The Legacy of Fernando Ortiz

March 20-22, 2000
The Graduate Center, CUNY

This sym­po­sium focused on the life and work of Fer­nando Ortiz to explore the com­plex and fer­tile rela­tion­ship between his work and Cuban his­tory, cul­ture, and the arts. This con­fer­ence probed Ortiz’s vast oeu­vre and pro­vided a timely and provoca­tive reassess­ment of his legacy.

Publication

Editors: Mauricio A. Font and Alfonso W. Quiroz

Essays in this volume analyze and celebrate his contribution to scholarship in Cuban history, the social sciences—notably anthropology—and law, religion and national identity, literature, and music. Presenting Ortiz’s seminal thinking, including his profoundly influential concept of ‘transculturation’, Cuban Counterpoints explores the bold new perspectives that he brought to bear on Cuban society. Much of his most challenging and provocative thinking—which embraced simultaneity, conflict, inherent contradiction and hybridity—has remarkable relevance for current debates about Latin America’s complex and evolving societies.

Photos

The Fernando Ortíz Symposium on Cuban Culture and History. March 20, 2000

Program