Adiponectin multimerization is dependent on conserved lysines in the collagenous domain: Evidence for regulation of multimerization by alterations in posttranslational modifications

Adiponectin is a secreted, multimeric protein with insulin-sensitizing, antiatherogenic, and antiinflammatory properties. Serum adiponectin consists of trimer, hexamer, and larger high-molecular-weight (HMW) multimers, and these HMW multimers appear to be the more bioactive forms. Multimer composition of adiponectin appears to be regulated; however, the molecular mechanisms involved are unknown. We hypothesize that regulation of adiponectin multimerization and secretion occurs via changes in posttranslational modifications (PTMs). Although a structural role for intertrimer disulfide bonds in the formation of hexamers and HMW multimers is established, the role of other PTMs is unknown. PTMs identified in murine and bovine adiponectin include hydroxylation of multiple conserved proline and lysine residues and glycosylation of hydroxylysines. By mass spectrometry, we confirmed the presence of these PTMs in human adiponectin and identified three additional hydroxylations on Pro71, Pro76, and Pro95. We also investigated the role of the five modified lysines in multimer formation and secretion of recombinant human adiponectin expressed in mammalian cell lines. Mutation of modified lysines in the collagenous domain prevented formation of HMW multimers, whereas a pharmacological inhibitor of prolyl- and lysyl-hydroxylases, 2,2'-dipyridyl, inhibited formation of hexamers and HMW multimers. Bacterially expressed human adiponectin displayed a complete lack of differentially modified isoforms and failed to form bona fide trimers and larger multimers. Finally, glucose-induced increases in HMW multimer production from human adipose explants correlated with changes in the two-dimensional electrophoresis profile of adiponectin isoforms. Collectively, these data suggest that adiponectin multimer composition is affected by changes in PTM in response to physiological factors.

Lucumí (Yoruba) culture in Cuba: A reevaluation (1830s -1940s)

The status, roles, and interactions of three dominant African ethnic groups and their descendants in Cuba significantly influenced the island's cubanidad (national identity): the Lucumís (Yoruba), the Congos (Bantú speakers from Central West Africa), and the Carabalís (from the region of Calabar). These three groups, enslaved on the island, coexisted, each group confronting obstacles that threatened their way of life and cultural identities. Through covert resistance, cultural appropriation, and accommodation, all three, but especially the Lucumís, laid deep roots in the nineteenth century that came to fruition in the twentieth. During the early 1900s, Cuba confronted numerous pressures, internal and external. Under the pretense of a quest for national identity and modernity, Afro-Cubans and African cultures and religion came under political, social, and intellectual attack. Race was an undeniable element in these conflicts. While all three groups were oppressed equally, only the Lucumís fought back, contesting accusations of backwardness, human sacrifice, cannibalism, and brujería (witchcraft), exaggerated by the sensationalistic media, often with the police's and legal system's complicity. Unlike the covert character of earlier epochs' responses to oppression, in the twentieth century Lucumí resistance was overt and outspoken, publically refuting the accusations levied against African religions. Although these struggles had unintended consequences for the Lucumís, they gave birth to cubanidad's African component. With the help of Fernando Ortiz, the Lucumí were situated at the pinnacle of a hierarchical pyramid, stratifying African religious complexes based on civilizational advancement, but at a costly price. Social ascent denigrated Lucumí religion to the status of folklore, depriving it of its status as a bona fide religious complex. To the present, Lucumí religious descendants, in Cuba and, after 1959, in many other areas of the world, are still contesting this contradiction in terms: an elevated downgrade.

King Democracy: Do Democratic Nations Mitigate Conflict Over Transboundary Freshwater Resources Better Than Other Nations?

The prospect of water wars and conflict over water are ideas that are frequently dramatized in media and also studied by scholars. It is well-established that bona fide wars are not started over water resources, but conflict over water does exist and is not well understood. One would suppose, as scholars often do, that dyads composed of two democratic nations would be the best at mitigating conflict and promoting cooperation over freshwater resources. General conflict research supports that supposition, as does the argument that democracies must be best at avoiding conflicts over resources because they excel at distributing public goods. This study provides empirical evidence showing how interstate dyads composed of various governance types conflict and cooperate over general water and water quantity issues relative to each other. After evaluating the water conflict mitigating ability of democratic-democratic, democratic-autocratic, and autocratic-autocratic dyads, this study found that democracy-autocracy dyads are less likely to cooperate over general water issues and water quantity issues than the other two dyad types. Nothing certain can be said about how the three dyad types compare to each other in terms of likelihood to conflict over water quantity issues. However, two-autocracy dyads seem to be most likely to cooperate over water quantity issues. These findings support the established belief that democratic-autocratic pairs struggle to cooperate while also encouraging greater scrutiny of the belief that democracies must be best at cooperating over water resources.

Defining the Role of the Histone Methyltransferase, PR-Set7, in Maintaining the Genome Integrity of Drosophila Melanogaster

The complete and faithful duplication of the genome is essential to ensure normal cell division and organismal development. Eukaryotic DNA replication is initiated at multiple sites termed origins of replication that are activated at different time through S phase. The replication timing program is regulated by the S-phase checkpoint, which signals and repairs replicative stress. Eukaryotic DNA is packaged with histones into chromatin, thus DNA-templated processes including replication are modulated by the local chromatin environment such as post-translational modifications (PTMs) of histones.

One such epigenetic mark, methylation of lysine 20 on histone H4 (H4K20), has been linked to chromatin compaction, transcription, DNA repair and DNA replication. H4K20 can be mono-, di- and tri-methylated. Monomethylation of H4K20 (H4K20me1) is mediated by the cell cycle-regulated histone methyltransferase PR-Set7 and subsequent di-/tri- methylation is catalyzed by Suv4-20. Prior studies have shown that PR-Set7 depletion in mammalian cells results in defective S phase progression and the accumulation of DNA damage, which may be partially attributed to defects in origin selection and activation. Meanwhile, overexpression of mammalian PR-Set7 recruits components of pre-Replication Complex (pre-RC) onto chromatin and licenses replication origins for re-replication. However, these studies were limited to only a handful of mammalian origins, and it remains unclear how PR-Set7 impacts the replication program on a genomic scale. Finally, the methylation substrates of PR-Set7 include both histone (H4K20) and non-histone targets, therefore it is necessary to directly test the role of H4K20 methylation in PR-Set7 regulated phenotypes.

I employed genetic, cytological, and genomic approaches to better understand the role of H4K20 methylation in regulating DNA replication and genome stability in Drosophila melanogaster cells. Depletion of Drosophila PR-Set7 by RNAi in cultured Kc167 cells led to an ATR-dependent cell cycle arrest with near 4N DNA content and the accumulation of DNA damage, indicating a defect in completing S phase. The cells were arrested at the second S phase following PR-Set7 downregulation, suggesting that it was an epigenetic effect that coupled to the dilution of histone modification over multiple cell cycles. To directly test the role of H4K20 methylation in regulating genome integrity, I collaborated with the Duronio Lab and observed spontaneous DNA damage on the imaginal wing discs of third instar mutant larvae that had an alanine substitution on H4K20 (H4K20A) thus unable to be methylated, confirming that H4K20 is a bona fide target of PR-Set7 in maintaining genome integrity.

One possible source of DNA damage due to loss of PR-Set7 is reduced origin activity. I used BrdU-seq to profile the genome-wide origin activation pattern. However, I found that deregulation of H4K20 methylation states by manipulating the H4K20 methyltransferases PR-Set7 and Suv4-20 had no impact on origin activation throughout the genome. I then mapped the genomic distribution of DNA damage upon PR-Set7 depletion. Surprisingly, ChIP-seq of the DNA damage marker γ-H2A.v located the DNA damage to late replicating euchromatic regions of the Drosophila genome, and the strength of γ-H2A.v signal was uniformly distributed and spanned the entire late replication domain, implying stochastic replication fork collapse within late replicating regions. Together these data suggest that PR-Set7-mediated monomethylation of H4K20 is critical for maintaining the genomic integrity of late replicating domains, presumably via stabilization of late replicating forks.

In addition to investigating the function of H4K20me, I also used immunofluorescence to characterize the cell cycle regulated chromatin loading of Mcm2-7 complex, the DNA helicase that licenses replication origins, using H4K20me1 level as a proxy for cell cycle stages. In parallel with chromatin spindown data by Powell et al. (Powell et al. 2015), we showed a continuous loading of Mcm2-7 during G1 and a progressive removal from chromatin through S phase.

Sobre Κρῆτες de Sófocles

En este artículo se estudia una obra atribuida a Sófocles titulada Κρῆτες (Los cretenses), una tragedia sólo conocida por dos dudosos testimonios de Hesiquio y Ateneo de Náucratis. A finales del siglo xviii una nueva lectura de ambos los adscribía a otra tragedia, con lo que se negaba la existencia de Κρῆτες. A pesar de esto, este título se sigue manteniendo en las ediciones de la obra sofoclea, ahora relacionado con nuevos hallazgos de fragmentos papiráceos del autor. Nuestro objetivo es el de analizar los testimonios en profundidad para concluir si la obra pudo o no haberse escrito.

Development of dendritic cells in the intestine

The intestinal tract is exposed to a large variety of antigens such as food proteins, commensal bacteria and pathogens and contains one of the largest arms of the immune system. The intestinal immune system has to discriminate between harmless and harmful antigens, inducing tolerance to harmless antigens and active immunity towards pathogens and other harmful materials. Dendritic cells (DC) in the mucosal lamina propria (LP) are central to this process, as they sample bacteria from the local environment and constitutively migrate to the draining mesenteric lymph nodes (MLN), where they present antigen to naïve T cells in order to direct an appropriate immune response. Despite their crucial role, understanding the function and phenotype of LP DC has been hampered by the fact that they share phenotypic markers with macrophages (mφ), which are the dominant population of mononuclear phagocyte (MP) in the LP. Recent work in our own and other laboratories has established gating strategies and phenotyping panels that allow precise discrimination between intestinal DC and mφ using the mφ specific markers CD64 and F4/80. In this way four bona fide DC subsets with distinct functions have been identified in adult LP based on their expression of CD11b and CD103 and a major aim of my project was to understand how these subsets might develop in the neonatal intestine. At the beginning of my PhD, the laboratory had used these new methods to show that signal regulatory protein α (SIRPα), an inhibitory receptor expressed by myeloid cells, was expressed by mφ and most DC in the intestine, except for those expressing CD103 alone. In addition, mice carrying a non-signalling mutation in SIRPα (SIRPα mt) had a selective reduction in CD103+CD11b+ DC, a subset which is unique to the intestinal LP. This was the basis for the initial experiments of my project, described in Chapter 3, where I investigated if the phenotype in SIRPα mt mice was intrinsic to haematopoietic cells or not. To explore this, I generated bone marrow (BM) chimeric mice by reconstituting irradiated WT mice with SIRPα mt BM, or SIRPα mt animals with WT BM. These experiments suggested that the defect in CD103+CD11b+ DC was not replicated in DC derived from BM of SIRPα origin. However as this seemed inconsistent with other data, I considered the possibility that 18 the phenotype may have been lost with age, as the BM chimeric mice were considerably older than those used in the original studies of SIRPα function. However a comparison of DC subsets in the intestine of WT and SIRPα mt mice as they aged provided no conclusive evidence to support this idea. As these experiments did show age-dependent effects on DC subsets, in Chapter 4, I went on to investigate how the DC populations appeared in the intestine and other tissues in the neonatal period. These experiments showed there were few CD103+CD11b+ DC present in the LP and migratory DC compartment of the MLN in the neonate and that as this population gradually increased in proportion with age, there was a reciprocal decrease in the relative proportion of CD103-CD11b+ DC. Interestingly, most of the changes in DC numbers in the intestine were found during the second or third week of life when the weaning process began. To validate my findings that there were few CD103+CD11b+ DC in the neonate and that this was not merely an absence of CD103 upregulation, I examined the expression of CD101 and Trem-1, markers that other work in the laboratory had suggested were specific to the CD103+CD11b+ DC lineage. My work showed that CD101 and Trem-1 were co- expressed by most CD103+CD11b+ DC in small intestine (SI) LP, as well as a small subset of CD103-CD11b+ DC in this tissue. Interestingly, Trem-1 was highly specific to the SI LP and migratory DC in the MLN, but absent from the colon and other tissues. CD101 expression was also only found on CD11b+ DC, but showed a less restricted pattern of distribution, being found in several tissues as well as the SI LP. The relative timing of their development suggested there might be a relationship between CD103+CD11b+ and CD103-CD11b+ DC and this was supported by microarray analysis. I hypothesised that the CD103-CD11b+ DC that co-expressed CD101 and Trem-1 may be the cells that developed into CD103+CD11b+ DC. To investigate this I analysed how CD101 and Trem-1 expression changed with age amongst the DC subsets in SI LP, colonic LP (CLP) and MLN. The proportion of CD101+Trem-1+ cells increased amongst CD103+CD11b+ DC in the SI LP and MLN with age, while amongst CD103+CD11b+ DC in the CLP this decreased. This was not the same in CD103-CD11b+ DC, where CD101 and Trem-1 expression was more varied with age in all tissues. CD101 and Trem-1 were not expressed to any great extent on CD103+CD11b- or CD103-CD11b- DC. The phenotypic development of the 19 intestinal DC subsets was paralleled by the gradual upregulation of CD103 expression, while the production of retinoic acid (RA), as assessed by the AldefluorTM assay, was low early in life and did not attain adult levels until after weaning. Thus DC in the neonatal intestine take some time to acquire the adult pattern of phenotypic subsets and are functionally immature compared with their adult counterparts. In Chapter 5, I used CD101 and Trem-1 to explore the ontogeny of intestinal DC subsets in CCR2-/- and SIRPα mt mice, both of which have selective defects in one particular group of DC. The selective defect seen amongst CD103+CD11b+ DC in adult SIRPα mt mice was more profound in mice at D7 and D14 of age, indicating that it may be intrinsic to this population and not highly dependent on environmental factors that change after birth. The expression of CD101 and Trem-1 by both CD103+CD11b+ and CD103-CD11b+ DC was reduced in SIRPα mt mice, again indicating that this entire lineage was affected by the lack of SIRPα signalling. However there was also a generalised defect in the numbers of all DC subsets in many tissues from early in life, suggesting there was compromised development, recruitment or survival of DC in the absence of SIRPα signalling. In contrast to the findings in SIRPα mt mice, more CD103+CD11b+ DC co-expressed CD101 and Trem-1 in CCR2-/- mice, while there were no differences in the expression of these molecules amongst CD103-CD11b+ DC. This may suggest that CCR2+ CD103-CD11b+ DC are not the cells that express CD101 and Trem-1 that are predicted to be the direct precursors of CD103+CD11b+ DC. I also examined the expression of DC growth factor receptors on DC subsets from mice of different ages, but no clear age or subset- related patterns of the expression of mRNA for Csf2ra, Irf4, Tgfbr1 and Rara could be observed. Next, I investigated whether Trem-1 played any role in DC development. Preliminary experiments in Trem-1-/- mice show no differences between any of the DC subsets, nor were there any selective effects on individual subsets when DC development from Trem-1-/- KO and WT BM was compared in competitive chimeras. However these experiments were difficult to interpret due to viability problems and because I found an unexpected defect in the ability of Trem-1-/- BM to generate all DC, irrespective of whether they expressed Trem-1 or not. 20 The final experiments I carried out were to examine the role of the microbiota in driving the differentiation of intestinal DC subsets, based on the hypothesis that this could be one of the environmental factors that might influence events in the developing intestine. To this end I performed experiments in both antibiotic treated and germ free adult mice, both of which showed no significant phenotypic differences amongst any of the DC subsets. However the study of germ free mice was compromised by recent contamination of the colony and may not be the conclusive answer. Together the data in this thesis have shown that the population of CD103+CD11b+ DC, which is unique to the intestine, is not present at birth. These cells gradually increase in frequency over time and as this occurs there is a reciprocal decrease in the frequency of CD103-CD11b+ DC. Along with other results, this leads to the idea that there may be a linear developmental pathway from CD103-CD11b+ DC to CD103+CD11b+ DC that is driven by non-microbial factors that are located preferentially in the small intestine. My project indicates that markers such as CD101 and Trem-1 may assist the dissection of this process and highlights the importance of the neonatal period for these events.

Gli antichi cimiteri cristiani di Roma e d'Italia.

Mode of access: Internet.

La Comunicación Organizacional en Entidades Educativas

En la investigación se aborda el tema de la comunicación organizacional en entidades educativas, se desarrolla en el caso de la aplicación de la comunicación organizacional interna entre los directivos y el profesorado, en el marco del incremento de la eficacia de la gestión escolar en el establecimiento educativo, adscrito a las comunas de Pudahuel y La Cisterna. Los principales antecedentes que constituyen parte del contexto educacional a nivel mundial, como en el Sistema Educativo Nacional, se refieren, en primer lugar, a los fenómenos de la globalización, la mundialización, la sociedad de la información y del conocimiento; y, en segundo término, la relevancia de la función comunicativa para el mantenimiento y desarrollo de la organización social, incluida la educativa, junto con las reformas y políticas educativas fijadas por el Ministerio de Educación dirigidas a fortalecer la Educación Pública y a fortalecer la calidad de la educación. El objetivo general del estudio consiste en analizar la aplicación de la comunicación organizacional interna entre los directivos y el profesorado en el marco del incremento de la eficacia de la gestión escolar en el establecimiento educativo, adscrito a las comunas de Pudahuel y de la Cisterna. Para efectos de su implementación, se aplica en calidad de metodología, de acuerdo a Sierra Bravo (1994), un diseño no experimental de tipo seccional exploratorio y descriptivo. También, este estudio se considera de enfoque integrado multimodal o enfoque mixto de acuerdo a Hernández, Fernández-Collado y Baptista (2006), porque comprende el uso conjunto de la perspectiva cuantitativa y cualitativa. Desarrollo teórico: En estas circunstancias en las instituciones educativas se observa, según Villa, Troncoso y Díez (2015:66), que la comunicación desempeña un rol de gran trascendencia, al configurar el fundamento imprescindible para la ejecución de las funciones primordiales de la organización (Terrén, 2004). Siguiendo esta misma línea, se concibe a la comunicación organizacional interna, en palabras de Andrade (2005:17), como el conjunto de acciones realizadas por la entidad organizativa para la generación y mantenimiento de buenas relaciones con y entre sus integrantes, a través del empleo de diversos medios de comunicación destinados a conservarlos informados, unidos y motivados con el fin de aportar con su labor al cumplimiento de los objetivos organizacionales; y, por ello, detenta en calidad de público meta a los colaboradores de la entidad organizativa. Con respecto al contexto planteado sobre la comunicación organizacional interna se valora lo señalado por el Ministerio de Educación (2005: 27) por cuanto concibe a la gestión escolar como la actuación profesional y técnica, dirigida al establecimiento de condiciones tendientes a favorecer el desenvolvimiento de buenas prácticas, por parte de los actores, con relación a las metas institucionales y educacionales compartidas en la organización escolar. También, se piensa concierne a la organización educativa porque Antúnez (2000:15) la concibe desde su significado institucional, siguiendo a García Hoz, como la comunidad constituida mayoritariamente por maestros y estudiantes y aplicada específicamente a la educación. Asimismo, Antúnez cita a Tyler para referenciarla como entidad de tipo administrativo local, dedicada a la instrucción del joven de forma presencial y que generalmente tiene una sola sede. Conclusiones: Acerca del objetivo específico N°1, el ejercicio del arquetipo formal, se puede significar que un 90,2 % de los informantes está de acuerdo y muy de acuerdo con que la comunicación oficial, se usa para informar sobre las actividades a realizar durante el periodo académico en la ejecución del proceso educativo; y, para complementar esta materia, se cita, de la entrevista abierta en profundidad, del informante 2: "Reuniones, de partida, para darte la comunal". Sobre la coordinación del trabajo dirigido al cumplimiento de las metas de la gestión escolar en el establecimiento educativo se destaca, que un 84,2 %, declara estar de acuerdo y muy de acuerdo, con en el funcionamiento diario el participante practica una interrelación profesional con sus superiores y/o subordinados, que propicia la discusión sobre temas relevantes de su establecimiento; y, para agregar a esta línea de pensamiento se cita, de la entrevista abierta en profundidad, al informante 1: "Yo creo que la única que favorece la coordinación del trabajo es la instrucción en nuestro sistema público". Respecto del objetivo específico N°2, la utilización de los medios se puede tener presente, se sirven de reuniones y de circulares pues sus porcentajes oscilan entre el 91% y el 89%. En cambio, con relación a la incidencia de los medios de comunicación organizacional interna en el fortalecimiento de la unión cultural de estos actores, en la gestión escolar del establecimiento educativo se detecta un 89,0 % declara estar de acuerdo y muy de acuerdo, con percibe la existencia de valores institucionales compartidos entre directivos y profesores. Con el fin de contribuir a esta proposición se cita, de la entrevista abierta en profundidad, del informante 1: "Sin duda que establece un vínculo de dependencia y pertenencia al sistema". En cuanto al objetivo específico N°3, los tipos de mensajes de comunicación organizacional interna que se transmiten entre los directivos y el profesorado, se puede especificar que un 89,0 % expresa estar de acuerdo y muy de acuerdo, con los directivos utilizan la comunicación organizacional interna para que los profesores conozcan los objetivos, a concretar con la ejecución de su trabajo. En relación, a un desempeño participativo en los procesos de la gestión escolar en el establecimiento educativo se puede señalar que un 83,4 % opina estar de acuerdo y muy de acuerdo, con las actividades de comunicación efectuadas por los directivos contribuyen a incrementar la participación de los profesores, en las actividades que se desarrollan en el funcionamiento cotidiano. Con el propósito de contribuir a precisar este planteamiento se cita, de la entrevista abierta en profundidad, del informante 1: "Los mejores mensajes son las felicitaciones y el reconocimiento" (p.707); 1: "Las invitaciones a integrar equipos de trabajos con miras a mejorar o con mejoras continuas o asumir un nuevo desafío". Con respecto al objetivo específico N°4, la identificación de algunos rasgos del flujo comunicativo dado entre los directivos y el profesorado se puede expresar que un 85,8 % opina estar de acuerdo y muy de acuerdo con que en su institución educativa se aplican, entre directivos y profesores, estrategias de comunicación organizacional interna. Con la finalidad de coadyuvar a explicitar este enunciado se cita, de la entrevista abierta en profundidad, del informante 1: "Yo creo que el medio que esta…que prima, es el tema del oficio, el oficio ordinario que le llamamos nosotros y en segundo lugar el correo electrónico”. Sobre se posibilita detectar ciertas tendencias en el manejo de la comunicación organizacional interna que propician la eficacia de la gestión escolar en el establecimiento educativo si se tiene en cuenta que la viabilidad radica en la manifestación de un 82,5% de los informantes de acuerdo y muy de acuerdo con que las actividades de comunicación desarrolladas entre directivos y profesores permiten concretar una gestión eficaz del establecimiento educativo; y, en torno a esta contingencia y para suplementarla se cita, de la entrevista abierta en profundidad, al informante 1: "Es instruir, es impartir instrucciones" (p. 710); del 2: "Sí, yo creo que hay mucho a la entrevista a puerta cerrada digamos, ahí los directores operan mucho con la entrevista a puerta cerrada". Bibliografía: Andrade, H. (2005). Comunicación organizacional interna. Proceso, disciplina y técnica. La Coruña, España: Netbiblo. Antúnez, S. (2000). Claves para la Organización de Centros Escolares. Barcelona, España: Horsori. Hernández, R., Fernández-Collado, C., & Baptista, P. (2006). Metodología de la Investigación. México D.F., México: McGrawh-Hill Interamericana Editores S.A. Ministerio de Educación de Chile. (2005). Sistema de Aseguramiento de la Calidad de la gestión Escolar. Calidad en todas las Escuelas y Liceos. Santiago de Chile: Mineduc. Sierra Bravo, R. (1994). Tesis Doctorales y trabajos de Investigación Científica. Madrid, España: Paraninfo S.A. Villa, A., Troncoso, P., & Díez, F. (2015). Estructura latente y fiabilidad de las dimensiones que explican el impacto de los sistemas de gestión de calidad en los centros educativos. Enseñanza, 33(1), 65-82. Datos de la doctoranda Profesora de Historia, geografía y educación cívica, Magíster en Educación con mención en administración educacional, por la Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile. Miembro del Grupo de Estudios de salesianidad (GES). Académica del Instituto Interdisciplinario en Pedagogía y Educación, de la Facultad de Educación de la Universidad Católica Silva Henríquez. Autora de Organización Escolar: Implicancias de la Comunicación Organizacional. Revista FIDE 2010, Región de O´Higgins.

Lucumí (Yoruba) Culture in Cuba: A Reevaluation (1830S -1940s)

The status, roles, and interactions of three dominant African ethnic groups and their descendants in Cuba significantly influenced the island’s cubanidad (national identity): the Lucumís (Yoruba), the Congos (Bantú speakers from Central West Africa), and the Carabalís (from the region of Calabar). These three groups, enslaved on the island, coexisted, each group confronting obstacles that threatened their way of life and cultural identities. Through covert resistance, cultural appropriation, and accommodation, all three, but especially the Lucumís, laid deep roots in the nineteenth century that came to fruition in the twentieth. During the early 1900s, Cuba confronted numerous pressures, internal and external. Under the pretense of a quest for national identity and modernity, Afro-Cubans and African cultures and religion came under political, social, and intellectual attack. Race was an undeniable element in these conflicts. While all three groups were oppressed equally, only the Lucumís fought back, contesting accusations of backwardness, human sacrifice, cannibalism, and brujería (witchcraft), exaggerated by the sensationalistic media, often with the police’s and legal system’s complicity. Unlike the covert character of earlier epochs’ responses to oppression, in the twentieth century Lucumí resistance was overt and outspoken, publically refuting the accusations levied against African religions. Although these struggles had unintended consequences for the Lucumís, they gave birth to cubanidad’s African component. With the help of Fernando Ortiz, the Lucumí were situated at the pinnacle of a hierarchical pyramid, stratifying African religious complexes based on civilizational advancement, but at a costly price. Social ascent denigrated Lucumí religion to the status of folklore, depriving it of its status as a bona fide religious complex. To the present, Lucumí religious descendants, in Cuba and, after 1959, in many other areas of the world, are still contesting this contradiction in terms: an elevated downgrade.