Fernando Ortiz and Allan Kardec: Transmigration and Transculturation (2000)

Transculturation is inextricably linked to the spiritist tradition. In spite of an absence of explicit references in Ortiz’s last texts, we cannot continue to ignore the philosophical contribution of Kardec to his thought. In Ortiz we find the nationalization, historicization and anthropologization of Kardec’s theory of the transmigration of souls. This is the renovation that continued to fascinate Ortiz. Transculturation was constructed taking as its point of departure the categories transmigration, displacement, spiritual progress and evolution. I cannot comment here on the Contrapunteo cubano del tabaco y el azúcar, but it will not be difficult for the reader to discover how much denser and richer the concept of transculturation becomes in the context of Kardecism. For Ortiz the history of humanity is also a history of souls in transmigration. The lesson Ortiz drew from Kardec silently resounds through his foundational texts of Cuban nationality: the spirit cannot be reduced to the body.

Díaz-Quiñones, Arcadio. “Fernando Ortiz and Allan Kardec: Transmigration and Transculturation.” The Cultures of the Hispanic Caribbean, translated by John Perivolaris, edited by Conrad James and John Perivolaris, U of Florida P, 2000, pp. 9-27.

Imagen:  xilografía  “La fiesta de Loíza” del artista José R. Alicea.  De la colección de Alma Concepción y Díaz-Quiñones.