UC Riverside

Alejandro Garcia Caturla is regarded as one of the founders of the Cuban Afro-Cubanism style, though often overshadowed by his contemporary Roldán. After attempts to convince Carpentier to write an Afro-Cuban ballet for him failed, the opportunity to collaborate with Carpentier finally presented itself in the form of La Manita en el Suelo, an opera buffa in one act and five scenes, drawing from a combination of both visual and musical elements of African, European, and Latin heritage within Cuban folklore. Carpentier’s collaboration with Caturla was meant to unite the myths and legends of all three cultures, each personified as characters in the story, into one vibrant and accessible production. Due in part to Caturla’s untimely death, La Manita en el Suelo was never performed in its entirety with the staging that Caturla and Carpentier envisioned. Drawing from the works of Charles White, Malena Kuss, and others, this project examines nationalism, surrealism, and folklore in Alejandro Garcia Caturla and Alejo Carpentier’s puppet opera, La Manita en el Suelo, and offers a fresh analysis of the work with details instructions on the author’s plans to revive it through live storytelling and stop-motion animation.