María Antonia: Body, Race, and Resistance in Cuban Artistic Reconfigurations

This study analyzes the intersectional construction of María Antonia, the central character in Eugenio Hernández Espinosa’s play of the same name, and examines her reinterpretations in theatrical, cinematic, dance, and performance art adaptations between 1964 and 2015. A qualitative, historical-cultural, and comparative study was conducted, based on the analysis of the dramatic text, audiovisual materials, artistic documentation, and critical sources related to the selected versions. The categories of analysis included gender, race, social class, religiosity, and corporeality. The results show that María Antonia is portrayed as a woman of African descent whose identity is constructed at the intersection of patriarchal, racial, and socioeconomic inequalities, though she is also depicted as a figure of resistance and autonomy. The adaptations preserve the character’s central conflict but reorganize its meanings through resources specific to each artistic language: voice and stage presence in theater, image and urban space in film, and bodily movement and rituality in dance. It is concluded that María Antonia’s relevance lies in her ability to spark debates about representation, Afro-descendant identity, exclusion, and resistance in the Cuban arts.