalvatge’s transcription is followed by the second strophe: Cuando en la playa la bella Lola, su larga cola luciendo va los marineros se vuelven locos y hasta el piloto pierde el compas. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 1 5 9 In some versions of this song, the second and the first strophes are interchanged. As one can see, in the second strophe the narrator in the first person disappears and the story becomes more universal and loses the emotional quality of a personal narrative. However, it acquires universality that can be projected on other males, who become insane because of Lola’s beauty, while she walks on the beach graciously showing the long tail of her dress. The love insanity of the sailors achieves its culmination in the fact that “even the pilot” loses direction. The metaphor of pilot and direction points to the maritime oriented language and mentality of those for whom the song was once created and by whom it was sung and preserved. At the same time, the beauty and gracefulness of Lola must be exceptional or the imagination of the sailors frivolous, as most women will know that walking graciously with a “larga cola,” long dress tail, on the beach is not at all easy. One can suppose that the text might have undergone changes as it was transmitted from one singer to another, especially taking into consideration that for many singers Spanish was not the language that they used in everyday life. In Totana, Murcia, where habaneras seem to be a prevalently women’s domain,1 0 8 the 1 0 8 About the singing of habaneras in Totana, Murcia, by female groups while working on packing the fruit, the major export merchandise of this traditionally agricultural area, see Gines Rosa, Habanera: Canto de Cuba, nostalgia de Totana (Totana, 2000) 83-93. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 1 6 0 second verse of this strophe is sung as follows: “su lindo talle luciendo va,” showing off her beautiful figure (Rosa 218).1 0 9 In Montsalvatge’s version there are only two strophes. However, currently “La bella Lola” is usually sung with three strophes. This third strophe exists in different versions according to different sources. I quote these “written” versions in the chronological order of publication available to me. The first one is from Las mas bell as habaneras (1979), a collection by Ricard Balil, which is frequently fiercely criticized by habanera singers for inaccuracy both of the lyrics and of the musical score in the book compiled by him. Balil argues that he publishes songs as he learned them orally from older generation of singers, “antiguos ‘cantaires’” (3). Balil believes that there are as many variants as places where habaneras are sung, and they were learned through oral transmission: “las canciones se aprendfan de ofdo, y las letras de memoria” (3). Therefore, he believes that in many cases it is practically impossible to decipher the meaning of a verse or even of some verses in a strophe. He attributes these differences to the fact that Catalan-speaking singers had great difficulty in communicating in Spanish, the language in which “all the original habaneras were written” (3). Here is the third strophe in his transcription: La cubanita lloraba triste, de veras sola y en alta mar, y el marinero la consolaba: no llores Lola no te has de ahogar. (92) 1 0 9 Curiously, the person who first pointed this variant to me was Antonia Vilas, perhaps the most active at present woman singer, author of habaneras and organizer of the annual festival Barceloneta: Cara al Mar in Barcelona. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 161 In BaliPs version the sailor consoles Lola on board of a ship where she is, in fact, alone at open sea, which contradicts the logic: if he consoles her, she is not alone, she is with the sailor. One might suppose that she is crying because she is abandoning her native Cuba and therefore she feels lonely. It should be noted that the narrative voice is also in the third person in this strophe. The version that is reprinted in the songbooks of Cantada d’Havaneres from 1993 through 1999 differs from Balil’s only in one word. Instead of “de veras,” truly, in fact, it says “de verse,” seeing herself, which for the similarity in sonority does not change the rhythm and is irrelevant for the meaning. However, in the 2000 version the editors of the songbook changed the order of strophes starting with the explanatory strophe about Lola’s effect on the sailors, followed by the refrain, and then comes the story of the happy reunification of the narrator-protagonist and Lola. The third strophe seems to be a logical continuation as the sailor is bringing Lola with him, probably back to Spain. There also exists a version where the sailors who console Lola are in the plural, which perhaps invites the collective participation into the process of consoling “the beautiful Lola” (Recull d’Havaneres n.pag.). As one can see, all the above-mentioned variants are similar with a very subtle difference. There exists another variation “as old as the world,” in the words of the owner of the tavern La bella Lola of Calella de Palafrugell. The tavern takes its name after the song and the owner is diligently cultivating the image of the shrine of the habanera. The walls of La bella Lola are covered with photos of singings of habaneras; the lyrics of habaneras are printed on place mates; the owner, who hires Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 1 6 2 habanera singers on a regular basis to attract customers to his tavern and sometimes sings with them when all the drinks are already served by three in the morning, has a small library of books about the habanera that are available for the patrons. This tavern and its image of the shrine of the habanera is the primary tourist attraction of this coastal town in addition to the annual Cantada d’Havaneres.1 1 0 A version of “la bella Lola” is hanging on the wall in this tavern. It is an original poster created by Pilarfn Bayes, an artist well known in Catalonia for her illustrations to songs1 1 1 and children’s books. The last strophe in this version is as follows: Cuando la Lola tuvo su nino y aquel panchito se le murio el marinero la consolaba no llores, Lola, yo te hare dos. This version perhaps responds to the ironic attitude of the fishermen who sang habaneras with what Nestor Lujan called “una especie de zumbona sonrisa en los labios.” Of course they sang it in the tavern that did not bear the fancy name La bella Lola and did not have a picture of a girl waving a white kerchief on its front 1 1 0 There is a newer similar institution, Pepa Caneja, in the neighboring port of Palamos, site of annual Mostra d’Havanera Catalana where habaneras are also regularly performed as part of the tourist attraction. The analogy with tourist places in Andalusia where one may hear and see flamenco performances, an established sign of “Spanishness,” is transparent. 111 Together with Andreu Navarro and Maria Angels Teruel, Pilarfn Bayes prepared an unpublished booklet Havaneres.. .i folklore mariner for the participation of the group of habaneras l’Espingari in the week of Catalan culture in Caracas, Venezuela, in 1995. This poster is reproduced in this booklet. In the Biblioteca de Catalunya, one may see a poster with the text of the Catalan national anthem “Els Segadors” with her ironic illustration. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 163 sign aimed at attracting tourists. In accordance with tradition and normal practice, the original tavern located in this space, Ca Raquel, bore the name of its owner, now legendary Raquel, who is said to have known all the habaneras by heart. A tavern was not a place for women, however it was maintained by a woman who inherited it from her father. Perhaps in this cultural and social condition lie the roots of Ernest Morato’s conviction reiterated until today by some significant personalities in the world of the habanera,1 1 2 “les dones no he pinten res,” women have nothing to do in the world of the habanera (Bassa Camps 70). To the honor of Paco, the owner of the tavern, it should be said that Raquel’s portrait occupies a central place among the exaggerated photo gallery of friends of the habanera on the walls of his tavern, which serve to create the ambiance and the image of the place and to attract the tourists. As with the flamenco in flamenco bars in Andalusia, the habanera is performed in taverns and casinos in Catalonia regularly. In the Introduction, I mentioned an announcement that invites the public to “mariner’s nights” in the casino of Barcelona with habaneras and cremat. The advertisement in La Vanguardia starts with a periphrasis of a verse from “El meu avi.” The regular singing of habaneras by hired habanera singers in taverns and restaurants of today’s Catalonia represents another reenactment of a cultural myth. It is the myth of habanera singing at the Costa Brava. The nostalgic songs evoking the times of the lost empire that are sung during 1 1 2 In a recent interview, in July of 2001, Ortega Monasterio, when asked about different styles of performing habaneras that exist today in Catalonia, agrees to the existence of many different ways of performing. However, he explicitly speaks against the incorporation of female voices into the singing of habaneras and literally reiterates the words by Morato (Punt. 1 July 2001, 31). Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 1 6 4 the summer in the taverns and restaurants of fashionable resorts seem to represent the nostalgia for the times long gone when the beaches were not crowded, the problem of parking did not exist and the fishermen sang the songs for few educated fans that would come from the big cities during the summer. On Paco’s place mates one finds three more habaneras with the name Lola in the title and another habanera, entitled “La Pauleta.” This habanera evokes La bella Lola as a tavern. Two of the habaneras in Spanish, “j Ay Lola!” and “Lola dulce prenda,” are traditional habaneras referred to as “popular” in song books (Mar endins 24). “Lola la tavemera,” with lyrics in Catalan by Carles Casanovas and music by Josep Bastons, and “La Pauleta,” with lyrics that present a mixture of both Spanish and Catalan (seemingly anonymous), can be classified as “New Habaneras in Catalan.” The juxtaposition of “j Ay Lola!” and of “Lola dulce prenda” may perhaps show their relevant features: 'Lola dulce prenda” i Ay Lola!” [Ay! Lola dulce prenda Oh! Dulce encanto mfo j Ay! Lola en ti conffo conffo hasta el morir. Ay Lola, si tu me quieres voy a comprarte (bis) una barca con velas Y con sus remos para pasearte. j Ay! Lola, por ti yo padezco y mil veces me has despreciado yo que siempre te he jurado que mil veces te amare. Juntos iremos al mar y gozaremos los dos tu cuidaras de la vela Yo cuidare del timon. No me olvides, prenda querida que mis cantos son amores No me olvides, que son flores Las delicias del amor. Y si la mar se alborota no temas Lola, no temas Lola, Tu eres la preferida Y la mas hermosa entre las olas. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 165 Un abrazo, Lola, por Dios no me lo vayas a negar que ahora siento en mi pecho el anhelo de poderte amar yo sin tu amor, resistir no puedo mas Vamonos a la mar, vamonos con su dulce vaiven. Vamonos a la mar, vamonos vamos pronto mi bien si me lo niegas mi verdugo seras. Vamonos a la mar, vamonos Adios angel de mi vida adios, corazon de amor que mi pecho ya no puede resisitir tanto dolor. (La bella Lola) Que la luna en su claro fulgor... y estrechandote entre mis brazos te cantare siempre mi canto de amor. Mi canto, si...Si del amor. (Mar endins 24) If “La bella Lola” belongs to the “narrative” habaneras, these two songs do not seem to have an explicit narrative element. However, in both, the protagonist in the first person is begging his desired woman for love. These songs may belong to the so-called songs de rondalla, serenades, with the whole arsenal of love petitions and pledges, intertwined with threats of death if love is negated, in which the desired object may sometimes be called verdugo. executioner, as in “Lola dulce prenda” or “ingrata mal pagadora” as in the habanera of the same title (Balil 81). The ending of “Lola dulce prenda” represents another element common for many traditional habaneras, that of a farewell. In some habaneras, a farewell may be a consequence of the military obligation, while in this habanera it seems that the narrative voice loses hope of mutual love and therefore abandons the object of love that “has despised him a thousand times.” The leitmotiv of this habanera is perhaps the perfect rhyming in Spanish of the words amor, love, and dolor, pain. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 1 6 6 “Ay Lola” adds to the elements that the other two habaneras have, a strong symbolism and a representation of the sea. This element is perhaps as relevant for the habanera discourse as a female. If Lola, that rhymes with ola, wave, agrees to love the protagonist/narrator, he will buy her a sailboat in which they will sail and love each other while he will be singing his love song to her. These three songs seem to represent the quintessence of the traditional habanera with their discourse of love towards a mulatto woman left behind in an abandoned port and an offer of love on a boat in the open sea. A boat and open sea are a recurrent motif in the habanera, however, love spaces are not limited to this attribute of maritime culture but, as an evocation of overseas existence, may include such exotically sounding spaces as 11 T manigua, manigual, or platanar, that refer the action to the evoked tropical space. The exotic tropical space may be accompanied by such attributes as a hammock, as in the habanera “La hamaca,” or elements of tropical flora and fauna, cotorrita, and lorito, both of which can be rendered in English as parrot,1 1 4 and that metaphorically represent the relationship of human love and desire: Cotorrita del alma Le decfa el lorito Quiereme un poquito, ay, ay, ay Que me muero de amor. (Album 21) 1 1 3 As I mentioned, manigua has an explicit military connotation in Cuba due to the evocation of the war for Cuban independence. 1 1 4 The New Velazquez Spanish and English Dictionary (1999) under number five with the note (Mex.) registers the meaning “whore.” Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 1 6 7 In “La hamaca,” in addition to platanar and hamaca, one finds another linguistic indicator of American space, el sinsonte, the mocking-bird: Tengo una hamaca tendida a la orillita del mar y mi caballo ensillado en medio del platanar. Sombra me da el monte, brisa, fruto y flor, trinos el sinsonte pero nadie amor. This song represents the pattern of habaneras with a narrator who is suffering because of not responded love and is looking for another love that will not make him suffer: Yengo, vengo por senda perdida, buscando un nuevo querer, y un nuevo amor en mi vida que no me haga padecer, que no me haga padecer. “Ingrata mal pagadora” that I already mentioned interprets the same subject of a farewell to a desired woman, however, with repentance and accusation of the object of desire of being cruel and ungrateful: Ingrata mal pagadora, y de malos sentimientos, el afan que me “adevora,” es el arrepentimiento. Ay si sf, Ay no no, es el arrepentimiento, de haberte amado hasta ahora, de haberte amado hasta ahora, Donde estan los juramentos que me hicistes (sic) una tarde, se los ha llevado el viento, de una forma cobarde, Adios que me voy llorando, Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 168 me voy llorando y me alejo, aunque no te vuelva a ver, con la esperanza me quedo. (Balil 81) In these two habaneras the protagonist, though full of disillusion, does not lose hope of reciprocal love and, in “La hamaca,” promises to bring his beloved woman to his hammock and love her there: Guardare tu imagen muy dentro de mf, prueba del carino que siento por ti. Y si un dfa vuelves, cuando a mi lado estes, te llevare a mi hamaca tendida y alia te amare, y alia te amare. (XXXIII Cantada 14) The promises of love alongside with transparent petitions of love make habaneras explicitly and sincerely erotic: Vente, vente, y gozaremos, las delicias, ay del amor viviremos los dos felices bajo este sol abrasador, abrasador. (Balil 74) The pleasure of love continues to prevail and be one of the main subjects of the habanera: La dije asf, cuando mfa seras, muy amante y fiel me satisfaras, me satisfaras. Cuando mfa seras los dos viviremos, cuando mfa seras los dos gozaremos. (XXXIII Cantada 23) This pleasure may, on the one hand, contain the feeling of guilt, on the other, sometimes turns into the maximum expressions of masculinist discourse, as in the habanera “En un lago de inmensa extension.” Certain voyeuristic pleasure when the Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 1 6 9 protagonist narrator watches through the foliage “una rubia,” a blonde, while she is swimming in the lake, and enjoys seeing “su lindo talle,” her beautiful figure— an evocation of “La bella Lola”— is followed by an action when he not only kisses her, but also “leaves her without respiration,” which sounds as an overwhelming triumph of masculinist discourse: En un lago de inmensa extension, que ninguno lo puede igualar, una tarde a la puesta del sol, una rubia se vino a banar. Tu mirar mata, linda mulata, mata de amor. por Dios te imploro, rico tesoro, dilo (sic) por Dios. Yo la vi, entre el follaje yo la mire con largo afan, pero al ver su lindo talle, la mire, la bese, la deje sin respirar. (Balil 77) Another example of an explicitly erotic discourse is the habanera “La cana dulce” where a “sad and ready to cry” protagonist at a sea shore meets a mulatto woman who shows to him her delantal, apron: Estando yo una manana triste y lloroso mirando el mar me encontre con una mulata que me mostraba su delantal. Quiereme nina, quiereme nina, quiereme siempre, quiereme tanto, quiereme tanto, como te quiero, y a cambio de eso, yo te dare... La cana dulce, la cana dulce, la cana dulce y el buen cafe, (bis) Sus ojos eran azules como las olas del mar de amor y su cinturita curvada Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 1 7 0 como la cana del pescador. Quiereme nina, quiereme nina, quiereme siempre, quiereme tanto, quiereme tanto, como te quiero, ay mulatita, ven a la mar... Que ami me gusta, que a mi me encanta, que a mi me gusta tu delantal. There is hardly any doubt that an apron, delantal, may be a part of an attire of a mulatto woman from colonial Havana. The etymology of the Spanish word is derived from delante, in front of. My search of a hidden meaning of this word in various dictionaries did not bring any other results than those similar to the definition of delantal in Diccionario de uso del espanol by Marfa Moliner, “prenda de vestir que se coloca por delante del cuerpo, encima de los otros vestidos para evitar que se manchen estos.” However, if one looks at the illustrations to this song by Josep M. Prim in Album de habaneras (see fig. 3), and by Josep Martinell in Ouadem d’havaneres (1983)— both books lavishly illustrated— one sees that these artists emphasize not so much the attire, but the body of the mulatto woman. In the frivolous illustration by Prim the mulatto woman is completely naked, and delantal implicitly stands for the front part of her body. In Martinell’s somewhat grotesque interpretation, there is a piece of cloth that may be perceived as an apron. However, it covers the lower part of the body of the otherwise naked mulatto woman. Llufs Racionero, seemingly convinced of the erotic connotations of the images created by the habanera, also searches for a hidden meaning of “delantal.” Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 171 Fig. 3. Josep Maria Prim, La cana dulce. Album de habaneras (Barcelona: Omega, 1998) 88. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 172 Yet his search does not bring any results either. In his commentary to the habanera “jAy Lola!,” which I discussed above, Racionero ironically suggests that the followers of Freud would not have any doubt about the sexual symbolism of such tropes as “vela” and “timon” present in this habanera and recurrent in the traditional habanera: La simbologfa sexual y erotica esta clarfsima como demostrara facilmente cualquier freudiano y si alguien le replica que no esta explfcito que asf sea, contestara que es asf y quienes no lo reconocen es porque, aunque subconscientemente saben que es verdad, conscientemente no pueden admitirlo. El sistema de Freud, como se ve, no falla, ni siquiera en la interpretacion de las habaneras. (280) Though I do not pretend to apply Freudian analysis to the exploration of the habanera, one cannot deny strong erotic connotations explicit in the traditional habanera. In the second strophe of “La cana dulce,” the narrator discusses the beauty of the mulata comparing her slim figure to a fishermen’s rod, a simile that the audience easily relates to. In the repeated refrain, he explicitly asks her to love him in exchange for “sugar cane” and “good coffee.” The musical film La bella Lola (1962), where Sara Montiel, the star of Spanish musical theatre and film, interprets this song in a highly sensual and insinuative manner, may be viewed as a reenaction of these tropes in the language of musical cinematography. In this Spanish style interpretation of Une dame aux camellias, Montiel plays a cabaret diva and first appears on stage performing precisely “La cana dulce.” Her sensual interpretation of this song triggers the interest and passion on behalf of the protagonist who starts to Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 173 seek her love. In the dialogue of the protagonist’s friends, Montiel is addressed as “mulata.” The “guilty” pleasure of seeking love of a mulatto woman is a reiterated pattern in the traditional habanera. It is transparently represented in the habanera “La reina del placer:” Me voy a Ultramar que es punto mejor allf nacen las ninas de medio color que tienen unos ojos para enamorar que con su mirada te matan de amor. En Cuba esta la reina del placer la hermosura del bien, la rosa sin color, que con su mirar me late el corazon. A nadie como a ti i Ay! en el mundo amare. Cuando a puerto de mar en Cuba pise vi a una mulata que con su mirar en triste sonrisa me dio a comprender que en ella existfa el mas rudo penar. Ven hacia mi, amada del corazon, tu eres la mujer que engendro mi pasion que con su mirar me late el corazon, Virgen de la Merced j Ay! quien te adora soy yo. (Album 33) Mulatita may be not only an addressee of passion and desire, but also the subject of a narrative that nurtures the imagination of the audience on long winter nights in fishermen’s taverns. The habanera “Alla en La Habana” tells a story of a mulatto woman who cheats on her husband not even once, but twice. In the first strophe, mulata falls in love with a “white man” who seemingly accepts her love. A deceived husband who wants to be revenged appears when the couple is ready to Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 1 7 4 swear eternal love. However, at the point of killing the lovers with his machete, he stops, looks at them and walks away. The refrain of the song evokes the sensual pleasure of the kisses of a mulatto woman that are “tan dulces en La Habana.” The refrain also says that things that happen in Havana are the same that happen here, in Spain. However, the song is not over, as in the second strophe the mulatto woman referred to as one “that betrayed her husband,” falls in love again, this time with a sailor.1 1 5 The deceived husband who is already suspicious waits for them in the bay and wants to throw them into water when he sees them kissing. Suddenly he remembers that his “negrita” cannot swim, so he stops for a moment, looks at the lovers and walks away. On the one hand, this long story can only be perceived as an ironic account of things that may happen both at home and overseas. On the other, the protagonist of this story explicitly is the black male, “el negrito,” whose actions are represented as noble and understandable as he walks away on his cheating spouse instead of killing her and her lovers. Thus this habanera establishes a certain male solidarity between the singers, their audience and “el negrito,” the cheated husband, against the “other,” the mulatto woman. The figures of the “white man” and of the sailor in this song seem only to serve as an instrument to show the unfaithfulness of the mulata, desired and contemned at the same time. Perhaps this song recreates as no other the myth of the mulatto woman associated with colonial Cuba where mulata 1 1 5 The Spanish verb applied to the mulatto woman in this strophe, “encapricharse,” may be rendered in English as “to fancy” or “to become somewhat enamoured,” according to The New Velazquez Spanish and English Dictionary. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 175 was perceived as a “supreme sexual animal,” who was not even expected to be faithful, in the words of Moreno Fraginals (Cuba/Espana 218). However, the present-day representation of this song makes one think of its far deeper effect on the collective imaginary of Catalonia than the nostalgia for the times long-gone of the massive travel to Cuba. Structurally, this song recreates a dialogue of interested listeners with the repeated after each refrain verse, “digame usted lo que paso,” “tell me what happened.” Thus it suggests an interested participation of the audience in the performance. This interested participation of the audience in the singing of habaneras with strong narrative element is the subject of a painting by Josep Puig (see fig. 4). This painting, entitled Alla en La Habana. recreates the environment of a tavern where a group of eight males are listening attentively to a song sung by one of them.1 1 6 A representation of the tavern environment is enhanced by the fumes of the emblematic cremat that the men in this picture are drinking. This painting may be viewed as a recreation of the myth of mulata through the singing of nostalgic songs and underscores the significance of this singing for Catalans. At the same time, it may be perceived as an ironic outlook at what has been asserted as a “peculiar” Catalan style of habanera singing. 1 1 6 A reproduction of this painting is part of a series of postcards dedicated to habaneras issued by Fundacio Ernest Morato with the collaboration of Caixa d’Estalvis Laietana in 1998. These postcards represent material to reflect about the impact of the habanera for Catalan cultural imagination. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 1 7 6 Fig. 4. Josep Puig. Alla en La Habana. (Palafrugell: Fundacio Ernest Morato, 1998). The discourse about the habanera in Catalonia maintains as a relevant feature of the Catalan habanera the fact that the songs were preserved in the intimate environment of fishermen’s taverns. We have seen that currently there is a nostalgic tendency in the Costa Brava towns and in Barcelona at recreating this environment in bars and taverns that promote habanera singing as part of the tourist attraction and entertainment. Thus the singing of habaneras in Catalonia actually represents a certain nostalgia for the times when habaneras were sung in the intimate environment— purely masculine— of the tavern as opposed to the massive cantadas on Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 1 7 7 the beaches and squares of cities and towns. This nostalgia is represented in songs, paintings, film and narrative that we will explore later. Though the mulatto woman is the most frequent character in the habanera, some traditional habaneras may evoke the woman of Spain. However, sometimes she is also placed into exotic overseas ports. In the habanera “La catalana,” the Catalan woman is placed overseas, which enhances an exotic flair of this habanera. In this habanera, “catalana” is interchanged with “habanera” in its original meaning, that of a woman from Havana: Alla en la Habana, como en Tampico, en Puerto Rico y en Veracruz, la mas bonita, la mas gal ana, la catalana que adoro yo. Sus trenzas no tienen fin, sus ojos luceros son, sus dientes puro marfil, su boquita es un pinon. j Ay que placer, quien fuera dueno y marido de esta mujer! i Ay que placer, quien no haya visto habanera que venga a ver! (Album 69) The description of the unsurpassed attractiveness of the “catalana” who is placed simultaneously in various exotically sounding overseas ports, leads the narrator to speculate about the pleasure of being “master and husband of this woman.” Thus this song can perhaps be described as an apotheosis of masculinist Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 1 7 8 and machista discourse with its explicitly expressed desire and pleasure to be “dueno y marido,” master and husband, of this woman. Racionero mentions that the legendary singers of habaneras of the forties and fifties, Abelardo, el Nino and I’Hermos, used to finish their singing with a characteristic phrase, “I com aquesta, mil,” “And a thousand like this one,” referring to the proliferation of songs sung by the fishermen (18). With the growth of new habaneras in Catalonia, the subject of love and woman is further developed in the Catalan habanera, and I will soon discuss some post modem interpretations of the familiar subject through songs created recently in Catalan. However, recent development in the story of the habanera in Catalonia is not confined only to the recreation of familiar and traditional subjects in new habaneras. Highly erotically charged habaneras, “La bella Lola,” “La cana dulce,” “Una tarde paseaba,” have proved to exercise a significant influence on other forms of popular culture. One can observe a link between the popularity of these songs, with the explicit “colonial desire,” and other cultural signs that have been flourishing after the end of the Franco dictatorship. Some of these cultural signs seem to be a venue that serves to reaffirm Catalan cultural values. Among such newly created rites that assert autochthonous cultural values and identities of heterogeneous Spain as opposed to Franco’s idea of a unique nationalist state, is the creation of gegants, giants, huge figurines maneuvered from the inside. These figurines usually form a couple, which represents a town, a city or a district, as in some districts of Barcelona, during annual processions of festas majors at which they perform their dance. In the coastal Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 1 7 9 community of Vilassar de Mar, Barcelona, this couple is formed by a figure of a legendary captain nicknamed El Pigat, The Freckled, and his beloved mulatto woman La Lucfa (see fig. 5). Iff Fig. 5. The giants El Pigat and La Lucfa, Vilassar de Mar. Photo courtesy of Mayor’s Office, Vilassar de Mar, Barcelona. June 24, 1998. Though historically the roots of the creation of giants can be traced back to medieval Corpus Christi processions, Vilassar de Mar, a coastal town with 250 year- old history, never had a pair of giants. The giants were created in 1998 as an Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. initiative of AVAL, Asociacio Vilassanesa d’Activitats de Lleure, an association that sees its objective in reinforcement, promotion, participation and divulgation of all kinds of activities of popular, traditional and festival culture of their country (Fors 1). During the annual procession on the day of St. John, the patron of the town, El Pigat and La Lucia perform their dance to the music of a habanera composed for them. The models for these figures are a legendary captain and americano bom in Vilassar de Mar, Pere Mas i Roig and his mulatto mistress Lucia. According to Fors, a legend about El Pigat who kidnapped the daughter of a Viceroy governor of an island in the Antillean and brought her back to his native town was popular in Vilassar de Mar for decades (Fors 3). This “urban legend” is the basis for a story created by the members of AVAL and offered to the public and to the students of elementary schools of the town in order to explain to them why these two figures were chosen for the giants (Fors 3). An existing portrait of Pere Mas i Roig was used for the creation of the figure of El Pigat, with the consent of his descendents living in town. The figure of La Lucfa seems to be a pure play of imagination. Recently, Pere Mas i Roig has received more attention on behalf of Catalan mass media. During the summer of 2001, the Catalan network TV-3, produced a three-part documentary entitled “Retrats d’indians” which explores the legacy of americanos in Catalonia. El Pigat is represented in this documentary as a significant figure. This documentary shows richly decorated houses of americanos and offers interviews with some of their living heirs, among whom is one of the descendents of Mas i Roig. He acknowledges that his great grandfather’s fortune was partially created due to the Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 181 participation in the slave trade in the late 1860s. As I mentioned earlier, the activities of Mas i Roig and his failed attempt to bring slaves from Africa with his steamship just before the Glorious Revolution of Spain in 1868 are described in Arturo Masriera’s book Oliendo a brea published in 1926.1 1 7 The dance of the giants of Vilassar de Mar is performed to the music written specifically for this couple of giants in the rhythm of the habanera and interpreted by the group of habanera singers of the town. El Pigat y La Lucfa are not the only giants dancing to the music of the habanera. Navarro mentions a few occasions of the dances of giants to the music of the habanera. In Badalona, a community with strong maritime tradition, the couple of giants la Maria i 1 ’Anastasia perform a complicated dance to the music in the rhythm of the habanera, written specifically for them. According to Navarro, sometimes the giants dance to the music of “La bella Lola” (L’Havanera 154-56). The impact of the traditional habanera on the collective imagination of the nation is not limited to the creation of the new cultural forms, such as the dances of the giants to the music of the habanera. New times bring along new songs. These new songs follow the tradition, on the one hand, and at the same time evolve in a new linguistic form, in Catalan. Some new Catalan habaneras follow the tradition of the discourse of love and desire for a female, frequently a mulata. while some may be viewed as an auto-reflection and parody of the stereotypes of the habanera. A 1 1 7 Also about El Pigat see Josep Fradera, “Catalunya i Cuba en el segle XIX: el comerg d’esclaus,” L’Avene 75 (1984) 44. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 1 8 2 tradition of praising the attractiveness of mulatto women and the pleasures of possessing them is transparent in the habanera “Mulata antillana” by Bepes: Mulata antillana, mulata de sal, mulata galana de tota F Havana la flor que mes val. Mulata embrunida de pell de setf, mulata florida que omplenes la vida i em mates a mi. (Courtesy of J. Bastons) Some new Catalan habaneras, however, tend to represent the features that can be explored as a self-indulging parody and sometimes an auto-reflection. Thus, “Lola la tavemera,” follows the tradition of the masculinist discourse of traditional habaneras in Spanish with the predominant masculine voice and a woman as the subject and addressee of the discourse. However, this habanera adds to the traditional discourse a self-indulging parody through a detailed description of explicitly masculinist virtues of the protagonist, who is “mariner jove, tibat i fort/ amb fulard negre lligat al coll/ alt, roda-soques, perdonavides i adulador.” The “young, arrogant and powerful sailor” enters the tavern and asks Lola to run and bring him a glass of wine while he will be singing his song to her. The refrain describes Lola with linguistic means that may be perceived as an opposite to the romantic and “flowery,” in the words of Lujan, linguistic means of the traditional habanera. Whatever hints about the attractiveness of a mulatto woman and her beautiful figure, “lindo talle,” were hidden behind the descriptions of flowers and Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 183 allusions to exotic tropical fruit in the traditional habanera, aimed at encouraging the imagination of singers and listeners, is now expressed freely naming the parts of the woman’s body in a plain and straightforward language: Corre Lola, posa’m un got de vi i et cantare una canjo. I mentre li canta una havanera amb la guitarra ella mou el cul, balanceja els pits, xiscla una rialla i mirant coqueta, pica l’ullet al noi de Calella gronxolant el cos, marcant el compas d’aquella havanera. The encounter between Lola and the sailor is directly associated with the habanera as a means of communication between the male and Lola. At the same time, the second strophe of this habanera can be perceived as a post modem evocation of motives and themes present in the traditional habanera. The traditional discourse in the first person singular addresses “mulateta bella,” beautiful mulatto woman, and tells her explicitly how her body ignites him, the sailor, who will love her until the end of his days if she wants to be his. In response to this offer, the beautiful Lola “llen5a el davantal,” casts her apron, perhaps an evocation of the “delantal” of the habanera “La cana dulce,” and dances gracefully for her lover. One can see that straightforward linguistic means chosen by the author parody the romantic and evasive language of the traditional habanera: El teu cos m’encen, el teu cos em pot, mulateta bella, jo t’estimare fins la fi del temps, si tu vols ser meva i la bella Lola llenga el davantal mans a la cintura, balla amb soltura, pel seu amant. In addition to an indirect evocation of the traditional habanera through linguistic means, this song through its subject makes a direct allusion to the Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 1 8 4 traditional habanera, a song originated in Cuba, with its paradigmatic elements, a mulatto woman and the sea: Quan arriba el vespre la tavemera encisadora espera al gal ant que com cada nit 1 ’ha d’enamorar amb la guitarra i un got de vi, cantara alegre tota la nit, cangons de Cuba, cants de mulates i blau mari. This habanera is performed together with “El meu avi” as the finale of the annual Mostra de 1 ’Havanera Catalana in Palamos. Thus it tends to represent a Catalan analogue of “La bella Lola” that can be looked at as a paradigmatic representation of the traditional habanera. The story of Mostra de 1 ’Havanera Catalana in Palamos, a highly acclaimed annual event, in itself presents an opportunity to reflect about the permutation of the habanera as an emblem of Catalan identity. Started as a Festival de Cango Marinera de Palamos in 1972, it transformed into the Mostra de 1 ’Havanera Antiga by 1982, and since 1984 is celebrated annually as Mostra de THavanera Catalana de Palamos. The change of the title of this highly reputed event explicitly reflects the transformation that the habanera undergoes in Catalonia. The representation of the Catalan habanera as sung exclusively in Catalan takes place at the time when Spain and Catalonia are in the process of the transition triggered by the changes after the death of Franco. Catalan self-assertion may also be seen through a prism of European integration and further globalization as Catalonia continues its secular attempts at self-representation as a part of a globalized European community rather than a region overshadowed by its Castilianized host state. Mostra de 1 ’Havanera Catalana de Palamos, which only Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 185 accepts habaneras in Catalan, may be viewed as an attempt at representing the habanera as an autochthons cultural sign that is an intrinsic part of Catalan cultural identity. The habanera “La Pauleta,” also printed on the place mates of the tavern La bella Lola, can be explored as another example of evolvement of the habanera in Catalonia as a permutable and multilingual cultural sign. This song represents a parody of the habanera through various means. The male protagonist of this habanera is begging Pauleta to open the door for him as he comes home “sober” and “dying to get to sleep” in the middle of the night. Thus the “romantic” relationship of the couples of traditional habaneras where the masculine voice is frequently begging the desired woman for love is inverted into a trivial relationship of a drunken husband and a stubborn wife who wants to punish him. The male protagonist who comes home in the middle of the night demands that Pauleta gets up and opens the door for him because it is cold in the street, while she refuses to listen to him and prefers to stay in her bed where it is “very warm:” Arri Pauleta, obrem la porta que vengo ebrio’ i mort de son i en ‘traigo un frfo que me las pelo’ i ‘tengo miedo’ d’agafar el son. In contrast to the traditional habanera, this habanera represents a dialogue between the masculine and the feminine voice, in which the feminine voice is equal to the masculine: ‘Ni menos te escucho ni menos te oigo’ ‘se esta muy caliente dentto’ del Hit Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 186 i si tu esperes que baixi a obrir-te estaras ‘en la calle’ tota la nit. The last strophe of the song represents the inner monologue of the desperate protagonist to whom Pauleta does not open the door. It is in Catalan and evokes the tavern La Bella Lola1 1 8 where the protagonist threatens to go to “fer el ressopo,” have supper, with the last “mil pessetones” that he has left on him: Pitos i flautes bombes i trastos per mes que em gratis tu no em fots por que encara em queden mil pessetones per anar a la Bella Lola a fer el ressopo. The inversion of the traditional subject and of the traditional roles of the habanera creates the grotesque effect of this habanera. This effect is enhanced by the mixture of Catalan and Spanish, in which the dialogue is conducted. This mixture makes one think that this habanera represents an auto-reflection and auto-parody of the genre of the habanera. As one can see, new Catalan habanera continues the tradition of the love subject and gives it a new twist perhaps contingent with the assertion of irony as part of the “differential fact” of the Catalans. Habaneras discussed above show that the new Catalan habanera not only follows the tradition of songs that represent love and desire, but also may be seen as a self-reflective genre. New Catalan habanera may include the self-indulging parody of the genre, as do the habanera “Lola la tavemera” and “La Pauleta,” or may reflect on the genre and its impact on the collective cultural imagination. Thus habaneras 1 1 8 In the version printed on the place mates of the Palamos tavern Pepa Caneja, La Bella Lola is substituted by La Pepa, the nickname of this tavern. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 1 8 7 with lyrics by Gloria Cruz, “Temps perdut,” “Amagada en el far,” “Vestida de nit,” continue to develop the subject of the lost love and of the nostalgia for it. Yet they also reflect on the memory of the nation that is directly associated with seafaring songs: A la vora de la mar he tomat a poc a poc, tot seguint el crit del temps, que s’emporta el meu record. Un record pie de cangons, de perfumes i free d’amor d’un amor potser perdut a les aigiies del meu port. (XXXIV Cantada 7) The habanera “Vestida de nit,” lyrics by Gloria Cruz and music by Castor Perez, can be explored as a sensitive reflection about the quintessence of the habanera as a genre. A distinguished artist, Cruz fills her lyrics with pictorial images. Some of these images are frequently used and “abused” in habaneras, however, Cruz offers a non-trivial perspective of what makes the habanera the beloved genre for a century and a half. Her perspective is visual and auditory at the same time: Pinto les notes d’una havanera blava com l’aigua d’un mar antic. Blanca d’escuma, dolga com l’aire, gris de gavina, daurada d’imatges, vestida de nit. As an artist and a poet she is looking for means of expression; as a sensitive personality she is absorbed by the nature that surrounds her: Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 188 Miro el paisatge, cerco paraules que omplin els versos sense neguit. Els pins m’abracen, sento com callen. El vent s’emporta tot l’horitzo. The refrain of this habanera with its search for the images of the past represents the quintessence of the habanera not only through the evocation of the world long gone with its nostalgia, love and calmness, but also through the implicit nostalgia for this world. Thus this habanera represents a certain nostalgia for nostalgia. This nostalgic mood is created through familiar tropes, reiterated in the traditional habanera: the moon, fire and rum, palm trees and sea shells. In this habanera they invoke the milieu that is associated in the collective cultural imagination with the singing of habaneras: Si pogues fer-me escata i amagar-me a la platja per sentir sons i tardes del passat, d’aquell mon d’enyoranga, amor i calma, perfumat de lluna, foe i rom. Si pogues enfilar-me a l’onada mes alta, i guamir de palmeres el record, escampant amb canyella totes les cales, i amb petxines, fer-los un bressol. A refined and sophisticated picture of the habanera as a genre with its major themes is envisioned in the last strophe. At the same time, it reinforces the maritime identity of the protagonists of the songs represented in this habanera and gives tribute Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 1 8 9 to the protagonists of habaneras as “princes of fishing nets,” “heroes of tempests,” “friends of good times:” Els veils em parlen plens de tendresa d’hores viscudes amb emocio. Joves encara, forts i valents, pnnceps de xarxa, herois de tempesta, amics del bon temps. Els ulls inventen noves histories, vaixells que tomen d’un lloc de sol. Porten tonades enamorades, Dones i patria, veles i flors. (Canco de tavema n.p.) Thus one can perceive this habanera as a reflection about the genre, its themes, its protagonists and even its role in the self-representation of the nation. The sea and its attributes continue to be a major theme in the habanera that becomes truly a seafaring song in Catalonia. Even in the habaneras that concentrate on love relationship, the image of the sea is virtually always present and sometimes prevalent. Therefore, seafaring metaphors are abundant in the habanera. In the habanera “El pensament,” lyrics by Narcisa Oliver, love and sea are inseparable, and the protagonist /narrator wants to be a seagull to make happier the life of the beloved person: Si quan mires la mar tos ulls brillen, si ets felif de contemplar la mar, jo voldria tan sols esser gavina i ta vida un instant alegrar. (XXXI Cantada 9) In “Solitud,” anonymous habanera interpreted by group Cavall Bemat, love is inseparable from the sea: Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 1 9 0 Quan avui he vingut a la platja i no t’he vist m’he quedat mirant les onades amb el cor trist. M’he quedat mirant la mar blava i l’infinit i he somniat que tu m’estimaves com jo t’estim. (XXIX Cantada 11) Habaneras explored above show that the new Catalan habanera develops the tradition and gives it a new perspective. Catalonia assimilates the tradition of the habanera, a seafaring song with nostalgia for the lost tropical paradise represented by the attractiveness of mulatto women and the pleasure of desiring and possessing her. This assimilation leads to the creation of new habaneras. New habaneras in Catalan are created in the same musical tradition of a binary rhythm easy to follow and sing along. Some of these new habaneras follow the tradition of love songs with the woman as an object of desire adding sometimes an ironic outlook at the traditional songs. The development of the genre, however, is not confined to the creation of habaneras similar in subject to the traditional ones. New Catalan habaneras develop new subjects. In the Introduction, I quoted an announcement from the Barcelona newspaper La Vanguardia that invites the public to the Barcelona Casino for a night of dinner, habanera singing and cremat and starts with a periphrasis of a verse of the habanera “El meu avi.” In recent decades, “El meu avi” becomes as significant for the Catalans as their national anthem “Els segadors.” “El meu avi” is sung virtually by every habanera group in Catalonia and there is hardly any cantada since 1971, when Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 191 it was first performed in public at Cantada d’Havaneres of Calella de Palafragell, which does not include this habanera. The author of “El meu avi” is Jose Luis Ortega Monasterio,1 1 9 whose name and his most famous habanera have become emblematic in Catalonia. In 1990, the City Hall of Platja d’Aro, a coastal community where Ortega Monasterio resides during the summer, installed a bronze monument to him and to the habanera “El meu avi,” work of the Madrid sculptor Jose Niebla. The presentation of “El meu avi” in 1971 may be viewed as a new page in the history of the Catalan habanera. The song that tells a story of sailors who perish during the war in Cuba because of the “Americans,” has exceptional consequences 1 1 9 Bom in 1918 in Motriko, the province of Vizcaya in the Basque country, Ortega Monasterio became an orphan at the age of eight and moved to Girona to live with his maternal grandparents. His grandfather at the time was a retired infantry colonel who had participated in the Cuban war. The family had a strong military tradition, and, in 1942, Ortega Monasterio joins a military academy in Zaragoza. He will remain with the army until 1976 when he retires as teniente coronel after having spent some time in jail accused of the participation in the Union Democratica Militar. In addition to the tradition of military service, his family had another long standing tradition, that of musical dedication. Ortega Monasterio’s father played the flute, while his granduncle on his mother’s side was a well-known violinist and a teacher of Pau Casals. He starts to study music at the age of ten and in 1941 joins the quartet “Los gringos” of Girona. Upon retiring he dedicates himself completely to music, composition and performing of habaneras and other songs that he defines as mariner’s songs and folklore. In 1965 he creates the group Cavall Bemat with which he actively performed until recently. Ortega Monasterio does not only compose habaneras, but is even more prolific in other genres: ballads, mariner’s songs and valsets, a form of waltzes popular in Catalonia. He is the author of the anthem of Aragon. His most famous creation by all accounts is “El meu avi.” (Biographic data about Ortega Monasterio is based on Jordi Soler, “Josep Llufs Ortega Monasterio,” Punt [Girona], 1 July 2001, 28-31, and on an article about him in Castor Perez Diz, Andreu Navarro, M. Teresa Linares, i Mima Guerra Sierra, L’Havanera: Un cant popular. Tarragona: El Medol, 1995, 114-15.) Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 192 for the development of the genre of the habanera in Catalonia. It makes its significant contribution to the self-fashioning of Catalonia as a maritime community with strong historical links with overseas. On the one hand, “El meu avi” follows the tradition of the narrative habaneras of the wartime such as “Adios mi peninsula hermosa,” “El adios del soldado,” “El Catalan.” On the other, it differed significantly from the traditional habaneras being practically one of the first habaneras that spoke of the war in Catalan. It also told a story that had a precise “local” connection: the protagonists of this habanera were from Calella de Palafrugell, an exact location that gave the audience and the singers a chance to identify themselves with the imagined past and with the “small motherland.” At the time of the creation and the first public singing of this habanera, Calella de Palafrugell was becoming more and more popular every year with its newly established tradition of cantadas of habaneras started in 1967. Ortega Monasterio dedicates the song to the memory of his grandfather who participated in the Cuban war. The song tells the story of “my grandfather” and of fourteen sailors from Calella de Palafrugell who during the colonial war are sent to Cuba on board of a ship with the symbolic name El Catala. The song starts with an introductory triple invocation “el meu avi,” thus tuning the audience into a mood suggestive of memory and reminiscences. The vocative “el meu avi” also gives a very personal note to what will be told later in the lyrics. The warm and caring “el meu avi,” “my grandpa,” is intended to create a feeling of close connection between the new generation of the Catalans and the history of the nation. The family Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 193 connection makes it easier for the audience to identify themselves with the past of the nation and thus enhances collective memory. The grandpa and the sailors did not return. They were killed on the deck of the ship by Americans, who are explicitly to blame for it, “tingueren la culpa els americans.” One should keep in mind the European anti-Americanism at the time of the creation of this song. The last years of the Franco dictatorship are also a crucial time for the renewed assertion of Catalan identity heated by the Nova Cango movement. Ortega Monasterio seems to be very attentive to the needs of the moment and instrumental in using the feelings of his audience. The name of the ship on which the protagonists go to Cuba acquires highly emblematic significance for Catalans. El Catala is, of course, the best ship of overseas fleet. The sailors of Calella de Palafrugell, killed because of the Americans, represent the victimizing of Catalonia that suffers now not only from the Castilianized state, but also from the Americans. At the same time, through the connection of the protagonists to a small town, “El meu avi” enhances the significance of the small motherland and thus asserts familiar values of Catalan nationhood and identity. In its structure, this habanera is closer to a ballade or a heroic romance with its longer verse. However, rhythmically it falls into the beloved by the audience and by the singers pattern of the habanera, which definitely adds to its success. Composed in Catalan, it contains two words in Spanish, probably used so to maintain the rhythm or to remind the public that the language mostly spoken at war was Spanish, “a bordo,” and “barco:” Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. El meu a v i... El meu a v i... El meu a v i... El meu avi va anar a Cuba, a bordo del Catala, el millor barco de Guerra de la flota d’ultramar. El timoner i el nostramo i catorze mariners, eren nascuts a Calella de Palafrugell. The refrain of the song evokes both the tradition of singing in Calella de Palafrugell and the emblematic cremat that accompanies the singing. Thus Ortega Monasterio, probably also for the first time in the habanera history, creates a self reflexive habanera, a habanera that acknowledges the habanera tradition as part of the local identity. We have already seen that this idea was later developed in the habaneras by other authors. However, and most importantly both at the time of its creation and into the decades of its popularity that seems “everlasting,” “El meu avi” contains an exclusively significant line, “Visca Catalunya! Visca el Catala!,” “Long live Catalonia! Long live the Catalan!,” which makes this song emblematic for Catalonia. These words that apparently escaped the attention of the censorship converted “El meu avi” into an emblem of identity unanimously embraced by the nation. Behind the name of the ship El Catala both the performers and the audience perceived a second meaning with a transparent allusion to the vernacular language with all its significance for Catalan identity. Needless to say how important were these words during the last years of the Franco dictatorship obstinately aimed at eradicating the language and all traces of national culture and identity: Quan el Catala sortia a la mar els nois de Calella feien un cremat; mans a la guitarra solien cantar: Visca Catalunya! Visca el Catala! Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 19 5 Though collectively embraced by the audience for its political meaning and perhaps because of its overwhelming success, “El meu avi,” however, is criticized by those who see their task in the preservation of the genre of the habanera as part of the traditional seafaring folklore. With the popularity of this song, the habanera phenomenon in Catalonia enters into a new stage of debate and controversy concerning the language, in which the habanera should be sung and what subjects it should reflect. The purists of the habanera genre criticize Ortega Monasterio and his creation and defend the thesis that the authentic habanera should be sung in Spanish and have as a subject a love story. The detractors of “El meu avi” accuse Ortega Monasterio of falsifying history as the events described in his song never took place and his grandfather died much later than the war was over. T' e absence of hv storical records of a ship named El Catalan during the colonial war is offered as a major argument against Ortega Monasterio in the debate that takes place in the media. In response to these accusations, Ortega Monasterio offers a “verisimilar” story of the ship Montserrat, allegedly known by the popular nickname El Catalan. He continuously reiterates that the story of this ship inspired him to compose the habanera that he dedicates to the memory of his grandfather. Montserrat that belonged to the Transatlantic Company allegedly entered several times the waters of Cuba during the last colonial war. Under the command of captain Manuel Deschamps Martinez, it brought a load of bandages and medicines for the fighting city of Matanzas getting through the blockade imposed by the American Navy. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 196 I °0 Ortega Monasterio repeatedly tells this story in various publications " in order to defend himself from accusations. The controversy surrounding this habanera confirms that the audience naively wants to believe in the verisimilitude of the stories told in the habanera. This concept is widely represented in the discourse about the habanera. Thus, Navarro believes that the popularity of the habanera can be explained through its relationship with the reality and the reflection of everyday life in the habanera, “son reflex del nostre viure quotidia” f L’Havanera 142). Curiously, neither the detractors of “El meu avi,” nor Ortega Monasterio, in answer to the accusations of the falsification of history, ever mention the habanera “El Catalan” notated in Montsalvatge’s Album de habaneras in 1948. This traditional habanera in Spanish tells the story of a ship that bears the name El Catalan and fights for what was considered at the time of colonial wars to be the future of 121 everybody in Spain, in the words of Guillermo Dfaz-Plaja: “El Catalan” A servir a la Patria, mamita mfa, Pronto me llamaran. Soy marino del buque, Del buque El Catalan. Adios mi bien, 1 2 0 See G. Soler Summers, “De militar ‘umedo’ a cantor de habaneras,” Diario de Menorca, September 16, 1986, 4; J. Ortega Monasterio, “El Catalan,” Diari de Girona, 6 September 1993, 4; Castor Perez Diz, Andreu Navarro, M. Teresa Linares, i Mima Guerra Sierra, L’Havanera: Un cant popular, Tarragona: El Medol, 1995,114-15. 1 2 1 See Guillermo Diaz-Plaja, “Oyendo cantar habaneras,” La Vanguardia, 16 September 1980, 6. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 197 Yo voy a marchar a las Carolinas De punto alia. Y si tu vienes, Contemplaras los canoneros, los torpederos, los buques guerreros que allf veras. Y al llegar en aquellos mares Nos tocara gritar El grito de jViva Espana! Aquf esta, aquf esta El Catalan. (Album de habaneras 7) Thus one cultural sign creates another. The emblematic value of a ship named El Catalan for the make-up of Catalonia as a maritime community can hardly be disputed. In the late twentieth century, the creators of the film Havanera 1820, which reinvents the story of the participation of the Catalans in colonial expansion, also give the name El Catalan to a ship that in their work is not only a place of action but also an instrument of action and perhaps a character. The significance of “El meu avi” for the cultural imagination of Catalonia is not limited, however, to the hidden meaning behind the name of the ship and to the patriotic discourse towards the motherland. This habanera significantly contributes to the reinvention of the past. Paradoxically, Ortega Monasterio’s story of the participation of sailors on board the ship Montserrat, allegedly nicknamed El Catalan, invented in defense of his habanera, becomes a subject of exploration, newspaper articles and museum exhibits. A picture of the ship and a portrait of its captain Manuel Deschamps found in the Museu Mantim of Barcelona are repeatedly reprinted. Intended to prove Navarro’s thesis of the habanera as a reflection of everyday life, a portrait of Manuel Deschamps, with an inscription on it, “Manuel Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 198 Deschamps, Capitan del Montserrat, El Catalan, Guerra de Cuba. Ano 1898,” illustrates the story of “El meu avi” in the book L’Havanera: Un cant popular (144). On the same page, one can also see a painting representing the ship Montserrat by J. Cequiel with an explanatory note that it was popularly known as El Catalan. Thus the reinvention of the past triggered by this habanera continues. “El meu avi,” for its subject that appeals to the sensitivity of the audience towards the past and for its intimate intonation that pretends to tell a story of a family that is part of the nation, creates its own myth of the nation and of its heroic deeds. “El meu avi” is ensued by the creation of other habaneras that develop and refigure the impact of the historic events of the last colonial war in different ways. A. J. Carrau creates the habanera entitled “La meva avia,” “My grandma.” This long and detailed story with a transparent allusion to “El meu avi” in its title and in the first verse, “Quan per anar a fer la guerra a Cuba, el meu avi va embarcar,” retells the life story of a woman, the wife of a sailor who embarked for Cuba and the grandmother of the narrator. She is left behind in Catalonia waiting for her husband to return from the war and has to struggle at home and confront difficulties, “tambe lluitava aquf l’avia i passava grans afanys.” The woman left behind on land is a traditional motif for the habanera. Yet in this habanera this motif acquires new traits. When the grandma is told that the Catalans, will not return, she remembers the words that her husband said to her before he left for Cuba and they become his legacy now: En els teus fills i els teus nets, tu els hi has d’ensenyar, les quatre regies primeres per a ser un bon catala. Que s’ha d’estimar la llengua, que s’ha d’estimar la liar, Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 1 9 9 que s’ha d’estimar la terra, que s’ha d’estimar la mar. (XXXII Cantada 4) The song emphasizes that the protagonist, grandma, carries the love for the grandfather who perished in the war in Cuba throughout her long life. It also clearly identifies the major values of the nation, such as love for language, home, native land and the sea, which are necessary “to be a good Catalan.” The reiterated representation of the sea and love for it reassert Catalonia as a maritime community. Grandma becomes the bearer of national and cultural values who passes them down to the new generations: L’avia va morir molt gran, fins els besnets va ensenyar, les quatre regies primeres per esser un bon catala: Que s’ha d’estimar la llengua, que s’ha d’estimar la liar, que s’ha d’estimar la terra, que s’ha d’estimar la mar. The assertion of grandfathers’ legacy and of the participation of Catalans in colonial wars is not limited to these two habaneras. In the Library of Catalonia one can find a booklet entitled L’avi Quim no va anar a Cuba: Havanera, lyrics by Francesc A. Picas, music by Paco Viciana. It contains lyrics and music of two songs, the first one identified by the author as “havanera-sardana pacifista,” entitled “L’avi Quim no va anar a Cuba,” and the second one, a sardana “Es Montserrat.” The pacifist habanera-sardana seems to represent a unique hybrid that makes one again think of the transculturation as an ongoing process. The front page of this booklet contains a romantic picture that represents a face of a handsome young man. This face is partly covered by sea waves with two sailing boats struggling with the Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 200 waves.1 2 2 The booklet also contains a short essay, entitled “La historia de Cuba en una havanera,” on the back cover. In this brief essay, the author explains that “L’avi Quim,” grandpa Quim, is a real person and the maternal grandfather of the author. Bom in 1869, he refuses to be recruited to go to the war in 1898 and hides in the Pyrenees. He becomes a shepherd and this job lets him contemplate the nature and create pictures of this beautiful part of Catalonia. The author explains that the habanera “L’avi Quim no va anar a Cuba,” dedicated to the memory of grandfather Quim, pretends to give tribute to those who refuse to collaborate with the colonial politics of the Spain’s imperial machine. The author speculates that if the sailors of Palafrugell followed the example of grandfather Quim, they would not have died in the Caribbean on deck of their ship. Thus this habanera enters into a dialogue with “El meu avi.” The song evokes the historical events of colonial war and the relationship between Cuba, Catalonia and Spain, and calls on the Catalans to say “no” to the war: L’avi Quim no va anar a Cuba, Cuba es terra de valents. No volen ser mes d’Espanya. Volen fer-se independents. Que se’ns ha perdut a Cuba? Per que hi hem de dar la sang? No us mogueu, no, fills del poble! Digueu que no, Catalans! L’avi Quim no va anar a Cuba. No volgue fer-hi el soldat. Cuba es una terra lliure. Te dret a la Llibertat! 1 2 2 Illustration by Isaac Bosch. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 201 This “habanera-sardana pacifista” not only acknowledges the right of the Cubans for their independence and asserts pacifist ideals, but it also calls on the Catalans to create an opposition to the “clan of Madrid” following the tradition of opposing Catalonia to the central government. This opposition seems to be a representation of the secular conflict between Catalonia and the central government. Catalonia is represented through its traditional emblems, the sea, the mountains, and a rose. The rose is a Catalan symbol associated with the day of Saint George, the patron of Catalonia. In this context it may also be perceived as a symbol of peace: No us embarqueu cap a Cuba, Que hi vagi el clan de Madrid Nosaltres, mar i muntanya, I una rosa al mig del pit! The lyrics of this song not only invoke the historical events, but also make a transparent allusion to “El meu avi,” a cultural signifier already deeply uprooted in the collective imaginary. In its own way, it continues to create the mythology of the past and elaborates on what actually is the mythology, as one cannot perceive “El meu avi” other than a fictional reinvention of the past. The story of “L’avi Quim” seemingly represents an opposition to the story of “El meu avi.” However, by this opposition it enhances the myth of the sailors from Calella de Palafrugell created by Ortega Monasterio. Though seemingly opposed to “El meu avi,” “L’avi Quim” reiterates the slogan that made so significant the habanera “El meu avi.” Slightly changed, “Visca, sempre, Catalunya,” it is now enhanced by a religious formula, “i el bon Deu que ens 1 ’ha donat.” Thus, in addition to the interplay with “El meu avi,” Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 202 “L’avi Quim” adds new motifs to the assertion of Catalan identity. It evokes the senyera, Catalan flag, and the mountain Montserrat, a geographic and religious symbol of Catalonia,1 2 3 and thus underscores established national emblems: L’avi Quim no va anar a Cuba, Prefer! ser desertor. Qui deserta de la guerra, Porta la pau en el cor. Pau aqu! i pau a Cuba! Pau, progres i llibertat! Aixequem-ne una senyera, al bell cim de Montserrat. Visca, sempre, Catalunya, i el bon Deu que ens l’ha donat. This habanera also evokes another mass appealing habanera by Ortega Monasterio “El cano de Palamos.” It is explicitly pacifist and perhaps has more in common with the songs of protest than with the genre of the habanera, though it is identified as the habanera and happens to be a very popular one. The first strophe of this habanera describes the old cannon located in the port of Palamos, an important port of the Costa Brava region and the site of the annual Mostra de l’Havanera Catalana. The narrator is glad that for many years the mouth of this cannon produces only the memories of the times of war when the people of “Emporda, Selva and Valles killed themselves for nothing.” In the third strophe he calls on all the cannons and people of the world to listen to the voice of the cannon of Palamos and do not 1 2 3 Montserrat hosts the most prominent religious center of Catalonia, a monastery and a sanctuary of the major Catalan religious relic, the Virgin of Montserrat. This religious center played an exceptional role in the organization of the silent protest of the Catalans against the Franco dictatorship. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 2 0 3 have “more wars, bombs or fire.” The final strophe calls for peace all over the world and evokes the rose of Jericho as a symbol of peace: Si els canons de tot el mon fossin com el veil cano que tranquil esta dormint, blancs i negres dintre el pit portarien una flor, “La Rosa de Jerico.” (Mar endins 75) Thus, in the seventies and in the eighties, the habanera in Catalonia acquires new subjects and may well respond to the ideological necessities of the moment. Among the long-standing subjects of the habanera is the evocation of Catalan immigration to the Caribbean. It is represented in the newly created habaneras and in those that can be explored as the legacy of the Modemisme. A well-known and emblematic song, composed in the early 1890s by Amadeu Vives to the lyrics by Jacint Verdaguer, “L’Emigrant,” is frequently performed by habanera groups. Verdaguer (1845-1902), a major figure in Catalan poetry of the nineteenth century, served as a chaplain on the ships of the Transatlantic Company, property of Antonio Lopez, and crossed the Atlantic several times. “L’Emigrant” represents the nostalgia for the “dolga Catalunya, patria del meu cor.” The farewell to the native land, which embraces brothers and parents, a metaphor that stands for the whole nation, the woods, rivers and the Pyrenees is followed by the statement that the narrator will suffer far from his native land and will return to it where he wants to die: “Dol§a Catalunya / Patria del meu cor’ quant de tu s’allunya / d’enyoranqa es mor.” This poetry may be viewed as a representation of the general perception of emigration as Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 2 0 4 suffering and sacrifice far from the native land. A return to the native land with fortune that allows to live comfortably and be buried at home, the fate of the legendary americanos. is also reflected in this poem by Verdaguer. Certainly, Verdaguer does not speak of material fortune, however, an elevation in economic and social status was the main driving force behind immigration at the time of the creation of this verse: Oh, mariners! El vent que me’n desterra que em fa sofrir! Estic malalt; mes ai! Tomeu-me a terra que hi vull morir. (Mar endins 56) Another poetry by Verdaguer “Lluny de ma terra,” also relatd to the subject of immigration, was recently converted into a song by Josep Bastons, a prolific habanera composer and artistic director of the group Peix Fregit. This poetry by Verdaguer tells a story of a sailor or immigrant who arrives in Cuba and finds himself on the beach on its Eastern side, the side that looks towards Spain. This poetry may be seen as a representation of the essence of the maritime culture. In the second strophe the protagonist narrator sees a ship where the sailors are singing a beautiful habanera. Curiously, when Verdaguer creates his poetry in the late 1890s, he already sees the singing of the habanera as a sign that makes the sailors closer to their native land: “Cantau, mariners, cantau, / no sou com jo, lluny de la patria!” (Mar endins 40). New habaneras, “Adeu Calella” by Joan Lara i Nieto and “L’avi emigrant” by Josep M. Cao and Francesc Salse, continue to develop the subject of emigration. “Adeu Calella” directly alludes to the small motherland, two Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 2 0 5 neighboring towns Calella and Llafranc, to which the protagonist narrator says his farewell. The small motherland is also associated with the beloved woman to whom he promises to return after seeking fortune overseas: Me’n vaig a cercar la fortuna a Ultramar. Amor, per penyora et dono el meu cor. En tu sempre mes pensare, i el dia que tomi jo t’estimare. (Mar endins 59) The song reiterates the story of an immigrant who works hard in Havana saving his money in anticipation of a return to Catalonia and marriage to his beloved Montserrat. However, his mother’s letter tells him that Montserrat is married. The last strophe of this song reinterprets in a certain way Verdaguer’s ending of “L’Emigrant.” Verdaguer’s protagonist declares that he is sick and wants to return to his motherland where he wants to die. The protagonist of the song by Joan Lara i Nieto also is sick and regrets that he is going to die far away from his native home. Lara i Nieto goes further in the use of national symbols: the protagonist/ narrator proclaims that he wants to be buried with the senyera. national flag, as he is Catalan. The juxtaposition of the last strophes of both songs perhaps makes clearer the intertextuality between them: “L’Emigrant” Oh, mariners! El vent que me’n desterra que em fa sofrir! Estic malalt; mes, ai! Tomeu-me a terra que hi vull morir. (Mar endins 56) “Adeu Calella” Quina tristesa, estic malalt, Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 2 0 6 sento morir-me lluny del meu casal. Que m’envolcallin, en dur-me a fossar, amb una senyera, jo soc catala. (Mar endins 59) “L’ Avi emigrant” tells a story in the first person of an emigrant who spends years seeking for fortune and adventures overseas. Now “old, tired and melancholic” he is willing to return to his native land in order to speak his language and wave proudly his flag, la senyera. The Catalan language and the senyera are not the only symbols of national identity recognized in this song. The narrator protagonist wants to return to Catalonia, his land, to hear habaneras and to dance the sardana again. Thus the habanera occupies a place similar to other emblems of national identity in this song identified as the habanera by its authors. The tautology in my text is inevitable, as this habanera represents another example of Catalan habaneras that are self-reflexive and identify the habanera as an emblem of Catalan cultural identity. In addition to identifying the habanera as an emblem of cultural identity, this habanera explicitly represents patriotic motifs: Catalunya, patria meva i dels meus avantpassats qui t’abandoni per sempre ben segur t’enyorara. Catalunya, patria meva i de tots els Catalans gent i terra com aquesta enlloc del mon no he trobat. (Mar endins 93) Some habaneras explore the issue of overseas travel from the perspective propagated in recent decades through studies about Catalan immigration to Cuba, film and narrative that represent Catalan immigration to the Caribbean. These works Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 2 0 7 reinforce the idea that Catalan immigration was traditionally perceived as a temporary condition in the life of the young men who go overseas, in most cases to Cuba, to make a fortune and then return to their native land, “dolpa Catalunya,” in the words of Jacint Verdaguer. The idea of an almost mandatory return of immigrants and of finding the paradise at home is reinforced in some new habaneras. They praise the motherland and reaffirm nationalistic values through the love for the Catalan language, family values, native land and the sea, thereby contributing to the self-assertion of Catalonia as a maritime community. “La ciutat cremada,” the habanera and the theme of the feature film with the same title1 2 4 represents this idea explicitly: Mulata meva, no tomare a cantar l’havanera dels teus ulls presoner. A Catalunya em quedare: Perque en retomar a aquesta terra oblido la pena, retrobo al meu cor; perque a la bella patria nostrada terra catalana retrobo l’amor. (XXXIII Cantada 8) The habanera “Ones duarades” by Quim Xena implicitly represents the idea of the return to the motherland, to the native port: Ones duarades terres de sol 1241 will discuss this habanera in the context of the impact of the film La ciutat cremada (1976), by director Antoni Ribas, in Chapters Four and Five. The premiere of the film La ciutat cremada in 1976 was perceived by the broad Catalan audience as a reinvention of Catalan historical identity. It explores the turbulent years between the end of colonial war in Cuba and the tragic events of 1909 in Barcelona, known as the Tragic Week, when convents and churches were burnt in an explosion of uncontrolled protest of the masses triggered by the protest against the participation in a war in Morocco. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 2 0 8 platges Uunyanes del meu record, i sempre penso de tomar a port al meu port. I se que quan hi tomare haura passat ja tant de temps, voldre encara retrobar aquells indrets tan bells. (XXX Cantada 5) The assertion of love for the motherland through praising of small towns or areas of Catalonia becomes a significant subject in the new Catalan habanera. Perhaps due to its reputation related to the preservation of the habanera in Catalonia, Calella de Palafrugell happens to be among the most popular towns sung about in new habaneras. At least four habaneras, “Trobada a Calella” by Antonia Vilas, “Calella” by Lluis M. Nubiola, “Calella hivemal” by Pure,1 2 5 “Calella de les havaneres”1 2 6 are dedicated to this town. Perhaps a most representative one is “Calella de les havaneres,” with lyrics by Jaume Pol Girbal and music by Josep Bastons. At first sight, this habanera conveys the message that traditional symbols and values associated with overseas travel, such as the sea, sailboats, and habaneras, are present here, at home: Calella de les havaneres, Calella dels pins i la mar, Calella de barques i veles, Calella encesa de cremats, Calella de les havaneres, 1 2 5 No more information is available about the author. Source: XXVIII Cantada d’havaneres: Calella de Palafrugell Costa Brava: Patronat Municipal de Turisme de Palafrugell, 1994. 1 2 6 The text of this song is courtesy of Josep Bastons. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 2 0 9 Calella d’en Blau i I’Hermos,1 2 7 Calella dels vents i les voltes, Calella, guardem en redos. The idea of remaining in the motherland as opposed to looking for fortune and happiness overseas seems to be prevalent in this habanera. The protagonist does not need to look for an Eldorado because he already found it at home: No cal anar a 1’Havana perque jo 1’Havana la tine al costat, no cal trobar Eldorado, perque jo Eldorado ja el tine ben trobat. However, through the denial of the necessity of going to Havana, this habanera reinforces the impact of overseas travel and the significance of Havana as a place of the creation of fortunes, an idea deeply uprooted in the collective imaginary. Another relevant feature of this habanera consists in the projection of the nostalgia associated in the traditional habanera with the “Pearl of the Antilles” on Calella that seems to fulfill now the function of an object of nostalgia. In an interesting twist, Calella is compared to Havana, and is called by the narrator “my Havana,” “new Havana” of the Emporda. For decades, Havana fulfilled the function of an emotional refuge in the cultural imagination of Spaniards. This habanera inverts the motives of nostalgia for the lost overseas paradise and projects them on the native land: Calella blanca, Calella fina tens la gavina prop del finestro; i un cementiri color de lliri 1 2 7 Blau and Hermos are legendary singers of habaneras of the forties and the fifties mentioned in short stories by Josep Pla. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 210 i gent que canta i viu de debo. Que no em busquin a F Havana, que la meva Havana, que la meva Havana, es aquest raco. Nostalgia for Calella sounds in another habanera, “Calella:” T’estimo Calella, amiga de tots tu sempre ets oberta i ho ets de debo per terra i per mar jo penso tomar. T’enyoro Calella amb ansies molt grans” (XXXII Cantada 7). Barceloneta, an area of Barcelona adjacent to its port and traditionally considered to be the place where people professionally connected to seafaring jobs reside, is the subject of at least two habaneras, “Barceloneta estimada” by Antonia Vilas and “Cant a la Barceloneta” by Francesc Salse. Both, Vilas and Salse, are not only authors and singers of habaneras, who have co-authored some of them, but also are promoters and organizers of the annual habanera festival Barcelona: Cara al mar. For more than fifteen years now, this event takes place on the last weekend of June. Two habaneras about Barceloneta seem to fulfill the necessity of praising the space where the festival takes place and thus satisfy the need of the participating audience, most of whom are typically the residents of the area. This need is transparent in “Cant a la Barceloneta:” Es a tu Barceloneta a qui avui jo vull cantar, perque estimes l’havanera perque fas olor de mar. [...] Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 211 Si t’endinses pels careers ja no podras oblidar una gent tan marinera que ens aculla a tots plegats. (Salse 45). Habaneras are dedicated to various small towns: Cabrera de Mar, Tossa, Tamariu, Cala Montgo, the latter is a picturesque bay on the rugged Costa Brava. The singing of the habanera is frequently mentioned in these “local” habaneras, thus associating a cultural sign with the small motherland: De la platja The vist arribar, i amb silenci d’un mat! d’estiu, he sentit els mariners cantar una havanera a Tamariu. (Mar endins 107) A habanera dedicated to Maresme, area to the north of Barcelona on the coast, a traditional region if fishermen and sailors, explicitly states that narrators/ protagonists sing in the habanera about their native land with its sea and mountains: Als pobles del Maresme venim disposats a cantar amb aires d’havanera l’encis d’aquesta terra que te muntanya i mar. Through this song one can see that the habanera acquires the status of a marker of cultural identity equal to such traditional symbol as sardana: Aplecs de sardanas de renom, tambe aquf al Maresme hi trobarem ports de mar, pins i ginesta tonades d’havanera com la que ara us cantem. (XXVIII Cantada 6) In another song dedicated to Maresme, identified however as valset mariner, sailor’s short waltz, by F. Suner, the subject of love for the native land is associated Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 212 with a small town, Malgrat de Mar. The maritime identity of both, the space and the people living there, is explicitly represented in this song, that pretends to be “1 ’himne catala,” and ends with the slogan, “Visca el poble catala:” Dels elegants mariners sentireu entonar, amb veu molt clara i potent l’himne catala. Donant-nos somrient la mes cordial benvinguda, records que mai no podreu oblidar del pafs catala. Visca el poble catala. (Mar endins 39) Catalan habaneras assert the values of Catalan identity through broadly recognized emblems of this identity, such as the sardana. Frequently one finds the habanera as a counterpart to the sardana. “Catalans de la costa,” the habanera by Francesc Salse, may be seen as an example of self-representation as a maritime community through the relationship between generations. The protagonist recalls with nostalgia that his father “taught him all the secrets of the sea.” This passing over of the seafaring profession as an assertion of a maritime identity is enhanced by memories of singing habaneras and sailor’s waltzes. The song explicitly asserts maritime identity in its repeated refrain: Som Catalans de la costa i no podem pas passar sense el mar estimem la nostra patria perque he portem dintre el cor. The sailor’s songs occupy a significant space in the definition of this identity as they convey the memory about the past: Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 2 1 3 Les cangons mariners tothom les vol cantar perque sovint ens porten records d’aquells temps passats. (Mar endins 61) The perception of the habanera as an emblem of Catalan nation is even more explicit in the habanera by Vilas “La mar i la patria.” This habanera tells a story of three generations of fishermen, with the patriarch represented as the head of the family and of the crew. In this song, the sailors “merrily” sing the habanera what makes it clear that they are Catalans: I mentre feinegen, la mar juganera bressola la barca i els seus tripulants entonen alegres un cant d’havanera que deixa entreveure que son Catalans. (Mar endins 70) Thus in this habanera, the habanera is appropriated as a seal that distinguishes the Catalan national identity. It would be useful to remember, as I discussed earlier, that the habanera continues to be popular in other regions of Spain where annual habanera festivals are also celebrated. The habaneras by Antonia Vilas continue to assert Catalan maritime identity and at the same time to create the legend of the Catalan fishermen who sing habaneras while working at sea.1 2 8 Vilas makes her contribution to the self- fashioning of Catalonia as a maritime community through her numerous habaneras 1 2 8 Perez Diz, while discussing the functions of the habanera as the song of work and leisure mentions that his informant, the honorary Alcalde de Mar of Calella, a title granted to the senior, retired fisherman of the town, denied that fishermen sang at sea while working, a legend that started to be developed with Lujan’s prologue. According to him, seafaring job is too hard and tiresome to sing habaneras (46). Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 2 1 4 dedicated to the subject of hard working Catalan sailors and fishermen. Patriotic motifs of love for Catalonia in her habaneras are enhanced through reiterated employment of such broadly recognized emblems of Catalan national identity as the sardana. and the national anthem, “Els segadors.” The seafaring values of the nation are emphasized through seafaring professions: El mar i la nostra patria es que motiva nostres cors. Nostra patria es Catalunya centre dels nostres amors; nostra dansa es la sardana, nostre cant Els Segadors, nostra costa catalana bressol de braus pescadors” (Mar endins 70). In another habanera “Sortim a la mar,” Vilas represents brave fishermen who sing the habanera while working at sea. Once again the habanera is represented as an equal to the senyera, Catalan national flag, and to “Els segadors:” Sortim a la mar, sortim que avui ens bufa bon vent, i mentre que anem opmlint les xerxes de peix d’argent, cantem amb amor, cantem una havanera cantem. Com fa vibrar la Senyera o be el Cant dels segadors aixf senten 1 ’havanera dins el cor, els pescadors. (Mar endins 41) The assertion of the identity of hard-working fishermen continues through other habaneras by Antonia Vilas, Josep Maria Cao, Josep Anton Pujol Botifoll, Joaquim Oliveres: Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 2 1 5 Pescador que vas al mar rep la meva admiracio per jugar-te cada dia tu la vida sense por. Mariner, brau pescador tingues cuidado que el mar te bromes i no te perdo. (XXXV Cantada 13) In this song, tribute is given to the wife who is waiting for the return of the fisherman on the shore watching the sea and always calm, “conservant sempre la calma.” In “El cant del mar,” lyrics by Antonia Vilas and music by Salvador Dabau, the old fisherman who does not go out to sea any more feels nostalgia for the sea and for the years that he spent out there: I sense esma, ni rumb ni nord caminant a la deriva un veil es passeja pel port, creu sentir que el mar el crida i recorda el veil pescador aquelles hores per ell viscudes quan ell n’erajove i fort, Les tempestes per ell ven§udes. (Mar endins 101) In “Mare vull ser pescador,” Antonia Vilas tells the story of a mother who is begging her son to become a priest and is praying to the Virgin of Carmen, the patroness of fishermen and sailors, that her son does not follow the profession of her late husband who disappeared at sea. However, the son wants to continue the family tradition. Thus the maritime identity of the nation continues to be reinforced: Mare, vull ser pescador no m’ho privis, dolga mare. Ja se amb quanta buidor et deixa la mort del pare. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 2 1 6 Mare, vull ser pescador, vull ser pescador i no frare, que soc fill de pescador i malgrat el teu dolor jo tine les venes saladas...(Mar endins 20) “No sere mai pescador,” lyrics by Josep Maria Cao and music by Francesc Salse, tells a story of two children who are waiting on the seashore for their fisherman father to return. The anxiety and fear in front of the perils of the sea and of the seafaring profession make the son state that he does not want to follow his father’s profession because he does not want his children to experience the same fear he is experiencing for his father. The sea as an object of nostalgia of an old fisherman is represented in the habanera “Veil pescador” by Josep Anton Pujol Botifoll. The protagonist of this habanera, an old fisherman, passes his love for the sea to a “young child.” Thus a link between generations is asserted, on the one hand, and the maritime oriented identity is reinforced, on the other: I si Deu vol, petit infant un jom hi tomare menjant la pols del veil camf sempre mirant a Test. Mirant al mar, on vaig pescar tants any s. M’enyorare o plorare, o potser cantare. El mar es bo, el mar es blau, el mar es calma i es temporal. (Mar endins 22) The habanera “El veil i el mar” by Vilas goes far beyond in the identification of personality and the sea. The protagonist, an old man, “el veil avi,” undertakes his last voyage to the sea with a clear intention to be buried there: Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 2 1 7 Grades atnic pel consell, mes si cerco al mar consol es perque avui aquest veil vol emprendre el darrer vol. (Mar endins 53) The habanera “Vine amb mi a navegar,” lyrics by Josep Maria Cao and music by Francesc Salse, gives a new and unexpected “feminist” twist to the subject of a hard and severe seafaring profession. In this habanera, the woman is invited to navigate together with the man. The song seems to contradict the long established convention that the sea is a masculine domain and that a woman is confined to waiting on the shore. However, it is the conviction of the narrator who remains to be the masculine voice, that the sea does not distinguish between a man and a woman, therefore the woman is invited to join him: Vine amb mi, no tinguis por. Agafa un rem i l’altre jo. T’ensenyare, si es el que vols, a navegar, soc pescador. I si t’agrada un altre dia hi tomarem, posant les veles, tu al timo i no calen rems. I sense pressa, amb la constancia t’adonaras que igual que un home tambe una dona pot navegar. (Mar endins 89) In “Vela llatina,” lyrics by Anna Brunet and music by Josep Bastons, the protagonist also invites his beloved one to navigate in the sea and search for a “dream island.” Navegarem sota el sol i les estrelles, junts solcarem per la immensitat del mar, lliscant damunt clares i transparents aigiies, que en son mirall de bells boscos de corail. Penyassegats guaitaran la nostra passa, Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 2 1 8 de nits els fars guairan el nostre rumb, fins arribar a l’illa dels nostres somnis on 1 ’amor te d’algues i pins el perfum. (Vela llatina n.p.) The Catalan habanera is a new genre bom in the process of transculturation that continues as cultural signs of “go and return” continue their transatlantic journeys. The cultural legacy of the generations that were directly involved in the colonial relationship with Cuba and Puerto Rico was preserved at the Costa Brava region of Catalonia where nostalgic habaneras were initially transformed under the influence of the autochthonous melody and rhythm of the sardana. The proliferation of the new genre of the Catalan habanera created in the old tradition that can be traced back to the time of massive Catalan immigration to Cuba and to the participation in the colonial wars lead by Spain coincides with political changes in the region in the last years of the Franco dictatorship and during the decades of democratic transition in Spain. The new Catalan habanera acquires the features that assert values traditionally represented as relevant for Catalan cultural identity based on its adherence to language and cultural traditions. Catalonia continuously self represents itself as a maritime community. The habanera, a by-product of the massive immigration of Spaniards to Cuba, has a sailor or a soldier as a protagonist and tells a story of a nostalgic desire for the lost tropical paradise with a mulatto woman waiting in a far-away port. The recurrent images of the habanera such as a mulatto woman as an object of desire, a ship and the sea as the space of action, and an emblem that brings prosperity to the hard-working nation serve the need for a self-fashioning of the nation with a long standing tradition of seafaring professions. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 2 1 9 During the last years of the Franco dictatorship, the so-called “dictablanda,” and during the period of the transition from the dictatorship to a new democratic state that recognizes cultural diversity in Spain, the habanera, assimilated and appropriated by the Catalans in the process of transculturation, becomes a cultural sign relevant for Catalan identity and comparable for its significance to the sardana, a broadly recognized emblem of Catalan identity. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 220 Chapter Four The Habanera in Catalan Film: Desires of an Empire In 1992 Spain and Catalonia, as part of a larger state, pompously celebrate five hundred years of the so-called Discovery of the New World. Seville,1 2 9 for her importance in the initial Discovery and in the subsequent colonization, is chosen for the celebration of the World Fair, while Barcelona, where the Catholic Kings Ferdinand and Isabella receive Columbus after his first trip to the Indies, hosts the Summer Olympic games. At the time of these celebrations, an independent company IMATCO in collaboration with TV-3, the Catalan network; Ministerio de Cultura, Instituto de Cine; Generalitat de Catalunya; Comisio America i Catalunya 1992 produce and release (1993) the film Havanera 1820 directed by Antoni Verdaguer. First created as a TV miniseries consisting of four fifty-minutes parts, it is later released in a shorter, one hundred twenty minutes, version as a feature film and a video. This film may be perceived as a first attempt at representing Catalan involvement in Cuba in the language of cinema. The evocation of the musical genre in the title of the film suggests a closer look at the employment of the habanera in this and in some other productions of Catalan cinema, a crucial space for a national 1 2 9 Columbus’s first journey starts in the adjacent to Seville port of Palos. Later, for its convenient strategic position on the Guadalquivir river, Seville becomes the administrative center of overseas provinces and the treasury of precious metals that arrive from overseas. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 221 imaginary. In this chapter, I will explore how the recreation of the habanera in Havanera 1820 (1993, dir. Antoni Verdaguer) and in La ciutat cremada (1976, dir. Antoni Ribas) contributes to the project of Catalan national cinema and Catalan identity. Havanera 1820 starts with a prologue1 3 0 that announces the appointment of Captain Richardson of the British Royal Marine to Havana. His mission is to oversee that the Treaty of 18171 3 1 is observed and that the illegal trafficking of Africans is stopped. This prologue is followed by a scene in an African village where the villagers reunited around a ceremonial fire are performing a ritual in order to protect themselves against the men of “clear skin.” The clear skin men appear immediately as a group of Hollywood-like Arabs who attack the village and put it on fire. The villagers, with their primitive wooden arms, surrender to the violence exercised by well-armed Arabs on horseback and become prisoners. Thus the film opens with violence and fire as its symbol. As we will see later, fire and violence that become part of the liberation of the female protagonists of the film will encircle it in the epilogue. 1 3 0 As I mentioned, the film exists in two versions: a TV miniseries of one hundred eighty minutes and a one hundred twenty minutes video variant. In the shortened variant, this prologue is inserted in the middle of the narrative. I will follow in my discussion of the film the printed version of the script that corresponds to the TV miniseries, a more complete version. 1 3 1 On September 22, 1817 Spain and Great Britain signed a treaty, which established a transition period until 1820 when slave trade and traffic were definitely prohibited. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 222 The prologue that defines the anti-slavery theme and the subject of this “adventurous melodrama” is followed by a languid narrative of the preparations of a Catalan ship to sail to Cuba from Canet de Mar, a small port in Barcelona area. The ship bears an emblematic name El Catalan and has a usual cargo of Catalan merchandise for export. On this trip, however, it has a special passenger on board. The female protagonist, Amelia Roig (Aitana Sanchez-Gijon), niece of one of the owners of the ship and of the naviliera, a shipping company, is leaving Canet for Cuba in order to join her husband. Her marriage to a prosperous Catalan immigrant whom she never met before is arranged by her uncle Francesc Valeri. Her companion on this trip is Alfons Rovira, the son of the other owner of the naviliera, Joan Rovira. Alfons is her friend and also happens to be the best friend of her husband who had left Catalonia years earlier and is now the owner of “one of the biggest” fortunes in Cuba. Thus the exposition of the film represents a scenario many times reiterated in discourse related to the participation of Catalans in Cuban colonial enterprise. Contingent with this discourse, the film represents Catalan immigration in the form of commercial diaspora based on close family or friendship contacts. Slave trade is perceived as a part of normal commercial practice, while prearranged marriages for the sake of capitalization are an accepted part of the socio- economical structure of the growing Catalan capitalist society. Francesc Valeri, Alfons Rovira and Ton Massana, Amelia’s arranged husband, are members of a secret agreement to divert the route of El Catalan to the coast of Africa. There El Catalan will take on board a cargo of Africans who will Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. become slaves upon arrival to Cuba where they are anxiously expected by Massana and other owners of sugar mills, the basis for flourishing Cuban economy. The complicity of her uncle, of her friend and of her husband is not the only revelation that Amelia confronts on board of the ship and upon arrival to Havana. The encounter with her husband in Cuba brings her disillusion on top of the anxiety that she experiences during her voyage to the unknown, her anticipated life in Cuba as a woman married to a man whom she had never met. Her husband Ton Massana, handsome, young and sexually active successful Catalan immigrant, is tormented by contradictory feelings. He is attracted to Amelia, however, his passion for his mulatto slave, Consuelo, a relationship that he is not even trying to conceal from his wife, prevails and prevents him from a relationship with Amelia. When Amelia finds out that he continues his sexual relationship with Consuelo and confronts him, Massana explains to her that their marriage and Amelia herself are nothing else but a “warranty of a commercial agreement.” Indignant, Amelia decides to fight for her freedom against the marriage imposed on her by the traditional paternalistic family structure. Thus the film in its apparently progressive discourse undermines the discourse of the objectification of a female character recurrent in the traditional habanera. The seemingly feminist discourse of Havanera 1820 transforms Amelia into the protagonist, who decides to protect herself and fight for her freedom. Her personal struggle against her imposed husband Ton Massana and the complicity of other powerful male figures, her uncle Francesc Valeri and her friend Alfons Rovira, will achieve as a “by-product” the liberation of the slaves. Amelia becomes the Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 2 2 4 protagonist and enunciator of the anti-slavery discourse of the film that presumably responds to the feminist codes. The apparent progressiveness of this discourse is enhanced through the union between Amelia and her rival, the mulatto lover of her husband, Consuelo. The white mistress “domesticates” and attracts the mulatto slave to her side, though Consuelo (Ikay Romay) does not seem to understand Amelia’s reasons aimed at destroying their common enemy Massana. The union of these two female figures will destroy Massana. Amelia denounces Massana’s dirty business of slave trafficking to Captain Richardson and subtly encourages Consuelo to kill Massana. In the finale, both women become free from the despotic husband/owner/lover whom Consuelo kills on board of El Catalan. The slaves that arrive with the last trip of the negrero ship are also freed due to the heroic effort of Consuelo who sets them free by unlocking them. El Catalan is set on fire while Consuelo is struggling with Massana before she stabs him. The ship bums with two most ruthless negreros, Massana and his accomplice nicknamed “Cremat,” (Burnt). (Cremat is marked by a characteristic birthmark on his face, what can also be read as a prefiguration of the destiny of the villains of the film.) The purifying fire that opened the film in a ritual ceremony asking the African gods for protection encircles it through the emblematic burning of El Catalan. The advertisers of Havanera 1820 explicitly underline their desire to present this “great melodramatic adventure” as part of European rethinking of colonial history. At the time of the release of Havanera 1820, which coincides with the celebration of the “encounter” of the Old and New World, Catalonia continues its Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 2 2 5 efforts at self-representation as part of a globalized international and, particularly, European community. The presentation of the film by its producer Carles Jover in the film’s colorful promotion booklet may be perceived as a reiteration of this effort: There is nothing more European than the revision of a period in which the great Western nations lived their contradiction between slavery and liberalism, between tradition and industrial progress, between politics and economics. There is nothing more modem in the united Europe of the nineties than to recreate the basis of its relations with the Third World. (Havanera 1820 promotional booklet n.p.) These words explicitly identifying Catalonia with “the great Western nations” are articulated when the effort at representing Catalonia as part of a modernized European community was underscored during the celebration of 1992 Olympics in Barcelona. Through a significant political effort and negotiation, the goal of integrating Catalonia into a new Europe was to a certain extent successfully achieved as Catalonia was represented as part of heterogeneous Spain, on the one hand, and as 1 ^9 a member of a broader European community, on the other. The position of the producer of Havanera 1820 quoted above clearly manifests the intention to represent Catalonia in its “historical” relationship with the colonies as part of a global European community. This discourse is contingent with a centuries-long opposition to the Spanish state against whose dominion Catalonia has revolted so many times in 1 3 2 The role of the Barcelona Olympic games in a further integration of Catalonia into a viable Spanish state and in the manifestation of Catalan nationalism through a major international event is analyzed in John Hargreaves, Freedom For Catalonia? Catalan Nationalism, Spanish Identity and the Barcelona Olympic Games (Cambridge, 2000). Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 2 2 6 history. The release of Havanera 1820. a filmic narrative seemingly aimed at a universal condemn of slavery, may be viewed as an attempt at Catalonia’s self representation as a European nation that participates in the Western colonial enterprise as an equal to “real” colonial empires, such as Great Britain, France, Spain, Belgium or Russia. As a film production with a historically defined referent that invokes the formation of Western colonial empires, Havanera 1820 allows one to explore cinematographic modes of construction of Catalan nation and identity through discourse related to Catalonia’s colonial and perhaps “imperial” enterprise. Though this ambitious project seemingly is aimed at subverting traditional discourse related to the activities of Catalans in Cuba, the lavishness of production and the reiteration of gender and race stereotypes inscribe this “adventurous melodrama” into the category of recent film productions characterized by a certain “nostalgia-for- empire” in the words of Ella Shohat.1 3 3 This “nostalgia-for-empire” together with the recreation of the subjects and motifs of the habanera in film may be explored as “foundational” for the project of Catalan national cinema, a powerful instrument for the construction of a national identity. One might ask, however, if it is plausible to speak of Catalan cinema as of a “national” cinema. In the essay “Catalan Cinema: Historical Experience and Cinematic Practice” (1991), Marvin D’Lugo calls it “something like a national 1 3 3 Discussing “nostalgia-for-empire” in Havanera 1820, 1 will draw on Shohat’s article “Gender and Culture of Empire: Toward a Feminist Ethnography of the Cinema,” Quarterly Review of Film and Video 13 (1991): 45-84. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 2 2 7 cinema” (133). D’Lugo draws on Philip Rosen’s conceptualization of a national cinema that presupposes three pivotal concepts of a national cinema: (1) not just a conceptualization of textuality, but one which describes how a large number of superficially differentiated texts can be associated in a regularized, relatively limited intertextuality in order to form a coherency, a “national cinema;” (2) a conceptualization of a nation as a kind of minimally coherent entity which it makes sense to analyze in relation with (1); (3) some conception of what is traditionally called “history” or “historiography.” (qtd. in “Catalan Cinema” 145-46) For D’Lugo, “Catalan cinema is marked by a pattern of conceptualizations— shared cultural-historical traditions and textual coherencies across a significant body of different filmic texts over time— that in other contexts would lead us to consider it as a national cinema” (133). He further develops this idea emphasizing the “deployment of certain issues of history into a chain of discursive practices that inscribe the historical trace of Catalan identity into the enunciative stmcture of the variety of films” (133). Drawing on this conceptualization of a national cinema, I will explore in this chapter how two Catalan film productions that evolve around crucial historical issues, La ciutat cremada (1976) by Antoni Ribas and Havanera 1820 (1993) by Antoni Verdaguer, incorporate the habanera into their discourse and how they can be inscribed into the body of Catalan national cinema. Released during the critical period for the history of Spain and Catalonia, the time of the transition from the dictatorship to a new heterogeneous Spain, Antoni Ribas’s multilayered cinematographic fresco La ciutat cremada (1976) may be Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 2 2 8 viewed as the first attempt at representing Catalan history in film. The film evolves around the life of a Barcelona family during the turbulent years between 1899, after the disastrous defeat of Spain in the Cuban war, and the Tragic Week in Barcelona in 1909. Ribas’s film becomes an overwhelming box office success and is perceived by many as an assertion of Catalan historical identity and an unprecedented step for Catalan filmmaking. It is perhaps the first film production of this scale released in Catalan language, and the crew, with the exception of the director of cinematography Teo Escamilla, is “self-sufficiently Catalan,” in the words of Rob Stone (114). The sound track of this multilayered period drama opens with a habanera performed by a choir and orchestra. This habanera, known now as “La ciutat cremada,” was created for La ciutat cremada by a prolific cinema composer Manuel Vails i Gorina (1920-1984) as the main theme of the sound track of the film. Years after the release of the film it continues its life as a popular habanera frequently performed and published in Catalan,1 3 4 although originally in the film the first part of it is performed in Spanish with a subsequent switch to Catalan. The story of “La ciutat cremada,” which continues its life independently as a popular song, may be compared perhaps to the story of the habanera “Yo te dire,” originally created for Los ultimos de Filipinas (1945, director Antonio Roman), a notorious Francoist 1 3 4 Catalan version is published in XXXIII Cantada d’havaneres: Calella de Palafrugell, (Costa Brava, 1999) 8. The original version with the first part in Spanish and the second part in Catalan can be found in Xavier Febres, Les havaneres, el cant d’un mar, (Girona, 1986) 12. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 2 2 9 “postwar nation-building project,” in the words of Roland Tolentino. “Yo te dire,” for its melodic appeal and nostalgic lyrics, is among the most popular and frequently performed habaneras currently. In the film for which it was created, it is sung by the only female character employed in this film, a Filipino woman who is in love with a Spanish officer. The latter, though attracted to her, rejects their union realizing the impossibility of it. I already discussed the unprecedented significance of “La ciutat cremada” for the assertion of Catalan nationalistic values at the time of the transition from the dictatorship to a heterogeneous democratic state in Spain. Below I will explore its relevance in the context of the impact that Ribas’s cinematographic saga plays in the cultural imaginary of Catalonia. In Chapter Five, I will once again turn to this habanera as, in the last decade of the twentieth century, it becomes the leitmotif of the novel En el mar de les Antilles (1999) by Manel Alonso i Catala. The habanera “La ciutat cremada” seems to represent explicitly the complex phenomenon of the Catalan habanera explored in this dissertation. This new habanera specifically created for a film with a strong historical referent invokes the traditional subject of popular habaneras-participation in the war in Cuba— and in this function may be explored as a simulacrum of the traditional habanera that acquires the status of a recognized emblem of Catalan identity by the 1970s. As it sounds in the opening 1 3 5 For an analysis of Los ultimos de Filipinas as a project of the Francoist nationalist propaganda see Roland B. Tolentino, “Nations, Nationalisms, and Los ultimos de Filipinas: An Imperialist Desire for Colonialist Nostalgia,” in Refiguring Spain: Cinema/ Media/ Representation. Ed. Marsha Kinder (Durham, 1997) 133-53. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 2 3 0 sequences of the film when the protagonist returns to Barcelona in May of 1899 after thhee years of military service in Cuba, it becomes the leitmotif of a cinematographic narrative with a precise historical referent. As I mentioned, the story of a Barcelona middle class family is explored amongst turbulent events of the first decade of the twentieth century. The representation of these events and of numerous historical personalities allows one to speak of Ribas’s film as perhaps of the first step in the reinvention of Catalan history through cinematography. The employment of the habanera in this work is indicative of the transculturation and ambivalence of the habanera in Catalonia. The first strophe that opens the film is sung in Spanish in the otherwise Catalan language film. One can explore this sign as an evocation of the traditional genre, on the one hand, and as a conscious and explicit switch to the vernacular language with all its significance for Catalan identity, on the other. The new habanera that sounds in La ciutat cremada bears all the paradigmatic traits of the traditional habanera: in the first strophe it describes the voluptuous attractiveness of a mulatto woman who is left behind by the male protagonist in Cuba. It should be noted that “Cuba” is characteristically preceded by the possessive pronoun “mi,” which makes one recall a popular perception of Cuba as “the fifth province of Catalonia.” The description of the attractiveness of the mulata evokes the language of traditional habaneras, perhaps comparable to the lavishness of “Tecla”: En mi Cuba me espera una mulata gentil, de labios rojos de fresa, de dientes de puro marfil. Sus ojos son dos luceros, Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 2 3 1 su nuca perfume de abril. Ay mulatita querida, escucha el triste son que te canta mi vida un soldado espanol. However, the second strophe of the song offers a switch to Catalan language and a switch in subject. The protagonist, so far represented as “a Spanish soldier,” becomes an explicit Catalan patriot who is leaving Cuba for good and will not return to “his” mulata, neither will he sing her a habanera. The mention of the habanera as a signifier of a relationship between a white man and a mulatto woman in this song is perhaps the first attempt at a self-reflective discourse concerned with the relevance of the habanera for Catalan identity. The protagonist narrator of the habanera, likewise the protagonist of the film, returns to his native Catalonia to find “his heart” and “love” there: Mulata meva, no tomare a cantar 1 ’havanera dels teus ulls presoner. A Catalunya em quedare: Perque en retomar a aquesta terra oblido la pena, retrobo al meu cor; perque a la bella patria nostrada terra catalana retrobo 1 ’amor. (XXXIII Cantada 8) Thus this creation of the time of the renewed assertion of Catalan identity after the death of Franco becomes a paradigmatic representation of the phenomenon of Catalan habanera with its switch to Catalan and the change of the subject from the traditional nostalgia for the lost tropical paradise to the assertion of Catalan nationalistic spirit. This habanera becomes a leitmotif and an intrinsic part of a film Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 2 3 2 production, which, as Marvin D’Lugo argues, can be viewed as a representation of “Catalan nationalistic spirit and the solidarity of Catalans in freeing themselves from the political and cultural yoke of Castilian hegemony” (“Catalan Cinema” 140). La ciutat cremada may also be viewed as a significant contribution to the project of Catalan national cinema. In the words of Jaume Martf-Olivella, Ribas’s epic “became a clear indication of a possible way for Catalan cinema, that of the filmic reconstructions of specially significant historical moments” (150). In his essay “Catalan Cine-Lit: A Critical Overview” (1992), Martf-Olivella poses a question similar to that asked by D ’Lugo, if Catalan cinema can be perceived as a signifier of a national identity. Drawing on the ideas of Joan M. Minguet i Batllori, Martf-Olivella discusses three relevant components of a national cinema: “specific filmic elements,” which he deciphers as “a combination of style, genre and rhythm;” the use of the national language, which continues to be a debatable question in Catalonia as the two languages, Catalan and Spanish, continue to live side by side in the reality of Catalonia;1 3 6 and perhaps the most relevant factor, a reference to “autochthonous culture” in the words of Minguet (150-151). According to Martf-Olivella, the “allegiance to a cultural paradigm— even from a profound criticism of such paradigm” allows to speak of a film as of a national signifier (151). 1 3 6 Since 1982, the promotion of Catalan film has been one of the clear-cut priorities of the Generalitat de Catalunya, Catalan regional government, which offers substantial financial support to films that are produced in Catalan (Martf-Olivella 147). Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 2 3 3 1 X I Antoni Verdaguer’s Havanera 1820, conceived as a recreation of the habanera, an established paradigm of Catalan autochthonous culture, represents a privileged space for exploration of the role that criticism and subversion of a cultural paradigm may play in the project of a national cinema and in the reinforcement of a national identity. Verdaguer’s ambitious project may be viewed as a contribution to the project of Catalan national cinema and to the assertion of the nationalistic spirit as it recreates “specially significant historical moments,” on the one hand, and as it incorporates the habanera, a cultural signifier charged with “colonial desire” and, as I will argue, “nostalgia-for-empire,” on the other. As I mentioned above, both D’Lugo and Martf-Olivella recognize historical referent as foundational for Catalan national cinema. The historical referent, however, is not the single relevant characteristic that allows one to explore a film in conjunction with its significance for the development of a national cinema. Martf- Olivella, in the already quoted essay, suggests that literary adaptations may become a possible way of development for Catalan national cinema. As an example of it, he discusses Antoni Verdaguer’s La Teranyina (The Cobweb, 1990), a cinematographic adaptation of a highly acclaimed novel by Jaume Cabre. Insisting on the value of literary adaptations for the project of Catalan national cinema, he inscribes La Teranyina, filmed before Havanera 1820, into the context of Catalan national cinema. According to Martf-Olivella, this adaptation of a popular novel may be 1 3 7 In the words of Antoni Verdaguer, the film was conceived as a “pseudo habanera.” (Verdaguer in an interview to the author, July, 1999.) Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 2 3 4 perceived as “an example of cinema of national signifier since it contains the three basic factors described by Joan Minguet: filmic identity, national language and specific cultural referent” (163). For Martf-Olivella, La Teranyina becomes a signifier of “if not of ‘the birth of the nation,’ at least, the birth of a historical fiction: the fiction of/in Catalan cinema” (166). The significance of La Teranyina as an adaptation of fiction for the project of Catalan cinema and Catalan identity is relevant for our discussion of Havanera 1820 for various reasons. La Teranyina is Verdaguer’s second long feature film which he directed after L’Escot. also a literary adaptation of the novel Amorrada al Pilo by Maria Jaen. The highly acclaimed novel by Jaume Cabre was converted into the script, which combines the elements of a meticulous historical recreation of the period with family melodrama and political thriller, by a creative “team” that comprised the author of the novel Jaume Cabre, Verdaguer himself and two other prominent Catalan literary personalities of the same generation, Jaume Fuster and Vicen? Villatoro.1 3 8 The collaboration of these four authors who share literary and aesthetic interests not only brings to the screen a highly ambitious project of La Teranyina. but also generates, among other projects, Havanera 1820. an adventurous melodrama with a clear-cut historical referent. Though Havanera 1820 is not an adaptation of an existing literary work, I argue that it may be explored as a national signifier as it represents a perhaps more complicated enterprise. Drawing on the models of Catalan national cinema proposed by D’Lugo 1 3 8 In 1998 Villatoro becomes the Commissary of the exposition Escolta Espanva: Catalunya i la crisis del 98 organized by Museu d’Historia de Catalunya. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 235 and Martf-Olivella, I argue that Havanera 1820 may be explored as a contribution to the project of Catalan national cinema, and, in a broader context, to the continuous project of assertion of Catalan identity through cinematography, for three reasons: a strong historical referent, a new model of relationship with printed fiction, and an assertion of Catalan nationhood and identity through the representation of Catalan colonial and arguably “imperial” enterprise. The project of the artistic team Cabre-Fuster-Verdaguer-Villatoro consisted in creating a script in the form of an “adventurous melodrama” appealing to a broad range of viewers. At the same time, particular attention, as it becomes the “trademark” of this creative team, is given to the recreation and representation of the historical background or “referent.” Thus this film, likewise La Teranyina some years earlier, represents an attempt at combining popular cinematographic forms with meticulous representation of a historical ambiance. However, unlike La Teranyina based on an already existing novel, Havanera 1820 represents a perhaps unprecedented and rare attempt for Spanish or Catalan cinema at generating printed fiction based on a film production. The post productional publication of the script of the film in a hybrid literary form, an interface of literary and filmic production, subtitled “literary adaptation of the cinematographic script,”1 3 9 allows one to explore this film as an original and evolving form of a national cinematographic practice. Havanera, published for Sant Jordi of 1993, Catalan national holiday associated with 1 3 9 Jaume Cabre, Jaume Fuster, Antoni Verdaguer, i Viceng Villatoro, Havanera: Adaptacio literaria del guio cinematografic a carrec de Jaume Fuster (Barcelona, 1993). Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 2 3 6 book fairs,1 4 0 exists as independent fiction, though perhaps with a strong visual referent as the television miniseries is frequently rerun by Catalan TV. This model of relationship between a cinematographic and a literary narrative is more typical for the Hollywood model with Star Wars as a paradigmatic example. As Marsha Kinder argues referring to an earlier period of development of regional cinematographies (Basque and Catalan) in the context of a bigger Spanish cinema, “Hollywood has played the paradoxical role of an alternative ideological center that both challenged and mirrored the monolithic nature of Francoist domination” (“Micro and Macro Regionalism” 131). Drawing on the “paradoxical role” of Hollywood for Catalan cinema one might explore the publication of Havanera as an adaptation of a Hollywood model that, nevertheless, serves the project of Catalan cinema and identity. My major task, however, consists in exploring the discourse that this film produces while focusing on the “overseas adventure” of Catalonia. I argue that through the emphasis that Havanera 1820 places on the participation of Catalans in the colonial enterprise in Cuba it contributes to the project of the self-fashioning of Catalonia as a European nation. This film may be analyzed in the light of the recent cinematographic tendency of the so-called “nostalgia-for-empire” that embraces A Passage to India (1984) by David Lean, Indochine (1992) by Regis Wargnier and 1 4 0 Since the turn of the twentieth century, April 23, Festa de Sant Jordi (Saint George’s Day), is associated in Catalonia with book sales as it became a tradition to give a rose to a woman and a book to a man on this day. (Now the tradition is mixed). In accordance with demand, book fairs are celebrated all over Catalonia. In 1995, UNESCO proclaimed April 23 World Book and Copyright Day. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 2 3 7 experimental films by Marguerite Duras (1914-1996).1 4 1 As Shohat argues, this kind of cinematic narrative “foregrounds a female protagonist, presumably appealing to feminist codes, while reproducing colonialist narrative and cinematic power arrangements” (64). Seemingly aimed at subverting established power arrangements through its female protagonists, Havanera 1820 for its lavish recreation of colonial life and a traditional approach to gender and race power relationship may be viewed as part of this tendency. Through the representation of the Catalan colonial enterprise in Cuba, Havanera 1820 helps create an “imaginary empire” that Catalonia never possessed and, in this way, contributes to the project of Catalan nationalism. Deprived of power and domination that it exercised in the Mediterranean in the late Middle Ages, Catalonia remains in a subdued position to Spain’s centralized power for centuries. Catalonia’s strive at asserting its identity as a nation equal to other European nations may be explored through the “nostalgia-for-empire” implicit in this film production, the very title of which invokes a colonial space historically viewed by many as “the fifth province of Catalonia.” Since the nineteenth century, Cuba becomes in the cultural imaginary of Catalonia a signifier of an imagined Catalan dominion overseas, a simulacrum of an empire that Catalonia never possessed, but 1 4 1 For an analysis of Marguerite Duras’s filmic narrative see C. A. Holmlund, “Displacing Limits of Difference: Gender, Race and Colonialism in Edward Said and Homi Bhabha’s Theoretical Models and Marguerite Duras’s Experimental Films,” Quarterly Review of Film and Video 13 (1991): 1-22. Holmlund argues that Duras’s narrative, “despite its oblique critiques of British India and despite its reworkings of how otherness and identity are seen and heard,” are permeated by “nostalgia for colonial society” (10-11). Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 2 3 8 which may perhaps be compared to the cherished by Catalans historical power in the Mediterranean in the late thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries. The plot of the film evolves around the subject that has been in the center of attention in Catalan cultural imaginary for the last two centuries, namely the involvement of Catalans in the commerce with Cuba. The film represents a commercial enterprise of the Catalans from Canet de Mar, a port near Barcelona, who in the early nineteenth century actively develop trade with Cuba. The representation of this commercial enterprise seems to be contingent with the historical discourse of the late twentieth century related to the contacts between Catalonia and Spain’s overseas colonies. After the publication of Jordi Maluquer de Motes’s article “La burguesfa catalana i la esclavitud colonial: modes de produccio i practica polftica,”1 4 2 the participation of Catalans in commercial relations with Cuba and Puerto Rico becomes the subject of an active discussion. This article opens the door to investigation and research of the subject at the time of the end of the Franco dictatorship. With the revival of the Generalitat de Catalunya, Catalan regional government, Catalan involvement in Cuba during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries receives particular attention through the Generalitat sponsored conferences and publications, such as Jomades d’Estudis Catalanos-Americans, among others, celebrated regularly from 1985 through 1993. Among the topics of research is the triangular trade practiced by small Catalan shipping companies from the coastal towns that normally exported Catalan products— dry fruit, alcohol, textiles— to Cuba 1 4 2 Recerques 3 (1974): 83-136. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 2 3 9 and imported colonial merchandise such as sugar and tobacco. The astronomical profits from slave trade inseparable from the development of Cuban sugar industry becomes, in the first half of the nineteenth century, a profitable business for many small companies. Not only well known tycoons of colonial trade, Antonio Lopez y Lopez, Francesc Marti, or Jose Xifre i Casas, but also a significant number of relatively modest enterprises profit from slave trade which continues to be regarded as part of everyday business considered legitimate in Spain until the second half of the nineteenth century. The growing indignation of the liberal circles, however, makes Spain in 1817 sign a treaty with Great Britain, according to which the import of slaves from Africa should be stopped in 1820. This historical background serves as a starting point for the cinematographic narrative of Havanera 1820. The action of the film is set precisely, as one can see from its title,1 4 3 in this chronological period. In a cinematographic language of an adventurous melodrama appealing to broad masses of spectators, the film concentrates on the activities of the Catalans involved in the infamous triangular trade between Catalonia, the African coast and Cuba. Thus the film for the first time in Catalan or Spanish cinematography openly discusses and reveals the delicate question of the participation in inhuman but highly profitable slave trade. Positing the subject of Catalan involvement in the center of its 1 4 3 In his interview to the author (July, 1999), Verdaguer mentioned that the initial title was Havanera. The date referent was added to distinguish the film for cataloguing purposes from Habanera by Jose Maria Elorrieta released in 1958 (Spain). International Movie Database (www.us.idmb.com) lists L’Habanera (1900) France, Dir. Alice Guy; La Habanera (1937) Germany, Dir. Douglas Sirk; Habanera (1984) Cuba, Dir. Pastor Vega. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 2 4 0 narrative, the film fulfills a dual subversive function. On the one hand, it questions the myth of americanos or indianos persistent in the cultural imaginary of Catalonia. On the other, it renegotiates the construction of Catalan national identity that for centuries has been based on the opposition to the “Other,” the Castilian, with its “black legend” of extermination of indigenous peoples and slavery. For centuries, Catalonia tried to build its cultural identity on the grounds of self-fashioning as the nation of hard-working, rational and industrious laborers as opposed to the Castilian “Other” who misuses and abuses the colonized world. Havanera 1820. however, shifts the accents of the identity construction and undermines the legend of hard working immigrants showing the protagonists of the film as ruthless and unscrupulous negreros, slave trafickers. The “mythology” related to immigration to Cuba and the successful immigrants, denominated americanos or indianos, originates as early as the massive immigration and return of those who decide to seek fortune overseas, “fer les Ameriques.” It is reinforced through various cultural means. Among these means are such artifacts of material culture, as museums, villas, and monuments in Catalan cities and towns. The notorious “Column,” a monument to Columbus on the maritime promenade of Barcelona with the figure of Columbus on top of it pointing his finger towards “the Americas” is located only a couple of blocks away from the monument to Antonio Lopez y Lopez, an “exemplary” americano whose initial Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 2 4 1 capital was accumulated in Cuba through commerce that involved slave traffic.1 4 4 The americanos are in the center of attention of Catalan historical and sociological discourse of the post-Franco decades. Havanera 1820 is perhaps the most significant attempt at reshaping this discourse through cinematographic means of the late twentieth century. The brief summary of the plot of the miniseries, with which I started this chapter, does not cover all the lines of this “adventurous melodrama.” I tried to delineate major discursive traits of this work to show how Havanera 1820 reshapes the established “legend” of Catalan involvement in colonial enterprise. This legend is undermined in Havanera 1820 through various discursive means. Among these relevant means one may mention the employment of the ship with the emblematic name El Catalan as a place of action and as an instrument of violence and oppression at the same time. The name of the ship, El Catalan, may be perceived as an emblematic cultural signifier of a nation that is continuously self-fashioning itself as 1 4 4 The story of this monument is as controversial as the story of Lopez y Lopez himself. By the end of his life, Lopez y Lopez, who received the title of Marques de Comillas for his financial and economic activities, is the owner of one of the most prominent fortunes in Spain, which among other properties includes the Transatlantic Company that transported Spanish troops to the Caribbean during the years of colonial war. Acknowledged and praised as one of the financial geniuses of his time, Lopez y Lopez is the addressee of Jacint Verdaguer’s L’Atlantida (1876). The monument that was erected after a fundraising campaign initiated by Lopez’s family provokes wreath and indignation in the liberal circles. It is removed during the years of the Republic, however, the Franco regime returns it to its position at one of Barcelona squares not far from the “Porticos de Xifre,” a majestic building financed by another notorious negrero Jose Xifre i Casas, where it remains at present as a monument to Spain’s colonial enterprise and to the prosperity of Catalonia based on the profits from this enterprise. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 2 4 2 a maritime community. Long shots of the exterior of El Catalan and crucial scenes that take place in its interior emphasize its role as a vehicle that brings suffering to the female protagonist Amelia Roig, as well as a to broader protagonist delineated in the narrative, all victims of slavery. The burning and therefore the destruction of an “established” emblem of Catalan identity can be read as a challenge to Catalan mythology associated with colonial and imperial expansion. One may recall that the protagonists of the emblematic for Catalonia habanera “El meu avi” perish on board of the ship that bears the name El Catalan.1 4 5 Not only the fate of El Catalan challenges established stereotypes and the mythology of americanos or indianos deeply uprooted in the cultural imaginary of Catalonia. The stories of two main male characters, Ton Massana and Francesc Valeri, undermine the romantic flair that surrounds in Catalonia the figures of those who gained prosperity overseas. The story of Francesc Valeri invokes a reflection on the place that Catalonia occupies among the colonial empires of the nineteenth century. The mastermind of the slave operations, Valeri may be perceived as a figure that represents Catalonia’s strive to become an equal to major imperialist powers. A member of a Masonic lodge and a liberal who speaks of the ideals of the French Revolution, Valeri at the same time unscrupulously entices his companions into the dirty business of negreros. Financial prosperity and economic and technical 1 4 5 In Chapter Three we explored the emblematic significance of this name for a ship in the notorious “El meu avi.” The origin of this signifier of cultural identity may be traced back to a traditional habanera in Spanish entitled in Montsalvatge’s Album “El Catalan.” Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 2 4 3 progress become a fetish desired at any cost. Slave trafficking will allow him to fulfill his dream— through acquiring steam ships, a signifier of progress,— convert Catalonia into a prominent maritime power, an invocation of the historically lost domination in the Mediterranean. Challenging the foundations of the traditional paternalist society— he lives in a free union with a French woman Ivonne Duchamp, a courtesan-like character,— Valeri’s figure may be read as Catalonia’s desire to belong to Europe, on the one hand, and a homage to a continuous rivalry between France and Spain for the dominion over Catalonia, on the other. Valeri’s enterprise, however, is ruined, he is broke and his desires unfulfilled. Thus the financial, moral and social failure of one of the organizers of a Catalan colonial enterprise undermines the myth of the prosperity associated with commercial relationship with Cuba. The fate and the figure of his commercial partner, Ton Massana, seemingly an exemplary and prosperous americano. may also be explored as the subversion of the americano legend though in a more complex way. At first glance, Massana’s direct involvement in colonizing actions both through bringing slaves to Cuba and through pursuing a slave uprising are aimed at undermining the romantic flair of the legend of americanos. Massana, a successful Catalan immigrant, is an avid owner of slaves, colonized land, women. This aggressive colonizing figure, which is in the center of the cinematographic narrative, might be read as a direct subversion of the established mythology of Catalan immigration. However, though the theme of the film is explicitly anti-slavery and its discourse seemingly directed at subverting the Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. established americano legend, its lavish cinematography and certain romantization of the figure of Massana suggests a reflection about a more traditional discourse. Charismatically attractive Massana (Abel Folk) lives in a luxurious mansion furnished with precious caoba furniture and works of art. The camera indulges in recreating paradisiacal Cuban landscapes and lavish colonial interiors. The voluptuous recreation of the historical ambiance is achieved through filming on site in the historical buildings in Catalonia, among which are museums of Romantic Period of Sitges and Vilanova associated with the prosperity of returning immigrants, and in the Cuban province of Las Villas, an area denominated “Valle de los Ingenios” (Valley of Sugar Mills), historically associated with the boom of Cuban sugar industry. The picturesque landscapes of Cuba and elegant interiors furnished with established signifiers of colonial luxury invoke Baudelaire’s perception of overseas exotism: “La, tout n’est qu’ordre et beaute, luxe, calme et volupte” (72). Colonial gaze is enhanced through framing crucial scenes, such as highly erotic scenes between Massana and his mulatto slave/mistress Consuelo, into spaces limited either by window or door frames, or— as in the scene of dramatically charged confrontation between Amelia and Massana— the setting invokes nineteenth century lithographs of colonial life, with two little mulatto children playing on the floor as an explicit signifier of colonial authority of the white man. The visual pleasure of luxurious colonial life is enhanced by an outstanding original musical score, in which the composer Carles Cases masterfully recreates the quintessence of the habanera giving a new life to the traditional genre. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 2 4 5 The figure of Ton Massana explicitly represents the relationship of power and authority towards two major female figures, his young mulatto mistress Consuelo and his wife by paternalistic arrangement, Amelia Roig. A highly eroticized relationship with Consuelo and the attitude of possessiveness towards Amelia reiterate common stereotypes persistent in the collective imaginary. However, in this postmodernist habanera of the late twentieth century, the balance of power is shifted and the argument evolves around the revolt of the two traditionally marginalized figures against a traditional representation of masculine power. In the finale, the americano myth of wealth and prosperity is subverted as Massana is avenged by the union of two women, who, in spite of their racial and social difference, unite to fight a common male enemy. Thus at first glance, the narrative of Havanera 1820 may be read as a progressive feminist subversion of the paternalist mythology of americanos reinforced through the masculinist discourse of the habanera uprooted in the national cultural imaginary. Nevertheless, the distribution of race and gender roles in this habanera of the late twentieth century points to its kinship with a more traditional discourse. Though the film apparently foregrounds the union of two traditionally marginalized figures, the representation of the relationship between a white male and a mulatto female, traditionally fetishised as an object of lust and desire, suggests a comparison with a more traditional discourse of “colonial desire” echoed in the musical genre of the habanera. Through a highly erotically charged relationship between Massana and Consuelo, Havanera 1820 seems to recreate the paradigmatic relationship between Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 2 4 6 the white man and a mulatto woman, which invokes “colonial desire.” Intrinsic to the traditional habanera, “colonial desire” is inseparable from the americano legend. In the traditional habanera, the mulatto woman is the desired and alienated “Other,” an object of passion, lust, desire and contempt at the same time. The idealization of the sexual qualities of the mulatto woman emerges and grows in the process of conquest and colonization. The ambivalence of desire and simultaneous rejection of a female of other race and land is a dominant motif in the discourse related to the relationship between the white male, the protagonist of colonial and postcolonial fiction, and a native female, an object of desire and lust. The mythology of the mulatto woman as an object of sexual desire continues its journey into the cultural imaginary of the late twentieth century through the representation in nostalgic songs evoking the lost tropical paradise; the zarzuela, Spanish autochthonous musical theater; film; fiction and non-fiction on both sides of the Atlantic. Recent publications that try to represent Catalans as the protagonists of Spanish colonial expansion do not miss an opportunity to reinforce the discourse related to the inseparable relationships of gender and race in the colonies. Thus a collection of articles characteristically entitled El besavi va anar a Cuba — an allusion to the habanera “El meu avi”— and dedicated to the activities of Catalans in Cuba, repeatedly and indulgently quotes a popular saying allegedly bom in the Cuban popular theater in the nineteenth century, “el millor invent dels Catalans a Cuba va ser la mulata” (46) thus making homage to the masculinist discourse of the past. Seemingly critical, however implicitly aimed at marginalizing the female figure, Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 2 4 7 discourse related to the relationship between Catalans and mulatto women is continuously reinforced through fiction and non-fiction. Various publications starting with the notorious work by Carlos Marti Los catalanes en America: (Cuba) (1920), relate anecdotes about distinguished Catalans who prospered in Cuba and, among other subjects, discuss their relationship with mulatto women. Among these stories, one usually finds the anecdote about Francesc “Panxo” Marti, a Catalan bom in Barcelona in 1786, who, by the 1850s, creates one of the most prominent fortunes in Cuba through contraband and slave trade. Marti remains in Cuba until the end of his days in 1866 and, among other enterprises, sponsors the construction of the most prominent theater of Havana, Gran Teatro Tacon, named after the Captain General Tacon, known now as Teatro Garcia Lorca. A legendary figure and one of the characters described by Alvaro de la Iglesia in Tradiciones cubanas, Francesc Marti, according to Carlos Marti’s account, lived for many years with a mulatto woman of legendary beauty, Tomasa, who gave birth to their children whom he recognized as legitimate inheritors of his immense fortune. With an air of admiration at the wittiness of Pancho Marti, Carlos Marti describes him as a personality who continues to be notorious in Cuba long after his death: De el se citan dichos, modismos, cualidades, rasgos, frases, y en Cuba aun actualmente se le cita gran numero de veces al dfa, y los modismos siempre van anticipados de “Como decfa Pancho Marti.” Suya es la frase de “Si te portas bien, te casaras con la hija de Pancho Marti, pero si te portas mal, sera con la negra Tomasa.” (179) Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 2 4 8 This anecdote that explicitly combines both racial and masculinist prejudice is reiterated in recent publications (El besavi va anar a Cuba 47). Another repeated story is the story of activities of the archbishop of Santiago de Cuba, the Catalan Antoni Maria Claret, who arrives in Cuba in 1852. He is disgusted with the questionable morals of the immigrants who openly live with mulatto women without church sanctioned union and tries to impose strict moral boundaries on the frivolous lifestyle in the colony. In the already quoted collection El besavi va anar a Cuba, one finds a curious document illustrating the lack of morals in the colonies. In a letter to the Captain General of the island, Claret describes the morally questionable lifestyle of the colony as he finds it: Els propietaris de negres viuen com besties, ells mateixos assenyalen l’esclau a l’esclava, aixi com el cavall a l’euga, i de vegades, ells mateixos i els seus germans i fills copulen amb las seves esclaves negres i aquests, per descomptat, son enemies de missions, religio i moralitat. De tots ells els mes dolents son els que han vungut d’Espanya i singularment els Catalans son dolentfssims, son pessims, mai no confessen ni combreguen ni escolten rnissa, tots o viuen en concubinat o tenen relacions il-lfcites amb mulates i negres i no aprecien cap altre Deu que no sigui l’interes. (qtd. in El besavi va anar a Cuba 30) Claret’s activities aimed at establishing legal unions between the men from Spain and Cuban women, provoke his adversaries at an attempt at his life which leaves him with a scar on his face for the rest of his life. In the same book, Cesar Yanez quotes another curious story about Claret that gives light on the state of the moral in the colony: “L’arquebispe es presenta a una casa i commina el propietari a Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 2 4 9 passar pel sacrament la relacio que mante amb una mulata, i aquest apareix amb tres noies i li pregunta: ‘Exactament amb quina prefereix que em casi?’” (31). Havanera 1820 with a mulatto protagonist who finds her voice and identity and destroys the dominant male figure seemingly undermines the traditional gender and race discourse related to Catalan activities in the desired and “beloved” colony. However, a highly erotisized and somewhat voyeuristic gaze, frequently through window and door frames or behind transparent curtains, at the relationship between Consuelo and Massana, enhanced by a voluptuous musical score that evokes the music of the traditional habanera,1 4 6 converts the representation of this relationship into a sublimation of “colonial desire,” defined by Robert J. Young as “a covert, but insistent obsession with inter-racial sex, hybridity and miscegenation” (xii) a trait that is intrinsic to the traditional habanera. The sublimation of “colonial desire” through a rather traditional representation of the relationship between the white man and a mulatto woman is combined in Havanera 1820 with the complex relationship of desire and disdain that characterize the confrontation between Massana and Amelia. Amelia revolts against the collective complicity of the masculine power imposed on her by the agreement between her uncle Francesc Valeri and Ton Massana, and the participation of her friend Alfons Rovira. The latter, being in love with Amelia, obediently fulfills the function of a “chaperone” accompanying Amelia on her trip to join her arranged 1 4 6 The original musical score by composer Carles Cases won the 1993 Award of the Circulo de Escritores Cinematograficos de Espana (C.E.C.) Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. husband and finally betrays her. For Alfons, male solidarity prevails over his feelings. Amelia’s revolt against male possessiveness is seemingly appealing to feminist cinematographic codes. However, the discourse of Havanera 1820 remains traditional and paternalistic in as much as the white female protagonist Amelia Roig assumes the “white woman’s burden,” (Ella Shohat), in freeing the slaves and in patronizing and giving orders to the mulatto woman whose position remains traditionally marginalized. Amelia, whose figure in the terms of a national allegory may be read as the representation of the ‘‘mother-country,” Catalonia, remains in the position of power and authority towards the figure of Consuelo who represents the colonized land. A female slave abused by her owner/lover and ostracized by her fellow slaves, Consuelo, who does not understand her white mistress’s motives, becomes an instrument in Amelia’s personal struggle for her liberation from the marriage imposed on her by the paternalistic society. The mulatto woman remains in a subdued position following the lead of the “liberal” white woman. Thus Havanera 1820, with its nostalgic gaze at the lavishness of colonial life and its female protagonists presumably appealing to feminist codes, reinvents traditional power arrangements. The focus on the colonial enterprise, with the foregrounding of the “liberal” white female figure and the subdued position of the mulatto woman who represents the colonized land, inscribes this cinematographic narrative with a precise historical referent into a recent tendency of “nostalgia-for-empire” characteristic of the Western cinema of the late twentieth century. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 2 5 1 The nostalgic focus on Catalan colonial activities in Cuba perceived through the beauty and lavishness of carefully recreated colonial “reality” may be explored as a Catalan claim at its inscription into a European model of a relationship with the colonial world. As a small nation with a strong feeling of national identity, Catalonia for centuries is confined to a marginalized position within the Spanish state. At the end of the twentieth century, with the post-Franco acceptance of the signifiers of its national and cultural identity within the heterogeneous Spain, nostalgia-for-empire becomes a part of Catalonia’s self-fashioning as a community, which, though it officially did not have colonies, participated in the Western-world colonial enterprise. Through a nostalgia for an empire that Catalonia never possessed, Havanera 1820 asserts the identity of Catalonia as a European nation that has its own colonial and imperial enterprise in the nineteenth century not overshadowed by the Castilianized center. The habanera, a multifaceted cultural sign, is adopted by Catalan cinema as a leitmotif and an underlying grid for cinematographic projects— Antoni Ribas’s La ciutat cremada (1976) and Antoni Verdaguer’s Havanera 1820 (1993)— concerned with the issues crucial for the construction of Catalan nation and identity. Through a specific historical referent, an unusual model of relationship with printed fiction (Havanera 1820), a cinematographic language that combines elements of adventurous melodrama with historical narrative, and most importantly through the discourse that reinvents Catalonia as a nation directly involved in colonial enterprise, the cinematographic habanera of the last decade of the twentieth century contributes Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 252 to the project of Catalan national cinema and to the postmodernist construction of the Catalan nation. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 2 5 3 Chapter Five The Habanera in Catalan Fiction: An Empire’s Residues ^Sabes una cosa? Tanto escuchar habaneras en la playa todos los veranos y ahora estoy viendo lo que hay detras, lo que callan esas canciones, las historias que olvidan.... (Dalmau 131) The epigraph to this chapter is taken from the novel Habanera by Angeles Dalmau published in 1999. It seems appropriate to start this chapter with reflections about the habanera in a contemporary novel, as I intend now to explore how the narrative elements of the habanera become a grid underlying fiction of the late twentieth century. In this chapter, I will focus on two novels, En el mar de les Antilles (1998) by Manel Alonso i Catala, and Habanera: El reencuentro con un oculto pasado antillano (1999) by Angeles Dalmau, which, in my opinion, may be perceived as the reinvention of discourse articulated by the habanera in its traditional and new forms. The employment of the habanera as an underlying grid for the narrative concerned with recent Catalan history is not confined to these two novels. Julio Ortega’s novel Habanera (Bitzoc, 1999) wins VII Premio de Novela Breve Juan March Cencillo in the year when it is published. The novel by a renowned literary critic and essayist, bom in Peru and currently working in the United States, however, may be perceived as an outsider’s perspective of Catalonia. In fact, the narrator of Ortega’s novel is a Mexican through whose eyes the reader perceives the story of a Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 2 5 4 Catalan family during the seventies, the time of the transition after the death of Franco. Therefore, I will concentrate on two novels by Catalan bom authors, who as teenagers upon Franco’s death, are raised during the decades when the habanera assumes the significance of a cultural emblem in Catalonia. Angeles Dalmau was bom in Barcelona in 1960 in a family of Catalan immigrants who returned from Cuba after the Civil War in Spain. Habanera is her first novel. Manel Alonso i Catala was bom in Pugol in 1962. He has published poetry, essays, short stories and literary criticism. En el mar de les Antilles is his first novel also. Throughout this dissertation, I explore how the habanera functions as a multifaceted and ambivalent cultural sign, which in different historical circumstances may be perceived as a representation of cultural identities of nations involved in transatlantic dialogue. Thus, the habanera “Tu,” created during the turbulent years of Cuban fight for its independence from Spain, may be viewed as a foundational text in miniature for the Cuban national identity. While during almost the same historical period in the late nineteenth century the habanera was broadly perceived as a sign of “Spanishness” throughout the world and was exploited so by European composers starting with Georges Bizet. At the time of the transition to democracy in Spain after the end of the Franco dictatorship, the habanera, with its discourse related to overseas expansion, becomes a significant emblem for Catalan cultural identity and a vehicle of recuperation of Catalan nationalism. This discourse is concerned with the participation of Catalans in overseas travel in search of fortune and subsequent social promotion, on the one hand, and the victimization incurred by involuntary Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 2 5 5 participation in Spain’s colonial wars, on the other. In the collective imagination of the nineteenth century, “fer les Ameriques” is an equivalent of becoming wealthy. Those who return home with fortunes are, therefore, called “americanos” or “indianos.” The aura of legend that surrounds their wealth related to Cuba, and their charitable work upon their return to their homeland, is enhanced until today through abundant examples of material culture, such as private and public buildings, urban projects, monuments, and mausoleums. In communities with historically strong maritime and currently tourist orientation, one can visit museums that recreate the life of wealthy immigrants who return to their native land after years spent in Cuba or Puerto Rico— as the Museo del mundo indiano in Lloret de Mar— or, in Sitges, follow a guided tourist route to see the mansions that belonged to the “americanos.” Another aspect of overseas connection is the destiny and the sacrifice of soldiers that participate in the war led by Spain in Cuba in order to preserve the remnants of an empire where once “the sun never set.” In this context, habaneras with a soldier or sailor as the protagonist, are perceived in the collective imaginary as a sign of the time of colonial wars. One may recall here that the cover design of the notorious collection of habaneras, Calella de Palafrugell i les havaneres, evokes the fabric used for soldiers’ uniforms at the end of the century. Both aspects of the fantasies about overseas connection, represented through various cultural vehicles, have a male figure as the protagonist ann are virtually always concerned with the figure of the female “Other.” The female figure that represents the land of Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 2 5 6 opportunities and hopes is frequently mulata, a woman of another race and from another land. One may ask what connection is there between popular songs and novels that evoke them in their titles. In this chapter, I will explore how the habanera is reinvented and, in its turn, reinvents Catalan identity through contemporary popular novels, published at the time when Spain and Catalonia are rethinking the impact of the disaster associated with the end of Spanish colonial empire in 1898. As I already mentioned, Catalonia consistently represents itself as a maritime community deeply connected to Spain’s colonial enterprise in its own right. “Cuba is Catalonia’s fifth province” was once a common saying among Catalans. Therefore, two recent novels concerned with the participation of Catalans in Spain’s overseas enterprise may be explored as a space where one can view a reinvention of popular discourse from the perspective of the late twentieth century. One can argue that the novels explored in this chapter are responsive to the discourse created through the habanera and continue to assert Catalan identity through employing the traits of the song genre in the narrative. By entering into an intertextual dialogue with the subjects and themes of the traditional and new Catalan habanera, these two novels flesh out the schematic representations of the lost tropical paradise intrinsic to the habanera and reveal in the language of the late twentieth century the meanings hidden behind familiar signs reiterated in popular songs. As one can see, the title of Dalmau’s novel is a direct invocation of the song genre, while anybody familiar with Catalan popular culture will easily recognize a Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 2 5 7 verse from the emblematic habanera “El meu avi” in the title of the novel by Manel Alonso. Both authors dedicate their novels to the memory of their fathers. As I mentioned, Angeles Dalmau is introduced on the back cover of her novel as a descendant of a family of Catalan immigrants who returned from Cuba after the Civil War, while the protagonist of the novel En el mar de les Antilles shares his last name with the author’s father (Amigo). These details suggest if not an autobiographic, at least a very intimate relationship between the authors and the protagonists of their narrative. Though seemingly different in their subject, time setting and perspective, even written in different languages, these two novels, each in its own way, may be viewed as an attempt at challenging traditional discourse related to Catalan overseas connection. The novel En el mar de les Antilles is published in Catalan by an author whose last name contains an emblematic reference to his nation, Catala. Focused on one of the most controversial periods of Spain’s history, the years of the last colonial war lost by the Spanish empire, En el mar de les Antilles foregrounds the participation of Catalans in the conflict, yet as we will see later, it offers a new perspective of the familiar discourse about the sacrifice of the war. Collective memory and nostalgia for the tropical paradise explicit in the habanera are focused on two perhaps most alluring subjects, that of the sexual pleasure associated with the Cuban native mulatto woman and that of the victimization of soldiers and sailors who participate in the war against their will, and thus are opposed to the decisions of the central government. In previous chapters, I explored how the invocation of the Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 2 5 8 voluptuousness of a mulatto woman, an emblem of the lost tropical paradise, points to what may be called “nostalgia for an imaginary empire,” which Catalonia never possessed, but, which, however, makes its contribution to the assertion of Catalan identity. The novel En el mar de les Antilles gives a new twist to this nostalgia from the perspective of the late twentieth century. One may argue that it challenges both subjects, those of the mulata legend and of the heroic sacrifice of the Catalans. On the one hand, it reiterates the discourse of the traditional habanera focusing on a love affair between the protagonist, a soldier from Valencia, and a mulatto woman from Havana. On the other, by placing the protagonist at the center of a military crime, which culminates in the explosion of the battleship Maine, it subverts the popular discourse of heroic sacrifice of Spanish and Catalan soldiers and sailors during the meaningless war. The action of the novel takes place in Cuba, a space once again as beloved here as in the traditional habanera. The time of action are the years of the last colonial war led in Cuba by the Spanish empire, which is desperately trying to preserve its last colonies “hasta el ultimo hombre y la ultima peseta.” Similar to many traditional habaneras of the time of Cuban wars, where a soldier or a sailor is the central figure, the central figure of En el mar de les Antilles is also a soldier drafted from his native Valencia region, one of the Pai'sos Catalans, historically claimed as Catalan-speaking areas. Drafted into the army, Josep Amigo, an illiterate day laborer, is separated from his wife and two children, a scenario familiar to thousands of families all over Spain and many times reiterated in the habanera. It Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 2 5 9 will be appropriate here to recall some of the habaneras that speak of the involuntary soldiers of the empire: A servir a la Patria, mamita mfa, pronto me llamaran. Soy marino del buque, del buque “El Catalan.” (Album 53) Even more explicitly the fate of soldiers is described in a famous habanera “Adios mi peninsula hermosa:” i Adios mi peninsula hermosa! Adios que el deber me llama, Adios que me voy a la Habana, a luchar, a luchar por la nation. Y desde alii, jamas olvidare a la prenda querida que en Espana deje, si acaso vuelvo, Dios sera testigo, que tu marido, juro, yo he de ser. Si muero alii, madre consuelate, que si un dia he luchado fue por obligation. Y ante el sepulcro, arrodillada, madre adorada, rezame una oration. (Havaneres per Cuba n.p.) In agreement with the narrative voice of these habaneras, the soldier Amigo comes to Cuba “por obligation” with the troops lead by the General Yaleriano Weyler in February of 1896 to fight for retaining Cuba within the empire, a cause considered to be the common struggle for the whole nation, which at the time includes Cubans as well as Catalans: Amigo, el llaurador Pep el de Tos, no volia ser soldat i, si no hi haguera hagut un ocea tan ample pel mig en aquell moment, s’haguera algat i se n’haguera tomat a casa caminant amb les mans buides i amb el cor pie Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 2 6 0 d’alegria pel reencontre amb la seua terra, amb la seua gent i amb la seua vida. (53) We first meet the protagonist two years after he starts his military service in Cuba. The events of these two years in Cuba, crucial for the formation of the identity of Amigo, are revealed in a series of flashbacks of his memory. During the military service in Cuba, the illiterate laborer from Valencia region, nicknamed Pep el de Tos, is transformed into Josep Amigo, a ruthless soldier of the empire, who will, for the sake of money, commit a military crime, namely will directly participate in the explosion of the battleship Maine. The novel seems to be conceived as a story of the protagonist’s coming of age, which takes place during his military service in Cuba. The transformation of identity of the protagonist is impacted by his encounter with three personalities that play a crucial part in the plot of the novel and in Amigo’s transformation. These are the corporal Ramon Calls, an ex-student from Barcelona drafted after having spent some time in prison for revolutionary activities; a mulatto prostitute from Havana, known as La Negra Lola; and his fellow soldier, Bemat Escriva, seemingly an antipode of Amigo: “Bemat era un individu que havia nascut per a ser soldat de fortuna, aventurer, llibertf, macarro, borratxo o tot plegat” (53). All three contribute to the transformation and “awakening” of the protagonist. Ramon Calls opens the world of letters to the illiterate Amigo, La Negra Lola opens to him the world of sensuality, while Escriva involves him into what will end up as the explosion on board the battleship Maine. As I mentioned, the novel may be explored as a story of coming of age. However, as this dissertation is concerned with Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 2 6 1 the permutations of the habanera, I will concentrate on the employment of the narrative elements related to the habanera in this novel. Multiple references to the habanera and the interplay of characters and motifs evoking those recurrent in the traditional and new habaneras allow one to explore this novel as a counterpoint dialogue with the song genre. An invocation of the song genre opens the novel thus creating a connection with the discourse of the habanera: “El soldat, al qual tothom anomenava Amigo, sabia que la nit no era fosca i que la distancia no era sinonim d’oblit, encara que sovint les cangons que es cantaven a l’illa lligaren els seus significats” (15). One might argue that this passage invokes the verse “Dicen que la distancia es el olvido,” from the ranchera “La barca” by Mexican composer Roberto Cantoral (1935), created decades later than the action of the novel takes place. Yet the invocation of songs allegedly performed during the war, which represent nostalgia and, therefore, memory more frequently than oblivion, makes one think of the intentional counterpoint dialogue with the popular genre implicit in the novel. The finale of the novel will again invoke the habanera: the protagonist leaves behind the turbulent three years of his life in Cuba and will always remember them as “la melodia del seu goig,” the melody that will bring him nostalgic pleasure. Thus the invocation of the habanera encircles this narrative. The habaneras resound in the taverns and streets of Havana and are an intrinsic part of the protagonist’s existence. Some of the direct quotations from habaneras in the novel may be seen as polemics with the long-standing debate about the origin of the habanera and their co-existence in Catalan and Spanish in Catalonia. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 2 6 2 In Alonso’s novel, a Catalan soldier who remains in Cuba after his participation in Catalan Voluntary Troops during the Ten Year War sings in Catalan Iradier’s “La paloma:” “Quan de l’enyorada terra jo vaig sortir, 1 ’amor mes dol? de ma vida vaig deixar allf. I una blanca colometa m’acompanya” (57). As I mentioned earlier, the translation of popular traditional habaneras into Catalan has been in the center of debate since the boom of the habanera in Catalonia. According to Joan Pericot, “La coloma” in Catalan started to be sung in the 1970s with the boom of the habanera in Catalan. Pericot, an adept of the traditional style of the Spanish habanera, ridicules the translation of the famous Iradier’s habanera into Catalan (Bassa Camp 63). Through the representation of a famous song in Catalan the author of the novel asserts one of the most sensitive issues for Catalan cultural identity, that of the presence and functioning of its native language. The reference to the habanera “La ciutat cremada” in the text of the novel is exceptionally relevant for my argument about intertextuality and permutations of the habanera. This habanera, as I explored in Chapters Three and Four, was created as the main theme of the musical score for Antoni Ribas’s cinematographic epic La ciutat cremada (1976) perceived by many as a renewed assertion of Catalan identity through cinematography. The habanera “La ciutat cremada” may be explored as a paradigmatic example of the dynamics of the new habanera in Catalan, as in the film it switches from Spanish into Catalan while becoming the main theme of the musical score of the film. One may argue that “La ciutat cremada” is employed by Alonso as the leitmotiv of his novel. The protagonist of the novel En el mar de les Antilles Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 2 6 3 listens to a habanera that quotes directly “La ciutat cremada:” “Amb veu vellutada la bagassa enceta les primers estrofes d’una havanera: ‘En mi Cuba me espera una mulata [...] Ay mulatita querida, escucha el triste son, que te canta, mi vida, un soldado espanol’” (51-52). In the novel, this habanera is sung by a Cuban prostitute accompanied by a Catalan veteran from the voluntary troops. This setting makes one recall the performance of the habanera “Yo te dire” in Antonio Roman’s Los ultimos de Pilipinas.1 4 7 The only female character of this film, a Filipino woman who is in love with a Spanish officer, sings it to Spanish soldiers who desperately continue to hold the last remnant of the Spanish empire on Filipino soil. The reiteration in the text of the novel of “La ciutat cremada,” a habanera that may be viewed as a postmodern imitation of folklore, allows one to reflect on a certain hierarchy of intertextuality and the persistence of discourse of Catalan involvement in Cuba in the cultural imaginary of the nation. Alonso’s novel not only invokes the habanera through a direct quotation, but also seems to reinvent the theme of this habanera in the plot of the novel. The love relationship, which is in the center of the narrative, arguably is a recreation of stereotypical images and figures represented in traditional and new habaneras. Throughout this dissertation, I explore how the traditional habanera articulates the discourse related to the figure of the mulatto woman and may be perceived as a representation of what is defined by Robert J. Young as “colonial desire.” The repeated invocation of the sexual qualities of a mulatto woman 1 4 7 Currently, “Yo te dire” is one of the most popular habaneras in Spain. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 2 6 4 reinforce the desire for possessing her, while at the same time, as we explored earlier, it excludes the possibility of a legal union or a socially accepted relationship with her. The ambivalence of desire and rejection of a female of other race and land is a dominant motif in the discourse related to the relationship between the white male, a protagonist of colonial and postcolonial fiction, and a native woman, an object of desire and lust. The fascination with the mulata, of course, is not limited to the literature of the nineteenth century. Represented in the songs, in the theater, in fiction and non-fiction on both sides of the Atlantic, the mythology of the sexual qualities of the mulatto woman continues its journey into film and narrative of the late twentieth century. En el mar de les Antilles reinvents this discourse and articulates it in the language of a popular novel of the late twentieth century. The relationship between Amigo and his Cuban lover La Negra Lola may be viewed as a transparent allusion to “La bella Lola,” emblematic now for Catalonia and perhaps the most popular of all traditional habaneras. The figure of the mulatto prostitute and her relationship with the protagonist reinterpret the myth of the mulatto woman persistent in the Western cultural imaginary. However, En el mar de les Antilles, aimed at attracting the attention of modem readers, explicitly articulates meanings, which were hidden behind the euphemisms of the traditional habanera. It was traditionally up to the listeners of the songs to decide if the mulatto woman showed to the sailor her “delantal,” an apron, or something else that this word stood for. In Alonso’s novel, with explicit erotic twist, the relationship between the protagonist Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 2 6 5 and his mulata are articulated in a language aimed at attracting the attention of modem readers. La Negra Lola, bom as a slave on a plantation, becomes a lover of her owner at a very young age, practically as a child. She learns the “secrets of the profession” from another female mulatto slave, who, in her turn, in her younger years was also the lover of the same owner. Lola becomes a highly coveted object of sexual pleasure capable of driving “mad” any man: “La vella li va ensenyar a Lola gairebe tot sobre Tart de la complaen^a sexual, i la resta la va anar aprenent en el seu tortuos camf de mans en mans, fins a esdevenir una experta Afrodita capag de fer tomar boig qualsevol home” (37). The encounter between Amigo and Lola reinvents the myth of the irresistible sexual attractiveness of a mulatto woman. Lola’s “professional” magnetism— “el seu veil ofici li havia ensenyat, per una banda, a despertar l’interes entre els homes, i, per una altra, a distinguir-ne amb un colp d’ull els mes avids” (24)— makes the protagonist forget not only his previous unfortunate experience with a prostitute but also his beloved wife and follow the prostitute: “Encisat per voluptuos magnetisme de la mulata, Amigo la va seguir sense pensar en res, ni en la vella meuca de la seua adolescencia ni en la veu espectral de son pare, ni tan sols en la silenciosa i estimada tendresa de Maria” (24). The echoed legend of the voluptuousness and of the sexual mastery of mulatto women is explicit in the text. Lola awakens Amigo’s passion and becomes an object of constant desire on his part: Dalt al soldat va quedar atrapat en la teranyina del cos de la Negra Lola. Mai no haguera pogut pensar en viure el desig amb una intensitat tan gran. La jove Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 2 6 6 prostituta de color li va oferir, a mes del seu cos, la llibertat de no tropetar amb cap frontera en el llit. (24) From the time he meets Lola, Amigo lives in a new world of awakened sensuality that he had not known in his marriage with Maria, his wife left behind in Valencia. As revealed through flashbacks, Pep meets his future wife Maria while working at a winery outside of his native town. Their short romance turns into a marriage that is a happy one, though their physical love is love “entre penombres” (23). Deeply religious, Maria does not feel comfortable with Pep seeing her naked body, therefore she does not allow him to turn on the light while making love. Pep’s desire to see the naked body of his beloved woman makes him try to widen the pupils of his eyes in the dark like a cat in order to “see and savor it.” However, he is confined to feel satisfied “quan es reflectia l’ombra de les seues siluetes en la paret de l’estanga” (23). As a taboo of any sort enhances the desire, Pep becomes almost obsessed with the desire to watch the nudity of a woman, a desire that will be fulfilled in Cuba with La Negra Lola. Amigo’s sensual awakening is part of the transformation that the protagonist undergoes during his service in Cuba. The impact of literacy that he acquires in Cuba due to his friendship with Ramon Calls and of the sensual awakening are intertwined, and they are factors that make him try to understand the nature of existential questions. However, he does not find answers to the questions that suddenly start to interest him: Despres de 1’orgasme es va adormir abragada al cos del soldat Valencia, que, en silenci, reflexionava sobre els Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 267 vaivens de la seua vida, tot injectant al seu pensament unes gotes de poesia, genere literari pel qual anava sentint una gran afeccio a mesura que coneixia Fobra d’alguns autors: “Per que les ones tomen una vegada i una altra a la mateixa platja? Per que si el seu desig seria rompre en altres litorals? Per que retome una vegada i una altra a la mateixa cambra per a rompre la meua passio sobre el cos de la Negra Lola i no sobre el d’una altra dona? Per que si la meua pasio esta mars enlla?” (40) Despite his passion for the young and sexually sophisticated Lola, Amigo cannot help thinking about his wife, Maria, whose figure remains present in his life not only through the letters that she sends to him, but also through his memory and nostalgia for her tender and complacent love. Thus the novel revives the commonly accepted dichotomy of the legitimate spouse and mother of one’s children who remains in the mother country, and the lover of another race who represents the land that needs to be colonized and fertilized. This permissiveness towards sexual contacts with native women in the colonized land and subsequent return to Catalonia where one finds his true love, as we saw earlier, is in tune with the discourse articulated in postmodern imitations of folklore such as “La ciutat cremada,” to which we turn again: Mulata meva, no tomare a cantar 1’havanera dels teus ulls presoner. A Catalunya em quedare: Perque en retomar a aquesta terra oblido la pena, retrobo al meu cor; perque a la bella patria nostrada terra catalana retrobo l’amor. (XXXIII Cantada 8) Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 2 6 8 Alonso’s novel reinvents the theme of this habanera. The passion and desire that Amigo feels for his Cuban lover do not bring peace to the soldier Amigo. His relationship with Lola makes him feel guilty for being unfaithful to his wife and to the family that is left behind at home. The feeling of guilt that he experiences after sexual intercourse with Lola makes him search for a connection with Maria and his children in his native Pouet. Maria is an embodiment of motherhood. For her, the act of love is a prelude for procreation, for giving birth to Amigo’s children. Amigo’s memory reveals that Maria never seems to sleep, she only lets her body rest, always ready to respond to her children’s movements. The memory of Maria and his family enhances Amigo’s feeling of guilt and discomfort at having a relationship with a prostitute. However, the acute desire for the nude body of the mulata prevails in Amigo and makes him forget for the time of his existence in Cuba both his home and his wife. His desire for the nudity of the young mulata is irrational, however, irresistible: No entenia la rao d’aqeust desig, pero se sentia terriblement atret per la imatge de la nuesa. Sobtat per una vaga ansietat, va recorrer amb 1’esguard cada plec de la pell morena, recreant-se all! on la bellesa de les formes es feia mes patent, i assaborint amb delit la tendresa d’aquella cam adolescent que arajeia relaxada despres del coit. (44) Strong as his desire for La Negra Lola is, however it is not more than his temporary state due to the circumstances of the war in which he finds himself. In spite of the metamorphosis that the day laborer Pep el de Tos undergoes during the war, the only woman that would be a part of his life for ever is Maria, his wife and Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 2 6 9 the mother of his children (92). The masculinist discourse invoking that of the traditional habanera is transparent in the relationship between the mulatto woman and the white male protagonist. Amigo’s carnal desire does not go beyond the admiration of the physical qualities of the mulata and the pleasure of her sexual sophistication, which, however, contribute to the transformation of the protagonist. Amigo’s perception of the mulatto woman as a remedy against nostalgia and an erotic fantasy that comes true also invokes the images of the traditional habanera, explicitly articulating them: La Negra Lola era tota una altra cosa; potser fora l’amant, el somni ocult i realitzat; potser fora el remei per a una enyoranga dura i amarga, el remei contra el desig que ho enva'fa tot; potser fora la jove mestra de l’amor que, com ara Ramon, contribuia en la formacio del jomaler de Pouet tot transforman-lo en un altre home, menys tosc, mes conscient del seu cos i de la profunditat de les cancies que li oferia a 1’altre esser amb el cual compartia 1 ’amor. (93) The discourse articulated in the novel continues traditional stereotyping of female dependence on the male. Though for Amigo, La Negra Lola is nothing more than a realization of his sexual fantasies, his qualities of man and lover make the young prostitute fall in love with him. Bom on a plantation and used as a love toy by the owner since she was a child, Lola escapes from her owner. Her freedom, however, does not bring anything but more trouble into her life. Obliged to be a prostitute, she finds in Amigo what she never found in any other male. With Amigo she feels “loved and protected” (43). As their relationship progresses, she tries to spend with him as much time as she can and does not charge him any more when Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 2 7 0 they have sex. Thus one can observe in the discourse of the novel the implicit admiration and masculinist praising of the protagonist. The female figures continue to be dependent on the male, now, however, emotionally as Lola. Lola’s desperate love for Amigo, who will eventually disappear from her life, makes one think of a new twist of the masculinist discourse in the novel: A mes, quan feien l’amor mai no fingia. Tenia por d’assumir-ho, pero n’estava enamorada. Mai negoci per a una prostituta, sens dubte, aixo d’enamorar-se d’un home, i menys encara d’un soldat de la metropoli que podia desapareixer en qualsevol moment, mort o simplement canviat de destinacio o llicenciat. L’amor per una prostituta poques vegades tenia futur, un futur felig. Conscient d’aquest amor sense esperan§a, Lola s’abocava a la seua pasio sense pensar en res mes. (45) One cannot help seeing in the relationship between Amigo and la Negra Lola an evocation of the habanera “La bella Lola,” in which the sailor is almost “dying of pleasure” when the woman greets him waving her white kerchief and giving him a hug in front of other sailors. “La bella Lola” sounds as a triumph of masculinist discourse and male pride for the attention that he receives from the female. In En el mar de les Antilles, the masculine qualities of the protagonist and their appraisal are emphasized explicitly and implicitly. The metaphorical euphemisms of the traditional habanera are substituted by direct reference to the masculinist virtues in the boisterous discourse of Amigo’s friend about La Negra Lola: “Caram, mira la negreta, no et trau l’ull de damunt. Pel que sembla la tens mig enamorada. Aixo o es que tens el piu de ferro” (110). Implicitly it is represented in the author’s discourse: Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 271 Amigo li feu l’amor amb el mal pressentiment que ella seria 1 ’ultima dona amb la qual estaria. Aquell pressentiment el feia entregar-se i assaborir mes intensament Facte. Lola, al seu tom, en trobar-lo tan apassionat, tan entregat, es va sentir plena de goig i de felicitat. (110-111) Lola almost dies trying to save Amigo from adversaries who make an attempt at his life. Moreover, when Amigo leaves Cuba to return to his native land, Lola is pregnant with his child. Thus the novel reinvents the myth of fertilization of colonized lands and reiterates traditional discourse of colonial desire. The reinvention of colonial desire and the myth of the mulata is not the only intertextual trait related to the habanera in this novel. En el mar de les Antilles reinvents the habanera in two ways: by emphasizing what may be perceived as colonial desire through the relationship between Amigo and his mulatto mistress, and by entering into a subversive polemics with the myth of heroic soldiers and sailors articulated in traditional and new habaneras. The title En el mar de les Antilles, as I mentioned, invokes a verse from “El meu avi,” a habanera probably familiar to everybody in Catalonia: Arribaren temps de Guerra, de perfidies i trai'cions, i en el mar de les Antilles retronaren els canons. Els mariners de Calella, el meu avi enmig de tots, varen morir a coberta, al peu del cano. This habanera, created by Jose Luis Ortega Monasterio in 1968 and presented to the public in 1971, is willingly perceived by the audience as a verisimilar representation of the past of the nation. Reinventing the heroic deeds of the past generations, this new habanera emphasizes the involuntary participation and the Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 2 7 2 sacrifice of Catalans in Spain’s colonial war and, at the same time, makes homage to Catalonia and Catalans that participate in it. As I explored in Chapter Three, “El meu avi” may also be seen as a catalyst for the proliferation of new habaneras in the Catalan language. These new habaneras, on the one hand, continue the traditional discourse of the habaneras in Spanish related to the participation in the colonial war and overseas travel, on the other, make their significant contribution to the assertion of the identity of Catalonia as a maritime community. As I also argued, “El meu avi” creates its own mythology with “follow-ups” that develop the discourse of Catalan identity, as one can see in the habaneras “La meva avia” and “L’Avi Quim no va anar a Cuba,” among others. In this sense, the novel En el mar de les Antilles can be read as the continuation and development of this discourse, and also, most importantly, as a critique of this discourse. On the one hand, through an explicit emphasis on the description of sexual relations between the protagonist and his mulatto lover, the narrative, in the language of the late twentieth century, fleshes out the meanings hidden behind the euphemisms of the traditional habanera. On the other, by way of representing the protagonist and his companions as soldiers who commit a military crime, the narrative puts them into the position of anti-heroes and thus challenges the heroic discourse created by “El meu avi.” The novel acknowledges the creation of myths through the habanera in the collective imaginary of the nation, as one of the characters speculates about the future impact of the sacrifice of the protagonist and his fellow soldiers at war. The words of Ramon Calls, an ex-student from Barcelona turned into a corporal, can be Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 2 7 3 read as a direct allusion to the habanera “El meu avi,” as well as to the novel itself, thus converting the text into a self-reflection: [P]otser algun fill o alguna filla guardara amorosament la medalla, 1 ’uniforme que ara porta o fins i tot 1’expedient de guerra, i algun dia un net o un besnet d’aquells que estan ferits per les lletres posara el seu nom entre estrofes i el rememorara com un heroi de Cuba. (99) The novel challenges the mythology of “heroi de Cuba” by representing the protagonist and his companions as anti-heroes more than heroes. The polemics and the critique of the myth of heroes created through the discourse of the habanera, however, enhance this myth and give it a new interpretation. The protagonist and his “third teacher,” Escriva, become directly involved in a military crime of outstanding proportions, which is the explosion of the battleship Maine in Havana harbor in February of 1898.1 4 8 Having accepted the offer to blow up the battleship Maine, Amigo and Escriva, two Catalan soldiers serving their larger mother country, Spain, become an instrument in the hands of those who, as in any war, seek and receive profit at the cost of the lives of thousands confined to be cannon fodder. The myth of sacrifice of Catalan soldiers serving the interests of Spain’s colonial machine 1 4 8 The explosion of the Maine enters history as an example of the power that the press can exercise in society. The Hearst anti-Spanish campaign under the slogan of “Remember the Maine” is commonly viewed as an unprecedented pressure on the public opinion in the United States and its government that led to the American intervention in the war between Spain and Cuba. As it happens very often, the real causes of the war were substituted by an obvious reason heavily represented in the yellow press. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 2 7 4 implicit in “El meu avi” and other habaneras is questioned by foregrounding the key role of two Catalan soldiers in a crime of unspeakable proportions. The story of “mariners de Calella, el meu avi enmig de tots,” who “varen morir a coberta, al peu del cano,” as I explored in Chapter Three, is perceived by many in Catalonia as a verisimilar representation of historical events and may be compared for its significance for Catalan cultural imaginary to “Els segadors,” Catalan national anthem. By evoking historical personalities and events, Alonso’s novel enters into a dialogue with this discourse. The mystery surrounding until today the explosion of the battleship Maine offers a privileged space for a fantasy that may be perceived as verisimilar and thus enhance the role of Catalans in the events with notorious consequences for Spain and the whole world. Even today the cause of the explosion still remains a mystery. Thousands of pages have been written about the possible causes of the disaster on board the ship that cost the life of two hundred fifty American marines. Different versions of the cause of the explosion have been discussed for the last one hundred years suggesting the possibility of involvement of Spanish forces, of Cuban rebels and even of Americans.1 4 9 By inventing the role of Catalan soldiers in an event of such proportions, the novel contributes to the creation of Catalan identity as an active agent in Cuban colonial enterprise. 1 4 9 The Castro regime for decades played an anti-American and pro-Soviet card alleging that the Americans arranged the explosion themselves to have a pretext to enter the war between Cuba and Spain. Most recent research, however, seems to confirm the accidental character of the explosion (Moreno Fraginals, Cuba/Espana 337). Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 2 7 5 Though the driving force behind the consent of the protagonist and his companion Bemat, “un espavilat, un buscavides,” whose life objective is “very simple,” he wants to be a rich man, “un home ric” (25), in the crime is similar— they do it for the sake of promised remuneration,— the reaction of the two to the aftermath is strikingly different. Amigo is repentant and depressed by the crime that he committed against his religious and moral convictions. Escriva, however, does not show any signs of remorse. If Amigo is represented as a complex character in search of his identity, ‘Thome pie de contradiccions” (111), his friend Escriva seems to be interested only in money without any signs of remorse or doubt: “Mestre, oblida’t de tot ara i pensa nomes en el munt de diners que ens esperen. Amb diners en les mans la vida sempre es mes facil i la gent et respecta, encara que sigues el mes gran fill de puta del mon” (105). Amigo who accepts the offer of money for a crime is not the religious and illiterate laborer Pep el de Tos and not the self-educating soldier Amigo, but a new identity transformed by the circumstances of the war: A l’armeria es trobava amb un altre home que no era aquell que a Pouet coneixien com Pep el de Tos, pero aquest nou home tampoc era el recluta Amigo. Era un personatge strany, pie de miseries i de fantasies que el desbordaven per tots els costats. Un botxf, a la vegada que el seu millor amic. (96) The unflattering simile with an executioner represents Amigo as an anti-hero who accepts the life philosophy of his third “teacher” Escriva and is ready to commit an atrocious crime for money: “Aquest individu miserble i egoista es mostrava, sense Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 276 cap mena d’escrupol, partidari de seguir el Bemat Escriva i el gringo1 5 0 en la seua accio de sabotatge, i li retreia el seu conformisme i la seua covardia” (97). The circumstances of war and the misery that expects him in his native land upon return from the military service make him agree to an offer that will help to achieve financial independence, the dream of all his life, an ability to work on his own land and get out of poverty: “Diners! Darrere d’aquella paraula o, mes aviat, darrere del desig d’aconseguir-los, s’amagaven tots els anhels del jomaler Pep el de Tos” (78). Formation received in the war and the new knowledge acquired due to reading contradict and make him doubt the moral principles on which the life of the illiterate laborer was built, “la seua concepcio del mon del treball, les seues creences religioses” (97). However, the remorse and doubt follow him everywhere. Amigo’s 1 In a peculiar way, the novel plays with the motif of the guilt of Americans, explicit in the habanera “El meu avi”— “tingueren la culpa els americans.” Amigo and Escriva are approached by an American, Albert Roosevelt, who convinces them that he represents “good patriots” of Spain and that the act of sabotage, for which they will be generously remunerated, will attract the attention to the Cuban problem in Madrid and in “alguns despatxos i algunes redaccions de Washington i de Nova York” (75). Later, it becomes clear to the reader that Roosevelt, whose real name is O’Really, is directly connected to William Randolph Hearst from whom he receives instructions and money. The connection between the alleged Roosevelt and Hearst is emphasized on two levels, which may also be viewed as verisimilar and intertextual. On the verisimilar level, there is a direct discussion in the text of the role of Hearst and his press in the American involvement in the war (127). In Roosevelt’s room, the soldiers see the newspaper The New York Journal, one of Hearst’s notorious “yellow” newspapers. One may perceive this detail as an attempt aimed at adding an air of verisimilitude to the fictitious plot of the participation of two Catalan soldiers in installing the explosive on board the battleship. More interesting is perhaps the indirect allusion to Hearst through Charles Foster Kane, the protagonist and arguably a representation of Hearst in the acclaimed movie Citizen Kane, through the name William Rosebud, with which a telegram with instructions addressed to Roosevelt/ O’Really is signed. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 277 cowardice and strive for money make him commit a crime that leads to another crime when he kills Roosevelt/ O’Really fearing for his own life. On the one hand, Amigo is an anti-hero, a contrast to the heroic figures praised in “El meu avi” and other habaneras. On the other, Amigo’s representation as a human being and a victim of the brutal circumstances of the war reiterate the discourse about the soldiers of the war who become innocent victims of the government’s blindness. The novel once again fleshes out what is perceived in the cultural imaginary as part of its historical identity. En el mar de les Antilles reinvents various aspects of the myths of Catalans and Cuba. The relationship between Amigo and La Negra Lola may be perceived as a reinvention of “colonial desire.” As I mentioned, the mulata legend achieves its culmination in the finale of the novel. Not only does Lola without remorse sacrifice her life for her beloved Amigo and survives. She survives to give life to Amigo’s child whom he will never know, a scenario many times repeated in fiction and in life. For Amigo, Cuba will for ever remain a nostalgic memory of the habanera: “aviat 1 ’Havana no seria mes que un record, un parentesi en la seua vida.” His life upon return to Spain is his family and his beloved Maria, while La Negra Lola and everything left behind in Cuba will be nothing more than the melody evoking the past, “una melodia del seu goig” (155). The finale of the novel may be read as an invocation of a traditional habanera: En Cuba esta la reina del placer La hermosura del bien y la rosa sin color Que con su mirar me late el corazon. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 2 7 8 Amigo’s crime for the sake of money challenges the essence of Catalan colonial enterprise, that of creating a fortune, “fer les Ameriques.” Amigo’s fortune is made ruthlessly at the cost of numerous lives. However, many fortunes created in the nineteenth century in Cuba included the inhuman and ruthless methods that involved slave trade. The novel seemingly enters into polemics with the heroic spirit of the habanera that praises the sacrifice of Spanish and Catalan soldiers during the war in Cuba. However, the polemics and critique of discourse articulated in the habanera enhance the impact of this discourse on the collective imaginary of the nation. Perhaps targeted at a broader Spanish-speaking audience, the novel Habanera by Angeles Dalmau is published in Seville and is the winner of the VT T T Premio International de Novela Luis Berenguer, an award granted by a jury representing the Andalusian city of San Fernando. Written in Spanish, this novel may pretend to represent a broader discourse in the context of Spain as a whole, yet, at the same time, it is explicitly committed to a specifically Catalan discourse related to overseas adventure. The protagonist and the narrator of this novel is a middle-aged female artist from Barcelona whose name the reader will never know. Likewise, one may only circumstantially figure out her age. This anonymity, complemented by her archetypal status variously as mother, daughter and widow, suggests the possibility of identifying her with an entire generation. In her fifties, the protagonist undertakes a journey to Cuba where she spent her childhood. The years of formation of the Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 2 7 9 protagonist and the story of a family of Catalan “indianos” are revealed in a series of flashbacks triggered by a nostalgia-driven journey to present-day Cuba in order to visit the houses of her long lost childhood. The dates of the protagonist-narrator’ s life and of her family history are directly connected to the history of Spain. The family leaves Spain in 1936 as the Civil War begins, and returns nine years later with the hope that general Franco will soon step down. Thus the novel is concerned with the most recent history and the last wave of Catalan immigration to Cuba. The story of the family of “indianos” is represented in the novel as part of the history of the nation, for which immigration to Cuba in search of material fortune continues to be a significant cultural myth. The representation of this myth in Dalmau’s novel, however, takes new turns as the female protagonist narrator gives a new perspective to the traditional masculinist discourse concerned with overseas expansion. The novel starts with the protagonist’s participation in the funeral of her uncle, who, similar to many other Catalan immigrants, returned to Catalonia after building a fortune in Cuba. The funeral of her uncle and a passage through a cemetery in her native Vilafranca make her reflect on her family’s connection to Cuba and on the role that her mother and other women played in the “American adventure:” Tras la desaparicion de mi padre, un ano antes, solo el se mantenfa como debil testimonio de la aventura americana de mi familia. Era el ultimo en la lfnea masculina, y tras su muerte solo quedaban las mujeres como testigos de ese esfuerzo que parecfa diluirse en el vacfo. (12) Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 2 8 0 Forty years after her family’s return from Cuba, she decides to revisit the houses where her family lived. The journey to her roots is motivated by a nostalgia for a long lost comfort of a well heeled childhood of prosperous Catalan immigrants and by her desire to revisit Cuba while her aging mother is still alive. Thus the role of women in immigration becomes the center of the narrative. The anonymity of the protagonist narrator suggests a reflection on the universality of the female figures, participants of immigration. In traditional discourse concerned with overseas travel, the role of women is most often reduced to a shadowy figure that follows a husband or an unknown fiance in marriages arranged by paternal figures for material profit of families. Dalmau’s novel subverts these stereotypes by showing the role of women in immigration through the protagonist’s perception of the role and position of her mother who plays an equal role with the father in taking family and business decisions, and through the recuperation of the protagonist’s identity that takes place in Cuba during her journey. The female narrative voice and the emphasis on the participation of women challenge the traditional discourse of immigration with its focus on the male protagonist. One may argue that this habanera of the end of the twentieth century gives a new feminist twist to the discourse concerned with Catalan immigration to the Caribbean. A nostalgically remembered childhood and the lost comfort of a home abandoned because of the family’s return to Spain convert the figure of protagonist’s mother into the metaphorical representation of her home: “Levante los ojos, y la mire con la certeza devastadora de que en adelante ella iba a ser mi unica casa” (212). Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 2 8 1 The mother continues to be the centric figure even when the protagonist herself is a mother and a widow apparently in her fifties. The figure of her mother continues to represent in the protagonist’s imagination an unachievable image of feminine perfection to which she turns in search of her own identity: “Aun ahora, ya abuela, busco en el espejo mi propia imagen esperando ver al menos el palido reflejo de aquella magnffica mujer que fue durante anos el unico modelo en que reconocemos” (42). Seen through the eyes of the daughter, the mother’s role is crucial in the history of the family and in her daughter’s life. The mother’s authority prevails over the authority of the father whose presence, because of his devotion to his business, is compared to a shadow permeating the house: “Era como una sombra difusa entre los muros de nuestra casa” (43). The mother’s role is enhanced when she takes a crucial and devastating for her daughters decision to return to Spain after nine years of comfortable exile spent in Cuba. For the protagonist, the return to Spain is not the return home as it is for her mother. Having spent her childhood in Cuba, she considers the island her only home. Taken away from this tropical paradise, the only home she knows, the protagonist and her sisters, “cubanitas,” as they are called in their native Vilafranca, pass through a drastic period of adaptation to the grim reality of the post-war Spain. She nostalgically dreams of returning back to the land of her childhood: Anoraba mi tierra de San Vicente, el rfo y la canada, y odiaba la unica palmera que habfa en el jardfn, precisamente porque estimulaba mi evocation de la isla. Esperaba que ocurriera algo, un milagro, algo que justificara el que me hubieran trafdo allf. Pero no paso Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 2 8 2 nada en aquel inviemo interminable, nada en aquellos anos grises que parecfan etemos. (199) By mentioning a palm tree, which enhances the protagonist’s nostalgia, Habanera questions a popular stereotype of achieved prosperity and social promotion as implicit goals of immigration. Financial stability achieved by way of immigration is associated in the popular imaginary with houses and mansions of americanos typically accompanied by a palm tree in front. In Dalmau’s novel these emblems are questioned as seen through the eyes of a child who loses the comfort and stability of her childhood upon returning from Cuba to the post-war Spain. One might ask, however, what connection there is between the subject of the novel, which is a journey of a female protagonist to her roots, and the title invoking the songs that traditionally speak of voluptuous mulatto women. Habanera offers a non-traditional interpretation of a traditional theme. While visiting Cuba forty years after her family left the island, the protagonist and her son discover a well-kept family secret, the existence of a mulatto half sister of the protagonist’s father. The consequence of her grandfather’s adventure in Cuba is kept secret for decades from family and friends for a clear-cut racial prejudice: “Quizas intuyo que no tenia un lugar en la familia, y que para mi abuelo no podrfa ser mas que un recuerdo antillano” (186). However, in the novel told from the perspective of a daughter of a family of americanos, the mulatto aunt makes the protagonist feel even more connected to Cuba. This blood kinship and the protagonist’s identification with the imagined Cuba of her childhood— “casi soy cubana” (26)— makes one think again of Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 2 8 3 certain twists of nostalgia for imaginary empire that Catalonia never possessed. The discourse of nostalgia articulated through a female voice in search of her houses and of her identity evokes an analogy with Indochine (1992) by Regis Wargnier and its female protagonist. The discovery of a blood kinship with the nostalgically desired land of her childhood enhances her love for Cuba and her renewed nostalgia for the long gone times of the prosperity of Catalan immigrants on the island. Her nostalgia for Cuba, at first sight, may be perceived as an evocation of the nostalgia explicit in the traditional habanera. However, Dalmau’s female protagonist gives new twists to the nostalgia for a lost tropical paradise. Her nostalgia is the nostalgia of a woman and a daughter of prosperous immigrants. Cuba for her is associated with the comfort of a childhood in a well to do immigrant family. Seen through the eyes of his daughter, her father is a realization of the myth of a prosperous immigrant. The protagonist’s nostalgia for Cuba, unlike the nostalgia of traditional habaneras has no connotations of sexual desire intrinsic to the traditional habanera. In the protagonist’s imagination, the long lost tropical island is a metaphor for her lost home and identity. The discovery of a mulatto aunt bom and buried in Cuba makes her feel comfortable and even jealous of belonging to Cuba: “Me alegro que alguien de la familia hubiera podido quedarse en la isla toda la vida. A m lm e sacaron de aquf. Por unos instantes casi la envidie” (184). More importantly, the nostalgia of generations that experienced Cuban immigration is transmitted to new generations in the form of collective memory. The protagonist’s journey, in which she is accompanied by one of her adult children, Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 2 8 4 becomes a journey in time, a process whereby the protagonist’s memory recreates the life of her family in Cuba and after return to Spain. Through the narrator’s voice it becomes clear that the years that the family spent in Cuba leave a profound impact not only on the lives of those who participated in this semi-voluntary exile, but also, on the imaginary of new generations, the descendants of americanos, represented in the novel by the protagonist’s son Javier who accompanies her as she searches for her roots. New generations perceive nostalgia for Cuba explicit in the habanera as part of their identity. It is Javier who pronounces the words that I chose for the epigraph to this chapter: “ahora estoy viendo lo que hay detras, lo que callan esas canciones, las historias que olvidan” (131). Similar to En el mar de les Antilles. Habanera fleshes out the representation of the tropical paradise in nostalgic songs through the eyes of new generations who inherited this nostalgia. The protagonist’s parents, their friends, relatives and neighbors belonged to those who traveled to Cuba in order to improve their financial situation, and upon return back to Catalonia never visited Cuba again. However, el embruio, the “spell” of Cuba, remained with them for the rest of their lives and is transmitted to new generations through memory and nostalgic music associated with Cuba. A representative of a new generation, Javier shares with his mother the fascination with the land where family members once prospered. Like his mother, he feels at home in Cuba, what makes the protagonist wonder if the children and grandchildren inherited the collective memory about the land that they had never seen. More importantly, she recovers her identity as she Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 2 8 5 realizes her own mission of conveying the memory of the past of her family to her children: ^Acaso al hablar tanto de la isla a nuestros hijos habfamos conseguido transmitirles, sin damos cuenta, esa magica e irreal familiaridad que provocan los paisajes heredados? Su reaccion de cercama con ese entomo, desconocido para el, evidencio que los lazos con esta tierra no terminaban conmigo. (25) The novel acknowledges collective memory of the nation enhanced through the song genre of the habanera and the transmission of this memory and nostalgia to younger generations as part of collective identity of the nation. It would be appropriate here to remember Benedict Anderson’s thought about popular songs and poetry as a signifier of national identities. Anderson argues that poetry, songs and especially national anthems create a unique experience of unisonality, which is an echoed physical realization of the imagined community: “If we are aware that others are singing these songs precisely when and as we are, we have no idea who they may be, or even where, out of earshot, they are singing. Nothing connects us all but imagined sound” (132-33). The novels discussed in this chapter seem to have little in common, as their protagonists, time settings and subjects are apparently distant. However, their similarity lies in the reinvention in the language of the late twentieth century of the collective memory of the nation, for which the connection to Cuba and prosperity associated with it becomes at the end of the twentieth century a relevant signifier of its identity. By entering into an intertextual dialogue with the subjects and themes of Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 2 8 6 popular songs, the novels En el mar de les Antilles (1998) by Manel Alonso i Catala, and Habanera: El reencuentro con un oculto pasado antillano (1999) by Angeles Dalmau acknowledge the habanera as an emblem of Catalan identity and flesh out the schematic representations of the lost tropical paradise that persist in the cultural imaginary of Catalonia, a nation continuously self-fashioning itself as a maritime community with strong overseas links and its own place in the colonial enterprise. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Conclusion 2 8 7 My research started with curiosity about the meanings that stand behind repeated invocations of Cuba in Catalan discourse related to its past. Classes of Catalan that I took in Barcelona were held in a mansion that, according to a local “legend,” was once built by an americano and was spacious enough to house a number of University departments. The first thing one sees upon arrival at Sitges railway station is an advertisement inviting visitors to follow a tourist route to see “casas de americanos.” Perhaps my vision was selective, but this is what I saw. My interest and my attention to the discourse related to americanos was triggered by the representation of Catalan colonial enterprise in Antoni Verdaguer’s adventurous melodrama Havanera 1820. whose action took place mostly in Cuba while its protagonists were speaking Catalan. When I interviewed Verdaguer, he mentioned that the mini-series was conceived as a “pseudo habanera” for the emblematic significance of the songs on the Catalan coast. That same summer a facsimile edition of Montsalvatge’s Album de habaneras was on display at the FNAC, by all accounts the biggest bookstore in Barcelona. Habanera by Angeles Dalmau was also among the new arrivals at this store on the same day. In the musical department of this giant of globalization with headquarters in France and stores all over Europe, I was completely lost among more than fifty compact disks by groups that sang habaneras in Spanish and in Catalan, among which only the title “La paloma” rang some far away bells at that time. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 288 As I was looking deeper into the story of the habanera and the controversy and debate about its origins, ways of transmission, and forms— such as dance and song— the habanera started to shape out as a permutable cultural sign that for more than a century and a half seems to be in the process of constant transformations. The ever debatable questions “when?” and “where first?” still seemed to pose more questions than answers. However, the perception of the habanera as a signifier of various cultural identities, such as Cuban, Spanish and Catalan, in different historical circumstances made me believe that an exploration of what these songs represent and how they help generate new cultural signs is perhaps more important than the claims of priority as for their origin. Cuba, a tropical island associated with former financial prosperity, is fantasized in songs, film and fiction as a utopian island of nostalgia by the nation that for centuries has self-fashioned itself as opposed to the central government. Yet, from nostalgic songs that invoke what may be perceived as colonial desire, the habanera in Catalonia evolves into a new cultural sign, which asserts Catalonia as a maritime community with strong overseas links and its own history of colonial enterprise. Through nostalgia for an empire that Catalonia never possessed, songs, works of fiction, and film created in the last decade of the twentieth century, assert the identity of Catalonia as a European nation that has its own colonial and imperial enterprise in the nineteenth century not overshadowed by the center. At the same , time, the appropriation of the habanera as an emblem of Catalan identity may be viewed through the prism of a further European integration and globalization. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 2 8 9 Through a self-representation as a community that profited from overseas colonial enterprise in Cuba in its own right, Catalonia continues its secular attempts at identifying herself as a part of a globalized Europe. The appropriation of the habanera as an emblem of Catalan identity is a privileged space for exploration as Catalonia represents an example of small nations where acts of ethnicocultural affirmation continue to play a major role in the assertion of national identity. These small nations, such as the Baltic nations of the former Soviet Union, survived the suppression of their languages and autochthonous cultures during the times of dictatorships and managed to preserve their cherished cultural identities. The permutations of the habanera in Catalonia are directly related to the complex issue of the Catalan language and diglossia characteristic for Catalonia. Language is peceived as a basic element of national identities in most models of nation building, yet in Catalonia it has been continuously claimed as a core issue of identity. The story of Catalan habanera underscores it. Since the times of Spain’s last colonial war, habaneras were traditionally sung in Catalonia in Spanish, until the years of the “dictablanda” and the transition to a new Spain, when they start to evolve in Catalan. The linguistic transformation of the habanera in Catalonia may be seen as a key element in this nation’s self-representation related to its overseas adventure. At the time of the renewed assertion of Catalan nationhood, the habanera becomes an emblem claimed by certain circles as an autochthonous Catalan cultural sign and therefore part of Catalan cultural identity. However, the exploration of the habanera phenomenon in Catalonia shows that the habanera in Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 2 9 0 Spanish forms an intrinsic part of Catalan cultural imaginary. Thus the exclusion of habaneras in Spanish from such highly reputed event as the Mostra de l’Havanera Catalana in Palamos contradicts the inclusive character of Catalan identity propagated by its ideologists. Catalan identity is generally seen as inclusive, which means it includes everybody who lives in Catalonia and speaks Catalan, what does not exclude those who also speak Spanish. The analogy with the sardana is useful here, as the Catalan national dance is represented as inclusive, in which everybody may participate, however, to be able to do it one should master the steps and be able to follow a rather complicated rhythm. The viability and ambivalence of the habanera in the twentieth century suggests that the convergence of cultures, a process far from being simple, entails constant metamorphoses of cultural signs— indeed, transculturations as Fernando Ortiz formulated it. But the process of transculturation does not stop with the formation of new nations and cultures, such as Cuba. The phenomenon of Catalan habanera, booming, as it were, in the last four decades of the twentieth century, and into the twenty-first, can be seen both as a product and a vehicle of the evolving transculturation, a process that continues to create new cultural forms and identities. The viability of the habanera in Spain shows that the habanera continues its journey into the postmodern world by traveling back to the old imperial centers and having a boomerang effect on the formation of constantly evolving cultural imaginaries. The propensity of the habanera to generate new cultural signifiers is underscored in the last decade of the twentieth century in Catalonia where not only new habaneras are Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 2 9 1 created, but also works of cinematography and fiction reinvent the habanera in the cinematographic and new narrative language of the late twentieth century. It will be interesting further to see if the habanera and the sardana will continue to survive and fulfill their functions as signs of cultural identity in the twenty-first century with further globalization and disappearance of national and economic frontiers and barriers. Will cultural signs that define identities and are directly connected to language survive the pressure of diglossia that, according to some sources, continues to constitute a serious problem in Catalonia in spite of major efforts of “linguistic normalization?” Both sardana circles and audiences of cantadas of habaneras are formed mostly by mature population. Will small nations and their cultural emblems be able to continue their self-assertion in the twenty-first century under the pressure of the North American accent of the MTV and the proliferation of Frank Gehry’s creations in different parts of the world? Another set of interesting questions may be related to Cuba and the perception of Catalonia in Cuban cultural imaginary, which I did not explore in this work. Will the attempts at the revival of the habanera in Cuba started with the first festival Habaneras en La Habana in 1989 be relevant for Cuban cultural imaginary? What are further transformations of the term “Catalan” once perceived as a synonym of merchant there? What stories do habaneras bom in Cuba tell and conceal? Can one tell the story of Cuba through the habanera? These may be further aspects of exploration of the habanera as a multifaceted and ambivalent cultural sign. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. 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Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 299 —. Industria i mercat. Les bases comercials de la industria catalana modema 1814- 1845. Barcelona: Critica, 1987. —. “Catalunya i Cuba en el segle XIX: el comerc d’esclaus.” “Dossier.” L’Avene 75 (1984): 42-47. —. “La figura del negre i del negrer en la literatura catalana del XIX.” “Dossier.” L’Avene 75 (1984): 56-61. —. “La participacio catalana en el trafic d’esclaus (1789-1845).” Recerques 16 (1984): 119-34. Friedenthal, Albert. Stimmen der Volker in Liedem. Tanzen und Charakterstiicken. Wien: Haslinger, 1911. “La Fundacio Ernest Morato obre la porta al museu de l’havanera.” Revista de Palafrugell July 1995: 14. Furman, Nelly. “The Languages of Love in Carmen.” Reading Opera. Ed. Arthur Groos and Roger Parker. Princeton, NJ: Princeton UP, 1988. 168-83. Galan, Natalio. Cuba v sus sones. 1983. Valencia: Pre-Textos, 1997. Garcia, Albert. “Tradicio liberal i polftica colonial a Catalunya. 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Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 3 0 0 Grases, Pere. “Catalans a les Ameriques: de la pre-independencia als nostres dies.” Catalans a America: En el segon centenari de la mort de Gaspar de Portola (1786) i el primer de la fundacio el Centre Catala de Buenos Aires (1886). N.p. Fundacio Jaume I, 1986. 34-39. Grenet, Emilio. “Musica cubana: Orientaciones para su conocimiento y estudio.” 1939. Panorama de la musica popular cubana. Habana: Letras Cubanas, 1995. 51-111. Guerra Sierra, Mima i Andreu Navarro. “L’Havanera a la musica culta.” L’Havanera: Un cant popular. Tarragona: El Medol, 1995. 85-108. Hargreaves, John. Freedom For Catalonia? Catalan Nationalism. Spanish Identity and the Barcelona Olympic Games. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2000. Hassan, Ihab. “Toward a Concept of Postmodernism.” A Postmodern Reader. Ed. Joseph Natoli and Linda Hutcheon. Albany: State U of New York P, 1993. 273-86. Havanera 1820. Dir. Antoni Verdaguer. 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Asset Metadata
Creator
Bakhtiarova, Galina
(author)
Core Title
Empires of the habanera: Cuba in the cultural imaginary of Catalonia
School
Graduate School
Degree
Doctor of Philosophy
Degree Program
Spanish
Publisher
University of Southern California
(original),
University of Southern California. Libraries
(digital)
Tag
Folklore,Literature, Latin American,literature, romance,OAI-PMH Harvest
Language
English
Contributor
Digitized by ProQuest
(provenance)
Advisor
[illegible] (
committee chair
), [illegible] (
committee member
), Lazar, Moshe (
committee member
)
Permanent Link (DOI)
https://doi.org/10.25549/usctheses-c16-273929
Unique identifier
UC11334846
Identifier
3094303.pdf (filename),usctheses-c16-273929 (legacy record id)
Legacy Identifier
3094303.pdf
Dmrecord
273929
Document Type
Dissertation
Rights
Bakhtiarova, Galina
Type
texts
Source
University of Southern California
(contributing entity),
University of Southern California Dissertations and Theses
(collection)
Access Conditions
The author retains rights to his/her dissertation, thesis or other graduate work according to U.S. copyright law. Electronic access is being provided by the USC Libraries in agreement with the au...
Repository Name
University of Southern California Digital Library
Repository Location
USC Digital Library, University of Southern California, University Park Campus, Los Angeles, California 90089, USA
Tags
Literature, Latin American
literature, romance