On two Italian publications by the Cuban anthropologist Fernando Ortiz (1881-1969)

Fernando Ortiz was a Cuban anthropologist as well as one of the most prominent figures in 20th-century Latin-American culture. His interests spanned from law to criminology, from anthropology to sociology, from psychology to ethnomedicine, and from folklore to musicology. In this paper, we will focus on two essays that he wrote in Italian, "Criminality of the Black in Cuba" and "Criminal superstitions in Cuba". Noteworthy is the relationship between Ortiz and the Italian school of criminology. He spent several years in Genoa where he met Cesare Lombroso, one of the leading figures of the "positive school". Ortiz drew inspiration from Cesare Lombroso and contextualised these ideas in Cuban society.