53 Facts About Eusebia Cosme

Eusebia Cosme Almanza was a Cuban poetry reciter and actress who gained widespread fame in the 1930s.

Eusebia Cosme was the sole Cuban woman and one of the few black women to participate in African-themed declamation.

Eusebia Cosme's performances went beyond reciting the poems, as she used gestures, facial expression and vocal rhythm to convey the emotion of the written word.

Eusebia Cosme became a naturalized US citizen in the 1940s.

Eusebia Cosme performed to sold-out houses at venues including Carnegie Hall, The Town Hall, and historically black universities.

Eusebia Cosme performed with both Marian Anderson and Langston Hughes, and brought the works of African-American poets to Hispanic audiences via The Eusebia Cosme Show, which aired on CBS Radio from 1943 to 1945.

Eusebia Cosme performed recitations in the United States through the late 1950s, worked as an abstract painter in the 1960s, and began acting in film and television in 1964.

Eusebia Cosme lived in Mexico City from 1966 to 1973, when she appeared in such films as The Pawnbroker and White Roses for My Black Sister.

Eusebia Cosme's most noted role was as "Mama Dolores", which she played repeatedly in her career.

Eusebia Cosme first played this character, from Felix B Caignet's radio drama El Derecho de nacer, in a 1955 stage performance in New York City.

Eusebia Cosme repeated it in both the 1966 film and telenovela by the same name.

Eusebia Adriana Cosme Almanza was born on 5 March 1908 in Santiago de Cuba to Leocadia Almanza and German Cosme.

Eusebia Cosme's father served in the Liberation Army Corps during the 1898 Cuban War of Independence, when the island nation gained its independence from Spain.

Eusebia Cosme's mother was a domestic worker on the estate of Luis Fernandez Marcane, a prominent local lawyer, who took charge of Cosme's education.

Eusebia Cosme enjoyed reciting poetry, though she found little affinity with the white writers who produced the works she read.

Garbalosa encouraged Eusebia Cosme to develop her individuality and embrace her African roots to distance herself from her white peers by vocalizing and expressing her own cultural background.

Eusebia Cosme used a typical costume of rumba dancers, a dress featuring a tightly fitted bodice with a deeply ruffled skirt, to set the scene for more rhythmic, celebratory poems.

Eusebia Cosme designed her sets and chose the accompanying music, becoming an artistic director of each performance, rather than simply a performer.

Eusebia Cosme was trained in the tradition of poseia negra, a specific type of recitation of poetry which is tied to the African experience, with particular attention to the irony of blacks' peculiar societal position in the wake of slavery.

The reciters, known as declamdores cubanos or simply recitadores, were predominantly male, with Eusebia Cosme being the sole exception.

Eusebia Cosme saw her role as an essential bridge between the poet and listener, whereby she recreated the written text as an expression of feeling and consciousness.

When Fernandez Marcane and his family moved back to Santiago, Eusebia Cosme remained in the city and took up residence with an aunt.

In 1932, Eusebia Cosme gave a declamation for a hurricane benefit, appearing on stage with Ignacio Pineiro.

Eusebia Cosme called her an artist with a finely developed mastery of the aesthetic expression of Cuban culture who moved her audience to tears.

Eusebia Cosme began to appear in more elite venues, like the Casino Espanol and the Teatro Marti, and joined the Society for the Study of Afro-Cubans.

Eusebia Cosme was praised for sharing works by Ballagas, Guillen and Pales with her audience.

In 1938, Eusebia Cosme left Cuba for a performance tour in Venezuela, as part of a cultural mission for the Cuban Ministry of Education.

Eusebia Cosme performed in Maracaibo at the Teatro Baralt and later was introduced at the Teatro Nacional in Caracas by Andres Eloy Blanco.

Eusebia Cosme appeared in 18 performances over the month and made trips to study Afro-Puerto Rican culture in Loiza Aldea and Machuchal, areas known for their African traditions.

Eusebia Cosme focused on themes in her repertoire that spanned the experiences of Afro-Antilleans, from celebrations of culture to suffering and struggling to survive, as well as exploring the stereotypical fears mainstream society had of blacks.

Eusebia Cosme used her declamations as a way to provoke analysis of racial and gender perceptions of identity.

Eusebia Cosme appealed to diverse audiences, who each had their own perception of her.

Eusebia Cosme's space was unique, as comparison between her and Ethel Barrymore, and other prominent white actresses in both American and Cuban entertainment, failed to recognize that they were not allowed to perform in the same spheres.

Eusebia Cosme performed at the Universidad Michoacana de San Nicolas de Hidalgo in Morelia before returning to Sugar Hill in January 1941.

Eusebia Cosme composed the song Fue en el Africa, which was recorded by RCA Victor featuring Ernesto Roca later that year.

Eusebia Cosme was naturalized as a United States citizen in Laredo, Texas in the early 1940s.

Eusebia Cosme had return engagements at Howard University in 1944 and 1946 and at The Town Hall in 1945, where she recited poems by Jesus Colon and Alberto Socarras in honor of Antonio Maceo's hundredth birthday.

In May 1946, Eusebia Cosme collaborated with Langston Hughes in Cuban Evening: The Poems and Songs of Nicolas Guillen by Katherine Dunham.

Eusebia Cosme was celebrated in her performance at the Universidad de Oriente in her home town, and received the Orden Nacional de Merito "Carlos Manuel de Cespedes".

Eusebia Cosme was not able to perform in Havana until May 1953, when she was featured at the Pro-Arte Musical Auditorium.

Eusebia Cosme returned to New York, where her husband died by the middle of the decade.

Eusebia Cosme began to paint and exhibited abstract paintings in such venues as the annual Washington Square Outdoor Art Exhibit through the early 1960s.

Eusebia Cosme moved to Mexico City in 1966, living at the Hotel Insurgentes.

Eusebia Cosme appeared in a film version of El derecho de nacer, reprieving her role as "Mama Dolores", under the direction of Tito Davison.

Eusebia Cosme was recognized as the "best actress" of 1966 for her role in the film and was awarded the Premio Onix by the El Instituto y la Escuela de Cultura Cinematografica at the Universidad Iberoamericana, the educational department charged with developing a national film industry in Mexico.

Also in 1966, Telesistema Mexicano adapted the work for a telenovela of the same name with Eusebia Cosme again playing "Mama Dolores", in a production directed by Ernesto Alonso.

In 1968, Eusebia Cosme appeared in another TSM telenovela Tres vidas distintas, under the direction of Carlos Salinas and the following year, she starred in Rosas blancas para mi hermana negra with Libertad Lamarque.

Davison directed a spin-off of El derecho de nacer in 1971, called Mama Dolores, in which Eusebia Cosme starred in the title role.

Eusebia Cosme died on 11 July 1976 at Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami, Florida.

Eusebia Cosme was buried in Flagler Memorial Park's Sunset Mausoleum.

Eusebia Cosme's papers are housed at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture at the New York Public Library in Harlem.

When Eusebia Cosme was debilitated by a stroke in 1973 she left her effects and papers with the American Benevolent Society.

In 2015, Eusebia Cosme was one of the figures celebrated during the 500th anniversary of Santiago de Cuba's founding.