In an essay published several years ago I described Nancy Morejon as the "human and poetic embodiment of the word transculturation" (West 13). Whereas most criticism on Morejon's work understandably focuses on her poetry, this article will explore Morejon as an essayist and thinker on transculturation, as seen in her book on Nicolas Guillen and other works (Morejon 1982, 2002). Morejon's knowledge and translation of Francophone Caribbean writers (Depestre, Glissant, Cesaire, Laraque, Roumain) is a central but often overlooked element in understanding Caribbean transculturations. 1 In addition, as a translator of Morejon, I emphasize the link between translation, transculturation, and a philosophy of listening. Transculturation is a form of historical and cultural translation that ingeniously fashions a poetics of historical understanding. Transculturation, often under histor- ical circumstances of brutal adversity, is a practice of cultural creativity, a performa- tive philosophical reasoning, and an act of social resistance. Through transcultura- tion, the Caribbean, and more specifically Cuba, have created plural, sometimes contradictory, identities, and new ways of knowing. Before examining and substan- tiating these claims both through and beyond Morejon's work, I will supply a brief definition of transculturation. "Transculturation signifies constant interaction, transmutation between two or more cultural components, whose unconscious end is the creation of a third cultural whole—that is, culture—new and independent, although its roots rest on preceding elements. The reciprocal influence here is determining. No element is superimposed on the other; on the contrary, each one becomes a third entity. None remains immutable. All change and grow in a 'give and take' which engenders a new texture" (Morejon in Perez-Sarduy and Stubbs 229). Morejon's definition from her Guillen book (23) implicitly defines a case of cultural equals, nonexistent under colonialism and slavery. And yet under these asymmetrical cultural and power relationships, transculturation did occur. A good musical example of this would be the danzon, a musical and dance form from nineteenth-century Cuba. Originating in the British Isles as a "country dance," it was later imported into France where it became the contredanse played on piano, flute, and violin. French colonialists brought it to Saint Domingue (Haiti), but during the Haitian Revolution (1791-1804), many French and their slaves (known as "French blacks") emigrated to nearby Santiago de Cuba, the eastern part of the island. The