Author of Bailes Populares Cubanos — the foundational Cuban academic study of popular dance forms on the island, written from inside the culture.
María Antonia Fernández is a Cuban dance scholar whose book Bailes Populares Cubanos (Popular Cuban Dances) provides the most authoritative Cuban academic account of the popular dance traditions — son, rumba, danzón, guaracha, and others — that form the foundation of Cuban dance culture. The book is written from within the culture rather than as outside observation, giving it a different quality of authority than foreign scholarly work.
The book is in Spanish and less accessible to non-Spanish readers, but it remains the primary source for Cuban dance scholars and serious practitioners wanting to understand the forms from a Cuban academic perspective.