Mapping the Cuban Condition in Fernando Ortiz's Un catauro de cubanismos

Abstract

This article explores the idiom-identity complex in Cuba in the first three decades of the twentieth century, concentrating on an emblematic catalog of the idiomatic raw material of the Cuban language community: Fernando Ortiz's vernacular dictionary, Un catauro de cubanismos from 1923. Author considers the critical complex of history, geography, and identity within Ortiz's dictionary.