Afro-Chinese Lukumi in Cuba: A Case of Interdiasporic Cross- Fertilization

• In Event: New Approaches to Asian-Latin American Studies

Abstract

This paper proposes a conceptual framework that seeks to understand the often overlooked and misunderstood Chinese presence, experience, and identity formation through a religious lens with specific reference and interrogation of diasporas and syncretism. I make reference to the rise of a discernible presence of the Chinese in the Afro-Cuban religion, called Lukumi. Lukumi is often described as the product of syncretism between African and European elements, but contains impressive articulations of Chinese and Afro-Chinese influences, particularly in the realm of material culture, oral narratives and performativity. Based on qualitative research that I conducted among Chinese and Afro-Chinese Lukumi practitioners in Cuba as well as archival work, this paper discusses the development of cross-pollination and discursive religious practice between African and Chinese diasporas which have important implications in Cuba’s cultural and religious landscapes. I propose and conceptualize a framework of “interdiasporic cross-fertilization” and, in so doing, disassemble Cuba’s racial and religious categories, which have supported a specific notion of Cubaness or “Cubanidad” that has rendered Chinese subjectivity invisible. I argue that Afro-Chinese religiosity became a space for positive Chinese association that I call “Sinalidad” with important implications for gender and sexuality. I also argue that this religiosity has been elaborated upon largely because of transformations in Cuba’s social and economic landscape that began during Cuba’s Special Period in the 1990s.

Author

• Martin Tsang, Florida International University (FIU)