Afro-Cuban Influence in Cuban Cuisine through Yucca

One note in all of the articles and sources used is that race was generally labeled in three categories: blacks, mulattos and whites. While these labels are convenient for readers and academics and these labels provide the message needed (that racism and colourism are prevalent in Cuba today, as they have in many places globally), this paper addresses more specific heritage differences and how these are integrated into Cuba. This is why I have decided to use the terms Afro Cuban, Cubans of Mixed descent, and *White Cubans, because race is also intertwined with heritage, culture and nationalism. This paper will switch the word mulatto for Cubans of Mixed descent.

While this paper distinguishes White Cubans and Cubans of Mixed descent, it should be noted that many Cubans self-report themselves as being whiter than they might appear. Many White Cubans can be just as white as their ancestors across the pond, but there are as many Cubans (who would otherwise be considered "mixed" or "racially ambiguous" elsewhere) who identify as white. The original census 2012 from Cuba's website that mentioned ~64% of Cubans identified as white does not seem to be online anymore, although there are a  plethora  of reported  sources  that drew from these once-live census records. Many White Cubans left for Miami following Fidel Castro's seizure of power, so there is some skepticism on how 60% are still identified as only White in Cuba. With any data referring to White Cubans, consider it within this context (read White Cubans as a merge of both White Cubans and those who are arbitrarily whiter-than-mixed/biracial Cubans).

Additionally, this paper will avoid using the term "slaves," but will instead say "enslaved," to both humanize historical accounts of enslaved people and emphasize the diverse backgrounds of enslaved populations.

Yucca will be used interchangeably with its Spanish counterpart yuca, alongside other similar terms and vocabulary. They will be appropriately indicated with an italics. 

In Cuba, yucca may fall underneath the umbrella term viandas, which can mean either yucca or malanga (cookingincuban.com). 

Powerhouse (and colonizing) countries like Spain and England ordered millions of enslaved Africans to appeal to the immense amount of labor in the production of sugar; Cuba was estimated at 778,000 in slave imports (1  Araujo ). Other sources speculate that between 1780s and the 1860s, enslaved populations skyrocketed from 39,000 to 400,000 ( “Cuba and the Slave Trade” ). Either way, the amount of enslaved people that flooded Cuba’s population is extraordinarily high—these numbers likely brought over African influence to Cuba, even if it was not tolerated at first. In the slavery system, European powers profited off of labored force in the gold, silver, sugar, coffee and cotton plantations ( “Transatlantic Slave Trade: The Caribbean” ); Brutality and injustice in the violence of enslaved life led to multiple uprisings, including one led by José Antonio Aponte, a freed Cuban African who organized rebellions against several slave-working plantations in 1812 ( “Jose Antonio Aponte” ). His rebellion was stifled by the government and he was executed for his actions, but José Antonio Aponte was only one of several slave rebellions in the Caribbean. In some places, such as Haiti during 1791 until 1804, the disproportionate amount of enslaved people to creole landowners ended up in successful slave revolts (103 Knight). Rebellions in Cuba have started as early as an uprising in the Jobabo mines in 1533 and continues into the 1830s ( “Cuba: Afro-Cubans” ). 

Cuba was among the last two countries in the Americas to abolish slavery, which emphasizes the reliance on slavery for agriculture as well as prolonged pro-slave attitudes that ran deep in these countries (177 Barcia). Barcia mentions that these “African populations [share] a common cultural ‘African’ heritage” which facilitated radicalization and ideas of rebellion (178). These populations were recorded mostly from Togo, Benin, Nigeria with some native populations from Ararás, Mandingas and Congos (179). Those hailing from modern-day Togo, Benin and Nigeria came from the falling Oyo empire, a powerful institution familiar with a variety of metal making and warfare. Enslaved people originating from Oyo were particularly known for their rebellions because of their expertise in warfare (178-179). 

While none of these slave rebellions were successful, it fueled racial tensions, even after the emancipation of slaves in 1886. Those who appeared to be pro-abolitionists in government were not anti-slavery out of the goodness of their heart. Nationalists who advocated for emancipation largely did so because they worried about slave rebellions if the enslaved populations surpassed non-enslaved Cubans (53 Dawdy). The 1880 Patronato Law replaced slavery with an “eight-year period of apprenticeship,” however this plan ended two years shy of its eight-year plan in light of abolished slavery in 1886 (2  Araujo ).  

As with most cases of abolished slavery, racial discrimination continued for many years post-abolishment; regardless, Cubans of African descent comprised most of the Cuban independence movement and its Liberation Army (1  Albano ). 

How does yucca come into play? Well, yucca was considered a staple food for slaves in addition to its role for indigenous people.

Afro Cuban is a term referring to Cubans of African descent. Understandably, Afro Cubans became more prevalent in Cuba because of Cuba’s history entrenched in the slave trade. 

While yuca was not brought over as slave food (being native to the Americas), other types of cassava were brought as slave food (1 Holloway). By association to cassava and its similarity to yams (another slave food), yuca is likely to have been overlapped with slave food, not to mention that it was a natural resource already available in Cuba upon arrival. In Provisions: the Roots of Caribbean Cooking, Michelle Rousseau and Suzanne Rousseau confirm that the Taino taught enslaved people “methods for its processing and consumption,” highlighting the early connection between slavery and cassava. Another side fact about enslaved cuisine affecting Caribbean cuisine is the introduction of plantains, which originated from feeding multitudes of enslaved people (Chapter 1, Provisions: Roots & Tubers, Yam, Cassava, Dasheen, Sweet Potato & Coco”). Even African dishes “such as fufu (a mash of plantains or starchy roots)” parallel contemporary Cuban dishes such as mashed yucca or plantains (Dawdy 56). Perhaps yucca even provided comfort and familiarity to enslaved Africans because it was reminiscent of homeland crops. It appears that many types of foods originally fed to slaves have ended up integral parts of many modern Latinx cuisines, another testament to the influence of historically enslaved Afro Latinx. 

While Shannon Lee Dawdy argues that viandas, not yuca, were worshipped throughout the history of Cuba and were largely found to be respected in Cuban cooking, yuca was not always respected from the perspective of creoles, or white Cubans (57). Viandas in general may have been worshipped or considered medicinal, but yucca may not have been regarded as highly as other starchy roots like malanga. 

Benitez-Rojo, for example, insisted that the heavy consumption of viandas would “‘blacken’ Cuban identity,” proposing a push for white bread that would “whiten” the population (53 Dawdy). There appears to be conflicting narratives about the role of race in viandas, which might be because Shannon Lee Dawdy was doing an anthropological field study in modern-Cuba post-colonization (in rural areas where a large number of Cubans are either Cubans of Mixed descent or Afro Cuban), whereas Benitez-Rojo is a White Cuban writing nationalist Cuban pieces. 

Cookbooks are an opportunity to see “the daily practice of social production and reproduction,” and Christine Folch observes that cookbooks serve as a way to nationalize consumption of food and enforce identities that are tied to food (Folch 208-9). 

Cuban nationalism and identity is forming through messages ingrained in cookbooks found from 1857 to 1960s, sometimes with contradictory notions because of hotly debated topics like Cubanidad (Cuban identity) and the erasure of race (209-213). In the 1930s, yucca was categorized underneath Afro Cuban recipes alongside other viandas and starchy vegetables (like yams) (214). Several other cookbooks existed around the time period and earlier, however these were largely written by elite Cuban women of European descent, which is likely they omitted African-associated ingredients like yucca. This emphasizes the connection that yucca has towards Cubans of African descent (and likely Cubans of Mixed descent as well). Don Fernando Ortiz, a Cuban essayist and scholar on Afro Cuban culture, writes about the impact of American foods like yucca on African diets and cuisine as it traveled to the “New World,” changing the narrative that it was really American foods that impacted a diet largely preserved from African origins (rather than African foods that came to impact a “Cuban” diet) (220). 

In addition, Folch argues that “nearly every cookbook from 1900 to 1959 endeavor[ed] to position Cuba as principally European and white,” which provides a comparison to later editions of cookbooks or Cuban cooking resources post-Revolution (220). He makes another claim that Afro Cubans created Cuban cuisine, however cookbooks written around this time period would attempt to “civilize” the diet and provide a European bias or filter (221). 

It is difficult to pinpoint the exact moment that yucca became appropriated as part of a racially ambiguous Cuban diet. However, a clear shift in cookbooks occurred when Castro came into power and enacted his new radical reforms to Cuba. This came in the form of Nitza Villapol, a Cuban-American woman famous for writing the revolutionary cookbook and four-decade old cooking program both called Cocina Al Minuto (1  Cope ). Nitza Villapol, born in New York City in 1923 to Cuban immigrants, moved back to Cuba to become a host and writer for Cuban-centric meals and cuisine. Suzanne Cope, who wrote two articles  “How Iconic Cookbooks Reflect the Politics of the World Around Them”  and  “When Revolution Came to the Kitchens of Cuba”  describes the importance of Nitza Villapol in teaching generations of Cubans a variety of pro-Cuban nationalist recipes during the Castro’s regime. In each episode, Villapol educates Cubans on a variety of traditional Cuban dishes, often with a change in light of food shortages. After Castro came into power, “dishes from still-available native ingredients, like malanga and black beans, were elevated,” and Villapol advocated for innovative and creative approaches to traditional Cuban recipes—normally substitutes for locally-sourced foods or foods that were scarce (particularly during the economic crisis of the Special Period) (2 Cope). 

Nitza Villapol, iconic for many Cubans for providing ways to thrive off deprivation, is symbolic of a greater change in the Cuban attitude towards food. For example, she advises shredded plantains as a substitute for beef in a traditionally meat-heavy Cuban meal ropa vieja. For a diet known to eat heavily in meat, this was a radical change, but one that was facilitated by times of hardship and scarcity. Having been educated in nutrition, Villapol would offer ways to get the most out of a meal. For example, explaining the nutritional value of a plantain peel while preparing to serve it as a meal. 

In a time of disparity, the lines between African labelled foods and European labelled foods begins to blur. Underneath the Castro regime, locally sourced foods like yucca reign supreme and are relabelled as simply “Cuban Food.” In post-Revolution Cuba, Cuban food is merged into one and redistributed as a cuisine for all. There is likely not a single defining event in which yucca is no longer considered Afro Cuban or associated as inferior, but the closest might be the takeover of the Castro government in 1959. 

Nowadays, yucca is considered a staple part of Cuban cuisine. Since Cubans have emigrated in mass waves to the United States, there have been Cuban restaurants that honor the tradition of yuca in traditional Cuban dishes. For example, Lisa Maya Knauer explores latinization of New York City through the lens of a popular Cuban restaurant called Victor’s Cafe. At his cafe, yucca is found in dishes like yuca con mojo, which is “boiled cassava with garlic sauce, a standard side dish),” in addition to being served as fingers to dip into a cilantro salsa (434 Knauer). 

Just as Dawdy finds yucca served as a side on the sitios of Cuba, as per the requirement to have a vianda as a side, yuca finds itself migrating across the waters between Cuba and the United States in a largely conserved cuisine (48 Dawdy).

What is the truth about Cuban cuisine? Is it, as Don Fernando Ortiz describes, an African cuisine blended with Indigenous Cuban ingredients and foods? Is it, as pre-Revolution elite White Cubans wrote in their cookbooks, largely European? Is it the Castro definition, in which race is no longer applicable and it is only Cuban? Regardless of all these various opinions about the Cuban cuisine and identity, it is undeniable the impact and influence of Afro Cubans in shaping Cuban cuisine as it is known today, including the Cuban staple food yucca. Unless native Taino, nearly every Cuban came from somewhere else—whether it came on slave ships or in waves of immigration. It is appropriate to acknowledge the diversity and backgrounds that have come to blend with Cuban culture and foods, as is seen with the remarkable crop: yucca.

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