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The first comprehensive exploration of the life, work, and legacy of internationally acclaimed Afro-Cuban filmmaker Gloria Rolando.
For over three decades, Gloria Rolando has created films that challenge the erasure of Black history in Cuba and the Americas more broadly. Working independently through her production company Imágenes del Caribe as well as with the Cuban National Film Institute, ICAIC, Rolando has illuminated hidden histories, interrogated narratives of raceless nationalism and mestizaje, and centered the lived experiences of Afro-descendant communities as well as diasporic connections. Gloria Rolando brings together scholars, artists, and activists from Cuba, Latin America, the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom to explore Rolando’s profound impact. Blending personal essays, interviews, film analyses, and archival images, the volume uncovers the power of visual storytelling to honor memory and inspire liberation.
"This volume brings much deserved attention to Gloria Rolando's work and its contributions to Cuban and Afro-diasporic histories, dialogues on race and racism within Cuba, and knowledge of Afro-descendant experiences. Mirroring Rolando's approach to history and culture through family histories and memories, the critical analyses of her films are framed by rich biographical accounts, interviews, and personal reflections by close friends and colleagues. These other genres provide context for understanding both the significance of Rolando's films and the difficult conditions under which she has rescued voices and archival material to tell the stories of communities forgotten or marginalized by mainstream Cuban history. Like her films, Gloria Rolando leads the reader to view Cuba as part of a layered, interconnected African Diaspora in the Caribbean and beyond." — Andrea E. Morris, author of Migrant and Tourist Encounters: The Ethics of Im/mobility in 21st Century Dominican and Cuban Cultures
"Gloria's work is about Gloria but was never only about Gloria. In centering her work, the volume also centers its key themes—memory, the Caribbean, Black women's history, race, gender, film, diaspora. A brilliant and important contribution to film studies, Latin American studies, African Diaspora studies, gender studies, and more." — Tanya L. Saunders, author of Cuban Underground Hip Hop: Black Thoughts, Black Revolution, Black Modernity
Andrea J. Queeley is Associate Professor of Anthropology and African and African Diaspora Studies at Florida International University. She is the author of Rescuing Our Roots: The African Anglo-Caribbean Diaspora in Contemporary Cuba. Devyn Spence Benson is Associate Professor of History and African American and Africana Studies at the University of Kentucky. She is the author of Antiracism in Cuba: The Unfinished Revolution and editor, with Daisy Rubiera Castillo and Inés María Martiatu Terry, of the English version of Afrocubanas: History, Thought, and Cultural Practices. Yesenia Fernández Selier was a performer, artist, and doctoral candidate working on a dissertation entitled "Representing and Performing Afro Latino: The Cultural Production of Race in the Spanish Caribbean, 1812–1950."
Preface: Reflections from the Editors
Preface Coda: In Loving Memory of Our Dear Sister and Coeditor, Yesenia Fernández Selier
Acknowledgments
Gloria Rolando's Films
Introduction: Maroon and Matriarch: Introducing the Life and Work of Black Cuban Filmmaker Gloria Rolando
Part One: Conception
1. The Cinematic Works of Cuban Filmmaker Gloria Rolando
Yasmani Castro Caballero
2. Gloria in Me
Alexey..el tipo este..Rodríguez Mola
3. Listening to What the Roots Have to Say: They Speak of Our Grandmothers and Great-Grandmothers
Norma Rita Guillard Limonta
Part Two: Birth
4. The Life and Work of Afro-Cuban Filmmaker Gloria Rolando: Conversations with Magia López and Catherine Murphy
Magia López Cabrera and Catherine Murphy
5. Africa, the Caribbean, and Afro-America in Cuban Film: An Interview with Gloria Rolando
Jean Stubbs
6. An Optimistic Vision: Reflections from Sound Engineer Juan Demosthene
Interview by Andrea J. Queeley
7. "Aquellas monjas negras que vinieron de Baltimore": Gloria Rolando on Her Documentary Hermanas del corazón (Sisters of the Heart)
Interview by Amberly A. Ellis-Rodríguez
Part Three: Life
8. Gloria Rolando's Archival Imaginary
Susan Lord
9. "Yuh Luk Lik Kin": Historical and Contemporary Identities Among Anglophone Afrodescendants in Hispanophone Regions
Dash Harris
10. Race, Remembrance, and the Revolutionary Visual Historian: Gloria Rolando's Breaking the Silence
Geoffroy de Laforcade
11. Antidotes to Anti-Blackness: Emancipatory Remembering and Rolando's "Rescue Work"
Andrea J. Queeley
12. The Role of Space, Time, and Language to Communicate Memory in Gloria Rolando's Work
Thalía Díaz Vieta
13. Wombs and the Maternal Essence in the Cinematic Poetics of Gloria Rolando
Maydi Estrada Bayona
14. Gloria Rolando: Bibliography and Filmography
Gayle Ann Williams
Part Four: Love: A Reflection
15. Teaching the World: Gloria Rolando's Soft, Clear, Superhero Voice
Colette Gaiter
16. Ready for the Revolution? A Diasporic Sister's Memoir
Lisa Brock
17. Gloria, Sara, and Landrián: Black Gaze and Death in Cuban Cinema
Yesenia Fernández Selier
List of Contributors
Index