Guillén, Nicolás - Dellita L. Martin (essay date 1980)
Dellita L. Martin (essay date 1980)
SOURCE: "West African and Hispanic Elements in Nicolás Guillén's 'La canción del bongó'," in SAB: South Atlantic Bulletin, Vol. XLV, No. 1, January, 1980, pp. 47-53.
[In the following essay, Martin examines elements of West African and Hispanic folk music forms in the poem "La canción del bongó. "]
"La canción del bongó," originally published in Guillén's Sóngoro Cosongo (1931), is a poem that succinctly illustrates the fusion of the West African and Hispanic oral traditions. This is so because it is a romance which functions like a son. Moreover, the image of the son, which infuses this poema mulato, is projected as a symbol of Cuba's cultural essence, which Guillén defines as mulatismo in his prologue to Sóngoro Cosongo:
Diré fmalmente, que ésos son unos versos mulatos. Participan acaso de los mismos elementos que...
[The entire page is 2834 words long]
Join eNotes
Over 3,500 study guides, question and answer forums, literature criticism, reference content, and much more!
Navigate
Related Topics
