In the 1920s, when Afro-Cuban sounds and instruments were changing the world of Cuban music, Afro-Cuban culture began to spread to the realms of art and literature. Initially, Afro-Cuban poetry, or “negrista” poetry, was mainly published by white Cubans such as Emilio Ballagas, Alejo Capentier, and José Tallet. It wasn’t until the 1930s when Guillén would appeal to the literary society by giving an accurate personal account of the struggles, dreams, and mannerisms in the Afro-Cuban.

Guillén is probably the best-known representative of the "poesía negra" ("black poetry") that tried to create a synthesis between black and white cultural elements, a "poetic mestizaje". Characteristic for his poems is the use of onomatopoetic words ("Sóngoro Cosongo", "Mayombe-bombe") that try to imitate the sound of drums or the rhythm of the son. Silvestre Revueltas's symphonic composition Sensemayá was based on Guillén's poem of the same name, and became that composer's best known work.

Guillen made an international mark for himself with the publication of Motivos de son. The work was inspired by the living conditions of Afro-Cubans and the popular music of son. The publication consisted of eight short poems that were composed using the everyday language of the Afro Cubans. The collection stood out in the literary world because it emphasized and established the importance of Afro-Cuban culture as a valid genre in Cuban literature.

In Man-Making words: Selected Poems of Nicolás Guillén, Angel Aguier, in reference to Motivos de son, wrote that “the son, a passionate dance born of the Negro-white encounter under Caribbean skies in which the words and music of the people culminate in song, is the basic substance of the elemental poetry which Guillen intuitively felt as the expression of the Cuban spirit. He specifically chose the son as the mixed artistic creation of the two races that make up the Cuban population; for the son, in form and content, runs the full gamut of every aspect of our national character.” This quote establishes how the son, such a profound musical genre of that time, initiated the fusion of black and white Cuban culture, which, with Guillén’s incorporation of the genre into his writings, symbolized and created a pathway for the same cultural fusion in Cuban literature.

Guillén’s unique approach of incorporating the son into poetry was one the aspects his literary volume Sóngoro consongo (1931). In this literary work, Guillén included poems that depicted the lives of Cubans and emphasized the importance of Afro-Cuban culture in Cuban history. Sóngoro consongo authentically captures the realistic essence of the Afro-Cuban lifestyle and the ways in which they deal with their personal situations.

One of Guillén’s works, “La canción del bongó”, from Sóngoro consongo is a fusion of West African and Hispanic literary styles, contributing to the uniqueness of Guillén’s literary vision.

Esta es la canción del bongó:...Aquí el que más fino sea,responde, si llamo yo.Unos dicen: Ahora mismo,otros dicen: Allá voy.Pero mi repique bronco,pero mi profunda voz,convoca al negro y al blanco,que bailan el mismo son,cueripardos y almiprietosmás de sangre que de sol,pues quien por fuera no es de noche,por dentro ya oscureció.Aquí el que más fino sea,responde, si llamo yo.

En esta tierra, mulatade africano y español(Santa Bárbara de un lado,del otro lado, Changó),siempre falta algún abuelo,cuando no sobra algún Dony hay títulos de Castillacon parientes en Bondó:Vale más callarse, amigos,y no menear la cuestión,porque venimos de lejos,y andamos de dos en dos.Aquí el que más fino sea,responde si llamo yo.

Habrá quién llegue a insultarme,pero no de corazón;habrá quién me escupa en público,cuando a solas me besó...A ése, le digo:

             ...Compadre,

ya me pedirás perdón,ya comerás de mi ajiaco,ya me darás la razón,ya me golpearás el cuero,ya bailarás a mi voz,ya pasearemos del brazo,ya estarás donde yo estoy:ya vendrás de abajo arriba,¡que aquí el más alto soy yo!

This poem, like many in Sóngoro consongo, incorporates the rhythmic sounds of son. The poem has a rhythm, unlike most poems that focus on the number of syllables, which focuses on the marking of stressed and unstressed syllables in strong and weak beats. “La canción del bongó” is one of Guillén’s poems that truly stand out, according to Dellita L. Martin, because “it is the only one to indicate Guillén’s painfully increasing awareness of racial conflicts in Cuba".

• Motivos de son (1930)
• Sóngoro Cosongo (1931)
• West Indies, Ltd. (1934)
• Cantos para soldados (1937)
• La paloma de vuelo popular: Elegías (1958)

Discography

• Antologia Oral: Poesia Hispanoamericana del Siglo XX / Oral Anthology: Spanish-American Poetry of the 20th Century (Folkways Records, 1960)
• Nicolás Guillén: Poet Laureate of Revolutionary Cuba (Folkways, 1982)