SOURCE: "West African and Hispanic Elements in Nicolás Guillén's 'La canción del bongó'," in SAB: South Atlantic Bulletin, Vol. XLV, No. 1, January, 1980, pp. 47-53.

In the following essay, Martin examines elements of West African and Hispanic folk music forms in the poem "La canción del bongó. "

"La canción del bongó," originally published in Guillén's Sóngoro Cosongo (1931), is a poem that succinctly illustrates the fusion of the West African and Hispanic oral traditions. This is so because it is a romance which functions like a son. Moreover, the image of the son, which infuses this poema mulato, is projected as a symbol of Cuba's cultural essence, which Guillén defines as mulatismo in his prologue to Sóngoro Cosongo:

Diré fmalmente, que ésos son unos versos mulatos. Participan acaso de los mismos elementos que entran en la composición étnica de...