El Monte

Notes on the Religions, Magic, and Folklore of the Black and Creole People of Cuba

Lydia Cabrera author David Font-Navarrete translator

Format:Paperback

Publisher:Duke University Press

Published:26th May '23

Should be back in stock very soon

This paperback is available in another edition too:

El Monte cover

First published in Cuba in 1954 and appearing here in English for the first time, Lydia Cabrera’s El Monte is a foundational and iconic study of Afro-Cuban religious and cultural traditions. Drawing on conversations with elderly Afro-Cuban priests who were one or two generations away from the transatlantic slave trade, Cabrera combines ethnography, history, folklore, literature, and botany to provide a panoramic account of the multifaceted influence of Afro-Atlantic cultures in Cuba. Cabrera details the natural and spiritual landscape of the Cuban monte (forest, wilderness) and discusses hundreds of herbs and the constellations of deities, sacred rites, and knowledge that envelop them. The result is a complex spiritual and medicinal architecture of Afro-Cuban cultures. This new edition of what is often referred to as “the Santería bible” includes a new foreword, introduction, and translator notes. As a seminal work in the study of the African diaspora that has profoundly impacted numerous fields, Cabrera’s magnum opus is essential for scholars, activists, and religious devotees of Afro-Cuban traditions alike.

"A monumental compendium. . . . includes a priceless, botanical encyclopaedia that will be an essential resource for herbalists everywhere." -- Gavin O'Toole * Latin American Review of Books *
"That Lydia Cabrera’s magnum opus El Monte is finally available in an English translation is a reason to celebrate. . . . Font-Navarrete must be complimented for his remarkable sensitivity in navigating Cabrera’s often highly idiosyncratic prose, his careful footnotes, and not the least his excellent 'Translator’s Notes,' tellingly subtitled 'Reading El Monte in the Twenty-First Century.'" -- Stephan Palmié * Journal of Religion *
"Approached as a compendium of religious knowledge, a work of literature, a historical source or an experimental, outsider ethnography, this marvelous translation makes El Monte more accessible to English-language readers." -- Kristina Wirtz * Latin American Research Review *
"The first English translation of an ethnographic masterwork on the constellation of religious traditions of the African diaspora in Cuba. . . . David Font-Navarrete’s translation work is masterful. . . ." -- Zachary Schwarze * Religious Studies Review *
"A real treasure." -- Richard Price and Sally Price * New West Indian Guide *

ISBN: 9781478018735

Dimensions: unknown

Weight: 1383g

680 pages