How did Lydia Cabrera preserve African stories from Cuba in Cuentos negros de Cuba?

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Eugenio de Santa Cruz y Espejo, Francisco Javier — Latin American literature Francisco Javier Eugenio de Santa Cruz y Espejo, statue at Central Station, Sydney, Austl.

Lydia Cabrera preserved African stories in Cuentos negros de Cuba (1940) by drawing upon the oral traditions she encountered during her childhood, when she was told African folk legends by her nanny and household servants.1

Her approach to preservation involved:

Direct Collection: She gathered folklore directly from ex-slaves as well as from rural and urban Cubans, ensuring these narratives were recorded rather than lost to time.1
Thematic Integration: She populated her stories with personified animals, supernatural beings, magic, and Yoruba gods, while grounding them within distinctively Cuban landscapes and cultural attitudes.1
Literary Formalization: By transcribing these oral tales into written collections—initially published in French in 1936—she elevated these Afro-Cuban traditions into the realm of formal literature.1

Cabrera’s work was part of a broader commitment to documenting Afro-Cuban culture, which also included studies on the Santería religion and the preservation of the Lucumí language.1