The Cuban Heritage Collection will be featuring highlights from Goizueta Fellows’ research investigations conducted during their fellowships. Elizabeth Castillo Mena, also known as Eli Mena (@elimenamusic), shares the following about her research on Afro-Latin jazz and its Afro-Cuban roots:
“At the CHC, I listened to vinyl recordings of the Raúl Marciano collection, consisting primarily of 20th-century popular Afro-Cuban music, to learn about its musical characteristics and get familiar with the repertoire of the time. Many records stood out, especially those of orchestras that played conga, rumba, son, bolero, cha-cha-chá, guaracha, and mambo; Afro-Cuban music genres that would interact with US jazz’s instrumentation, arranging styles, and harmonic language.
During my fellowship, I also read about Afro-Cuban and Latin jazz music history and the Afro-Cuban social experience from the beginning to the middle of the 20th century. The books, documentaries, and articles available at the CHC about Black Cuban history and race relations are integral to my efforts to contextualize and interpret pioneering works of Afro-Cuban music.
In addition, materials in the collection have helped me identify Cuba’s connections with neighboring countries in the Caribbean, such as Haiti, the Dominican Republic, and Puerto Rico, which have undergone complex, interrelated, politically informed cultural processes in the acknowledgment of their Indigenous and African heritage and sovereignty.”
Cuban Heritage Collection Blog 