STEPHEN WILKINSON


and the dangerous black neighborhoods of Havana would seem to hold a
similar fascination in this film.
 This comparison becomes all the more interesting as one explores later
 Cuban detective stories that also display a fascination with Afro-Cuban cults.
 The Mfidigos are also suspected of being responsible for the attempted murder
 of the society beauty, Rosa, in the 1926 novel, Fantoches 1926. As in La hija
 del policia, in this narrative they are also given a female accomplice, which
 would be extremely unlikely in reality as the AbakuA sect is strictly for men
 only. Lydia Cabrera describes how she had difficulty getting old devotees of
 the cult to talk to her and how they would not let women touch their drums
 or other instruments (1970:11, 152). Thus, linking a bruja or female witch to
 the cult, as in both these narratives, is creating a false and, for women at
 least, pejorative connection. Both were written by white, male, middle class
 Cubans. Interestingly, Fantoches 1926 was jointly written by eleven members
 of the Grupo Minorista, a literary protest group founded by the poet, Ruben
 Martinez Villena, that congregated on Saturdays at the Hotel Lafayette.5 In
 Fantoches the occult African explanation for the mystery transpires to be
 the product of a deranged and racially obsessed judge who all too readily
 believes the story of M6nica, a 'senil y decrepita' servant (1993:126). In the
 final chapter, written by the novelist, Carlos Loveira, a rational explanation
 of the shooting is provided, along with a denunciation of Judge Rodriguez de
 Arellano's version of events. Like Luciano in La hija delpolicia, contemporary
 Cuban blacks are described by Loveira as more interested in education than
 African cults. In summing up the Judge's mistaken version of events Loveira
 tells us:

 Su obsesi6n pronto convertida en monomania, le impidi6 ver lo absurdo de
 que j6venes hombres y mujeres de color, que Ilenan hoy, ansiosos de saber
 y educaci6n, los salones de los institutes, de la Universidad y los clubs,
 pudieran seguir obedeciendo viejas y salvajes conjuras racistas o fetichistas.
 (1993: 127)

 Fantoches was published in twelve instalments in the monthly magazine
Social throughout 1926. Each month, a different member of the Minorista

5 The Grupo Minorista was formed following the so-called Protesta de los Trece against
the sale, by the corrupt government of Alfredo Zayas in 1923, of the Santa Clara
convent. The poet Martinez Villena led the protest. He and others in the group
went on to form the Minoristas. According to Ana Cairo (1978: 34), the idea for the
novel grew out of a desire to incorporate European ideas into Cuban literature.
Although she found no direct documentary evidence as to the origin of the project,
her understanding is that it came about because the group wished to experiment with
avant-garde forms of literature. Jos6 Antonio Portuondo, in his preface to the 1993
edition of Fantoches, points out that the weekly sports and literature newspaper El
Figaro had published two novels prior to Fantoches 'using an identical plan' (1993: 6).