The cubanity of Domingo del Monte: between insularity and American hispanicism

Abstract

In 1833 Domingo del Monte —under the pseudonym of Ignacio Herrera Dávila— published in Cuba the Rimas americanas. The title of this curious anthology allows us to include it in the tradition of American anthologies, whose referent more renowned is the anthology of Juan María Gutiérrez, América poética, 1846. At the same time, we can establish some relationships with the first Americanism, understood as the movement that brought together writers and intellectuals in the debate about the American identity, in the first half of the nineteenth century. However, it is necessary to recognize that the paradigmatic place of Domingo del Monte in the political and cultural environment of the island, implies to consider the paradoxical relationships of Modernity. Americanism, Insularity and Hispanic are categories used to read and analyze the work of Del Monte. In this perspective, we propose to read the anthology as a text that condenses the tensions unresolved around the Cuban patriotic identity. On the other hand, this text allows that we identify some of the contradictory matrices that expose the ideological position of Domingo del Monte. At the same time, this approach to Rimas americanas offers a reading key to investigate other texts by Domingo del Monte as also traced the projections of his thought in the twentieth century.