ABSTRACT
The national renovation movement, known as the "revolutionary acclamation of the patria," represented a direct response to perceived oppressive patterns of the old colonial system, "foreign domination, crass materialism, blatant social inequality, and government malfeasance." An indication of how backward Castellanos remained is seen in a peculiar internationalist gesture to the Black Atlantic that departs from that of the afrocubanismo cultural movements in Cuba. The 1943 work upholds and revises contemporaneous naniigo genre conventions calling for prominent tropical foliage. Wifredo Lam's colleagues used wild and potted foliage as compositional framing devices and dramatic punctuations, undoubtedly to reference the unique tropical environment of Cuba. Lam's unique approach, apparent personal channel to the mystical, and his Caribbean racial mixture of African and Chinese, enchanted a host of Parisian and American writers, painters, dealers, collectors, and curators, as well as his Cuban avant-garde contemporaries.
