[1][2][3] Afro-Cuban artistic expressions helped integrate the marginalized black community into mainstream Cuban society and art.
Since its inception, Afro-Cuban Humanities has emerged as a major area of collegiate studies, and Afrocubanismo's influences can be seen in Cuban literature, painting, music, theater, and sculpture.
Racial dynamics between black and white Cubans had been tense in the decades leading up to the movement's inception in the early 20th century.
[5] In spite of their efforts in the War of Independence, Afro-Cubans were outraged at the failure of Cuban legislature to enact policies that would benefit the black population.
Fernando Ortiz, the founder and advocate of Afro-Cuban studies, described African art and cultural practices in his earlier writings as “infantile,” “barbaric,” “primitive,” “savage,” and “repugnant.”[5] White Cuban nationalists described African expression as an infection that was invading Cuban culture.
Rather, these Euro-Cubans sought to make traditional elements of African art more palatable for mainstream Cuban society.
In an essay entitled "Uniting Blacks in a raceless nation," author Arnedo-Gomez describes this cultural appropriation by White Cubans explaining, “...the movement accommodated and folklorised Afro-Cuban... forms in order to make them acceptable within the dominant European-derived tradition...”[5] Afro-Cuban responses to White Afrocubanista art were conflicted and ranging.
The problem for Afro-Cubans with this idealized view of Afrocubanismo and race was that it trivialized the experiences of blacks in Cuba and ignored the serious systemic racial issues underpinning Cuban interracial relations.
“...Ortiz can be cited from the mid-1930s onwards referring to Afrocuban arts as "an abandoned [cultural] treasure," something of value to be carefully studied and protected, and is in vocal in his support of the analysis of all forms of Afrocuban music and literature.”[5] Even in his notably racist earlier works that attack African customs, Ortiz inadvertently captured the depth, complexity, and richness of African cultural practices and expression.
Afro-Cuban literature was often written to express criticism over the prevalent racism and glossing over of social issues of racial inequality.