Natalia Bolívar Aróstegui

Cuban writer, essayist, researcher, visual artist and ethnologist. She was director of the National Museum of Fine Arts and participated in the creation and direction of the Napoleonic Museums, Decorative Arts and Numismatic, of the National Bank of Cuba. She is a member of UNEAC. A specialist in Afro-Cuban religions, she gives lectures and has advised on feature films and theatrical works such as: Fresa y Chocolate; Iré y Habana. She is the author, among other works, of: Los orishas en Cuba; Opolopo Owó; Ta Makuende Yaya y las Reglas de Palo Monte; Cuba Santa; La Muerte es principio, no fin. Quintín Bandera; and in collaboration with Carmen González Díaz de Villegas: Ituto: la muerte en la mitología afrocubana y sincretismo religioso, and Mitos y leyendas de la comida afrocubana.

The Bolívars were Basques who came to America as conquerors and there is evidence that they held prominent positions in South America from 1553. Their kinship with the Liberator comes through their grandfather, Don Juan de Bolívar y Villegas, who was governor of the province of Caracas and Captain General of Venezuela at the end of the seventeenth century. The eldest son of Don Juan, Pedro de Bolívar y Aguirre, founded the Cuban branch of Natalia's family after being sent to Santiago de Cuba as a young lieutenant in the Army of the Crown of Spain. There Pedro de Bolívar met and married the daughter of a Spanish brigadier Juana Agustina González de Peña y López de Queralta.

Her father's family has a tradition of fighting for independence and against dictatorships. When Cuba's struggle for independence from Spain began, three of them, her father's uncles, fought alongside Cuban forces, one of them Arturo Bolívar, became aide-de-camp to Antonio Maceo at 17 years of age and died in combat at 18. Her father Arturo Bolívar y Bolívar (he had the double surname because his parents were cousins) a career military man, became involved in the resistance against Machado's dictatorship at age 30.

On her mother's side, María Teresa Aróstegui y González de Mendoza; the Aróstegui and González de Mendoza families came to Cuba from Spain at the end of the seventeenth and beginning of the eighteenth centuries. The Aróstegui, who settled in Camagüey, had strong artistic inclinations. Her mother's sister, Natalia Aróstegui was a founder of the Pro-Arte Society of Havana and also sponsored many famous Cuban artists in New York: Alicia Alonso, Rita Montaner, composer Ernesto Lecuona, among others. All the Aróstegui played musical instruments and the family held musical gatherings and organized theatrical functions. The Aróstegui were those who instilled in Natalia cultural values and the importance of developing a rich inner life.

Natalia was born into a family of Havana's aristocracy; she had a very close-knit family that gathered every Sunday. As a child she studied ballet and swam a lot with her siblings at the club, where she was a champion swimmer in the breaststroke at the Biltmore Yacht Club, until she was 15 years old. She used to spend vacations in Santiago de Cuba with the Bolívar branch of her family. Her cousin Caridad Bolívar was married to Joaquín Bacardí – of the Bacardí rum family – and had a daughter her age.

She studied at the American school here in Havana called "St. George School" and later at a Catholic school, Sagrado Corazón.

She graduated with a Bachelor's degree in Sciences and Letters from Sagrado Corazón de Jesús. And in 1954 she took evening courses at the school attached to San Alejandro where she studied painting and sculpture. She gave private painting lessons with Hipólito Hidalgo de Caviedes. She also graduated from Madame Trottier's French School.

She traveled to New York in the summer of 1955 and took a course in life drawing, painting and artistic composition at the Arts Students League, with professors Will Barnet, Morris Kanton and Norman Rockwell, who offered her a scholarship to stay at the school but her father had suffered a heart attack and decided to return to Cuba. By then she had already turned 19.

She held her first solo exhibition of painting and drawing at the "Nuestro Tiempo" gallery in Havana, presented by art critic Rafael Suárez Solis. She took courses in Cuban art at what was then the School of Philosophy and Letters at the University of Havana.

By 1956 the University was closed due to student unrest and protests against Batista's dictatorship; so she began taking courses in Spanish Art, Chinese Art, Egyptology, and Cuban Art offered by the National Institute of Culture and the Cuban National Museum.

She took her first steps at the National Museum of Fine Arts of Cuba, where she worked as a guide and English and French interpreter. Later she took charge of the Cuban Ethnology room, where she worked under the direction of Lydia Cabrera.

From 1955 to 1958 she studied with Doctor Fernando Ortiz and Doctor Lydia Cabrera the most important courses for her, Research Methodology, Ethnography and Afro-Cuban Ethnography.

She received important courses in artistic specialization of great value for her professional training, among others: Panorama of Spanish Art, at the Higher Studies center of the National Institute of Culture; Museums and Education, sponsored by the Cultural Institute of World Organizations (ICOM); Chinese Art, at the Lyceum Society of Havana; Egyptology, taught by the curator of the Metropolitan Museum of New York Bernard von Venthneer; Archaeology by Doctors Herrea Fritot, Tabío and Pérez de la Riva; Cuban Art by Doctor Martha de Castro. Ethnology by Don Fernando Ortiz and Lydia Cabrera.

She continued her professional training under the guidance of professors Argeliers León, Lydia Cabrera and Don Fernando Ortiz in Ethnology and Folklore. In July of that year she was arrested and taken to the Bureau of Investigations by Colonel Orlando Piedra and Julio Stelio Laurent Rodríguez, both in the service of Fulgencio Batista.
She later went underground along with prominent figures in the Cuban Revolution, such as: Raúl Díaz Argüelles, Gustavo Machín, Alberto Mora, Julio García Oliveras, until the triumph of January 1, 1959.

While Natalia was working at the National Museum she became sentimentally involved with José Luis Wangüemert around 1955-1956 who also worked there. He was the son of one of Cuba's best journalists at that time, Luis Gómez Wangüemert. It was through José Luis that Natalia became connected to the Revolutionary Directorate. Later in the attack on Radio Reloj station on March 13, 1957, in the same operation commanded in which José A. Echeverría died, José Luis was killed.

Natalia became a member of the Executive Bureau of the Directorate. She also represented the Directorate in the Executive Bureau of an organization called "United Oppositionist Women" which played an important role in culture three years before the victory of the Revolution in 1959, because it united women of all tendencies who opposed Batista's dictatorship. They tried to help political prisoners, rebels, exiled Cubans and their families. In July 1958 she was arrested and tortured at the Bureau of Investigations which was under the command of Orlando Piedra and the then Colonel Laurent. She later managed to seek asylum at the Brazilian Embassy, which she left and went underground. She participated as a member of an action group of the Directorate in acts of sabotage, and was one of the organizers of the attack on the 15th Police Station.

With the revolutionary triumph she was appointed director of the Palace of Fine Arts (now National Museum of Fine Arts) undertaking its restoration and reorganization. Simultaneously she participates in the creation and direction of the Napoleonic Museum, located in the former residence of a senator from the republican period. For its creation she participated in the selection of the collection that was to augment the Museum's holdings, which belonged to wealthy Cuban Julio Lobo. She received the course in Pre-Columbian Art, at the General Office of Culture.

In 1961 sponsored by UNESCO, she received a course in Art, at the "José Martí" National Library and in 1962 she studied Museography taught by Soviet specialist Eugenia Gueorguievskaya, from the Pushkin museum.

She established an internal control system for the works of the Fine Arts Museum, through a methodology that constituted an important step in the conservation of this institution's holdings.

Sponsored by UNESCO, she won a scholarship to study Museology in the museums of Paris and Specialized Cataloging which she applied to the works treasured by the National Museum of Fine Arts.

She continued receiving courses in Cuban Art, Colonial Art, Oriental Art, Eskimo Art, among others.

She began working as a civil servant in the Ministry of Agriculture, where she continued her artistic work through the organization of exhibitions in rural breeding centers, farms, etc., bringing an appreciation for art to the rural communities of the former province of Havana.

She served as design director for contemporary Cuban jewelry at the National Bank of Cuba in 1971, exploiting for the first time in our country the semi-precious stone and in 1974 she became director and organizer of the Numismatic Museum of the National Bank of Cuba, faithfully restoring its seat in the old building that was occupied by Banco Gelats y Cía, one of the oldest Cuban banking institutions.

She advises and directs catalogs, pamphlets and books published by the museum, such as: Mexican ceramics and coins, catalogs of Cuban bills and coins; the Sugar Token; El Calesero: galloons and buttons; Catalog of ICAIC awards; catalog of Alicia Alonso, the National Ballet of Cuba; INDER catalog with all its awards. She mixed Numismatics which was extremely dry with painting, ceramics, sculpture and art in general. She also directed numerous numismatic exhibitions:
- "Soviet power is 60 years old"
- "Medals and trophies of Cuban cinema"
- "José Martí: numismatics, economy, history"
- "Images of flora", among others.

She worked on the Sixth Summit of Non-Aligned Countries under the direction of Ricardo Alarcón de Quesada (Organizing Secretary) who was President of the National Assembly of People's Power.
She was Head of Dissemination at the National Theater of Cuba. She advised various theatrical works: "Réquiem por Yarini", "Santa Camila de La Habana Vieja" and "Electra Garrigó", directed by prominent theatrical director Armando Suárez del Villar. In the feature film "Brascuba" by directors Orlando Senna of Brazil and Santiago Álvarez of Cuba, she participates as a musical advisor.

In 1982 she collaborated in the costume design for the film "Gallego" by Manuel Octavio Gómez, in 1984 she dedicates herself entirely to the study of Afro-Cuban religions.

Between 1987 and 1988 she publishes articles in the fixed section "Afro-Cuban Folklore" of the Venezuelan magazine Cábala and in 1989 she sends to print her first book "Los Orishas en Cuba".

In 1990 she publishes in La Gaceta de Cuba her article "De Orixas y Orishas. Brasil y Cuba, una sola raíz étnica". It is officially presented in the Cuban edition of her book "Los Orishas en Cuba". Reynaldo González, now President of the Cuban Film Library and editor of the work, was in charge of the opening remarks at the National Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba (UNEAC). Launches of this book are also made in the capital municipalities of Regla, Guanabacoa and Plaza de la Revolución. All these activities are supported by the group of Jesús Pérez, of the National Dance of Cuba; the Ilú Aña group with the batá drums of Regino Jiménez, Fermín Nani and José Pilar, performed Yoruba chants; actor Miguel Benavides made an invocation to the orishas for peace and prosperity in Cuba.

In 1991 she publishes at Arena Editorial in Miami (Florida) her book "Ituto: la muerte en la mitología afrocubana y sincretismo religioso". Lithography and Printing Lil of San José, Costa Rica, makes the first expanded edition of "Los Orishas en Cuba". The Guanabacoa Museum gives her recognition for her participation in the II Colloquium of Local History. She grants numerous national and international press and radio interviews on religious topics and her life. She publishes in the magazine Revolución y Cultura: "Cuba: imágenes y relatos de un mundo mágico" co-authored with prominent photographer Emilio Reyes Pérez. The Puerto Rican newspaper "El nuevo día" publishes her work "Afro-Cuban and Creole Food", with drawings by José Luis Díaz de Villegas and "Santa Bárbara / Changó one single devotion". She provides technical guidance regarding the Orishas, to the almanac of African deities, published by Aero Caribbean. For the National Day of the Republic of Benin, she gives a conference on "The influence of Dahomeyan culture in Cuba", at the headquarters of the Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba. She is invited by the Casa de las Américas to the colloquium "In search of the Haitian Revolution, in its bicentennial", to give a lecture on "Magical-religious beliefs in Cuba and Haiti".

In March 1992 she gives a lecture at the I Cuban Symposium of Cynology, on "The Orishas and dogs". Her book "Los Orishas en Cuba" is auctioned in several bookstores in the city of Havana and a special one in Costa Rica. She grants national and international press and radio interviews on Afro-Cuban religious topics. The Havana municipality of La Lisa gives her the Crystal Pen Award as the most read writer in that year. She visits New York in June, invited along with musicologists Helio Orovio and Radamés Giro by the university in that city. Cuban danceable music, the Rumba and other manifestations of our musical heritage were the topics presented to students of the Graduate College.

Social Sciences Editorial publishes her work in 1993 "Mitos y Leyendas de la comida afrocubana" co-authored with Carmen González Díaz de Villegas, a researcher on these topics. This book is presented by Guillermo Jiménez (historian and his colleague from the Revolutionary Directorate) in the gardens of the National Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba, accompanied by reciter Luis Carbonell, who recited fruit vendor calls accompanied by the National Folk Ensemble. In June she gives a lecture at the Higher Pedagogical Institute "Enrique José Varona" on "The knowledge of Ifá, the wandering of Orula through the ancient world". She participates in the seventh edition of the Festival of Music and Dance of African roots "Wemilere" celebrated in Guanabacoa. She teaches a series of lectures at the Arab Union of Cuba, including: "The knowledge of Ifá and the wandering of Orula through the ancient world"; "Ifá, Baba Eyiogbe and the Essenes"; "Egyptians and Oyekun Meyi". She offers at the Casa de Las Américas another important lecture titled "Necessary tribute to Lydia Cabrera and her egguns".

The Library of the Havana municipality of Playa invites her, within the framework of the culture day to give a lecture on "Religious Panorama", accompanied by the queen of guaguancó Celeste Mendoza. She grants several interviews for the national and international press, radio and television. Her book "Myths and legends of Afro-Cuban foods" is transcribed to Braille. She drafts the opening remarks and introduction to the catalog of the first solo exhibition of young artists from Matanzas, brothers Correa "Aburé Orisha". Heluno Group of Jovellanos. Invited by the Superior Institute of Art she gives a lecture on "Orishas, egguns, nkisis, nfumbes and possession of Cuban painting", at the VII conference of scientific research on art and culture. She gives the opening remarks for the solo exhibition of Pedro García Espinosa "Orishas at the Cuban Film Library", Chaplin room. She gives a lecture on "Panorama of religion" at the Technical Department of Investigations (D.T.I.).

Social Sciences Editorial publishes "Opolopo Owó" in 1994. Invited to the III International Symposium "Afroamerica and its religious culture". She travels to the University of Recinto de Río Piedras in Puerto Rico and gives a lecture on "Ifá-Orula in the wandering through ancient civilizations". She also visits in that country the University College of Cayey and the restaurant "El Patakí de Ochún", where she also gives lectures. She conducts a series of lectures at The Banff Centre for the Arts, in Alberta, Canada. The Pablo Milanés Foundation publishes a revised and expanded edition by Olochas and Ifá notebooks of "Los Orishas en Cuba". The Pablo de la Torriente Brau Editorial publishes her pamphlets: "Orishas, Egguns, Nkisis, Nfumbes and their possession of Cuban painting" and "Dogs and the Orishas".

The Association of Combatants of the Cuban Revolution gives her recognition for her active contribution to the actions carried out on March 13, 1957, organized by the Revolutionary Directorate directed by José Antonio Echeverría to fulfill the commitment made in Mexico, in the struggle of the Cuban people for their national and social liberation. She also receives the following recognitions: for her firmness in the prisons of the Batista tyranny and her loyalty and dedication to the revolutionary cause on the 186th birthday of Mariana Grajales. She also receives the decorations: 20th Anniversary of the Moncada, Clandestine Struggle and the 20th and 30th Anniversary of the Revolutionary Armed Forces. She travels to the United States and gives a lecture at the Wolfson campus of Miami-Dade Community College on "Necessary tribute to Lydia Cabrera and her egguns".

The Panapo Editorial of Venezuela publishes in 1995 a new expanded edition of "Los Orishas en Cuba". She gives a lecture at the Provincial Library of the city of Havana "Rubén Martínez Villena" on "Necessary tribute to Lydia Cabrera and her egguns". She publishes co-authored with Mario López Cepero "Religious Syncretism? Santa Bárbara / Changó". The Pablo de la Torriente Brau Editorial publishes her pamphlet "Orula in the wandering through ancient civilizations". The House of African Culture gives her a Diploma for her valuable contribution to Afro-Cuban culture. She is honored at the Cuba Pavilion, where the edition made by the Pablo Milanés Foundation of the book "Los Orishas en Cuba" is auctioned. She conducts a series of lectures at the Casa de África including "Orula in the wandering through ancient civilizations". She is part of the editorial team of the magazine "Temas", where she publishes "Controversy: nation and identity" in a roundtable with other speakers. Reynaldo González (President of the Cuban Film Library) presents her book "Opolopo Owó" in Muñanga Efó land, in the Havana neighborhood of La Cuevita, municipality of San Miguel del Padrón. In the gardens of the National Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba, Guillermo Jiménez (colleague from the Revolutionary Directorate) presents her book "Santa Bárbara / Changó" with the Batá folk group of Contemporary Dance, actor Miguel Benavides and Coralia Rodríguez.

Invited by the Polytechnic University of Barcelona, she travels to Spain and gives a series of lectures where by way of introduction the Cuban film "Maluala" is shown and she continues giving the lectures: "The Rules of Palo" with the projection of the film "Enganga Kiñangula"; "The Rule of Ocha", with the projection of "Oggún" with Lázaro Ross; "The Secret Society Abakuá"; and "Spiritualism in Cuba". At the Provincial Center for Culture Improvement she gives the lecture "The Olú Añá", with the performance of Miguel Benavides and Coralia Rodríguez in Yoruba chants and dances. She gives a lecture at the Casa de Las Américas on "The Rules of Palo", accompanied by Coralia Rodríguez, Lázaro Ross (akpuón) and the amateur group "Los Nani". She travels to Venezuela to give a series of lectures at the Experimental Pedagogical University and the Pedagogical Institute of Caracas, on "Introduction to Afro-Cuban beliefs"; "Rules of Palo Monte"; "Secret Society Abakuá"; "Rules of Ocha or Santería"; "Divining systems (Ifá, Diloggún, Obbi)"; "Crossed spiritualism and the cult of María Lionza". She gives lectures at the House of Culture and Museum of Guanabacoa on "Foods in Cuban mythology" and "The rules of Palo".

The Association of Linguists of Cuba, English-speaking section invites her to give a lecture on "The Spirituality of Indians and Blacks in the Caribbean". As part of the activities of the Latin American Film Festival she gives a lecture titled "Obba" with the interpretation of actor Miguel Benavides and Coralia Rodríguez, of Yoruba chants and dances, typical of that deity. The House of Africa and the Office of the Historian of the City give her a Diploma for her valuable contribution to Afro-Cuban culture.

In 1996 she drafts the opening remarks and catalog text for the solo exhibition of Pedro García Espinosa, inspired by the book "Los Orishas en Cuba", exhibited at the Hotel Nacional. The Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba publishes "Ifá: su historia en Cuba", which is launched at the International Book Fair. It is later presented by writer Miguel Barnet at the headquarters of UNEAC. The National Secretariat of FEU delivers to her, in the Main Hall of the University of Havana on February 24, 1996, a diploma for her status as Founding Member of the Revolutionary Directorate, 40 years after its creation by José Antonio Echeverría on February 24, 1956. She offers a conversation with her colleague Guillermo Jiménez about the events of March 13, as well as the screening of a film titled "José Antonio" by Bernabé Hernández, organized by the Movement of University Catholic Students at the Church of San Juan de Letrán.

She gives a lecture at the National Center for Theater and Dance on the gestures in Afro-Cuban religions, accompanied by the performance of Mayra Arango, Miguel Benavides and Tomás Galo, who performed the mime of the religious manifestations of the Rule of Palo, Rule of Ocha and the Secret Society Abakuá.

Books

Los Orishas en Cuba. According to the author's own words it is a compendium of the pantheon of the rule of Ocha. "The explanations and conjectures of that tangled mythical universe come to us through legends and fables of a complexity or simplicity always seductive. They are the paths (avatars) of the orishas extending their mark to successive generations, it is a synthesis worthy of acclaim".

Ituto: death in Afro-Cuban myths and rituals.
One of the most interesting aspects of Afro-Cuban religion and most feared by all: death. Ceremonies and interesting aspects of the orishas related to it are explained.

Myths and Legends of Afro-Cuban Food. According to the authors "it is impossible to read it without pleasant memories of old home dishes coming to mind". Characteristics, histories and most important customs of the Abakuá secret society, the Rule of Ocha, Palo Monte and Patakies of Ifá are explained. Menus of the orishas appear. "Each orisha has a favorite delicacy".

Opolopo Owó: the divining systems of the Rule of Ocha.
Opolopo Owó: the divining systems of the Rule of Ocha. The work, according to its author, is an account of the divining systems of the Rule of Ocha (Santería). She considers the theme of Ifá in our country to be of great importance, and it is also a continuation of her book: Los orishas en Cuba.

Orishas, Egguns, Nkisis, Nfumbes and their possession of Cuban painting. Tribute to Cuban painters of the 1930s and their relationship with Afro-Cuban religious culture.

Orishas, Egguns, Nkisis, Nfumbes and their possession of Cuban painting

Dogs and the orishas. The author's tribute to the fidelity of these animals and their relationship with some orishas.

Orula in the wandering through ancient civilizations. Legends and stories of this major orisha.

Religious Syncretism? Santa Bárbara / Changó
By its authors, analyzes the existence of a true syncretism of the Catholic and Afro-Cuban religions.

Necessary Tribute to Lydia Cabrera and her egguns. Tribute to Lydia Cabrera, anthropologist par excellence, teacher of generations.

Ifá: its history in Cuba (essay). Relates oddunes, patakies, oracles and gives us similarities and differences between Ifá and Osha.

Ifá: its history in Cuba: essay

Cuba Santa: Tells the history of Cuba but through the stories of religions, from the aborigines to the arrival of the Pope.

Specialist in Afro-Cuban religions, she gives lectures and advises on feature films and theatrical works: ''Fresa y Chocolate''; ''Iré y Habana''. She is the author, among other works, of: Los orishas en Cuba; Opolopo Owó; Ta Makuende Yaya y Las Reglas de Palo Monte; Cuba Santa; La Muerte es principio, no fin. Quintín Bandera; and in collaboration with Carmen González Díaz de Villegas: Ituto: la muerte en la mitología afrocubana y sincretismo religioso, and Myths and legends of Afro-Cuban food