PINAR DEL RIO: An Afro-Cuban woman dances to the beat of a drum, as street performer hoping to earn money from tourists in Pinar del Rio. African slaves left their cultural mark in the Valle de Vinales, Trinidad and the Valle of the Ingenios and the coffee plantations in Santiago de Cuba and Guantanamo.PINAR DEL RIO: An Afro-Cuban woman dances to the beat of a drum, as street performer hoping to earn money from tourists in Pinar del Rio. African slaves left their cultural mark in the Valle de Vinales, Trinidad and the Valle of the Ingenios and the coffee plantations in Santiago de Cuba and Guantanamo.PINAR DEL RIO: A blind Afro-Cuban man plays the drums, as to women in costume dance at a tourist site in Pinar del Rio, Cuba.PINAR DEL RIO: Two women and man playing the drums dance in a public area that tourists frequent in hope of making some money in Vinares, Cuba.PINAR DEL RIO: Afro-Cubans retained the traditional head scarf and turban, and the use of bright colors during ceremonial dances. In 1898, Cubans found a sense of identity in "Afrocubanismo." And it is now associated with a nationalist sentiment.PINAR DEL RIO: Afro-Caribbean women dance to the beat of a drum in Vinares, Cuba.PINAR DEL RIO: Afro-Cuban women keep the African tradition of using bright colors to perform their folkloric music in Pinales del Rio, Cuba.PINAR DEL RIO: Colonialists brought African slaves to the island, who during their free time danced to strong rhythmic African beats. The Cuban "tresillo" has roots that go back to sub-Saharan Africa. The cross-rhythmic fragment has 8 pulses divided into three sections and two cross-beats.PINAR DEL RIO: Street performers catch the eye of a tourist in Pinar del Rio, Cuba. Despite the popularity of the Afro-Cuban culture, the mulattoes and Afro-Cubans have experienced centuries of political and economic marginalization. Two years after Afro-Cubans founded the Independent Party of Color in 1908 to fight for political representation, the establishment banned the party.PINAR DEL RIO: In Kikongo, a language that some slaves from Central Africa spoke, "mambo" means a conversation with the gods. After working on the island's field, prayer was done through dancing. That is the root of the modern Cuban mambo.
PINAR DEL RIO: An Afro-Cuban woman dances to the beat of a drum, as street performer hoping to earn money from tourists in Pinar del Rio. African slaves left their cultural mark in the Valle de Vinales, Trinidad and the Valle of the Ingenios and the coffee plantations in Santiago de Cuba and Guantanamo.
