Abstract

This article is part of the research that aims to question, based on qualitative documentary analysis, the notion of national identity with which Pelusín del Monte –character of the Cuban puppet theater– is indicated as a national icon, based on which, the statement that patrimonialized it was argued, through the investigation of Freddy Artiles (1946-2009) embodied in a doctoral thesis (2002). More specifically, a counterpoint is exposed on the uses of the popular term for an ontology of the puppet, and its use in the declaration of the character as a national icon. The expressive traces of the coloniality of knowledge and the coloniality of being are pointed out, inscribed in the academic gesture and in the very evolution of the denomination of popular, constitutive of the structures of feelings on which the cultural project of modernity stands.

Keywords Cuba; popular theater; decolonization; Puppet Theater; cultural heritage