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Abstract
From Colonial to Post-Colonial times, African rituals and other magical-religious manifestation have become a constant aesthetic resource when it comes to representing Afro-Cubans in the theater. In this essay, I analyze black face theater or teatro bufo to trace pioneer theater plays that employed Afro-Cuban rituals to portray blackness during the 19th century. By examining several plays, especially Mefístófeles by Ignacio Sarachaga (1896), I will study how elements such as music, speech and the practice of the Afro-Cuban religion are portrayed not only as part of the racist mockery typical of this theatrical genre, but also as a mechanism with which to confront the Colonial Spanish regime as well as to propose a more dynamic and technically complex staging.
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