Latin American Studies: Fernando Ortiz Essay

Introduction

Individuals of Latin American origin have contributed to science and intellectual progress in many ways, including cultural research. Fernando Ortiz, an anthropologist from Cuba, is among the influential thinkers of the twentieth century. The purpose of this paper is to summarize key biographical facts about Fernando Ortiz, his famous works, recognition, and journey as a professional.

Key Biographical Details

The chosen Latin American intellectual’s full name is Fernando Ortiz Fernández. Commonly known as Fernando Ortiz, he was born in Havana on the sixteenth of July in 1881 (González Echevarría). Ortiz died in his native land on the tenth of April in 1969 (González Echevarría). This person passed away at the age of eighty-seven years, and his relatively long life enabled the intellectual to leave a significant cultural and research legacy.

Practiced Professions

As a well-educated individual of great erudition, Ortiz practiced a series of intellectually demanding professions during his life. As a young man, he commenced his professional life as a criminology specialist and a lawyer (González Echevarría; Reichardt 69). In that career, he joined the ranks of the first experts to argue for the uses of dactyloscopy by police departments and was particularly interested in exploring Havana’s Black criminals (González Echevarría).

Those endeavors further refined his research interests and facilitated his growing willingness to pursue careers in writing and culture studies. Thus, in the early 1900s, he contributed to Cuba’s academic community as a researcher and a writer by working on “Los Negros Brujos” – a book on Afro-Cuban criminals’ culture and attitudes to religion (González Echevarría). During his career as an essayist and a scholar, Ortiz saturated his knowledge in different fields, including anthropology, history, linguistics, and music (González Echevarría). In 1949, he was even appointed judge of the Cuban courts (Reichardt 70). Overall, the intellectual’s professional activity was diverse and fruitful.

Awards and Participation in Organizations

Not much is known about formal awards that the scholar received during his lifetime, but his participation in organizations and movements was extremely productive. The lack of formal recognition could be due to his confrontation with Gerardo Machado, Cuba’s former president and dictator (Reichardt 70). More than fifty years after Ortiz’s death, he is globally known as the father of Cuban anthropology for his works on Afro-Cuban music and the role of tobacco and sugar in Cuban culture (Reichardt 70). Right after his death, the Fernando Ortiz Foundation was established in Havana to preserve the scholar’s legacy (González Echevarría).

As for participation in organizations, Ortiz co-founded the Cuban Academy of the Language in the mid-1920s and the Society of Afro-Cuban Studies in 1937 (González Echevarría). He contributed to the creation of three journals, including Ultra, Surco, and Afro-Cuban Studies (González Echevarría; Reichardt 70). Therefore, Ortiz had an active position regarding cultural studies and knowledge progression.

Major Works

Ortiz published a number of books about culture and language. His most famous works include “Black Sorcerers” and “Black Slaves” about Afro-Cuban offenders and their origin and a book titled “Cuban Counterpoint: Tobacco and Sugar” about alimentary products’ roles in the unique culture of Cuba (González Echevarría). Other major works include “A Load of Cubanisms” and “A Glossary of Africanisms” (González Echevarría). In them, Ortiz explores words with African roots in Cuban Spanish.

Conclusion

To sum up, Fernando Ortiz can be justly considered a pioneer in anthropological and ethnomusicological research pertaining to Afro-Cuban culture. A person with a well-furnished mind, he worked in different fields and became a prominent author due to the uniqueness of research subjects in his books. Ortiz’s contributions to Cuba’s cultural studies were dignified after his death.

Works Cited

González Echevarría, Roberto. “Fernando Ortiz: Cuban Anthropologist.” Encyclopedia Britannica. Web.

Reichardt, Dagmar. “Creating Notions of Transculturality: The Work of Fernando Ortiz and His Impact on Europe.” World Literature and the Postcolonial: Narratives of (Neo) Colonialization in a Globalized World, edited by Elke Sturm-Trigonakis, J.B. Metzler, 2020, pp. 69-83.