Mars Is Oggún

doi:10.1017/9781009314008.021

Chapter 16 - Mars Is Oggún

African-Cuban Spirituality and the Divine Masculine in the Poetry of Plácido

from Part IV - Transcreating

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 06 August 2025

Matthew J. Pettway

Edited by

Kenya C. Dworkin y Méndez and

Elisa Sampson Vera Tudela

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Kenya C. Dworkin y Méndez: Affiliation:
Carnegie Mellon University
Elisa Sampson Vera Tudela: Affiliation:
King's College London

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Summary

In the main, critics have regarded Gabriel de la Concepción Valdés (also known as Plácido) as a tragic mulatto detached from enslaved black people yet unable to join the ranks of the white literary elite. This essay takes an innovative approach to Plácido by reading his poetry as transculturated colonial literature rather than a poor imitation of European aesthetics. Plácido produced poems situated at the crossroads between classical European deities and enigmatic African spiritual practices. I argue that Plácido transculturated Mars, the Roman god of war, with the Yoruba principles of the divine masculine most often attributed to the orisha Oggún. In Oggún philosophy, the divine masculine is the capacity to exploit the powers of devastation and dissension either to ensure the survival of a given polity or to remake it entirely. Plácido appropriated Aeolus, the Greek god of the wind, Jupiter, the supreme Roman god, and most prominently Mars, the Roman god of war to reimagine Cuban resistance as a just war between good and evil. Plácido’s portrayal of ancient deities divested of sacred authority enabled him to convey an alternative God concept without contravening censorship guidelines that forbade any criticism of Catholicism, the official religion of the empire.

Keywords

Cuba slavery African spirituality Plácido Mars Oggún Roman empire transculturation

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Type: Chapter
Information: Latinx Literature in Transition, 1444–1886 , pp. 363 - 386

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009314008.021 [Opens in a new window]

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Print publication year: 2025

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