Edited by Alberto Sosa-Cabanas, El Monte’s New Itineraries: Afrodiasporic Spirituality in the Contemporary Caribbean was published by Rutgers University Press in April 2026. Mabel Cuesta (University of Houston) writes, “Vibrant, daring, and deeply grounded, this book reimagines Lydia Cabrera’s work for our time. Moving across literature, ethnography, and visual culture, the essays uncover how Cabrera’s El Monte continues to breathe through the Caribbean’s art, spirituality, and politics. This collection proves that Cabrera’s forest of symbols is still very much alive and more relevant than ever.”
Description: El Monte’s New Itineraries is the first book fully devoted to the study of Cuban author and ethnographer Lydia Cabrera’s El Monte (1954), one of the most influential books in Caribbean cultural history. Highly referenced, if understudied, El Monte is a comprehensive work that intertwines ethnobotany, popular orality, and Afro-Cuban traditions. Its pages have enjoyed a transnational influence, enriching domains such as ethnography, politics, theater, and even science fiction literature in the Caribbean, and the knowledge contained in it lies at the heart of Afrodiasporic spirituality and ethnomedicinal practices across Hispanic Caribbean cultures and beyond.
ALBERTO SOSA-CABANAS is an assistant professor in the Department of English and Modern Languages at Hampton University. His academic work on the intersections between racism and cultural production has received numerous awards and recognitions, including fellowship support from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Institute for the Study of Global Racial Justice (ISGRJ), the Tinker Foundation, and the Cuban Research Institute (FIU). His essays can be found in the journals Revista Iberoamericana, Cuban Studies, and Decimonónica. He is the editor of the volume Reading Cuba, Discurso Literario y Geografía Transcultural (Valencia, Aduana Vieja, 2018).
For more information, see https://www.rutgersuniversitypress.org/el-monte-s-new-itineraries/9781978846265
Edited by Alberto Sosa-Cabanas, El Monte’s New Itineraries: Afrodiasporic Spirituality in the Contemporary Caribbean was published by Rutgers University Press in April 2026. Mabel Cuesta (University of Houston) writes, “Vibrant, daring, and deeply grounded, this book reimagines Lydia Cabrera’s work for our time. Moving across literature, ethnography, and visual culture, the essays uncover how Cabrera’s El Monte continues to