This essay explores the importance of Kardec's Spiritism in Fernando Ortiz's beginnings and in his long, often roundabout, inquiry leading to the notion of "transculturation". In his formative years Ortiz was deeply influenced by Lombroso but also, like so many other writers and intellectuals, by Kardec. He published fundamental essays on Spiritism, especially on the implications of reincarnation for spiritual and social hierarchies. Kardec's doctrine of the spiritual progress of the soul allowed Ortiz to argue for a more inclusionary national project. Kardecism also provided metaphors that run like a thread through Ortiz's major works on African cultures in Cuba and in his poetics. The "transmigration" of the souls, with its possibilities of endless new beginnnings, enabled Ortiz to introduce a spiritual and political element into the far-ranging idea of transculturation.
Fernando Ortiz (1881-1969); Allan Kardec (1804-1869); Spiritism; Transmigration; Transculturation