Cuba in The World The World in Cuba
Cuba in The World The World in Cuba
Cuba in The World The World in Cuba
a cura di
ALESSANDRA LORINI
DUCCIO BASOSI
FUP
FIRENZE
UNIVERSITY
PRESS
strumenti
per la didattica e la ricerca
– 91 –
nuove americhe
Consiglio Scientifico
edited by
alessandra lorini
duccio Basosi
with a preface by
ronald pruessen
rick halpern
max Guderzo
http://digital.casalini.it/9788884539625
Printed in Italy
Contents
Preface 9
R. Pruessen, R. Halpern, M. Guderzo
Introduction. Cuba in the World. The World in Cuba 13
A. Lorini, D. Basosi
Part I. The Making of the Cuban Republic:
from Slavery to a Raceless Nation 21
1. cuba in the age of the haitian revolution 23
A. Ferrer
2. cuba and Fernando po in the second half of the 19th century 39
I. Fattacciu
3. identitades raciales, nacionalismo, jerarquías sociales:
los líderes “de color” en cuba (1902-1912) 51
L. Giolitto
Part II. Science and Technology in Cuba:
from Colony to Revolution 65
4. las tecnologías de información y comunicación
en cuba (1850-1902): la telegrafía 67
M.I. Blaquier Ascaño
5. Physics in Cuba: a Lag between Technological and Scientific Development 81
A. Baracca
Part III. Conflicting Political Cultures:
from the First US Occupation to Revolution 95
6. cultura política popular, “choteo” y nacionalismo en tiempos
de la primera intervención norteamericana en cuba 97
M. Iglesias Utset
7. Revering and Contesting Machado in the Shadow of the Platt
amendment: cuban nationalism and anti-imperialism in the 1920s 109
A. Lorini
alessandra lorini e duccio Basosi (a cura di), Cuba in the World, the World in
Cuba. Essays on Cuban History, Politics and Culture, isBn 978-88-8453-971-7 (print),
isBn 978-88-8453-962-5 (online), © 2009 Firenze university press
6 Cuba in the World, the World in Cuba
Preface
alessandra lorini e duccio Basosi (a cura di), Cuba in the World, the World in
Cuba. Essays on Cuban History, Politics and Culture, isBn 978-88-8453-971-7 (print),
isBn 978-88-8453-962-5 (online), © 2009 Firenze university press
10 Cuba in the World, the World in Cuba
manifold transnational dynamics that are evident within that space – is as old
as the worlds that would have been known to people in the ancient empires
of egypt, china, and rome. cuba’s history is deep as well, of course, and in
many ways commences in that earlier era of globalization that saw spain and
other Old World empires colonize in the Caribbean Basin and South America
at the end of the fifteenth century. this volume demonstrates the collabora-
tors’ intention to consider the longue durée of the zigzag that characterizes the
world’s influence on cuba and cuba’s influence on the world.
the use of phrases like “back and forth” and “zigzag” is quite purposeful
as far as the Cuba in the World/The World in Cuba project is concerned. a sig-
nificant component of our approach to transnational dynamics, that is, is the
placing of emphasis and the focus of scholarly enquiry upon process – and
on ongoing process, in particular. the impact of notionally “external” factors
on cuba – e.g., european appetites for sugar, european and african engage-
ment in slavery, cold War clashes – was never a “one time” phenomenon.
us-soviet clashes affected cuba for decades while the relevance of sugar
and slavery to cuban history, for instance, requires a centuries-long timeline.
moreover, inherent in the existence of expansive chronologies is the notion
of evolving patterns and dynamics. the cold War’s impact on cuba was not
the same in the early 1960s, the mid 1970s, and the 1990s: these periods were
related, but not at all in the same way or involving the same dynamics. sugar
and slavery even more obviously suggest how the imprint of “outside” in-
fluences can change over time: simply consider the very different, but no less
important role of “race” in post-emancipation cuba.
Cuba in the World/The World in Cuba also places particular emphasis on the
way transnational, globalized processes require focused attention on two-way
flows and reciprocal influences. an important assumption here, to amplify
a previous point, is that cuba was not simply a body on an operating table,
inert and surrounded by “outside” surgeons of one kind or another. cuba’s
responses to “external” influences had considerable relevance to the way the
outside world evolved over time as well: consider, for example, the impact
of various forms of cuban resistance on spain’s demise as a great imperial
power, on the cold War in africa, on us domestic politics. What is involved
here – and this is one of the key concepts at the heart of Cuba in the World/The
World in Cuba thinking – is something that might be envisioned as a cybernetic
process. although the term is often now used in discussions of human/com-
puter dynamics, its earlier and more broadly relevant meaning highlights the
perpetual give-and-take interaction between an actor and a surrounding en-
vironment – with the assumption very much being that each round in the in-
teraction affects both “sides” of the engagement in important ways.
One example should make this clear – with more to become evident in
the chapters that follow: a Cuba in the World/The World in Cuba approach
encourages appreciation for the complex, two-way process by which both
this single country and the global arena surrounding it moved through
Preface 11
Introduction
Cuba in the World. The World in Cuba
in the 16th century, cuba was known as la llave del Nuevo Mundo (the
“key to the new World”). in the 19th century, before the Cuba Libre move-
ment helped the country gain its independence with the intervention of the
united states in 1898, it was known as the “pearl of the antilles”, “the rich-
est jewel in the royal crown” and la siempre fidelísima isla (the “ever-faithful
isle”). indeed, the “caribbean sugar bowl” populated by spanish colonists
and african slaves had already developed a complex relationship with its
north american neighbor by then. this only got tighter with the end of
spanish rule, the subsequent us military occupation and the birth of the
fragile republic in 1902 in the shadow of the platt amendment that allowed
the us to intervene on the island at its discretion1. at the beginning of the
20th century, the us-cuba connection was strategic and intimate, taking on
the shape of real neocolonialism that would last until the outbreak of Fidel
castro’s revolution in 1959. cuba would then enter the orbit of the soviet
union, “the other” superpower of the cold War, once again following rath-
er complex dynamics.
a virtual laboratory of imperial strategies on the one hand and revo-
lutions on the other, cuba played a key role in a world divided between
two superpowers. at once physically close and politically distant from the
1
see: louis a. pérez Jr., Cuba and the United States. Ties of Singular Intimacy (athens, Ga:
Georgia university press, 1990); id., The War of 1898: The United States and Cuba in History and
Historiography (chapel hill: north carolina university press, 1998); id., Cuba in the American
Imagination. Metaphor and the Imperial Ethos (chapel hill: north carolina university press,
2008); rafael hernández, Mirar el Niagara. Huellas culturales entre Cuba y los Estados Unidos
(la habana: centro de investigación de la cultura cubana Juan marinello, 2000); alessandra
lorini, L’impero della libertà e l’isola strategica. Gli Stati Uniti e Cuba tra Otto e Novecento (napoli:
liguori, 2008); id., ed., An intimate and Contested Relation: The United States and Cuba in the late
Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries (Firenze: Firenze university press, 2005).
alessandra lorini e duccio Basosi (a cura di), Cuba in the World, the World in
Cuba. Essays on Cuban History, Politics and Culture, isBn 978-88-8453-971-7 (print),
isBn 978-88-8453-962-5 (online), © 2009 Firenze university press
14 Cuba in the World, the World in Cuba
united states, it was also able to carry out important international initia-
tives in relative autonomy from moscow2. For cuba, the end of the soviet
union implied the need to rethink its independence. unlike the former
soviet bloc countries, cuba has continued the socialist revolution, and it
has paid a high price for it. their strong national identity rooted in three
centuries of history is undoubtedly the source of the cuban people’s ca-
pacity for survival. at the heart of this identity is the ideal of a universal
nation “for all and for the good of all”, in the words of José martí, which
survived by transforming itself through the complex anthropological pro-
cess Fernando Ortiz called transculturación3.
this ideal of a global nation was one of the most important issues that
emerged during the workshop “cuba, a strategic island: new perspectives
on history, politics and culture” held at the university of Florence in
november 2007. this multi-disciplinary conference hosted scholars from
various countries to discuss the specific encounters they have had with
cuba along their distinctive paths of research4. the present volume took its
cue from that conference and takes a step further by proposing to approach
cuba as an example of a nation that hosts a convergence of extraordinary
global developments and in turn projects itself onto the world’s major cul-
tural, political and economic processes. such an approach embraces re-
lations between colony and motherland during the 19th century, conflicts
between imperial strategies and the formation of identities and political
cultures and a reading of architectural and artistic documents as well as
strategies and economic policies from the cold War to the first decade of
the present century. Without any pretension to completeness, the seven
parts of this book focus on moments, events and characters that are more
or less well-known and together indicate a new path for “global history”.
From each of these points of view, the cuban experience seems to reveal
the limits of the long-held equation according to which “globalization”
could not exist without capitalism, containers or the internet5. On the one
hand, the recent experience in cuba is that of a socialist country that was
2
Odd Arne Westad, The Global Cold War (cambridge, uK: cambridge university press,
2004), 158-249; piero Gleijeses, Moscow’s Proxy? Cuba and Africa 1975-1988, «Journal of cold
War studies», 2 (2006), 3-51.
3
On Martí, Ortiz, and other Caribbean intellectuals who forged ideals of free nations see: Con-
suelo Naranjo Orovio, Miguel Á. Puig-Samper y Luis Miguel García Mora, eds., La Nación So-
ñada: Cuba, Puerto Rico y Filipinas ante el 98 (Madrid: Doce Calles, 1996). On nineteenth-century
cuban political culture also see: José piqueras arenas, Societad civil y poder en Cuba. Colonia y
poscolonia (madrid: siglo XXi de españa, 2005). the most recent and multifaceted history of
cuba up to the first half of the 20th century is the volume edited by Consuelo Naranjo Orovio,
Historia de Cuba (madrid: consejo superior de investigaciones científicas, 2009).
4
the conference was the first cooperative effort of a group of historians working at the uni-
versity of Florence and the university of toronto to develop an international research group
on cuban studies.
5
For some general thoughts on this subject: Jurgen Osterhammel and Niels Petersson, Global-
ization: A Short History (princeton: princeton university press, 2005).
Introduction 15
left economically isolated after the collapse of all its main eastern european
allies in 1989 and has since built new global networks that range from eco-
nomic to political relations, from cultural to social exchanges. today, tour-
ism brings millions of visitors to the island every year, putting cubans
vis-à-vis with the lifestyles of the rest of the world. the island’s “medical
diplomacy”, which covers some seventy-five countries, brings thousands
of cuban doctors abroad, presenting a veritable “cuban social model” to
large portions of the global South. On the other hand, the Cuban experi-
ence confirms the theoretical fragility of the paradigm that wants to see
globalization only as a recent fact. On the contrary, a quick overview of the
island’s history is sufficient to trace the signals of many previous “global-
izations”: from the mixed composition of the population to the country’s
long-held role in the world sugar market; from political migration and in-
tellectual hybridization during the wars for independence to the global im-
pact of the revolution of 1959.
this book aims at portraying, at least in part, the long duration, the
complexity and the multidimensional nature of cuba’s interactions with
the world. spanning two centuries of history, the essays collected here an-
alyze the continuous interplay between what is cuban and what is glob-
al. “cuba in the world”, then, for the island’s ability to project its own
culture, economy, and politics beyond its borders. But also “the world in
cuba”, for the island’s repeated hybridization with the cultural, politi-
cal and economic stimulation from outside the country. First there is the
centrality of slavery and emancipation. ada Ferrer’s essay focuses on the
impact of the slave revolution in haiti on cuba at the beginning of the
19th century, a time when cuba itself was becoming an increasingly slave-
based society. the contribution by irene Fattacciu reconstructs instead
cuba’s presence in the african spanish colony of Fernando po in the sec-
ond half of the 19th century as an example of the complex interactions
between africa, europe and the americas. in the aftermath of cuban in-
dependence from spain, the legacy of slavery and the racialization of so-
cial conflicts in us terms profoundly affected definitions of racial identity
and nationalism among cuban “leaders of color”, as loredana Giolitto
discusses in her essay.
By analyzing how cuba, still a rich spanish slave colony in the second
half of the 19th century, was a crucial hub for the transatlantic telegraph
system financed by us capital, marta Blaquier ascaño shows how the is-
land was at the center of the commercial networks between europe and
the americas. however, while the telegraph and other technologies were
developed during the colonial period, scientific debate and higher educa-
tion remained backward, because of first colonial and then neo-colonial
dependence until the second half of the 20th century. as highlighted in the
essay by angelo Baracca, the great leap forward in scientific and higher
education only happened as a result of the revolution of 1959.
16 Cuba in the World, the World in Cuba
the island, between new York, mexico and europe, and yet maintained
a visceral connection with cuba by exulting in the revolution of 1959, as
described in this volume by his daughter ilse Girona. there are also cuban
musicians whose music, as well-known as the revolution itself, was rooted
in the process of transculturación that mixed musical genres from different
countries and continents, as demonstrated by Vincenzo Perna in his essay
on the bright and dark sides of the famous film Buena Vista Social Club by
Wim Wenders.
in addition to the spread of cuban cultural forms throughout the world,
the other side of cuban internationalism during the cold War was the
revolution’s commitment to the liberation movements of the third World.
cuba’s intervention in africa is examined from different angles and points
of view in the essays by pablo arco pino, who inserts cuba’s presence in
africa into the latin american tradition of selfless solidarity among poor
countries; candace sobers, who focuses on the reasons for the success of
the first cuban intervention in angola in 1975; and maria stella rognoni,
who analyzes the effects of the cuban intervention in angola on the pro-
cess of nation-building in that country.
the end of the cold War and the collapse of the soviet union has
caused an unprecedented crisis in cuba, which has been called the “spe-
cial period”, also marked by increased strain on the country’s already-
negative relationship with the united states. But as duccio Basosi shows
in his essay, far from merely surviving in a world turned economical-
ly and politically unipolar, cuba has reacted to the changes by seeking
to actively promote cooperation with the countries of latin america.
certainly, the cost to maintain the socialist experiment alive has been, and
still is, very high, leaving the question open as to the future of “21st cen-
tury socialism”, as davide Gualerzi asserts in his contribution to this vol-
ume. however, such alternatives have already begun taking shape amid
the many difficulties: in her essay, Filomena critelli discusses cuban
programs in “community medicine” and “capacity building” (including
the exchanges of Cuban doctors with Venezuelan oil) that, in addition to
demonstrating cuba’s “resilience”, represent an alternative foreign-poli-
cy strategy for the 21st century, based on an innovative concept of human
and national security.
Finally, during the long history of cuba in the world and the world in
cuba, the island’s relationship with the united states, both as meeting and
confrontation, has been crucial. according to some cautious public posi-
tions, the recent election of Barack Hussein Obama to the presidency of
the united states seems to open a door to potential change in that long-
asymmetrical relationship. the normalization of diplomatic relations, the
elimination of a long series of punitive laws and a blockade that dates back
to 1961, and the return of the Guantanamo enclave to cuban sovereignty
seem more plausible today than they have seemed in over half a century.
18 Cuba in the World, the World in Cuba
should this happen and, with such normalization, were cuba able to main-
tain its social achievements, it would represent an important message for
the world of the 21st century.
during the final editing of this volume we received the sad news that
pablo arco pino, one of our contributors, suddenly died. We feel to dedi-
cate this volume to his memory.
like many american countries, cuba built its economy on slavery. at the
beginning of the 19th century, the slave revolution in French saint-domingue
strongly affected the cuban economy and the political future of the spanish col-
ony. the collapse of sugar production in the black republic of haiti meant the
consolidation of a plantation economy in cuba, which became the number one
producer of sugar in the world. at the same time, the image of the haitian revo-
lution less than fifty miles from the cuban coast aroused a sense of fear among
cuban whites surrounded by a growing number of slaves. it has been argued
that the powerful shadow of the haitian revolution made cuban whites less
prone to leaving the mother country, concerned as they were that any nationalist
movement could turn Cuba into the “realm of terror” of another black Haiti. On
the other hand, voices of slave victory in haiti stirred among cuban slaves the
feeling that freedom was possible. in this section, ada Ferrer brings fresh insights
to existing historiography1 by showing how cubans had access to detailed news
on haiti and that several contacts existed between the dying slave society of the
French saint-domingue and cuban society in which slavery was becoming more
solid. Ferrer argues that, far from being vague, both the fears and the hopes that
haiti aroused were based on real experiences of creole elites and cuban slaves.
Just as many spanish american colonies had fought for and achieved
independence by 1820 and slavery was abolished in the British caribbean
1
david B. davis, The Problem of Slavery in the Age of revolution, 1770-1823 (ithaca: cornell uni-
versity press, 1975); alfred hunt, Haiti’s Influence on Antebellum America: Slumbering Volcano in
the Caribbean (Baton rouge: louisiana university press, 1988); david p. Geggus, ed., The Impact
of the Haitian Revolution in the Atlantic World (columbus: south carolina university press, 2001);
sybille Fischer, Modernity Disavowed: Haiti and the Cultures of Slavery in the Age of Revolution (dur-
ham, nc: duke university press, 2004). the most recent work on haiti and cuba is by dolores
Gonzáles-ripoll et al., eds., El rumor de Haití en Cuba: temor, raza y rebeldía, 1789-1844 (madrid:
consejo superior de investigaciones científicas, 2004).
alessandra lorini e duccio Basosi (a cura di), Cuba in the World, the World in
Cuba. Essays on Cuban History, Politics and Culture, isBn 978-88-8453-971-7 (print),
isBn 978-88-8453-962-5 (online), © 2009 Firenze university press
22 Cuba in the World, the World in Cuba
2
see: louis a. pérez, Cuba between Empires, 1878-1902 (pittsburgh: pittsburgh university press,
1983); rebecca J. scott, Slave Emancipation in Cuba: The Transition to Free Labor, 1860-1899 (princeton:
princeton university press, 1985); ada Ferrer, Insurgent Cuba. Race, Nation and Revolution, 1868-
1898 (chapel hill: north carolina university press, 1999); christopher schmidt-nowara, Empire
and Slavery: Spain, Cuba, and Puerto Rico, 1833-1874 (pittsburgh: pittsburgh university press, 1999).
3
see: Gerald e. poyo, “With All and for the Good of All”: The Emergence of popular Nationalism
in the Cuban Communities of the United States, 1848-1898 (durham, nc: duke university press,
1989); enrique lópez mesa, La comunidad cubana de New York: siglo XIX (la habana: centro de
estudios martianos, 2002); louis a. pérez, ed., José Martí in the United States: The Florida Experi-
ence (tucson: arizona state university, 1995).
A. Ferrer
Chapter 1
Cuba in the Age of the Haitian Revolution
1
On the revolution, see David Geggus, Haitian Revolutionary Studies (Bloomington: indiana
university press, 2002); laurent dubois, Avengers of the New World: The Story of the Haitian
Revolution (cambridge, ma: harvard university press, 2004); carolyn Fick, The Making of Hai-
alessandra lorini e duccio Basosi (a cura di), Cuba in the World, the World in
Cuba. Essays on Cuban History, Politics and Culture, isBn 978-88-8453-971-7 (print),
isBn 978-88-8453-962-5 (online), © 2009 Firenze university press
24 Cuba in the World, the World in Cuba
ti: The Saint-Domingue Revolution from Below (Knoxville: university of tennessee press, 1991);
and, of course, c.l.r. James, The Black Jacobins: Toussaint Louverture and the San Domingo Revo-
lution (london: allison and Busby, 1980).
2
the classic and indispensible study of this transition and transformation, is manuel moreno
Fraginals, El ingenio (la habana: ciencias sociales, 1978).
Part I – The Making of the Cuban Republic 25
material daily links between the haitian revolution and cuban soci-
ety produced distinct streams of information or news that traveled from
one colony to the other. in this paper, i will examine three such sources of
haitian news in depth. i chose these three in particular because they high-
light on the one hand how rich and detailed was the information about the
revolution that arrived in cuba and – on the other – the capacity of that in-
formation to reach different social sectors in cuba. Finally, they allow a re-
thinking of the broad categories that scholars have used so far to talk about
the haitian revolution’s impact not only in cuba but in the atlantic World
in general – a set of concerns i will return to at the end of the essay.
the first source of information i will analyze involves the movement of
people between the scenes of the haitian revolution and cuban society.
tens of thousands of French refugees left the turbulence of revolution in
saint-domingue to resettle in cuba. But rather than focus on this migra-
tion, i focus instead on movements in the other direction. people in cuba
actually traveled to the scenes of revolution and brought back first-hand
accounts of revolutionary events in which they themselves were directly
implicated.
When spain declared war on France in February 1793, that war came
quickly to the island of hispaniola, where these two countries shared a
border that had already been a hot zone since the start of the revolution
in saint-domingue. in the spring of 1793, the spanish governor of santo
domingo, Joaquín García, using priests and military officers near the bor-
der, sealed a formal alliance with the black troops from the French side
of the island in order to combat their common enemy, the revolutionary
26 Cuba in the World, the World in Cuba
3
the reference to the stamp of the tree of liberty appears in matías de armona to c.G.
Joaquín García, 14 august 1793, in archivo General de simancas, spain (aGs), Guerra mod-
erna (Gm), leg. 6855. armona says the stamp was used on a letter from Biassou, which he
received on the 12th of that month, and which he forwarded to the captain General. For a
discussion of slave royalism and the on-the-ground compatibility of royalist and republican
motifs, see dubois, Avengers, 106-108.
Part I – The Making of the Cuban Republic 27
galed in san rafael in February or march 1794, each receiving a gold medal
from the King of spain in honor of their services as his loyal vassals. at
the ceremony, it was the officers of two cuban regiments who awarded
the medals. men from the cuban regiments, who gathered to witness the
concession of this highest honor, played the military music, paraded with
the medal recipients, and joined the two black officers in a lavish two-hour
meal prepared in their honor4. the encounter between the cuban officers
and the rebel slaves represented a clear inversion of roles, and everyone
who witnessed and participated in it seemed to see it as just that.
Just as palpable as this inversion of roles, however, was the struggle
of these same cuban commanders to apprehend and in a sense classify
the novel political, military, and social landscape that lay before them.
confronted with a large army of rebel slaves only nominally under spanish
command, armona and others had trouble figuring out how to approach
and address them. they knew the black rebels were officially auxiliaries,
but they often noted that actually they were “runaway slaves”. the offi-
cers’ reports sometimes seemed to acknowledge that their own system of
classification did not correspond with that of the slave rebels. armona, for
example, routinely recorded such discrepancies. “they – he wrote – re-
ferred to their positions as encampments”, but he called them “palenques”.
he mentioned that they referred to themselves as generals, brigadiers, and
lieutenants. he seemed about to record a difference in the way the spanish
named these same leaders, but then added, sheepishly almost, that he and
his colleagues called them that, too. his discernible discomfort seems to
suggest that the power of the forces led by black rebels was making old
labels (such as “maroons”) inappropriate, and new ones (such as “general”
for a former slave) plausible, but still not so natural as to go unnoticed 5.
here the documents produced out of the routine and material contacts be-
tween slave rebels and white commanders reveal the traces of competing
ways of naming the history represented by this revolution.
the alliance between the slave rebels and the cuban officers reminds us
that the contact between colonial cuba and revolutionary saint-domingue
involved significantly more than haitian news passively making its way to
cuban ports. What we have here is rather something much more sustained
and meaningful. cuban men – some of them direct witnesses to the sugar
revolution that was then transforming havana into a major slave society –
4
Continuación de la noticias de la Ysla de Sto Domingo hasta 25 de Marzo de 94 in folder “relación
de los ocurrido en la Ysla de santo domingo con motivo de la guerra con los franceses, 1795.
d. antonio Barba”, servicio histórico militar, madrid, colección General de documentos,
rollo 65, doc no. 5-4-11-1. the document mentions that General Jean-François had received
the same honor earlier.
5
matías de armona to c.G. Joaquín García, 12 and 14 august 1793, in folder “corresponden-
cia del Brigadier dn. mathías de armona desde 19 de Junio hasta 1 de septiembre de 1793”, in
aGs, Gm, leg. 6855.
28 Cuba in the World, the World in Cuba
traveled to the scenes of the haitian revolution that was then transforming
the world’s most profitable colony into a revolutionary one in the process
of destroying the institution of slavery.
the marquis de casa calvo, for instance, came from one of the wealthiest
sugar families in havana. he himself owned a prosperous, dynamic plan-
tation; his brother, nicolás calvo, was at the forefront of sugar production
and of the implementation of new technologies to advance it. in the midst
of the revolution, the marquis became Governor of Bayajá, a French town
known as Fort dauphin that was taken by the spanish and black auxiliary
forces in January 1794. there, he acquired slaves to ship back to his planta-
tions in cuba; he purchased sugar-making equipment from French planta-
tions being destroyed by his allies, and sent that back to havana as well. he
derided his black allies to officials in havana and madrid, but on the ground
he found himself forced to keep up appearances and, indeed, even went be-
yond the mandate, becoming godfather to Jean-François and flirting with the
latter’s wife during the dances held in the town6. these cuban officers and
soldiers had contact with slave insurgents and leaders, corresponding with
them, sometimes eating and celebrating with them, and eventually – after
toussaint broke with the spanish and allied with the French – suffering mili-
tary defeat at their hands. after taking part in those unprecedented events,
they returned to cuba. From scattered documentary evidence we know they
brought back artifacts from the war itself, for example, estampas of black
revolutionary figures that would turn up in havana seventeen years later,
during an ambitious and mysterious conspiracy led by a free black carpen-
ter known as José Antonio Aponte. Other soldiers and officers returned to
cuba bringing with them slaves purchased or taken from saint-domingue.
all came back with stories and memories they might have felt eager to share
freely in a society they hoped was the antithesis (rather than the precursor)
of the revolutionary upheavals they had just witnessed.
through these cuban officers and soldiers the world of the haitian
revolution met the world of the sugar revolution in cuba, that is, the as-
cendancy of slavery and the slave trade, and of sugar and large scale plan-
tation agriculture. in the heart of the entrenchment of slavery in cuba lived
the raw example and the intimate knowledge of slavery’s destruction, so
menacingly close to cuban coasts.
But in the world of burgeoning slavery in cuba, there were other ways
to hear and learn of revolutionary saint-domingue. sometimes it is possible
to discern the specific routes of transmission; other times we can only see
6
see ada Ferrer, The Making and Unmaking of Slavery: Cuba and Haiti in the Age of Revolution,
manuscript in preparation, chapter 3.
Part I – The Making of the Cuban Republic 29
the evidence that people in cuba were avidly consuming the news, with-
out being able to discern how they knew. Just two weeks after the start of
the haitian revolution, in early september 1791, authorities in havana grew
alarmed when they learned that people of color in the area were sacrificing
pigs in honor of the slave insurgents. the prospect raises the possibility that
havana was home to some version of a Bois-caiman ceremony, the famous
(if disputed) ritual beginning to the revolution, in which haitian conspira-
tors took blood oaths and sacrificed a black pig as preparation for the war
they were about to commence7. Whether or not such ceremonies were taking
place in havana, as authorities feared, the prospect alone makes it very likely
that just days after the turmoil erupted in saint-domingue, people in cuba –
and specifically people of color – knew about those events and were thinking
and digesting them actively. indeed, in casual street encounters between free
urban blacks and local whites, in confrontations between masters and slaves,
in heated exchanges between black suspects and white interrogators, cuban
people of color regularly referred to the haitian revolution as something
they knew about and perhaps hoped to emulate. they referred by name to
men such as toussaint, dessalines, christophe, and Jean- François. their tes-
timony, on numerous occasions, explicitly refers to the heroic deeds of their
“compañeros” in haiti. slaves recruited others to conspiracy by urging them
to do as their counterparts had done in st. domingue, where blacks were
now “absolute masters of the land”8.
While the regular invocations of haiti by slaves and free people of color
leave no doubt that they learned and used knowledge of revolutionary events,
on their own they do not tell us how and from what sources they acquired
that knowledge. there were, of course, many sources: from the stories told
by escaping refugees, sea captains, and crews, to the official reports by French
officials which spawned rumors and vivid talk among the local populace. But
among the many possible sources, some are potentially surprising.
One such source is the Gaceta de Madrid, the official newspaper of the
spanish government in madrid. For all the government’s efforts to cur-
tail the flow of information, the source with most information on events
in saint domingue circulating in cuba was not a foreign newspaper, but
the official newspaper of its own metropole. according to captain General
someruelos, this posed a significant problem. he lamented that the news-
paper was so readily available: “it is sold to the public, and everyone buys
it, and it circulates well among the blacks”, who, he wrote, read it and ana-
lyzed its contents “with considerable liveliness [viveza]”9.
7
Geggus, Haitian Revolutionary Studies, 207-220.
8
see ada Ferrer, “la société esclavagiste cubaine el la révolution haïtienne”, Annales 2
(2003), 333-356: 346-356.
9
someruelos to sec. de estado, 25 may 1804, in archivo histórico nacional, madrid (ahn),
estado, leg. 6366, exp. 78. a transcription of the letter also appears in someruelos to sec. de
estado, 13 agosto 1809, in archivo General de indias, sevilla (aGi), estado, leg. 12, exp. 50.
30 Cuba in the World, the World in Cuba
What worried the captain General so profoundly was that in the pages
of this gazette, cubans of color, and others, encountered substantial and
animated news of black rebellion in what had been an orderly and pros-
perous sugar colony just miles away. here were stories of the revolutionary
terror in paris, of abolitionist debates in Britain, of war in europe. and in
regular snippets and sometimes in longer pieces taken mostly from French,
British, and us newspapers, the story of the haitian revolution unfold-
ed in incredible and dense detail, from the first article on the attacks of
august 1791 to the repeated installments about black military victories in
1803. indeed, by the end of the conflict, the Gaceta was even publishing
articles and reprinting translated documents that gave significant insight
into the ideas of the black insurgents. it published the words of the emerg-
ing haitian leadership.
the issue of the gazette that had prompted the complaint by the captain
General, in fact, contained two translated proclamations by haitian lead-
ers. in both documents, the black leaders invited refugees who had fled the
colony to return and live peacefully under the new system. But their invita-
tion also entailed a very clear and explicit threat.
the God who protects us, the God of free men, commands us to extend
towards them our victorious [vencedores] arms. But those who, intoxicated
with a foolish pride, […] [those who] think still that they alone form the
essence of human nature, and who pretend to think that they are destined
by heaven to be our owners and our tyrants, [we tell them] never to come
near the island of Santo Domingo, because if they come, they will find only
chains and deportation10.
these words made manifest the power of new black leaders, who for-
bade the return of saint-domingue to its colonial ruler and who were will-
ing to admit only those refugees who deigned to live under a government
of former slaves and in a society without slavery.
Just one week after someruelos penned his attack on the publication
and circulation of this document, a new proclamation appeared in the pag-
es of the gazette. this time it was the haitian declaration of independence,
signed by dessalines on January 1, 1804, and published in the gazette six
months later on June 111. We know that other copies of the haitian declara-
tion of independence had already reached cuba aboard French ships and
that authorities on the island had done their best to have them confiscated,
and then translated and sent to madrid12. But in spite of the attempts to
limit its circulation, in June the declaration was translated, published, and
10
Gaceta de Madrid, 23 de marzo de 1804.
11
Gaceta de Madrid, 1 de Junio de 1804.
12
marqués de someruelos a d. pedro cevallo, 14 marzo 1804, en ahn, estado, leg. 6366,
exp. 70.
Part I – The Making of the Cuban Republic 31
circulating, even among black cubans, who someruelos argued were able
to acquire the gazette with little difficulty13. thus, we know that people of
color in cuba were able to read the haitian declaration of independence, a
proclamation of former slaves who had vanquished their masters by force
of arms.
now we can understand more profoundly someruelos’ discomfort up-
on recognizing that these words and these ideas, and these examples of a
new kind of power in haiti, were circulating in his own colony. it was not
only that people of color learned of haitian news-according to the gazette
itself: there was not one black person who did not already know them by
memory. it was also that with repetition and circulation, the example ac-
quired more and more substance. What circulated, however, was not just
vague examples or even rich narratives of retribution and justice. With the
publication and circulation of such declarations, it was also the very intel-
lectual production of the revolution that circulated. emerging black leaders
engaged in a stinging critique of what they saw as the French revolution’s
false universalism and they expanded the meaning and content of emerg-
ing notions of rights and citizenship. that critique was read with appetite
and fascination and urgency by men of color who gathered around havana
to hear and talk of it.
the question then becomes what people of color in cuba might have
made of declarations like dessalines’s, or of haitian news and the haitian
example more generally. there is, of course, no way to answer this kind
of question with any degree of certainty. But asking it is important. if we
think of the history of slavery globally, we see that its destruction in saint-
domingue as a result of revolution coincided temporally with the entrench-
ment of slavery precisely in places like cuba, southern Brazil, and parts of
the united states south. in cuba, slaves living through and embodying
that entrenchment heard news of revolutionary haiti and appear to have
thought about it in relation to their own enslavement and their own pros-
pects of freedom. in this final section of the paper, then, rather than focus
on routes of transmission for revolutionary news, i experiment with think-
ing about the ways in which enslaved people in cuba consumed and in-
voked the haitian revolution.
to examine how slaves might have understood the haitian revolution,
we have a valuable resource in the thousands of pages of judicial testimony
taken from enslaved men and women in moments of suspected or actual
13
the spanish gazette does not appear to have published the haitian constitution of 1805,
even though it was published by several international gazettes and newspapers. perhaps
someruelos’s complaints did have their desired, if delayed, effect.
32 Cuba in the World, the World in Cuba
14
“expediente criminal contra Francisco Fuertes y demas negros […] sobre levantamiento
en el pueblo de Güines”, in archivo nacional de cuba, la habana (anc), asuntos políticos
(herefter ap), leg. 9, exp. 27. For a more detailed discussion, see ada Ferrer, La société.
Part I – The Making of the Cuban Republic 33
15
«consulta de los autos seguidos por la... ordinaria contra varios negros por sublevación»,
30 April 1812, ANC, AP, leg. 12, exp. 27. On the figure of Jean-François in the Aponte rebellion,
see matt childs, The 1812 Aponte Rebellion and the Struggle against Atlantic Slavery (chapel hill:
university of north carolina press, 2006), 173-189.
16
For recent work on aponte, see works by childs, The Aponte Rebellion; sibylle Fischer,
Modernity Disavowed: Haiti and the Cultures of Slavery in the Age of Revolution (durham: duke
university press, 2004); and stephan palmie, Wizards and Scientists: Explorations in Afro-Cuban
Modernity (durham: duke university press, 2002). the early work of José luciano Franco is
indispensable. see especially Las conspiraciones de 1810 y 1812 (la habana: ciencias sociales,
1977) and Ensayos históricos (la habana: ciencias sociales, 1974).
34 Cuba in the World, the World in Cuba
17
see, for example, the careo (judicial confrontation) between aponte and ternero, in anc,
ap, leg. 12, exp. 18, 25 march 1812; and that between aponte and chacón in anc, ap, leg.
12, exp. 14, 19 march 1812. there is an interesting variation in this careo, in which one of them
reminds the other to recall that he had even given the names of the two officers “siendo hijos
de la habana que habían ido al Guarico para incorporarse al exército del rey cristoval”.
18
see the 1809 correspondence between christophe, someruelos, and multiple spanish au-
thorities in AGI, Estado, leg. 12, exps. 57, 50, 51, 54. On Christophe sending agents to meet
Part I – The Making of the Cuban Republic 35
with spanish authorities in philadelphia, see aGi, estado, leg. 12, no. 54.
19
i discuss these connections more extensively in The Making and Unmaking of Slavery, chapter 6.
20
this claim is repeated many times in the testimony. see especially anc, ap, leg. 13, exp. 1.
36 Cuba in the World, the World in Cuba
at least three ships: the spanish Nueva Gerona; an unnamed portuguese ship
en route with 440 africans from rio de Janeiro to havana, and the Santa
Ana, whose shipment of 205 slaves was liberated and taken by christophe’s
forces to the port of Gonaïves. in addition, havana planters complained to
authorities about the capture of “various slave ships” prior to the intercep-
tion of these three, news of which, they said, was circulating in havana21. if
the news circulated, we can be sure that one of its key points of transmission
would have been the docks, where the arrival of empty slave ships, whose
original human cargo had been taken to haiti, would have found a most
attentive audience. as is well known, many of the figures questioned in as-
sociation with the aponte conspiracy were men who frequented the docks,
as workers or simply as residents of a bustling port city. many further tes-
tified to having heard news of the current conspiracy and of haiti itself at
the docks. it was in fact at the docks were haitian artifacts and images cir-
culated from hand to hand. One of the principal conspirators in the Aponte
rebellion in havana, Francisco Xavier pacheco, confessed shortly before his
execution that when aponte showed him a portrait of King christophe, he
had explained “that england was intercepting the ships that came loaded
with blacks because it no longer wanted slavery, sending them to [haiti] to
be governed by the black king”22.
21
On these three examples, see Junta Consular to Capitán General, 23 February 1811 and
26 June 1811, in Biblioteca nacional José martí, la habana (BnJm), cm morales, tomo 79,
nos. 23 and 26 respectively; and claudio martínez pinillos to real consulado, 24 march
1812, in anc, ap, leg. 106, exp. 21. haitian interception of slave ships is discussed briefly
in José luciano Franco, Comercio clandestino de esclavos, 106-107. the fate of the santa ana,
which was taken to the port of Gonaives, may be linked to the history of the famous village
and ritual center of souvenance, a few miles from that city. in oral and popular history, the
origins of the place are associated with a slave ship whose human cargo was liberated and
taken to that area in roughly this period. personal communication, patrick tardieu, novem-
ber 2006; michel hector and Jean casimir, February 2007. to my knowledge, no one has
worked on the haitian capture of slave ships, and it is thus impossible at this point to know
how widespread or rare the practice was, whether it affected other slave holding powers,
the extent to which such acts were carried out by north or south, or the fate of those africans
aboard the ships captured. Years later, christophe, in correspondence with British aboli-
tionist thomas clarkson, appears to deny involvement in such practices, writing on march
20, 1819, «though it is only with the greatest grief that i can bear to see spanish vessels
engaged in the slave trade within sights of our coasts, it is not my intention to fit out ships
of war against them». this was in reply to clarkson’s recommendation that he consider do-
ing just that. see leslie Griggs and clifford prator, eds., Henry Christophe and Thomas Clarks:
A Correspondence (Berkeley: university of california press, 1952), 115-117 and 128. For this
same period, José luciano Franco (Comercio, 107) briefly discusses an 1819 case in which
Boyer’s naval forces (on the warship Wilberforce) intercept a cuban-bound slave ship, and
free and take its hundreds of captives to port-au-prince.
22
here the testimony seems to echo the interpretation of the events advanced by the real
consulado to the captain-General: that haiti was intercepting slave ships with the protec-
tion of the British. the quote is from the testimony of Francisco Xavier pacheco, in Autos
sobre el incendio de Peñas Altas, in anc, ap, leg. 13, exp. 1, f. 291. Quote is: «y entonces le
enseño aponte el retrato del rey negro de aití nombrado henrique cristóval, instruyen-
dole que se había coronado y reconocido por el rey de Ynglaterra y el rey de españa. Que
Part I – The Making of the Cuban Republic 37
it was in this world, that slaves and free people of color talked about
haiti’s commitment to their freedom – a world where men and women
who would have been enslaved alongside them had through the interven-
tion of christophe reached free soil23.
4. Conclusion
los Yngleses apresavan los Buques que vienían cargados de negros por que no queria que
hubiera esclavitud, destinando aquellos a santo domingo para que fuesen gobernados por
el rey negro».
23
the ongoing work of sue peabody and Keila Grinberg on the evolution of the free soil
idea prompts us to think of a related vernacular, as opposed to juridical, concept of haiti
as free soil, an association perhaps encouraged by haitian policies such as the interception
of slave ships whose captives were liberated “to” haiti and pétion’s activist definitions of
haitianness (and thereby freedom) extending to black and brown people in other territories
who might come to reside in Haiti. On the legal concept of free soil, see Sue Peabody and
Keila Grinberg, Free Soil: An Atlantic Legal Construct, presented at the conference “rethinking
Boundaries: transforming methods and approaches in atlantic history”, new York univer-
sity, 9-10 February 2007. On the circulation of vernacular, Atlantic concepts of rights, see also
rebecca scott, “public rights and private commerce: a nineteenth-century atlantic creole
itinerary”, forthcoming in Current Anthropology.
38 Cuba in the World, the World in Cuba
Chapter 2
Cuba and Fernando Po in the Second Half of
the 19th Century
[the cubans] could have taken this island from the
spaniards if they had tried […] but there was no
organization among them at all, and so little caution
that everybody knew their escape plan1.
When the Tratado del Pardo ratified the transfer of Fernando po from
portugal to spain in 1778, the spanish government had no clear projects for
the island’s future role among its colonies. the first spanish governor there –
carlos chacón – did not take effective possession of the colony until almost
a century later, when he arrived on the island in 1858. as climate and tropi-
cal diseases made colonization difficult, the colonial administration decided
the afro-cuban population would have a better chance of adapting to the
weather and helping to develop the cultivation of cane and cacao there2. in
1862, following a number of bureaucratic and practical problems, 200 black
cuban emancipados arrived on Fernando po aboard the “Ferrol”.
this was the first contact between the two spanish colonies, and it
would not be the last. in 1862 and 1863, the spanish government renewed
its request to cuban authorities for another group of 200 emancipados to be
sent to the island. however, for reasons to be explained below, the project
was never realized. subsequent expeditions from cuba to the african is-
land, in 1866 and 1869, would no longer carry emancipados but instead po-
litical prisoners involved in the battle for independence3.
a study of the relations between Fernando po and cuba in the late 19th
century suggests different reflections regarding the historiography of the
1
John holt, The Diary of John Holt, 1862-1872 (liverpool: Young, 1948), 148-149.
2
Juan José díaz matarranz, De la trata de los negros al cultivo del cacao. Evolución del modelo
colonial español en Guinea ecuatorial de 1778 a 1914 (Barcelona: ceiba, 2005), 111-115.
3
this paper is a work in progress. as full access to cuban newspapers and periodicals has
not yet been possible, the research has been based on sources consulted in spain. apart from
useful references found in secondary literature, the primary sources used here are mainly
official documents (Reales Ordenes, documents from the Archivo General de la Administración,
expedition reports, and the diaries of an english merchant and two cuban political prisoners
in Fernando po).
alessandra lorini e duccio Basosi (a cura di), Cuba in the World, the World in
Cuba. Essays on Cuban History, Politics and Culture, isBn 978-88-8453-971-7 (print),
isBn 978-88-8453-962-5 (online), © 2009 Firenze university press
40 Cuba in the World, the World in Cuba
period of the Cuban struggle for independence. On the one hand, it could
help to reconsider the role of the emancipados in the spanish colonial eco-
nomic system by putting the issue of slavery and its role in cuba not only
in relation to us and spanish interests, but also to other colonial realities
of minor importance and dependent on Cuba. On the other hand, examin-
ing the polemic aroused by the project in cuban public opinion at the time
could contribute to the reconstruction of the different opinions, hopes and
contradictions that linked the issue of and discourse on slavery with cuban
nationalism in the period before 1868. Finally, episodes of emancipados and
political prisoners being transferred to Fernando po by force opened up the
issue of the competing and contradictory colonial policies that spain prac-
ticed towards its first african possession and its last american one.
the few scholars who have dealt with the cuban presence in Fernando
po have been specialists in african studies and have therefore focused more
on the actual experience of cubans on the island than on the reasons for
and organization of the expeditions4. their interests have been founded on
the colonization process in Fernando po, especially the reasons for the delay
in its occupation and the scarce interest of the spanish government in de-
veloping a precise plan to exploit its resources and develop its potential. in
the present study, the main objective is to contribute to an understanding of
the contradictory interaction between the economic interests of the spanish
crown; the spanish need to take control of their possessions in Guinea on
the one hand and maintain political control over cuba on the other; and the
collision between nationalist sentiment and the fear of a racial war in cuba.
it would be impossible to understand the atypical colonization pro-
cess involving the only spanish possession in africa without taking cuba
and its history into consideration. cuba, the jewel in spain’s crown, and
Fernando po have parallel but very different histories, as the growth of the
cuban sugarcane economy was the determining factor in the delayed colo-
nization of the african island5.
cuban sugar was the main trade of what survived of the mid-19th-century
spanish empire, and its production still required the exploitation of slave la-
bor. cuba became the driving force behind a huge growth in the demand for
commodities and slave labor6. For this reason spain became increasingly in-
4
On the subject see: Maria Dolores García Cantús, Fernando Poo: una aventura colonial española
en el África Occidental 1778-1900 (Ph.D. Dissertation, Universidad de Valencia, 2003), 450-460;
mariano luis de castro y antolín, Fernando Poo y los emancipados de La Habana, «estudios afri-
canos», 14-15 (1994); c. Gonzalez echegarray, “cubanos en Fernando poo. un capitulo en las
memorias de John holt”, Cuadernos de Historia Contemporanea, 1 (2003), 205-212.
5
On the “forgotten island” of Fernando Po, see: Mariano Luis De Castro and Maria De la
calle, Origen de la colonización española de Guinea Ecuatorial (1777-1860) (Valladolid: Universi-
dad de Valladolid, 1992).
6
On Cuba, slavery and the latter’s role among Spanish colonies see: Arthur F. Corwin, Spain
and the Abolition of Slavery in Cuba, 1817-1886 (austin: texas university press, 1967); and re-
becca J. scott, Slave Emancipation in Cuba: The Transition to Free Labor, 1860-1899 (princeton:
Part I – The Making of the Cuban Republic 41
volved in West africa during the 19th century, since africa was seen as the an-
swer to cuba’s need for labor. most importantly, a base in africa provided an
opportunity to procure slaves directly for cuba without foreign middlemen.
the first intersection of cuban interests with the colonization of Fernando
po concerned the British-spanish negotiation of 1839. as spanish interest in
the island had been minimal until the mid-19th century, British authorities
had installed an anti-slaving base there. Between 1839 and 1841, the British
government, which had evacuated the island in 1834, opened negotiations
to buy the african island, but failed in its attempt. initially it had seemed
that the spanish government was greatly interested in ceding their forgotten
possession. however, it closed negotiations in the face of cuban opposition.
cuban planters opposed the cession because a British settlement in that area
would have posed a difficult obstacle to their illicit slave trade. the united
Kingdom’s offer to buy the african island forced the spanish government to
pay more attention to its possessions in Guinea, and in 1858 a commission
was created to research a strategy for the future of Fernando po. however,
the colonization plans they drew up at the time subordinated the develop-
ment and government of the island to cuban economic interests.
When the spanish government decided to take definitive possession of
Fernando po, the British engagement to fight slavery and the fear of violent
protest among black settlers convinced spain not to introduce slavery to the
island. a royal order of 1859 proclaimed all slaves arriving there to be free,
therefore making Fernando po an anomaly among spanish colonies. after
the failure of the two expeditions of spanish settlers in 1859, cuba’s need
to alleviate the tension provoked by the large presence of emancipados and
Fernando po’s need for a labor force appeared to meet in the recovery of the
old project to use emancipado population to colonize the african island.
the idea of colonizing the african possession with cuban emancipados
had already been part of Spanish plans in the 1840s when L. O’Donnell –
then capitán General de cuba – proposed taking a certain number of afro-
cuban freedmen off the island and sending them to Fernando po “because
their nature or attitude caused troubles on the island”7. it was believed this
initiative could have two important and positive consequences: not only
could it introduce spanish costumes, religion and language to the island –
where english presence had been very strong – in a pacific way, it could al-
so alleviate the tensions provoked by the presence of emancipados in cuban
society. however, these initial intentions would not be realized until the
1860s, and the colonial authorities continued using the island’s Kruman
population for labor and attempting to organize settlements with spanish
8
matarranz, De la trata, 111-115.
9
transcription of the Tratado [segundo] entre España y el Reino Unido para la abolición del tráfico de es-
clavos in manuel lucena salmoral, Leyes para esclavos... (madrid: tavera, 2000), 1236-1249, doc. 535.
10
corwin, Spain.
Part I – The Making of the Cuban Republic 43
11
transcription of the Reglamento para el buen trato de los negros emancipados in salmoral, Leyes,
1248-1249, doc. 535.
12
salmoral, Leyes, 451.
13
Gwendolyn midlo hall, Social Control in Slave Plantation Societies (Baltimore: Johns hopkins
university press, 1970), 131.
14
the price of an emancipado was 1/3 of the price of a slave.
15
corwin, Spain.
16
correspondence in aGam, aG, box 672, n. 3.
44 Cuba in the World, the World in Cuba
On 7 March 1860, the first Real Orden was sent to cuba asking for 200
emancipados to be sent to Fernando po, a petition that remained unattend-
ed and was repeated in another Orden of 5 april 186117. as stated therein,
“such a small number of workers cannot in any way penalize the develop-
ment of public works on the island, especially if we take into consideration
[…] the evil always caused by colored libertos”18.
not only did the contrasting interests of the two colonies start a debate in
cuba over whether to expel a good number of emancipados, but it also led to an
interesting series of letters/reports in which cuban, spanish and Fernando po
authorities discussed who exactly should be sent to the african island. the dis-
pute delayed the organization of the expedition for two years, and an analysis
of the composition of the group that was eventually sent from cuba reveals the
extent to which these emancipados matched the expectations of either side.
authorities in Fernando po had expressed their opposition to the project
from the beginning. By the end of June 1860, however, the island’s governor, J.
de la Gándara y navarro, sent a report regarding the binding conditions and
advantages determined for the emancipados who were going to migrate there19.
though expressing his skepticism of the expedition’s benefits for the african
island, he wrote that deportees could in fact help to replace the peninsular
military garrison and carry out public works to help advance the colonization
process. in an attempt to prevent cuban authorities from taking the opportu-
nity to expel criminals and dangerous elements, the Ordenes contained several
requirements. One of the first general requirements was that the emancipados
be “intelligent and civilized people […], who speak spanish and profess our
religion; even better if with their wives”20, to contrast British influence. the
most important request, however, concerned their professional skills: the ex-
pedition was required to include at least twelve house servants, ten masons,
ten master carpenters, three blacksmiths, three bakers, two cobblers and two
tailors, while the rest could be composed of unskilled or agricultural laborers21.
if, on the other hand, emancipados had to be recruited as volunteers for the
expedition, as stated in the Ordenes, what were they offered to attract them to
the other side of the ocean? in order to settle on the island, emancipados with the
requested professional skills were promised complete freedom in addition to a
salary – the same given to the previous settlers from spain; they were further-
more promised land to cultivate. the others were told they could have the same
17
transcription of Reales Ordenes in agustin miranda Junco, Leyes Coloniales (madrid: ri-
vadeneyra, 1945), 29 and 31.
18
Ibidem, 31.
19
de la Gándara y navarro, letter of 28 June 1860 in aGam, aG, box 672.
20
Ibidem.
21
Ibidem.
Part I – The Making of the Cuban Republic 45
advantages if they decided to stay on the island at the end of their contract22.
the organization of the expedition proceeded slowly, since the cuban
government’s plan was to pressure spanish authorities to transform Fernando
po into a penal colony for undesirable afro-cubans and political dissidents.
capitán General F. serrano y domínguez expressed the same desire in a letter
he sent the spanish government on 6 June 1861, in which he asked for «all those
coloreds who have been sentenced in cuba for brawling, illegal weapons pos-
session, drunkenness and other crimes of this kind» to be sent to Fernando po23.
Four months after the publication of the recruitment announcement, he
communicated that no emancipados had yet asked to participate and that it
would consequently be necessary to recruit them without their consent24. in
spite of the doubts expressed by the governor of Fernando po25, who protested
against the idea of sending black criminals to a developing colony and lament-
ed the unattractive conditions offered to volunteers, the order was renewed
on 26 October 186126. Governor la Gándara had nothing left to do but ask
that the necessary number of participants be recruited “por la elección o por la
suerte” among those who corresponded with the requested requirements. On
14 June 1862, 200 black emancipados were shipped across the ocean aboard the
“Ferrol”, arriving on Fernando po on the 1st of august of that year27.
the group of cubans who arrived on Fernando po met few of the re-
quirements requested by the island’s governor. With regards to the demo-
graphic composition of the group, a report on the expedition drawn up in
1862 includes a list of the 200 emancipados, indicating their age and original
provenance28. the large majority of them were young males from ten to
thirty-six years of age, while the few women included in the expedition
were between eleven and sixteen years old29. But what can the data tell us
about the criteria adopted by cuban authorities to recruit emancipados for
the expedition? Fernando po’s new governor, p. lópez ayllón, wrote that,
although the newly arrived young labor force could prove very useful on
the island, there were just two masons and one blacksmith among them.
22
Ibidem.
23
serrano y domínguez’s letter, 6 June 1861, aGam, aG, box 672.
24
serrano y domínguez’s letter, 26 september 1861 in aGam, aG, box 672.
25
letter of 25 september 1861 in aGam, aG, box 672.
26
transcription of Reales Ordenes in Junco, Leyes Coloniales, 32.
27
Relación nominal y circunstanciada de los doscientos negros emancipados que por R.O. de 21 de
Marzo de 1862 se han trasladado desde esta Isla de Cuba a la de Fernando Poo en el vapor transporte
“Ferrol”, in aGam, aG, box 672.
28
Ibidem.
29
Ibidem.
46 Cuba in the World, the World in Cuba
in virtue of this, the governor asked that another 200 emancipados be sent,
among which he requested the presence of thirty-two masons, sixteen mas-
ter carpenters, six blacksmiths, and a few tile makers and glaziers30.
the scarce professional skills of the emancipados sent from cuba already give
us an idea of how little the requests of Fernando po had been taken into account
in their selection. By looking at the age and provenance of the participants, one
could argue that the majority of them, who were very young, were probably
recently arrived and emancipated slaves (bozales). the small remaining group
of older emancipados, on the other hand, was likely formed by “undesirable”
afro-cubans, a fact that could be confirmed by the indication of cuban towns
in the place of the expedition name. in the documents written by Fernando po
authorities, there are not many other explicit references to the composition of
the expedition, apart from a final note by the governor in charge in 1871, a.
Vivar, regarding the laziness and poor nature of the Cuban emancipados31.
another serious problem posed by the composition of the cuban group
was the scarcity of women. there were only twenty-five of them – a fact that,
together with the general scarcity of women on the island, made it difficult
to celebrate marriages as encouraged by spanish authorities. nevertheless,
as the merchant John holt noted ironically in his diary, barely a month af-
ter their arrival already twenty-one marriages had been celebrated32.
adapting to life in Guinea was difficult from the beginning for the eman-
cipados. While accommodations were arranged for the twenty-one married
couples in 1862, the rest of the cubans had to wait until 1863 when housing
blocks were built on a patch of land west of santa isabel. this was destined
to be a new neighborhood, called “congo”, which was to pass officially to
the cubans in 1867 at the end of their contracts33.
But how did the emancipados react to their transfer to Fernando po and
how did they adapt to their new life? many did not expect to be forced to
work and were especially unwilling to accept that almost half their salary
(fifty reales per month) would only be paid at the end of the contract, af-
ter five years. some tried to protest when informed of the conditions, but
the governor repressed the rebellion immediately, inflicting “punishments
proportioned to their faults” upon the rebels34.
in the governor’s opinion, it seemed the cubans had left the island with
a deceitful idea of their destiny in Fernando po. in order to correct such
misleading ideas, the governor promulgated the Reglamento de emancipados,
upon which the cubans were instructed every sunday35. With the help of
30
lópez ayllón’s letter, 7 august 1862 in aGam, aG, box 672.
31
aGam, aG, box 781, n. 29.
32
John holt wrote in his diary: “today […] spaniards have married a lot of these cubans by
wholesale”, quoted in García Cantús, Fernando Poo, 460.
33
aGam, aG, box 672, n. 1.
34
aGam, aG, box 672.
35
Proyecto de Reglamento para el Régimen de los Emancipados de la isla de Fernando Poo, 28 septem-
Part I – The Making of the Cuban Republic 47
all the emancipados with professional skills were already employed, so only un-
skilled workers answered the new recruitment publication. moreover, he com-
plained in his letter that emancipados received worse treatment in Guinea than
in cuba, and refused to send any more expeditions under such conditions41.
While this refusal marked the failure of the larger project to transfer the
emancipado population to Guinea, it did not mark the end of the colonial proj-
ect to transform Fernando po into a penal colony for dangerous afro-cubans
and political dissidents. subsequent expeditions from cuba to the african is-
land, in 1866 and 1869, would no longer carry emancipados but instead politi-
cal prisoners accused of being involved in the battle for independence.
in 1867, the failure of the Junta de Informaciòn – formed to discuss propos-
als to reform the island – marked the failure of reformism in general and
gave new impetus to the independence movement. moreover, spain sent to
cuba Francisco de lersundi, a reactionary captain-general who prohibited
public meetings and clamped tight political censure over reformist literature.
spanish authorities had already been using different measures of repression
to contrast nationalist efforts: alongside a diffused policy of expropriation,
those considered a threat to the maintenance of social order could be con-
demned to imprisonment in various detention centers around cuba, forced
relocation within cuba (reconcentración) or deportation. Before the radical-
ization of the clash over independence, the main goal of deportation had
been to re-hispanicize cuba through the expulsion of emancipados. then, in
1866 and 1869, the majority of deportees were undesirable creoles – includ-
ing insurrectionists, political undesirables, reformists and dissidents.
some ninety cubans arrived in Guinea in 1866 and another 250 were
deported in 1869. these were the last of the expeditions, since spanish au-
thorities subsequently abandoned the project of using Fernando po as a pe-
nal colony. From the little information we have on the first group, it seems
that, as in 1862, they were mainly black cubans from the lower classes:
most of them were colored: ten of them were accused of being profes-
sional assassins or thieves, though with no charge against them; the gover-
nment considered the others to be layabouts, drunks […] many were totally
innocent, but had enemies among the police officers, and some had commit-
ted the crime of loving honor and having beautiful daughters42.
the deportees were decimated by the poor hygienic conditions and yel-
low fever. those who survived were shipped off to madeira, where their
traces were lost after portuguese authorities refused to receive them43.
the deportees of 1869, on the other hand, belonged to the cuban bour-
41
aGam, aG, box 672.
42
Balmaseda, Los confinados, 142.
43
Juan B. saluvet, Los deportados a Fernando Poo en 1869 (matanzas: aurora del Yumurì, 1892).
Part I – The Making of the Cuban Republic 49
5. Preliminary Conclusions
44
holt, The Diary.
45
Balmaseda, Los confinados; saluvet, Los deportados; holt, The Diary.
46
Balmaseda, Los confinados, 146-147.
47
holt, The Diary.
50 Cuba in the World, the World in Cuba
48
midlo hall, Social Control, 132.
L. Giolitto
Chapter 3
Identitades raciales, nacionalismo,
jerarquías sociales: los líderes “de color”
en Cuba (1902-1912)
trabajo realizado en el marco de un contrato de investigación (referencia sB2006-0006) y en
el proyecto hum2006-00908/hist (mec)
1
en este trabajo se utilizan los apelativos “de color” y “negros y mulatos” – en lugar de
“afrocubano” adoptado en la literatura reciente – por su capacidad de reflejar los criterios de
inclusión y de marginación usados en la época. los apelativos “gente de color”, “raza de co-
lor”, “clase de color” y “negros” designaron en el lenguaje político de aquellos años entidades
colectivas y revelan la intención de identificar en una categoría única a la población de origen
africano, superando las distinciones basadas en gradaciones del color. el término “mulato” se
usó para indicar el color de individuos y tuvo un significado ambiguo ya que sustituyó otras
categorías como “señor” y “ciudadano”. la expresión “negros y mulatos” adoptada en este
estudio discrepa pues de la categoría de “negros” que se usó en la época y revela el intento de
conciliar modalidades distintas que designaron individuos y entidades colectivas.
alessandra lorini e duccio Basosi (a cura di), Cuba in the World, the World in
Cuba. Essays on Cuban History, Politics and Culture, isBn 978-88-8453-971-7 (print),
isBn 978-88-8453-962-5 (online), © 2009 Firenze university press
52 Cuba in the World, the World in Cuba
2
los proyectos de anexión de cuba estuvieron relacionados con el mantenimiento de la
esclavitud en ambos territorios y fueron soportados mayoritariamente por los estados es-
clavistas del sur de Estados Unidos. Los intentos de anexar la isla fueron múltiples, desde
propuestas de compra dirigidas a españa hasta intentos de ocupación armada. también los
hacendados cubanos, que vieron con el anexionismo la posibilidad de preservar su status y
su patrimonio, apoyaron conspiraciones y ofrecieron sostener económicamente la adquisición
de la isla por Estados Unidos. Ver Alessandra Lorini, L’impero della libertà e l’isola strategica. Gli
Stati Uniti e Cuba tra Otto e Novecento (napoli: liguori, 2008), 35-42, hugh thomas, La colonia
española de Cuba, en Historia de América Latina, tomo V, ed. Leslie Bethell (Barcelona: Crítica,
1991), 163-164.
3
al estallar la guerra en 1895 el gobierno estadounidense apoyó oficialmente a españa y ac-
tuó de cara a contrastar, desde su territorio, las expediciones en favor de la independencia. se-
gún Louis A. Pérez la victoria cubana iba a ser evidente cuando Estados Unidos intervino en
el conflicto y trasformó la Guerra de independencia en guerra hispano-americana, imponien-
do esta última en las agendas y en el lenguaje de la política internacional. Ver Lorini, L’impero,
83-84; louis a. pérez, The War of 1898. The United States and Cuba in History and Historiography
(chapell hill: university of north carolina press, 1998); luís aguilar, Cuba, c. 1860-1934, en
Historia de América Latina, tomo VI, ed. Leslie Bethell (Barcelona: Crítica, 1991), 220-221.
4
una enmienda añadida a la constitución cubana y conocida como “enmienda platt” per-
mitiría al gobierno de estados unidos intervenir militarmente para “preservar la independen-
cia” y proteger “la vida, la propiedad y la libertad individual”. su inclusión en la constitución
cubana dividió en dos la asamblea constituyente: quince delegados se opusieron y dieciséis
la aprobaron, permitiendo crear el nuevo estado si bien despojado de su soberanía. al mismo
tiempo el Tratado de Reciprocidad Comercial firmado en 1902 consolidó la dependencia econó-
mica de Cuba por Estados Unidos. Ver Diario de Sesiones de la Convención Constituyente de la
Isla de Cuba (la habana: 1901), 482-486; aguilar, “cuba”, 225-226; louis a. pérez, Cuba Under
the Platt Amendment, 1902-1934 (pittsburg: university of pittsburgh press, 1986), 52-55; id.,
Cuba Between Empires, 1878-1902 (pittsburgh: university of pittsburgh press, 1983), 323; Jorge
ibarra, Partidos políticos y clases sociales (la habana: ciencias sociales, 1992), 26-27.
5
Ver Loredana Giolitto, Raza y nación en Cuba durante la primera ocupación estadounidense. Un
análisis del periódico Patria, en Josef Opatrný, ed., Nación y cultura nacional en el Caribe hispano
(praga: Karolinum, 2005), 115-122.
Part I – The Making of the Cuban Republic 53
6
maría dolores González-ripoll et al., El rumor de Haití en Cuba, Temor, raza y rebeldía, 1789-
1844 (madrid: csic, 2004).
7
a principios del siglo XiX el incremento de esclavos en cuba determinó un cambio cuanti-
tativo y cualitativo: en 1841 la población blanca había bajado al 41,51% pese a su incremento
numérico, los esclavos aumentaron al 43,32% y los negros y mulatos libres pasaron del 20,14%
en 1792 al 15%. la esclavitud adquirió además una connotación utilitarista que implicó un
fuerte deterioro en la vida de los esclavos y en las relaciones raciales. Ver Loredana Giolitto,
Esclavitud y libertad en Cartagena de Indias. Reflexiones en torno a una manumisión a finales del
período colonial, en Revista Fronteras de la Historia 8 (2003), 67-96; id., “Participar por igual”. Il
dibattito sulla questione razziale a Cuba, 1898-1912 (tesis de doctorado, universidad de Génova,
2005); rebecca scott, La emancipación de los esclavos en Cuba. La transición al trabajo libre 1860-
1899 (la habana: caminos, 2001), 28
8
scott, La emancipación, 317-324.
54 Cuba in the World, the World in Cuba
9
Ver Giolitto, Raza y nación, 115-122.
10
Ver Ibarra, Partidos, 26-7 y 36-54; pérez, Cuba Under the Platt Amendment, 58-65 y 89.
11
la igualdad racial en cuba y su relación con la cuestión nacional es el centro de un debate
historiográfico en el cual destacan dos interpretaciones principales. aline helg considera la
igualdad racial un mito útil a preservar la marginación de las personas de color. Alejandro de
la Fuente prefiere verla como ideología que permitió la inclusión de negros y mulatos, si bien
de manera parcial y subordinada. Ver Aline Helg, Our Rightful Share: The Afro-Cuban Struggle
for Equality, 1886-1912 (chapel hill: university of north carolina press, 1995); alejandro de la
Fuente, A Nation for All: Inequality and Politics in Twentieth-Century Cuba (chapel hill: univer-
sity of north carolina press, 2001).
12
Juan Gualberto Gómez fue el más destacado intelectual de color a finales del siglo XiX y a
principios del XX. nacido libre de padres esclavos, estudió en la habana y en parís. en 1898
fundó el Directorio de las Sociedades de Color y el periódico La Igualdad, orientados a coordi-
nar la lucha por los derechos civiles y contra las discriminaciones raciales. colaboró con el
periódico La Lucha y fue diputado y delegado en la Convención Constituyente. Martin Morúa
delgado, periodista, escritor y sindicalista, vivió en cárdenas y Key West. regresó a cuba en
1892 y fundó la revista La Nueva Era. después de la independencia fue director del periódico
La República y fue el único senador negro en el primer periodo republicano. Ver Diccionario
de la Literatura Cubana, tomos i y ii (la habana: letras cubanas, 1984), 373-374 y 639-641 re-
spectivamente; tomás Fernandez robaina, El negro en Cuba, 1902-1958 (la habana: ciencias
Part I – The Making of the Cuban Republic 55
mientras que no se luche para evitar que nuestro pueblo, forzado por la
falta de justicia, de instrucción y de pan, viniese a caer en la esclavitud de
unos pocos amos y tal vez extranjeros, mientras no luchemos y triunfemos
contra la ignorancia y la miseria […] tendremos que llegar a convencernos
que no tenemos país20.
17
“sin preocupaciones”, Patria, 12 de mayo de 1900.
18
“¿de qué nos quejamos? ¿de la culpa que tenemos?”, El Nuevo Criollo, 29 de octubre de
1904.
19
ibíd.
20
“Justicia, instrucción y pan”, El Nuevo Criollo, 1 de octubre de 1904.
Part I – The Making of the Cuban Republic 57
[…] por mucho que nos alejemos por el refinamiento […] no podemos, no,
desligado, de toda deuda con la que si no nos pudo dar cultura, nos ha dado
al menos un tronco de procedencia, como el Cáucaso se lo ha dado á [sic!]
nuestros parientes blancos, y del cual viven orgullosos y recreados22.
la aspiración a una mayor cohesión de las personas de color fue otro te-
ma central en las reflexiones de rafael serra. al lado de su constante exhor-
tación a la unidad de todos los cubanos propuso también fomentar la unión
de las personas de color con el intento de romper el muro de indiferencia
y desprecio que seguía rodeándolas23. su visión de la política cubana había
evidenciado la habilidad de los blancos de “dividirnos, aislarnos, de sem-
brar, en fin, el odio entre los que tenemos, por necesidad imperiosa de nues-
tra propia conservación, el deber de amarnos como verdaderos hermanos”
y la indiferencia de negros y mulatos “hacia todo lo que puede sacarnos del
estado de inferioridad en que vivimos, hacia todo lo que dándonos perso-
nalidad, haga desaparecer los prejuicios que se forman en nuestra contra”24.
Según Serra, los negros y mulatos tenían que organizarse antes que nada
sobre base racial para lograr mayor educación y fomentar su bienestar25.
sin embargo sus proyectos no cobraron fuerza ya que discreparon con su
militancia en el partido moderado y tropezaron con la realidad social de
muchos negros y mulatos. en los años siguientes se reprimiría con violencia
la organización de un partido “de color”. además sólo un sector pequeño
de la población de color logró elevar su educación y su nivel de vida, alcan-
zando una inclusión subordinada en la sociedad cubana.
2. De la lucha a la represión
21
Ver “¿Ser o no ser?”, El Nuevo Criollo, 22 de octubre de 1904; “al negro Falucho”, El Nuevo
Criollo, 5 de noviembre de 1904.
22
“al negro Falucho”, El Nuevo Criollo, 5 de noviembre de 1904.
23
“nuestro deber”, El Nuevo Criollo, 22 de octubre de 1904; “¿de qué nos quejamos? ¿de la
culpa que tenemos?”, El Nuevo Criollo, 29 de octubre de 1904.
24
“¿de qué nos quejamos? ¿de la culpa que tenemos?”, El Nuevo Criollo, 29 de octubre de
1904.
25
ibíd.
58 Cuba in the World, the World in Cuba
el fraude que había asegurado la elección del líder del partido moderado a la
Presidencia de la República. Frente a la imposibilidad de avalar el gobierno
de estrada palma, estados unidos ocupó la isla por segunda vez hasta 1909,
aplicando medidas que limitarían ulteriormente la soberanía del estado cu-
bano26. desaparecidas las concausas que habían detenido las luchas políticas
y sociales en los años anteriores, se abrieron espacios nuevos para el activis-
mo de las personas de color. su participación masiva en el levantamiento del
ejercito constitucional les permitió recobrar fuerza y organización y legiti-
mar nuevas demandas de igualdad formuladas sobre el patriotismo demos-
trado en las guerras de independencia y en la insurrección de agosto.
las movilizaciones que se propagaron después de la “guerrita de agosto”
trajeron cambios importantes en los actores, perspectivas y organización de
las luchas. los sectores sociales más bajos de la población de color, silenciados
y marginados a principios de la independencia, volvieron a ser protagonistas
en el debate público, recobrando visibilidad y reclamando empleos estatales
proporcionalmente a su presencia en los ejércitos revolucionarios27. el intento
de hacer explícito el vínculo entre discriminaciones raciales y exclusión so-
cial estuvo acompañado además por la búsqueda de nuevas formas de or-
ganización. Ya en diciembre de 1906 un grupo de personas de color reunido
en camagüey discutía sobre la exigencia de organizar un “partido negro”28.
Otros sectores de la población negra y mulata, que siguieron privilegiando
el terreno de la educación y cultura plantearon sin embargo el problema de
asumir mayor autonomía y de salir del ámbito de los partidos tradicionales29.
en los años siguientes los ex veteranos de las guerras de independen-
cia y de la sublevación de agosto fueron autores de escritos e iniciativas
que, evidenciando lo urgente e ineludible de la cuestión racial, incitarían
a las personas de color a contrastar de manera directa las discriminacio-
nes y los discursos que las sustentaban. entre ellos destacó la figura de
ricardo Batrell, ex bracero, soldado en las guerras de independencia y lue-
go comandante en el ejército constitucional, quien expresó las visiones,
expectativas y frustraciones de los sectores sociales más bajos de la pobla-
ción de color30. nacido en un ingenio azucarero en provincia de matanzas
26
estados unidos no apoyó la reelección de estrada palma debido a la magnitud del chantaje
puesto en acto y a la ausencia de un ejército cubano que sostuviera al presidente. Ocuparon
entonces cuba para impedir la llegada al poder del partido liberal. en la segunda ocupación
potenciaron la guardia rural, crearon un ejército cubano y, sobre todo, determinaron una in-
terpretación más restrictiva de la Enmienda Platt. Ver Pérez, Cuba Under the Platt Amendment,
94-7 y 117-122.
27
“¿partido negro?”, La Discusión, 17 de diciembre de 1906.
28
ibíd.
29
“la nota del día”, ibíd, 31 de agosto de 1907.
30
Ricardo Batrell Oviedo, Para la historia. Apuntes autobiográficos de Ricardo Batrell Oviedo (la
habana: seoane y Álvarez, 1912). entre otros líderes que encarnaron ilusiones y fracasos de
los sectores sociales más bajos de la población de color hay que recordar a Quintín Banderas.
General en las guerras de independencia, lideró la sublevación de agosto de 1906 en la cual
Part I – The Making of the Cuban Republic 59
en 1880, trabajó como peón en el campo hasta los quince años cuando in-
gresó en el ejército de liberación. al terminar la guerra se alfabetizó de
manera autodidacta y convirtió su pasión por la escritura en instrumento
de denuncia y de lucha contra las discriminaciones raciales y sociales31.
su visión de la cuestión racial abarcó dos aspectos fundamentales: la
asociación entre raza y ciudadanía y el vínculo indisoluble entre discrimi-
naciones raciales y desigualdades sociales. en sus escritos principales – el
Manifiesto al pueblo cubano y a la raza de color redactado en 1907 y la autobio-
grafía publicada en 1912 – la participación en las guerras de independencia
fue el factor primario de elaboración de una identidad racial imprescindi-
blemente vinculada a la de ciudadano cubano32. al igual que muchas per-
sonas de color, la razón principal de su entrada en la guerra había sido la
ilusión de la igualdad racial, prometida por la independencia y personifi-
cada, según él, en la figura de Juan Gualberto Gómez: «Vi el símbolo de mi
raza en esa obra grandiosa: Juan Gualberto Gómez […] la verdadera per-
sonificación, de mi raza entonces, en esa causa»33. de esperanza colectiva
y catalizadora la participación en la independencia se convirtió en punto
de arranque para exigir una inclusión plena de las personas de color en
los discursos y recursos del nuevo estado. en el manifiesto de 1907, tras
enumerar la presencia, el talento y el sacrificio de negros y mulatos en to-
das las batallas cruciales – contrastando así las afirmaciones que iban dis-
minuyendo entonces la magnitud de su participación en la independencia
– denunció la asimetría entre el tributo militar pagado al nuevo estado y la
creciente marginación racial, política y social de las personas de color:
fue asesinado por una guardia rural. Ver Ada Ferrer, “Rustic Men, Civilized Nation: Race,
culture and contention on the eve of cuban independence”, Hispanic American Historical
Review 4 (1998), 663-686; ada Ferrer, Insurgent Cuba. Race, Nation, and Revolution, 1868-1898
(chapel hill: university of north carolina press, 1999), 173-186; helg, Our Rightful, 120.
31
sobre los escritos e ideas de ricardo Batrell ver Fernando martínez, Ricardo Batrell empuña la
pluma, en Fernando Martínez, Rebecca Scott y Orlando García, Espacios, silencios y los sentidos
de la libertad. Cuba entre 1878 y 1912 (la habana: ciencias sociales, 2002), 295-313; Ferrer, Insur-
gent Cuba, 159-164.
32
Oviedo, Para la historia; “manifiesto al pueblo cubano y a la raza de color”, La Discusión, 11
de agosto de 1907.
33
Oviedo, Para la historia, 3-4.
34
“manifiesto al pueblo cubano y a la raza de color”, La Discusión, 11 de agosto de 1907. so-
bre la entidad numérica de la participación negra y mulata a la independencia ver helg, Our
Rightful, 119; miguel Barnet, Autobiografia di uno schiavo (torino: einaudi, 1998), 169-170.
60 Cuba in the World, the World in Cuba
[…] quien en cierto momento no ejercita las acciones que le competen […] ha
hecho una renuncia de su derecho […] ya no nos merecemos el dictado de
una raza patriótica, sino, por el contrario, el de una raza incapaz de ocupar
la verdadera posición que á [sic!] costa de muchos heroísmos la Historia nos
tiene reconocido35.
por otro lado, la élite política blanca seguía excluyendo a los negros y
mulatos de los cuerpos militares y de los oficios públicos y favorecía la in-
migración desde europa, en detrimento de la población de color. el partido
liberal, en el cual Batrell militó, fue objeto de sus críticas más ásperas.
legitimando su política con los ideales de la independencia, había obte-
nido el apoyo y los votos de muchas personas de color. sin embargo sus
dirigentes no habían adoptado esos criterios y en los cargos que ocuparon
iban priorizando el empleo de trabajadores blancos, revelándose así “pre-
dicadores de democracia por ellos mismos incumplida”36.
a la luz de dicha situación, Batrell declaró la imposibilidad de lograr
relaciones raciales igualitarias al amparo de la política institucional y con la
mediación de sus exiguos exponentes de color:
[…] no hay una sola fracción de los directores políticos del país en quien
podamos esperar el cumplimiento de una democracia […] nuestros gran-
des hombres de la raza de color […] muchas veces tienen que ser cómplices
inconscientes y otras conscientes por ser minoría insignificante allá en su
altura37.
las personas de color tenían pues que acabar con su pasividad y or-
ganizarse autónomamente, identificando un sitio en el cual encontrarse y
coordinar sus acciones desde el respeto de sus filiaciones distintas: “debe-
mos de contribuir al sostenimiento de una casa donde podamos reunirnos
todos con objeto de tratar los asuntos generales. así seriamos respetados
35
“manifiesto al pueblo cubano y a la raza de color”, La Discusión, 11 de agosto de 1907.
36
ibíd.
37
ibíd.
Part I – The Making of the Cuban Republic 61
38
ibíd.
39
ibíd.
40
evaristo estenoz fue veterano de la guerra de independencia, sindicalista y luego empresa-
rio. Fue además General del ejercito constitucional. pedro ivonet fue veterinario de la Guar-
da Rural en la provincia de Oriente. Ambos murieron asesinados en el levantamiento de 1912.
Ver Helg, Our Rightful, 157.
41
a partir de los testimonios de la época, se estima que murieron de 2000 a 6000 personas en
la sola provincia de Oriente. De hecho los datos hoy disponibles discrepan mucho entre ellos.
Ver Helg, Our Rightful, 225.
42
de la Fuente, A Nation; robaina, El negro en Cuba; rafael Fermoselle, Política y color en Cuba,
La guerrita de 1912 (madrid: colibrí, 1998); helg, Our Rightful; serafin portuondo, Los indepen-
dientes de color. Historia del Partido Independiente de Color (la habana: caminos, 2002).
62 Cuba in the World, the World in Cuba
3. Conclusiones
43
“en nuestro puesto”, Previsión, noviembre de 1908.
Part II
1
On earlier scientific research in Cuba: José López Sánchez, Tomás Romay y el origen de la cien-
cia en Cuba (La Habana: Academia de Ciencias, 1964). On the reforms in the educational field
following the revolution: hugh thomas, Cuba or the Pursuit of Freedom (new York: da capo,
1998), 1131-1137.
alessandra lorini e duccio Basosi (a cura di), Cuba in the World, the World in
Cuba. Essays on Cuban History, Politics and Culture, isBn 978-88-8453-971-7 (print),
isBn 978-88-8453-962-5 (online), © 2009 Firenze university press
66 Cuba in the World, the World in Cuba
2
William schulz, “us chemists meet colleagues in cuba”, Chemical and Engineering News, 14
december 1998.
3
dora pérez sáez, “cincuenta hitos de la ciencia revolucionaria”, Juventud Rebelde.Cu on-line,
14 december 2008, www.juventudrebelde.cu/cuba/2008-12-14/cincuenta-hitos-de-la-ciencia-
revolucionaria/.
M.I. Blaquier
Ascaño
Chapter 4
Las tecnologías de información y
comunicación en Cuba (1850-1902):
la telegrafía
1
“Gacetín”, Gaceta de la Habana, 7 de mayo de 1867.
alessandra lorini e duccio Basosi (a cura di), Cuba in the World, the World in
Cuba. Essays on Cuban History, Politics and Culture, isBn 978-88-8453-971-7 (print),
isBn 978-88-8453-962-5 (online), © 2009 Firenze university press
68 Cuba in the World, the World in Cuba
1. La telegrafía
a mitad del siglo XiX, cuba era, distante en el caribe, una importante
colonia de españa, pero muy cercana, geográfica y económicamente, a los
estados unidos, y a los intereses económicos que ya este naciente imperia-
lismo norteamericano tenía en la isla. todo ello, unido al retraso de españa
en la introducción de la telegrafía eléctrica, va a determinar que la transfe-
rencia tecnológica de este invento se realice a partir de los estados unidos
y no provenga, en lo fundamental, del continente europeo, donde estaba
situada la metrópoli colonial. como con el ferrocarril, también con la tele-
grafía, la colonia se anticiparía a la metrópoli, siendo cuba, además, uno de
los primeros países de américa latina, si no el primero, en introducirla.
la interacción comercial entre cuba y estados unidos constituyó un
vehículo de permanente actualización de los adelantos técnicos, hábitos
de vida y maneras de hacer del vecino del norte. las nuevas tecnologías
productivas que se introducían en la industria azucarera, las locomotoras
norteamericanas que corrían por las vías férreas, las características del sis-
tema político estadounidense, entre otras cosas, conformaban una imagen
70 Cuba in the World, the World in Cuba
atractiva de ese país. los muchos emigrantes cubanos que vivían en tampa
y cayo hueso constituían también un canal importante de información.
Además, eran muchos los norteamericanos presentes en la Isla a la búsque-
da de oportunidades mercantiles y alternativas que permitiesen salvar las
restricciones establecidas por la metrópoli.
en 1837 se había establecido la primera línea de ferrocarril que unió
la habana con Bejucal, y los caminos de hierro se desarrollaban de forma
vertiginosa. cuba fue el séptimo país en el mundo en tener un servicio fe-
rroviario, antes que españa y los restantes países de centro, sur américa
y el caribe2. los ferrocarriles cubanos no pasaron, como los de inglaterra y
norteamérica, por las clásicas fases de madera y tracción animal, se intro-
dujeron en nuestro país con carriles de hierro y locomotoras de vapor.
a antonio maría escobedo, administrador del Ferrocarril de la habana
a Guiñes, se debe la primera tentativa de construcción en cuba de una línea
telegráfica eléctrica. en 1840, escobedo pidió autorización a la capitanía
General de la isla para tender un hilo telegráfico entre la habana y Guiñes.
su solicitud fue denegada, aduciendo la autoridad española que “como la
invención del telégrafo de Morse era muy reciente, no se podía garantizar su uso”3.
esta temprana inquietud debería esperar por más de diez años.
después de los primeros intentos en 1848, el norteamericano david
macombery solicita a la Junta de Fomento el permiso para conectar un telégra-
fo eléctrico entre la habana y matanzas4. más afortunado que los anteriores
solicitantes, el ingeniero de telégrafo norteamericano samuel a. Kennedy, so-
licitó y obtuvo en 1851, autorización de la Junta de Fomento para tender una
línea telegráfica entre el teatro de Villanueva y la plaza de Monserrate, en la
ciudad de la habana, siendo ésta la primera línea que, por vía de ensayo, fun-
cionó en Cuba. Finalmente, la Real Orden 277 del 28 de junio de 1852 autoriza
“la instalación de las líneas telegráficas electromagnéticas” en cuba5.
la obra se realizó bajo la dirección técnica de manuel portillo,
comandante y director del cuerpo de ingenieros6 y el trabajo fue reali-
zado por José pagés. la real Junta de Fomento había determinado sacar a
subasta pública la construcción de las líneas y convocó a licitaciones para
el 10 de febrero de 1853. el pliego de proposiciones para la obra se insertó
en la Gaceta de la habana el 2 de febrero de ese año. se presentaron varias
proposiciones, entre ellas la de samuel Kennedy, pero la de pagés resultó la
mejor y ganó la subasta7.
2
Ver Oscar Zanetti y Alejandro García, Caminos para el Azúcar (la habana: ciencias so-
ciales, 1987).
3
Directorio organizador del Cuerpo de Comunicaciones de la Isla de Cuba (la habana: dirección
General de comunicaciones 1902), 10.
4
archivo nacional de cuba, la habana (anc), exp. Junta de Fomento, legajo 129, n. 6366.
5
anc, reales Órdenes, legajo 163, n.77.
6
“comunicación de nombramiento”, anc, exp. Junta de Fomento, legajo 181, n. 8279.
7
anc, exp. Junta de Fomento, legajo 129, n. 6368.
Part II – Science and Technology in Cuba 71
8
anc, reales Órdenes, legajo 162, n. 201.
9
comunicación de robert simpson, anc, exp. Junta de Fomento, legajo 181, n. 8279.
72 Cuba in the World, the World in Cuba
durante los diez años que duró la primera guerra de los cubanos por
la independencia, el gobierno colonial impulsó extraordinariamente la ex-
pansión del telégrafo como mecanismo de control político social. sin em-
bargo, la telegrafía fue utilizada también por los insurgentes cubanos. un
ejemplo de ello lo es la anticipación del alzamiento revolucionario el 10 de
octubre de 1868. al conocer el grupo independentista la orden de prisión
dictada por el Gobierno español contra los principales conspiradores – lle-
gada el 6 de octubre a la oficina de Bayamo, a través de su telegrafista,
ismael de céspedes, pariente de carlos manuel de céspedes, uno de los
líderes de este movimiento – deciden anticipar este alzamiento. al ser con-
siderada la red telegráfica terrestre un objetivo militar para los revolucio-
narios cubanos, esta resultaba extremadamente vulnerable. por esta razón,
10
anc, exp. Fondo asuntos políticos, legajo 226, n. 13.
11
ramiro Guerra et al., eds., Historia de la Nación Cubana, tomo IV, Predominio del Ferrocarril. El
Telégrafo (la habana: historia de la nación cubana, 1952).
12
Zanetti y García, Caminos.
Part II – Science and Technology in Cuba 73
13
Walter lafeber, transcripción de Crucible of Empire: the Spanish-American War, documental
pBs por daniel miller (1999), en PBS on-line, www.pbs.org/crucible/frames/_film.html.
14
report of mayor h.F. hadges in Civil Report, period of January 1901-may 1902, libros
raros, universidad de la habana.
74 Cuba in the World, the World in Cuba
15
louis a. pérez, Cuba between Empires 1878-1900 (pittsburgh: pittsburgh university press,
1983).
16
para un análisis detallado de esta actividad modernizadora durante la intervención, ver
marial iglesias utset, Las Metáforas del cambio en la vida cotidiana: Cuba 1898-1902 (la habana:
unión, 2003).
17
Report of Captain Otto A, Nesmith, Chief of Signal Officer, Department of Cuba, for the
period of january 1901-may 1902 in Civil Report, libros raros, universidad de la habana.
76 Cuba in the World, the World in Cuba
desde la habana, el Jefe del cuerpo de señales de este ejército, que ins-
peccionaba los trabajos en dicha ciudad, telegrafío también al presidente,
comunicándole del funcionamiento prácticamente completo del sistema
telegráfico. se tendieron nuevas líneas como la de Guantánamo-sagua de
tánamo-Baracoa y la de pinar del río a Guanajay y a san Juan y martínez.
Desde Sancti Spiritus hacía la Zona Oriental todas líneas telegráficas tuvie-
ron que ser tendidas nuevamente.
al inicio de la intervención la academia de telegrafía desapareció. en
sustitución de esta, los interventores habilitaron un local en el edificio de
la Oficina Central para practicar telegrafía con tres aparatos Morse. De los
40 telegrafistas que trabajaban en el centro telegráfico de la habana, solo
continuaron trabajando 9 por dominar el inglés y ser capaces de recibir ‘al
oído’. Esto lo explica el uso por parte de Estados Unidos, del código ‘ame-
ricano’ para las comunicaciones terrestres, mientras que los telegrafistas
criollos utilizaban el código ‘continental’.
en 1901, existían 319 empleados de telégrafo. de estos, 256 eran cubanos
y 63 norteamericanos. en la plantilla de ese año aparece, por primera vez,
la mujer cubana como telegrafista18. en la oficina telegráfica de cárdenas,
trabajaban las hermanas aurora y maría luisa delgado, Blanca pérez en
la oficina de matanzas. una norteamericana, Guillerma martin, era la Jefa
de la Oficina Telegráfica de Remedios. Esta presencia femenina continuará
incrementándose posteriormente.
es indudable que los efectos de la intervención norteamericana sobre
el servicio telegráfico fueron altamente positivos y que muchos de los nor-
teamericanos del cuerpo de señales de estados unidos que participaron,
conjuntamente con los telegrafistas criollos, en las tareas de moderniza-
ción, reconstrucción y desarrollo de las líneas telegráficas, estaban anima-
dos de sanos propósitos de colaboración con el pueblo cubano y ajenos a
los intereses anexionistas.
El 14 de julio de 1901, se forma en La Habana el Directorio Organizador
del cuerpo de comunicaciones, que compuesto por antiguos empleados
en servicio activo o que habían quedado cesantes, debían concebir y or-
ganizar el nuevo Cuerpo de Comunicaciones dentro de la República. En
una asamblea, que tuvo participación masiva de los empleados telegráficos
y de correo, se nombró una comisión Gestora que debía desarrollar una
propuesta inicial de la organización y el presupuesto de ese cuerpo. Fue
elegido presidente de la comisión Gestora rigoberto rodríguez masvidal
y como Secretario Enrique C. Alfonso. Organizativamente se partía de la
necesidad de unir, bajo un cuerpo de comunicaciones, al servicio de co-
rreo y el servicio telegráfico, los cuales habían sido separados durante la
intervención.
18
dirección General de comunicaciones, Memoria Histórica del Correo y el Telégrafo (la ha-
bana: dirección General de comunicaciones, 1902).
Part II – Science and Technology in Cuba 77
19
Entre los consultados estuvieron Bartolomé Masó, Enrique José Varona y Martín Morúa
Delgado, este último la consideró como una tarea patriótica.
20
dirección General de comunicaciones, Memoria Histórica del Correo y el Telégrafo.
78 Cuba in the World, the World in Cuba
Británico como del gobierno de estados unidos. el cable tuvo una impor-
tante consecuencia: por primera vez la información bursátil de londres po-
día ser conocida instantáneamente en parís. después de una vida efímera,
el cable dejo de funcionar en septiembre de 1858. posteriormente, al madu-
rar esta tecnología, fueron tendidos muchos otros cables. durante la segun-
da mitad del siglo XiX, Gran Bretaña sería la potencia líder en la creación
de una red mundial de comunicaciones por cable submarino.
uno de los financiadores del cable trasatlántico fue moses taylor,
presidente del National City Bank desde 1856, un hombre clave en la explo-
tación de las materias primas de las áreas colonizadas y subdesarrolladas
del caribe. este financiamiento no fue casual. este cable, y los nuevos que se
tenderán posteriormente, hicieron posible la apropiación de la información
por parte de grupos financieros, permitiendo el control y la difusión de esta
información en función de sus intereses. mediante la especulación en los
mercados se van a crear fortunas y se controlarán y comprarán compañías.
el cable, al igual que la bolsa, va a ser un instrumento de dominación neoco-
lonial, que puso los mercados de materias prima al alcance de la mano del
gran capital financiero. esta es su verdadera esencia como negocio.
la red de cables telegráficos submarinos que va a circundar el mundo,
determinará el surgimiento de agencias internacionales de noticias y modi-
ficará la prensa de la época, impulsará, al igual que lo hizo el ferrocarril en
su momento, el naciente turismo, y despertará la imaginería popular21.
Apenas tendido el primer cable a través del Atlántico, y aún antes, se van
a levantar voces en cuba y en españa, que reclamaban la comunicación tele-
gráfica con la isla de cuba, entre otras medidas necesarias, para fortalecer los
vínculos con la colonia. uno de los primeros proyectos que obtuvo una con-
cesión provisional fue presentado por el ingeniero español a. de marcoartu.
este proyecto, que convertía la península en el centro de una red mundial de
cables, no obtuvo la concesión definitiva. posteriormente se concibió una ruta
alternativa, la llamada ‘ruta transatlántica del Sur’, que tenía el trazado ge-
neral Cádiz-Canarias-Cabo Verde-Brasil-Cuba. Múltiples fueron además los
proyectos de tender un cable submarino entre cuba y estados unidos.
El Capitán Jarnes A. Scrymser ‘aplicó’ a la Legislatura del Estado de la
Florida solicitando los derechos para tender un cable a punta rassa, lo cual
le fue concedido por un período de 20 años. al mismo tiempo, el General
William F. smith hizo la solicitud al Gobierno superior de cuba, del derecho
de amarre de un cable telegráfico en la isla. ambos, representaban los intereses
de la International Ocean Telegraph Company. un acta del congreso de estados
unidos aprobada el 5 de mayo de 1866, daba el derecho exclusivo a esta com-
pañía para operar todo el tráfico telegráfico submarino con cuba por un perío-
do de 14 años, este privilegio pasaría años más tarde a la Western Union.
21
Ver el ejemplo del ‘telégrafo espiritual’ en Antonio Bermúdez, “Notas para la historia del
espiritismo en cuba”, Etnología y Folklore 4 (1967), 5-22.
Part II – Science and Technology in Cuba 79
22
anc, reales Órdenes, legajo 221, n. 763.
23
Ver Manuel Moreno Fraginals, El Ingenio, tomo i (la habana: ciencias sociales, 1978), iii.
80 Cuba in the World, the World in Cuba
24
ibid.
A. Baracca
Chapter 5
Physics in Cuba: a Lag between
Technological and Scientific Development
1
José luis morán-lópez, “physics in latin america comes of age”, Physics Today 12 (2000),
38-43: 38.
alessandra lorini e duccio Basosi (a cura di), Cuba in the World, the World in
Cuba. Essays on Cuban History, Politics and Culture, isBn 978-88-8453-971-7 (print),
isBn 978-88-8453-962-5 (online), © 2009 Firenze university press
82 Cuba in the World, the World in Cuba
cially in rural areas. such advancements include the application of the steam
engine to the trapiche in 1817 and the 46-km railway connection for the transport
of goods between havana and Güines in 1837. What follows is an attempt to
interpret such early, advanced technological achievements during the 19th cen-
tury and the first half of the 20th against the much slower and delayed develop-
ment in science, based first on the commercial vocation, and strategic position,
of the island, and then on its peculiar role with respect to the united states.
2
Felix Varela, Instituciones de Filosofía Ecléctica Para Uso de la Juventud, vol. 4 (pinar del rio:
Vitral, 1814); Id., Lecciones de Filosofía, vols. 3 and 4 (la habana: de palmer, 1819 and 1820).
this textbook was updated in four susbequent editions (printed in new York, the last one in
1835) that were well received and used in various latin american countries.
3
pedro m. pruna, “national science in a colonial context. the royal academy of sciences of
habana, 1861-1898”, Isis 3 (1994), 412-26.
Part II – Science and Technology in Cuba 83
4
ramón de armas and eduardo torres-cuevas, “la universidad de la habana y la frus-
tración republicana”, in Historia de la Universidad de La Habana, 1728-1929, vol. 1, eds. ramón
de armas, eduardo torres-cuevas and ana cairo Ballester (la habana: letras cubanas,
1984), 237-365.
84 Cuba in the World, the World in Cuba
5
universidad de la habana, Memoria-Anuario de los cursos académicos de 1933-1934 y 1934-
1935, 23-24 and 53-55.
6
José Altshuler, “Visión retrospectiva de un momento de la enseñanza de la Física en Cuba”,
paper presented at the Taller Iberoamericano de Enseñanza de la Física Universitaria, havana, 20-
24 January 1997.
Part II – Science and Technology in Cuba 85
cuba’s economic role during the colonial age, and under the rule of the
united states, was quite different from that of other caribbean and latin
american colonies. the island was not particularly rich in valuable natural
resources, nor did it abound in ore reserves or develop important transforma-
tion industries, apart from that of sugarcane. instead, the main benefit it had
to offer was its strategic geographical position. moreover, cuba’s commercial
vocation as a crucible of trade between latin america and europe was en-
hanced by the supremacy of the united states over cuba’s trade starting in
the first decades of the 19th century7. under such conditions, the island needed
neither advanced scientific knowledge and higher education nor technologi-
cal developments in industrial production, the way they were required for
instance, at least in some fields, in Mexico. On this basis, one can understand
anomalous cuban developments like the introduction of the steam engine in
the ingenios for sugarcane manufacturing, despite the wide supply of slaves,
and the construction of the railways, or the advancements made in the fight
against tropical diseases. likewise, since cuba was a strategic crucible of trade,
one might suppose that communication and information technologies played
relevant roles that required early and advanced developments. indeed, it is
not surprising that countries other than spain, in particular the united states,
contributed to such advances. this could also explain why cuba anticipated
and even outdid its colonial mother country in these fields, while it lagged be-
hind on the purely scientific side. however, one could also argue that spain’s
scanty interest in scientific development and its attitude of pure (pre-capitalis-
tic) exploitation of its colonies contributed to the decline of this field.
evidently, the situation changed for cuba during the first half of the 20th
century. at the same time, even though the united states was on its way to
becoming the world leader in science and economics, its attitude towards
the island did not change radically. cuba remained substantially a land of
economic exploitation, or of leisure for the wealthiest classes, and its role
was to increase the efficiency of its facilities to such ends, not to be an au-
tonomous player in scientific development.
7
in 1826, the volume of cuba’s trade with the united states exceeded that with spain by
almost three times: ramón de la sagra, Historia Económica-Política y Estadística de la Isla de
Cuba (La Habana: Arazoza y Soler, 1831), 200-5. Fernando Ortiz, an authority on the subject,
emphatically asserted that “in 1850 the trade of this country with the united states exceeds
that with its spanish metropolis, and the united states definitely assumes its natural geo-
graphic condition as purchaser market for the nearby cuban production, but also its privilege
as economic metropolis. already in 1881, the consul General of the united states in havana
writes officially that cuba is an economic dependent of the united states even though it is still
politically ruled by Spain”. See: Fernando Ortiz, Contrapunteo Cubano del Tabaco y del Azúcar
(la habana: consejo nacional de cultura, 1963), 64.
86 Cuba in the World, the World in Cuba
One may suppose, however, that Cuba’s openness and flexibility to-
wards technological innovation is what contributed, in turn, to its creating
a cultural climate and a fecund material basis for its subsequent scientific
take-off and development. it is difficult, in fact, to believe that the remark-
able scientific advances that have taken place since 1959 could have sprung
up from scratch.
8
More-detailed analyses of these developments are reported in: Angelo Baracca, Victor Fajer
and Bruno henríquez, “el desarrollo de la física en cuba”, Revista Iberoamericana de Física 1
(2004), 54-61; angelo Baracca, ed., History of the Development of Physics in Cuba (Berlin: max-
Planck-Institute für Wissenschaftsgeschichte, 2005); Angelo Baracca, Victor Fajer and Carlos
rodríguez, “a look at physics in cuba”, Physics Today 9 (2006), 42-48.
9
José altshuler, “la especialización en telecomunicaciones y la reforma de 1960 del plan de
estudios de ingeniería eléctrica en la universidad de la habana”, in Estudios de Historia de
la Ciencia y la Tecnología, ed. Centro de Estudios de Historia y Organización de la Ciencia (La
habana: academia, 1989).
Part II – Science and Technology in Cuba 87
meanwhile, the newly created school of physics (1961) would also have
to cope with the problem of very limited staff available to teach classes. in
this case, too, high school teachers would be hired to cope with the short-
age. But during the whole of 1959 and the first half of 1960, courses contin-
ued to be taught in essentially the same way as in the 1950s. it became quite
clear that a profound reform of the curriculum and teaching methods was
urgently needed to develop a modern mentality aimed primarily at engag-
ing in scientific research. the new revolutionary government assumed the
explicit goal of improving scientific education as a fundamental factor in
the development of a modern and equitable society. the social situation
was characterized by new forms of participation. in 1962, months of intense
work among university professors, outside professionals and students re-
sulted in the Reforma de la Educación Superior en Cuba, which introduced free
registration for all eligible students and a strong emphasis on the develop-
ment of scientific research. many new degrees were established (including
a five-year Licenciatura en Física) that had been absent from the old curricula
and were needed for the country’s economic and cultural development10.
right from its effective start in 1961, the new Escuela de Física of the
university of havana faced overwhelming problems, lacking as it did the
minimal indispensable means for developing a modern physics school.
the training of students was redirected to cover modern conceptions of
physics with a view to engaging in scientific research. those who gradu-
ated in 1959 and 1960 were incorporated as “graduate instructors”, while
final-year students were taken on as “laboratory assistants”. meanwhile,
in the context of the new plans for the country’s industrial development
promoted by ernesto “che” Guevara, an important role was attributed to
electronics, especially microelectronics. at the request of the revolutionary
government, a hundred scholarships were offered by the soviet union for
cubans to study engineering and economics at their universities. in 1961,
only eighty-five young people could be found who complied with the aca-
demic and other requirements. six of them proposed to major in physics,
which was approved by Guevara. in subsequent years, the flow of students
towards the soviet union grew steadily.
the direct support that came from foreign physicists must be situated
in this context, particularly one aspect that is not widely acknowledged, i.e.
that a relevant contribution was made by the presence of several “Western”
scientists in cuba. in 1962, a small number of physicists from the soviet
union began to visit the island, contributing mainly to the organization of
the physics curriculum. in addition, during the 1960s, several individual
physicists, engineers and technicians from various Western countries (the
united Kingdom, israel, France, argentina, italy, mexico and the united
states) came to cuba on a voluntary basis, for periods ranging from one
to several years, offering to collaborate in the development of the new
school of physics. they taught courses in modern physics, promoted the
creation of new laboratories in acoustics, electronics and solid-state phys-
ics, set up workshops in electronics, mechanics and glass manufacturing
for the creation of scientific instruments, and fostered research. they also
played a decisive role in making the development of experimental phys-
ics a priority. the levialdi scholarship, for example, in memory of italian
physicist andrea levialdi who died in cuba in 1969, was created for post-
graduate training in parma. this initiating a long-lasting collaboration be-
tween the Faculty of physics of the university of havana, the university
of parma and the maspec (special materials) laboratory of the italian
national research council (cnr) in parma, where about twenty cuban
physicists have been trained since 1970. French and italian physicists also
made a very important contribution by organizing summer schools be-
tween 1968 and 1973, for which they held advanced courses and brought
materials and equipment.
a peculiarity of the new cuban situation was the lively debate that de-
veloped, mainly among professors and students who actively supported
teaching and research, over which fields of physics would best meet the
needs of the developing country. this discussion partly reflected high-level
opinions (che Guevara, for example, thought that solid-state electronic de-
vices would play a crucial role in the future and that cuba could offer an
original contribution in the socialist camp). some French and italian physi-
cists who participated in the 1968 havana cultural congress supported the
choice of solid-state physics. in fact, it was decided that research activities
should gradually concentrate more on this and related fields, such as elec-
tronics, optics and optoelectronics, and atomic physics. in 1967, the first
germanium diode “made in cuba” was performed at the Escuela de Física,
marking the official birth of research in solid-state physics. these choices
were conceived with an applicative goal, one that was based, however, on
sound fundamental research. a department of theoretical physics began to
take shape in the Escuela de Física11.
Besides the aforementioned strategic choice, the need for the advance-
ment of other fields was clearly perceived and pursued. plans for the indus-
trial development of the country assigned an important role to electronics
and metallurgy. the Academia Cubana de Ciencias (acc), created in 1962,
played a very important part in promoting scientific development in sever-
al fundamental branches. several new fields appeared. meteorology, geo-
physics, astrophysics and electronics were soon established as work groups
11
Fernando Crespo, Elena Vigil, DinaWaisman, “Sobre los primeros resultados en díodos de
germanio obtenidos por aleación”, paper presented at the Conferencia Química de Oriente, san-
tiago de cuba, February 1968.
Part II – Science and Technology in Cuba 89
ties with socialist countries were growing, mainly in the acc, and were
becoming crucial for the development of other fields. in nuclear physics in
particular, in addition to receiving support in teaching and training, exper-
imental equipment and techniques were introduced with the collaboration
of the soviet atomic energy commission and the dubna nuclear research
institute. radiotherapy services spread all over the country, starting in
the 1960s with a group of physicists working at the havana institute of
Oncology and, by the end of the 1970s, totaling some thirty medical physi-
cists, a considerable number for a small developing country.
during the second half of the 1970s, the consolidation of the structure
of the state led to the institutionalization of higher education and research,
with the establishment of the ministry of higher education (mes). this
initiated a new phase and provided greater opportunities and resources,
though in some sense it also brought the previous, “romantic” period to a
close.
the problems of the country, designing and constructing medical and ana-
lytical equipment, performing technical and scientific services for industry,
and generating new products.
the new century began with stimulating signals for the recovery and
advancement of cuban physics. in keeping with the importance given to
medicine in cuba, medical physics is one of the branches with the great-
est prospects, with investments of some $400 million in medical equip-
ment currently being made. at present, there are more than seventy-five
physicists working in clinical environments, thirty-two of them in nuclear
medicine, twenty-eight in radiotherapy and the rest in diagnostic imag-
ing and radiation protection. new equipment for radiotherapy is expected
to be installed, requiring at least another twenty physicists in these areas.
diagnostic imaging will be reinforced with the installation of eight new
magnetic resonance imaging facilities. a m.sc. degree in medical physics
has started its first program with twenty-five students; a higher degree in
radiation oncology is also training specialists in that field; and a degree in
health technology has been created, offering specialization in medical ra-
diophysics, with 100 students registered. more than twenty-four laser sys-
tems for refractive surgery and other high-technology optical instruments
for ophthalmology have been purchased in a plan to provide services to
cuban patients in all areas of the country as well as making them available
in other parts of latin america.
physicists have played a very important role in establishing and devel-
oping meteorological services in cuba. this sector is being strengthened
with important investments in modern equipment, which will result in a
new stimulus for physics. the field of renewable energies, in which physi-
cists have always made important contributions, is also expanding at pres-
ent and there is a plan to install wind power stations in the near future. it
is important to note that physics is only a small division of cuban science
compared to biotechnology and other branches of biomedical research.
nevertheless, cuban physicists are very active and their presence in aca-
demic life and technological development, publications, prizes, scientific
meetings and the popularization of science is considerably high. their fu-
ture success will largely depend on their ability to bring new generations
to physics studies and their applications to the problems linked with the
economic and social development of the country.
Part III
5 6
Part III
1
louis a. pérez, Cuba under the Platt Amendment, 1902-1934 (pittsburgh: pittsburgh universi-
ty press, 1986); marial iglesias utset, Las metáforas del cambio en la vida cotidiana: Cuba 1898-1902
(la habana: unión, 2003); luis e. aguilar, Cuba 1933. Prologue to Revolution (ithaca: cornell
university press, 1972).
2
see: lillian Guerra, The Myth of José Martí: Conflicting Nationalisms in Early Twentieth-Century
Cuba (chapel hill: north carolina university press, 2005); celina manzini, Un dilemma cu-
bano. Nacionalismo y vanguardia (la habana: casa de las américas, 2001).
alessandra lorini e duccio Basosi (a cura di), Cuba in the World, the World in
Cuba. Essays on Cuban History, Politics and Culture, isBn 978-88-8453-971-7 (print),
isBn 978-88-8453-962-5 (online), © 2009 Firenze university press
96 Cuba in the World, the World in Cuba
Chapter 6
Cultura política popular, “choteo” y
nacionalismo en tiempos de la primera
intervención norteamericana en Cuba
alessandra lorini e duccio Basosi (a cura di), Cuba in the World, the World in
Cuba. Essays on Cuban History, Politics and Culture, isBn 978-88-8453-971-7 (print),
isBn 978-88-8453-962-5 (online), © 2009 Firenze university press
98 Cuba in the World, the World in Cuba
que ponía punto final a toda una era con la retirada de los supuestos restos
de cristóbal colón, a bordo de un crucero de su flota militar. españa dejaba
el último enclave de lo que fuera su enorme imperio en el Nuevo Mundo
llevándose los que creía despojos mortales de su insigne descubridor.
aunque relegados de la ceremonia oficial, los cubanos se apropiaron
de la celebración con una lectura diferente de su significado. lejos de res-
ignarse a constatar la legitimidad del poder norteamericano, una junta de
“patriotas” formada en La Habana en los últimos días de 1898, lanzó volan-
tes que llamaban a festejar el cese de la soberanía de españa. interpretaban
el izamiento del pabellón norteamericano como el “comienzo de una nueva
época de libertades […] bajo cuya égida la estrella solitaria ha de irradiar
en breve sobre los ciudadanos de la gran nación cubana”. pese a indica-
ciones expresas del gobierno militar yanqui, que acto seguido prohibió los
festejos – a contrapelo de lo dispuesto por la misma Junta patriótica que,
intimidada por la prohibición, un día después llamó a la moderación y a
celebrar “individualmente” y “con regocijo tranquilo” –, el primer día de
enero los habaneros abarrotaron espontáneamente las calles, engalanaron
las casas con banderas cubanas y retratos de líderes independentistas, en
celebraciones y bailes “patrióticos” que se extendieron por varios días1.
esteban montejo, ex esclavo de origen rural que llegó a la capital en
los primeros días de 1899 formando parte de un regimiento del ejército
libertador, evocó que hubo fiesta en los barrios más humildes del mu-
elle, los solares “estaban encendidos” y los toques de rumba de cajón y de
tambores se escuchaban por doquier. hombres y mujeres, niños, jóvenes y
viejos bailaban al son de esa música enloquecedora hasta caer desploma-
dos de cansancio2. una conmemoración seria y majestuosa, para la que,
según la letra de la proclama emitida por el gobierno de ocupación, se con-
taba con el “orden y el debido respeto que la solemnidad de las circun-
stancias exigen”, devino orgía de fiestas y manifestaciones de contenido
nacionalista que las autoridades norteamericanas no pudieron contener. la
ceremonia oficial se tornó fiesta popular. los redobles graves e intimidato-
rios de los tambores de la banda militar del ejército norteamericano en la
explanada del morro se vieron emulados por los alegres y rítmicos toques
de los timbales en los arrabales habaneros cercanos al muelle.
las recepciones populares (de discursos, de espectáculos o de gestos
simbólicos) son siempre apropiaciones creativas que transforman, refor-
mulan y exceden lo que reciben “desde arriba”. en consecuencia, los tex-
tos o espectáculos “oficiales” no tienen de por sí una significación estable
y unívoca, siempre son leídos, interpretados de formas móviles, plurales,
1
“a los habitantes de la isla de cuba”, 24 de diciembre de 1898; “al pueblo de la habana”,
31 de diciembre de 1898; “al pueblo de la habana”, 1 de enero 1899, en archivo nacional de
cuba, la habana (anc).
2
miguel Barnet, Biografía de un cimarrón (la habana: academia, 1966), 193-194.
Part III – Conflicting Political Cultures 99
habaneros a gozar:
cesó la dominación,
y el hispano pabellón
a las doce se ha de arriar.
en su lugar subirá
la bandera americana;
pero pronto dejará
ese puesto a la cubana.
¡Habaneros, a gozar!3
3
ignacio sarachaga, ¡Arriba con el Himno! Revista política, joco-seria y bailable en un acto, cinco
cuadros y apoteosis final (1900); rine leal, ed., Teatro Bufo. Siglo XIX, tomo ii (la habana: arte y
literatura, 1975), 230.
4
Francisco Figueras, Cuba y su evolución colonial (la habana: avisador comercial, 1907), 253.
100 Cuba in the World, the World in Cuba
Según este autor, con ese componente étnico y tales costumbres sólo un
milagro (o, en su defecto, la regeneración mediante el blanqueamiento y el
contacto estrecho con la raza anglosajona) podía hacer de cuba una verdadera
nación, con ciudadanos civilizados. dos décadas más tarde, en 1928, y aunque
desde una perspectiva nacionalista y notablemente menos racista pero igual
de elitista, Jorge mañach expresaría las mismas prevenciones de la falta de
seriedad crónica del cubano. en su opinión, el choteo, conducta patógena de-
venida en institución nacional y síntoma de lo que se dio en llamar “la deca-
dencia cubana”, era responsable, en buena medida, de los tropiezos sufridos
por el proyecto político de la República5. no obstante, pese a toda la irritación
de los voceros intelectuales de la élite y a campañas anti choteo en la prensa,
este fenómeno pervivió formando parte inseparable de la cultura política pop-
ular en la isla. con chistes irreverentes, rimas, guarachas o congas mordaces,
“el vulgo” expresaba su disenso y se mofaba de políticas y políticos.
estudios más recientes han realzado, en cambio, la autonomía y vitalidad
del repertorio de formas de la cultura popular. Valoran altamente el potencial
revolucionario y anti hegemónico de estos modos culturales de expresión,
que se desenvuelven en los márgenes del ámbito de la política institucional-
izada. el poder corrosivo de la risa quebraba la pompa presuntuosa del culto
religioso o del ceremonial estatal y la rigidez de la etiqueta social. el rechazo
plebeyo a la seriedad helada y pétrea que caracteriza a la cultura oficial y
al tono circunspecto y grave de sus discursos, ha sido abordado por mijail
Bajtín en un texto ya antológico dentro de los estudios de la cultura popular.
En su interpretación, la risa forma parte de una cultura pública callejera que
se opone con gestos cómicos, bromas irrespetuosas, canciones y rimas burl-
escas a la cultura dominante y encuentra su expresión más depurada en las
celebraciones del carnaval, espacio donde el orden y las jerarquías sociales
son desafíadas simbólicamente mediante su inversión temporal6.
estos fenómenos relacionados con la “carnavalización” de la vida política y
la descodificación en términos jocosos de los proyectos más serios, a pesar de
la notoria abundancia de sus manifestaciones en cuba, aun están por estudiar
debidamente. si las colecciones de décimas y canciones que han llegado hasta
hoy, o la riqueza del humor popular atesorada en los libretos de las obras de
teatro vernáculo, en la literatura de cordel y la prensa periódica de consumo
masivo, o en la memoria oral, permiten conformar una idea de la vitalidad de
esta cultura, apenas existen investigaciones que documenten, desde el punto
de vista histórico, la recurrencia de estas expresiones y su relevancia para la
comprensión de los patrones de comportamiento político de los cubanos.
la palabra “choteo”, significa en el español coloquial, acción, ademán o palabras con que se
procura poner en ridículo a alguien o algo, chanza, bromas.
5
Ver Jorge Mañach, Indagación del choteo (la habana: libro cubano, 1955).
6
Ver Mijail Bajtín, La cultura popular en la Edad Media y el Renacimiento. El contexto de F. Rabelais
(madrid: alianza, 2002).
Part III – Conflicting Political Cultures 101
7
Ver Pierre Nora, “Entre mémoire et histoire. Le problématique des lieux”, en Les Lieux de
mémoire, ed. pierre nora, tomo i (paris: Gallimard, 1997), 23-43.
Part III – Conflicting Political Cultures 103
8
Ver Robert N. Bellah, The Broken Covenant. American Civil Religion in Time of Trial (chicago:
university of chicago press, 1992).
104 Cuba in the World, the World in Cuba
en tus altos designios, dios, has permitido que cuba llegue a ser libre
[…] los que gimieron y lloraron ríen hoy con alborozo. los que murieron
como mártires, abonando con su sangre preciosa el suelo que anhelaron ver
dichoso, tienen ya templos y mármoles que conserven sus nombres a la me-
moria, y las bendiciones de las generaciones que han de venir. ¡has que tanta
sangre derramada, tanto llanto vertido, fructifiquen, y crezca sano y vigoro-
so este pueblo que ahora comienza a ser libre!9
9
“plegaria”, Cuba y América, 18 de mayo de 1902.
Part III – Conflicting Political Cultures 105
por aquí la gente me parece que se ha vuelto loca pues confunden lo se-
rio con la diversión. En una fiesta de Nochebuena, entre papeles de colores,
latas y niños, sacan el busto de martí, lo colocan en la plaza y luego lo pase-
an por el pueblo entre chiflidos, vivas y cosas propias de esa noche. Todas
cosas muy serias para hacerlas con tanta ligereza y en días que le quitan la
magestad [sic] al acto.
ud. no escapó de la quema y el día 25 lo sacaron en un busto (que de ud.
no tiene más que el nombre) en coche con los de maceo y de martí por las
calles, custodiados por muchachas vestidas de sirenas, hadas y marineras.
Yo me indigno por la profanación y el ridículo que caemos10.
en todos los pueblos cultos los himnos e insignias son los símbolos más
sagrados del patriotismo, y por esta razón sin duda se le tributan a unos y
otras profunda veneración y grandísimo respeto.
en cuba, las explosiones de sentimiento patriótico, durante tanto tiempo
comprimido y refrenado, han hecho que el himno nacional, popular, como
10
maría escobar, carta a máximo Gómez, 29 de diciembre de 1899, fondo máximo Gómez,
legajo 30, n. 4167, anc.
106 Cuba in the World, the World in Cuba
los de igual clase, se generalizare hasta tal punto de tocarse en toda clase de
fiestas y en toda suerte de espectáculos, algunos de ellos poco serios dando
ocasión y motivo a que se haya empleado recientemente la frase “arriba con
el himno” en son de burla o crítica de semejante abuso.
por estas razones la alcaldía municipal de pinar del río ordena lo siguiente:
1. Desde esta fecha no podrá tocarse públicamente el himno nacional,
o sea el de Bayamo, en ningún lugar del término municipal, a no ser en so-
lemnidades oficiales, ceremonias y funciones patrióticas, retretas públicas y
actos de verdadero carácter político.
2. los directores de orquesta que infringieren esta orden y a los que in-
dujeren a desobedecerla indistintamente, incurrirán en la multa de diez pe-
sos de los estados unidos o su equivalente11.
11
“el himno Bayamés”, El Telégrafo: Periódico Político, 22 de febrero de 1900.
12
La Nación (la habana), 31 de mayo de 1900.
13
El Occidente, Guanajay, 6 de enero de 1901 y 2 de febrero de 1901.
14
“expediente que contiene copias mecanografiadas sobre disposiciones legales sobre el uso
de la bandera, el escudo y el himno nacional”, Fondo donativos y remisiones, leg. 567, n. 22,
anc. pese a este y otros decretos hacia fines de la década del 50 emilio roig de leuchsenring
lamentaba el uso indiscriminado del himno y la bandera nacionales: “de libre uso la bandera,
por todos y para todo, fue empleada por políticos y politicastros y en fiestas de toda índole
para adornar mesas, locales, edificios, etc. lo mismo servía para presidir un acto verdad-
eramente patriótico que un baile familiar terminado a botellazos o una pelea de gallos. […]
El Himno Nacional se convirtió en música obligada de todo acto al que se quería dar cierta
importancia o se pretendía revestirlo de carácter patriótico. con el himno se compusieron y
Part III – Conflicting Political Cultures 107
ejecutaron toda clase de piezas bailables y música anunciadora de productos comerciales e in-
dustriales”. emilio roig de leuchsenring, “por el respeto y justo uso de la bandera, el escudo
y el himno nacionales”, Fondo donativos y remisiones, leg. 567, n. 22, anc.
108 Cuba in the World, the World in Cuba
Chapter 7
Revering and Contesting Machado in the
Shadow of the Platt Amendment: Cuban
Nationalism and Anti-Imperialism in the 1920s
1
La Epoca – Edición Extraordinaria Ilustrada, 10 de Octubre de 1928. the us military occupa-
tion of Cuba ended in 1902 with the Platt Amendment – named after the US senator Orville
platt – included in the cuban constitution. the amendment, which preserved the appearance
of cuban independence and granted self-government, blocked, in reality, any possibility of
cuban self-determination by giving the united states the right to intervene in the island’s
internal affairs to preserve cuban independence and protect “life, property, and individual
liberty”. us military interventions occurred in 1906-1909, 1912 and 1917-1922. see: david F.
alessandra lorini e duccio Basosi (a cura di), Cuba in the World, the World in
Cuba. Essays on Cuban History, Politics and Culture, isBn 978-88-8453-971-7 (print),
isBn 978-88-8453-962-5 (online), © 2009 Firenze university press
110 Cuba in the World, the World in Cuba
healy, The United States in Cuba, 1898-1902: Generals, Politicians, and the Search for Policy (madi-
son: Wisconsin university press, 1963); louis a. pérez, Cuba under the Platt Amendment 1902-
1934 (Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1986). On the origins of the special relation-
ship between cuba and the us see: alessandra lorini, L’impero della libertà e l’isola strategica.
Gli Stati Uniti e Cuba tra Otto e Novecento (napoli: liguori, 2008).
2
On construction and dedication ceremonies of those magnificent public works see: Emete-
rio s. santovenia, Memorial Book of the Inauguration of the Maine Plaza at Havana (la habana:
Secretáría de Obras Publicas, 1928).
3
José martí, “letter to General maximo Gómez”, in José Martí: Selected Writings, ed. esther
allen (new York: penguin, 2002), 258-259.
Part III – Conflicting Political Cultures 111
4
On US tourists in Cuba in the early 1920s see: Louis A. Pérez, On Becoming Cuban: Identity,
nationality and Culture (New York: Harper Collins, 1999), 167-179. On Cuban social move-
ments and repression in that period see: amparo sánchez cobos, Sembrando Ideales. Anar-
quistas españoles en Cuba (1902-1925) (sevilla: csic, 2008), 379-391; hugh thomas, Cuba: The
Pursuit of Freedom (new York: da capo, 1998), 569-614; Francisca lópez civeira, Cuba entre
Reforma y Revolución 1925-1935 (La Habana: Félix Varela, 2007), 31-52.
5
Julio antonio mella, Documentos y articúlos (la habana: ciencias sociales, 1975), 169-70;
thomas, Cuba, 588. machado’s last days in cuba are described in r. hart phillips, Cuba: Island
of Paradox (New York: McDowell, Obolensky, 1959), 38-43 and 46-50; Philip Dur and Chris-
topher Gilcrease, “us diplomacy and the downfall of a cuban dictator: machado in 1933”,
Journal of Latin American Studies 2 (2002), 255-282.
112 Cuba in the World, the World in Cuba
6
pérez, Cuba under the Platt Amendment.
7
machado claimed to be an optimist, but not a dreamer. his life exemplified this assertion:
“i was a farmer, then a trader, and later an industrialist. i faced all sorts of difficulties, fought
all sorts of battles, and i can say with satisfaction that i always made progress”. he wanted
cuba to follow the pattern of his life. he claimed to be “a modest soldier who took the task of
completing martí’s ideal of republic for and with all”, as he said in a another speech. see: Por la
Patria libre. Discursos pronunciados por el General Gerardo Machado y Morales… Junio de 1926 (la
Habana: Verdugo, 1926), 16, 27 and 30.
8
On the importance of this historical image in the making of Cuban national identity see:
ada Ferrer, Insurgent Cuba: Race, Nation, and Revolution,1868-1898 (chapel hill: north caro-
lina university press, 1999).
9
Quoted in alejandro de la Fuente, A Nation for All. Race, Inequality and Politics in Twentieth-
Century Cuba (chapel hill: north carolina university press, 2001), 92.
Part III – Conflicting Political Cultures 113
10
de la Fuente, A Nation for All, 200-201. the origins of the tensions among cuban leaders of
color are explored in this volume in the essay by loredana Giolitto.
11
“discurso pronunciado por el General machado president electo de la republica, en la ses-
114 Cuba in the World, the World in Cuba
sion solenne de aperture del segundo congreso nacional de mujeres […]”, in Memoria del
Segundo Congreso Nacional de Mujeres… Abril 12-18 1925 (la habana: la universal, 1927).
12
Ofelia Domínguez Navarro, 50 anos de una vida (la habana: instituto cubano del libro,
1971), 83-85. in 1920, collado played a leading role in the club Feminino. it was her un-
questioning support of machado that made her break with those feminists involved in the
anti-dictator protests. radicals like navarro, instead, believed in structural changes and the
redistribution of wealth with no distinction made for race, gender and class. see: K. lynn
stoner, From the House to the Streets: The Cuban Woman’s Movement for Legal Reform, 1898-1940
(durham, nc: duke university press, 1991).
13
By 1928, the question of women’s suffrage on machado’s agenda had become a means to
distract public opinion from the authoritarian intent behind his project of constitutional re-
form. see: navarro, 50 años de una vida, 107-108.
14
ibid., 232-237.
Part III – Conflicting Political Cultures 115
he had made in 192515. she was convinced that all women had to stay united
in one movement and keep women’s issues on their agenda without getting
involved in class and racial conflicts, and blamed the break within the fem-
inist movement on those radical and social feminists who joined the anti-
machado protests. according to collado, suffrage was the main instrument
with which to reform society by raising the power of upper-class women,
substantially improving their charity work and therefore helping less privi-
leged women, that is, women of color. it was on this platform that collado
founded the suffrage democratic party, an association that she always kept
on machado’s side, first as a tactical alliance and later as political complicity.
15
a conservative nationalist, collado’s feminine ideal was the mambisa, the loyal wife and
mother of cuban patriots. collado strongly believed that the vote would have given women
the power to eliminate political corruption and therefore rescue a collapsing republic. see:
stoner, From the House to the Streets, 102-105.
16
loló de la torriente, Testimonio desde adentro (la habana: letras cubanas, 1984), 158-163.
17
many social critics and activists looked at the mexican revolution (1910-1917) as the first
latin american upheaval from which a genuinely anti-imperialist political culture emerged.
On the roots of Latin-American anti-Americanism see: Mary Louise Pratt, “Back Yard with
Views”, Anti-Americanism, eds. andrew ross and Kristin ross (new York: new York univer-
sity press, 2004), 32-46.
116 Cuba in the World, the World in Cuba
intervention. Guillén recalled that there were also those who, less naively,
would say “Hah! They’ll intervene? You mean they’re not already here?”18.
anti-imperialist analyses produced by nationalist cuban intellectuals
in the 1920s depicted a positive image of a nation in flux, of an unfulfilled
ideal of independence and freedom to which all institutions needed to ap-
proximate. progressive nationalists of the 1920s defined a common culture
in which racial differences dissolved. they claimed that skin color did not
count, but cultural differences did.
in 1923, historian roig de leuchsenring held a conference that later be-
came the basis for a book entitled Cuba Does Not Owe Its Independence to the
United States. in the same year, charismatic student leader Julio antonio mella
– the one who defined machado as the “tropical mussolini” – published a
pamphlet entitled Cuba: A Country that Has Never Been Free, and social scien-
tist Fernando Ortiz founded the Cuban Association for National Renovation.
Ortiz wrote a “Manifesto to the Cubans” in which he made a strong call for
an active participation of the civil society to counteract cuba’s degraded po-
litical system. Acting as a public intellectual, Ortiz hoped to stimulate “a new
civic spirit able to rekindle, as a purifying fire, the energy of the cuban people
[…] to give cuba a truly free and democratic government that only a vig-
orous national civilization and an honest political life could defend” 19. he
wanted to recast the relationship between the cuban and us governments,
which he believed should be based on mutual respect. However, Ortiz main-
tained that the cuban people at large were too passive and needed to believe
again in the importance of a solidly national culture. in a book entitled The
Cuban Decadence (1924), Ortiz became even more radical in criticizing what
he thought had contributed to the intellectual, moral and economic decay of
cuban society. the economic data spoke for itself: two thirds of the sugar in-
dustry was in north american hands, and mines, railways, telephones and
banks were controlled by US capital too. At a political level, Ortiz stressed
the alarming problem that more than twenty percent of the political candi-
dates who had run in the last elections had criminal records. even police
corps hosted criminals. Ortiz’s conclusion was tragic: “Cuban society is dis-
integrating. cuba is rapidly precipitating into the abyss of barbarism”. he
advocated, accordingly, “a crusade of patriotic renewal and the completion
of the old revolutionary program of cuba libre” as a means to resurrect a
cuban culture based on ethical and moral principles of responsible citizen-
ship. cuban decadence also meant a dramatic collapse of social conditions.
When compared with the early years of the republic, the collapse of cuban
18
nicolás Guillén, “drums in my eyes”, in The Cuba Reader: History, Culture, Politics, eds.
aviva chomsky, Barry carr, pamela m. smorkaloff (durham, nc: duke university press,
2003), 208-210.
19
“manifiesto a los cubanos”, in Documentos para la historia de Cuba, vol. 3, ed. hortensia pich-
ardo (la habana: ciencias sociales, 1973), 140.
Part III – Conflicting Political Cultures 117
20
See: Carmen Almodóvar, “The Political Ideas of Fernando Ortiz (1906-1933)”, in Cuban
Counterpoints: The Legacy of Fernando Ortiz, eds. mauricio a. Font and alfonso W. Quiroz (to-
ronto: lexington, 2005), 92-93.
21
roig de leuchsenring, Cuba no debe su independencia a los Estados Unidos (la habana: soci-
etad cubana de estudios historicos y internacionales, 1950).
118 Cuba in the World, the World in Cuba
22
mella, Documentos y articúlos, 329.
23
roig de leuchsenring, “la transcendental importancia de la conferencia panamericana”,
Part III – Conflicting Political Cultures 119
and “¿responden las conferencias panamericanas a los ideales de Bolivar?”, Carteles, 8 Janu-
ary 1928, 13 and 22 respectively.
120 Cuba in the World, the World in Cuba
were from mexico and only nine were from europe. Furthermore, the con-
ference did not represent “america as a whole” since canadians and British,
French and danish West indians did not participate. she concluded that us
supremacy was simply too much in evidence. not only did the us delega-
tion represent a country of 120 million people against the less than ninety
million of all latin american countries, but the strength of its economy, its
indisputable political power, its expansionism and the monroe doctrine
all turned the pan-american conference into a us hegemonic instrument.
By referring to “interposition” instead of “intervention”, the whole issue
of non-interference was not even debated. moreover, the us military inter-
vention in nicaragua, which most latin american countries opposed, was
forbidden from being discussed because of a us veto24.
What cuban progressive nationalists like roig abhorred was the po-
sition that Orestes Ferrara, the Cuban ambassador to the US at the time,
held on the issue of non-intervention at the conference: “We cannot join the
non-intervention chorus as in my country the word intervention has been a
word of Glory and a word of triumph: it has meant independence”. With a
series of articles in Carteles, roig contested Ferrara’s speech as instrumental
in erasing the crucial issue of non-intervention from the conference debate25.
he firmly contested Ferrara’s argument that us intervention in cuba had
been a purely humanitarian mission, which implied that the cuban repub-
lic was not the result of the cuba libre struggle but a gift from the united
states. in roig’s view, the us had intervened several times in cuba under
the platt amendment in order to stop healthy forms of popular rebellion
against political corruption and economic dependency, or to keep presi-
dents in power who had not been freely elected by the cuban people.
In 1930, Orestes Ferrara, by then Machado’s Secretary of State, pub-
lished a pamphlet on pan-americanism (El Panamericanismo y la opinion eu-
ropea) that covered the sort of criticism he had received in 1928, without
naming his detractors26.
Ferrara was a very close friend and supporter of machado who had ar-
rived in cuba in 1896 as a young neapolitan law student ready to join the
movement of cuba libre, as many italian republicans and socialists did27.
courageous and brave, Ferrara became the assistant of the commander-in-
24
lady drummund-hay, “pan-americanism – the significance of the recent congress at ha-
vana”, Carteles, 1 april 1928.
25
roig de leuchsenring, “cuba y el principio de la non intervención”, Carteles, 19 Febrero
1928; “un fracas possible y un triumfo efectivo de la conferencia”, Carteles, 26 Febrero 1928;
“resultados y enseñanza de la conferencia”, Carteles, 4 marzo 1928. each article explored a
period of the cuban struggle for independence to show that in cuba the word intervention,
far from being glorious, meant “pain, sadness, evil and rebellion”. (19 Febrero 1928).
26
Orestes Ferrara, El panamericanismo y la opinión europea (paris: le livre libre, 1930).
27
see: alessandra lorini, “atlantic crossings: race, nation, and late nineteenth-century
Cuba Libre between italy and the united states”, in The Place of Europe in American History:
Twentieth-Century Perspectives, ed. Maurizio Vaudagna (Torino: Otto, 2007), 341-369.
Part III – Conflicting Political Cultures 121
chief General maximo Gómez and established connections with the italian
community in new York in order to raise funds for cuba libre. Following
cuban independence, Ferrara collaborated with the us military government,
went back to italy, used his transnational connections to gain political power
in the new cuban republic and built a fortune in the cuban sugar industry.
Besides being one of the most powerful members of the cuban liberal party,
Ferrara was also a sophisticated scholar who could write on machiavelli and
the Borgias, a journalist, a cuban ambassador to the us, and the secretary
of state under machado from 1930 to 1933. a shrewd politician, Ferrara had
both connections with the italian fascist regime28 and important acquaintanc-
es in Washington. a “man for all seasons”, Ferrara’s abilities and sophistica-
tion made him one of the most interesting of president machado’s men.
the booklet published by Ferrara in 1930 on the havana pan-american
conference of 1928 was meant as a public justification of his pro-intervention
position. in it, he reappraised the historical figure of us president monroe
and his principles, denied the existence of a latin block opposed to an
anglo-saxon one in the americas and rejected the word imperialism when
applied to us-latin american relations, as well as the whole idea of cuban
“dependence” and lack of sovereignty. unlike roig, Ferrara thought the con-
ference was a success, and that the presence of president coolidge was its
most relevant note. in Ferrara’s view, both coolidge and machado’s speech-
es emphasized the principles of international cooperation and conceived of
pan-americanism as a defensive weapon for the ideals of Western civiliza-
tion. he also showed his historical erudition by quoting documents from
the 1820s, the time of president James monroe. in particular, in order to put
monroe’s speech and Bolivar’s call for unity to all the americas on the same
level, he cited French and russian pro-monarchy documents. according to
Ferrara, europeans perceived both leaders as part of the american republi-
can and democratic revolution against european monarchies. all european
powers, Ferrara argued, were concerned about the growing power of a re-
publican country like the us and its influence on republican movements in
europe. Ferrara, portraying himself as “an impartial historian”, argued that
the monroe doctrine was a cry of freedom against european tyrannies. he
also wanted to show that far from opposing the application of the monroe
doctrine, many latin american countries had called for its protection dur-
ing the 19th century29. according to Ferrara’s historical interpretation, with
28
see: adys capull and Froilán Gonzáles, Julio Antonio Mella e Tina Modotti contro il fascismo
(Verona: Achab, 2005), 140-142. Real evidence still needs to be found in Orestes Ferrara’s pa-
pers both in havana and in italy.
29
Ferrara mentioned: Mexico in 1825; Nicaragua in 1847; Venezuela in 1848; Argentina in
1850; mexico in 1859; peru in 1860; chile and peru at war with spain in 1866; and cuban rebels
in the ten Years’ War (1868-1898), the final war of independence of 1895-1898 and again with
Venezuela in 1902 and 1903. Interestingly enough, Ferrara never referred to the “Roosevelt
corollary to the monroe doctrine”, an early-20th-century interpretation that justified us inter-
122 Cuba in the World, the World in Cuba
the exception of the “dollar diplomacy” and the policy of the “big stick”, the
united states had not turned the monroe doctrine into the guiding principle
of us inter-american politics. he claimed that far from sharing us interests,
he simply wanted to rehabilitate the historical memory of president monroe
and his principles, and also to defend theodore roosevelt’s intents against
“enemies” who extrapolated words too freely out of context. these unnamed
“enemies” claimed that the us interventions in haiti, santo domingo and
nicaragua were the result of the monroe doctrine. Quite likely, the same un-
named “enemies” were cuban nationalist anti-imperialist intellectuals like
roig de leuchsenring30.
perhaps among Ferrara’s unnamed “enemies” were also several
american women activists who traveled to havana to participate in the
conference and protest us interventions in the caribbean and central
america. among these was alice park who went to havana to protest the
us occupation of nicaragua. she soon realized however that protests were
going to be suppressed, delegates would be carefully chosen and that the
us would dominate the entire agenda. nevertheless, allied with cuban
women activists, their american counterparts did manage to participate
in a session of the conference held in the aula magna of the university,
after having organized a spectacular parade on martí’s day. linking an-
ti-interventionism and women’s rights, cuban women made it clear that
without greater democracy and self-determination for cuba, gaining wom-
en’s rights would be an empty victory. at the same time, without women’s
rights, the struggle for cuban democracy would be crippled31.
4. Conclusion
By what right […] other than the right of main force, does the united
states arrogate unto itself the privilege of intervening alone in the internal
affairs of another sovereign republic? […] Single-handed intervention by us
in the internal affairs of other nations must end33.
33
Franklin D. Roosevelt, “Our Foreign Policy: A Democratic View”, Foreign Affairs 4 (1928),
584-585.
124 Cuba in the World, the World in Cuba
While roosevelt was promoting this belief, trujillo, the dictator of the
dominican republic, was butchering 12,000 haitians, and nicaragua and
honduras were at war for irrelevant motives. Beals also asserted that the
us, while offering friendship to certain latin american governments,
did not actually care about the people of latin america. in fact, it was
supporting tyrannies of the same brutal sort as those it had decried in
europe. he concluded that:
34
Carleton Beals, “A Skeptic Views the Good Neighbor Policy”, in Latin America and the United
States. A Documentary History, eds. Robert H. Holden and Eric Zolov (New York: Oxford Uni-
versity press, 2000), 156-158.
A. Sánchez
Cobos
Chapter 8
Los anarquistas españoles y la formación
de la clase trabajadora cubana:
la educación racionalista*
*
este estudio se encuentra inscrito en el proyecto de investigación hum2006-03651/hist del
ministerio de ciencia e innovación.
1
el proyecto ideado por los anarquistas y el papel jugado por los españoles en cuba después
de la independencia, en amparo sánchez cobos, Sembrando ideales. Anarquistas españoles en
Cuba (1902-1925) (sevilla: csic, 2008).
alessandra lorini e duccio Basosi (a cura di), Cuba in the World, the World in
Cuba. Essays on Cuban History, Politics and Culture, isBn 978-88-8453-971-7 (print),
isBn 978-88-8453-962-5 (online), © 2009 Firenze university press
126 Cuba in the World, the World in Cuba
2
un estudio general sobre la cuestión, en clara e. lida, “educación anarquista en la españa
del Ochocientos”, Revista de Occidente 97 (1971), 33-47.
3
mijail Bakunin, La Instrucción Integral (Barcelona: pequeña Biblioteca calamus scripto-
rius, 1979).
4
un buen ejemplo sobre la visión de los ácratas de cuba en ese sentido, en el artículo fir-
mado por Justo derecho, “nuestra educación intelectual”,¡Tierra!, 15 noviembre 1902. más
información sobre las dos formas de entender la educación de los sectores populares entre los
anarquistas, en Juan suriano, Anarquistas. Cultura y política libertaria en Buenos Aires, 1890-1910
(Buenos aires: manantial, 2001), 224-227.
Part III – Conflicting Political Cultures 127
5
un interesante estudio sobre las escuelas modernas en españa, en Jordi monés, pere solà
y luís m. lázaro, Ferrer Guardia y la pedagogía libertaria: elementos para un debate (Barcelona:
icaria, 1977). sobre el desarrollo de las escuelas modernas en provincias, véase pere solá, Las
escuelas racionalistas en Cataluña (1909-1939) (Barcelona: tusquets, 1978); luís m. lázaro, Las
escuelas racionalistas en el País Valenciano (1906-1931) (Valencia: Nau, 1992).
6
los anteriores principios fueron recogidos en “agrupación racionalista Ferrer. reglamento
interno”, ¡Tierra!, 9 de marzo de 1912. para ampliar la información sobre el modelo curricular
de Ferrer i Guardia, Buenaventura delgado, La escuela moderna de Ferrer i Guardia (Barcelona:
ceac, 1979), 89-109.
128 Cuba in the World, the World in Cuba
7
“relación de anarquistas conocidos en cuba”, archivo del ministerio de asuntos exteri-
ores de Madrid (AMAE), Fondo Política Interior Cuba (FPIC), Serie Orden Público (SOP), Leg.
h 2753, 1911-1919.
8
Felipe Zapata, “esquema y notas para una historia de la organización obrera en cuba”,
Justicia Social Cristiana 1, 2, 3 y 4 (1951), 64-65.
9
“Anarquista Moncaleano. Reservado”, AMAE, FPIC, SOP, Subserie Anarquismo, Exp.
P=M=O, Leg. H 2757, siglo XX.
10
“enseñanza libre”, ¡Tierra!, 4 de agosto de 1906.
Part III – Conflicting Political Cultures 129
11
luís m. lázaro torrente, Prensa racionalista y educación en España (1901-1932) (Valencia: Uni-
versidad de Valencia, 1995), 91 y 108; “Escuela racionalista”, ¡Tierra!, 28 de noviembre de 1908;
“notas varias”, ¡Tierra!, 21 de marzo de 1913.
12
“Relación de anarquistas conocidos en Cuba”, 9 de septiembre de 1913, AMAE, FPIC, SOP,
leg. h 2753, 1911-19; Tierra y Libertad, 4 de septiembre de 1912.
13
desde que Ferrer puso en práctica su método educativo estuvo en el punto de mira de las
autoridades eclesiásticas españolas que aprovecharon cualquier excusa para denunciar a sus
escuelas y desprestigiar a su promotor. en 1909 le hicieron responsable de los disturbios ocur-
ridos en Barcelona conocidos como la semana trágica, a pesar de que no se encontraba en la
ciudad condal en ese momento. como resultado del proceso que se abrió contra él fue con-
denado a muerte y ejecutado el 13 de octubre de ese mismo año. más información sobre esta
cuestión, en Jordi de cambra Bassols, Anarquismo y positivismo. El caso Ferrer (madrid: centro
de investigaciones sociológicas, 1981).
14
el desarrollo de los centros racionalistas en cuba, en amparo sánchez, “una educación
alternativa. las escuelas racionalistas en cuba, 1902-1925”, en Nación y cultura nacional en el
Caribe Hispano, ed. Josef Opatrný (Praga: Karolinum, 2006), 143-152.
130 Cuba in the World, the World in Cuba
15
“carta reservada enviada por el cónsul de españa en la habana al ministro de Gobernación
en madrid el 27 de enero de 1913 sobre anarquismo” y “carta enviada por el cónsul español en
la habana al ministro de Gobernación en madrid el 7 de agosto de 1913 sobre la propaganda
anarquista”. AMAE, FPIC, SOP, Subserie Anarquismo, Exp. P=M=O. Leg. H 2757, siglo XX.
16
más información sobre estas cuestiones, en Kirwin shaffer, Anarchism and Countercultural Poli-
tics in Early Twentieth-Century Cuba (Gainesville, Fl.: university press of Florida, 2005), 179.
17
Ver “Triste realidad”, ¡Tierra!, 4 de mayo de 1912.
18
“el cónsul de españa informa sobre la propaganda anarquista. la habana, 7 de agosto de
1913”, AMAE, FPIC, SOP, Subserie Anarquismo, Exp. P=M=O. Leg. H 2757, siglo XX.
Part III – Conflicting Political Cultures 131
de estos elementos anarquistas, sus avances entre los naturales son muy
limitados. los asociados son casi en su totalidad españoles (catalanes y
aragoneses en su mayoría) existiendo muy pocos cubanos. los elementos
de color no han aceptado tales teorías pues no existe ningún negro ni mula-
to entre aquellos, a pesar de encontrarse el círculo en un barrio compuesto
casi todo de familias de esta raza”19. en este caso, hemos de tener en cuen-
ta que a comienzos de la segunda década republicana, la discriminación
de la población de color en cuba se mantenía y el alzamiento del partido
independiente de color de 1912 es un claro ejemplo de ello20. Y en ese sen-
tido, como veremos a continuación, la falta de un discurso dirigido por
los anarquistas de forma expresa a ese sector de la población seguramente
tampoco contribuyera a atraer a los negros a las escuelas modernas.
en resumen, toda esta labor de difusión del nuevo método docente ex-
plica sin duda que las organizaciones racionalistas y las escuelas modernas
sobrevivieran en cuba entre 1908 y 1913 a pesar de los problemas a los que
se enfrentaron. pero la propaganda sería insuficiente para explicar su arrai-
go sin un modelo apropiado y atractivo para los sectores a los que pretend-
ían llegar. Veamos entonces qué alternativas ofrecieron y cómo articularon
su discurso con ese objetivo.
19
“el cónsul de españa informa sobre la propaganda anarquista. la habana, 7 de agosto de
1913”, AMAE, Fondo AMAE, FPIC, SOP, Subserie Anarquismo, Exp. P=M=O. Leg. H 2757,
siglo XX.
20
sobre esta cuestión, véase aline helg, Our Rightful Share to Afro-Cuban Struggle for Equality,
1886-1912 (chapel hill: university of north carolina press, 1995).
132 Cuba in the World, the World in Cuba
las Artes y Oficios, que serían obligatorias, gratuitas y estarían a cargo del
estado21, lo cual, sin duda, debió restar asistencia a las escuelas racionalis-
tas de muchos de aquellos hijos de trabajadores que no podían permitirse
destinar una parte de su mísero sueldo al sostenimiento de esos centros.
también, desde el punto de vista del modelo educativo, el método fer-
reriano se vio favorecido y a la vez perjudicado por ese espíritu renovador.
en principio, compartía con las construcciones teóricas que arrancaban de
la ilustración el principio de laicidad, una de las principales característi-
cas que le permitía marcar la diferencia más clara con la educación reli-
giosa preponderante durante la colonia, ofreciéndole por contraposición
amplias posibilidades de cambio. Y, en ese sentido, la reestructuración del
sistema educativo iniciada por las autoridades norteamericanas desde el
mismo año 1898 – que tendría como principales valedores a los intelectu-
ales alexis e. Frye, norteamericano organizador de la enseñanza prima-
ria, y Enrique José Varona, cubano encargado de la enseñanza secundaria
y superior-, abogaba igualmente por la educación laica. pero, además, el
pedagogo catalán se quiso desmarcar asimismo del sistema educativo in-
stitucionalizado con la III República francesa que, a pesar de pretender ser
universal, en realidad acabó reproduciendo la ideología de la clase domi-
nante. de ese modo, ya no sería Francia el modelo sino una enseñanza que
estuviera totalmente desvinculada del estado y al servicio de fines revolu-
cionarios. en este caso, tampoco serviría el sistema educativo inaugurado
en cuba en 1898 que tenía como principal modelo la educación norteam-
ericana, que consistía básicamente en una combinación de instrucción en
las artes liberales y la formación manual, y que, para el caso concreto de
cuba hacía especial hincapié en la agricultura, al tiempo que contribuiría a
consolidar y reforzar el sistema republicano22.
precisamente, en contraposición al nuevo sistema preconizado por las
autoridades de la isla, lo que los ácratas ofrecieron a los trabajadores, y en
general a los sectores populares, fue un nuevo modelo educativo que les
liberara de la opresión y les preparara para el cambio revolucionario. para
ellos la educación debía ser, en primer lugar, liberadora de la ignorancia,
de las ataduras y la opresión a que el sistema, en ese caso el nuevo sistema
político cubano, sometía a los trabajadores, o al menos les enseñaría a so-
brellevarlos de mejor forma mientras la esperada revolución les liberara de-
finitivamente. Y en segundo término sería igualadora, pues haría que todos
adquiriesen el mismo nivel intelectual acabando así con las diferencias que
separaban a explotadores y explotados. tenían además una fe inquebrant-
21
La Orden Militar Nº 226 y la Constitución de la República de Cuba, en Hortensia Pichardo,
Documentos para la Historia de Cuba, tomo ii (la habana: ciencias sociales, 1979), 51-57 y 74-
101, respectivamente.
22
la reestructuración del sistema educativo en cuba tras la independencia, en shaffer, Anar-
chism, 166-170.
Part III – Conflicting Political Cultures 133
Y añadían:
23
Ver, por ejemplo, “Enseñanzas”, ¡Tierra!, 19 de octubre de 1912.
24
“la educación racionalista. escuela de odios. escuela de amor”, ¡Tierra!, 14 de agosto de
1909.
25
“enseñanza libre”, ¡Tierra!, 4 de agosto de 1906.
134 Cuba in the World, the World in Cuba
26
Ver, por ejemplo, “Consolador contraste”, ¡Tierra!, 7 de marzo de 1903.
27
shaffer, Anarchism, 179.
28
“centro de estudios sociales”, ¡Tierra!, 15 de agosto de 1903.
Part III – Conflicting Political Cultures 135
29
un buen ejemplo sobre estas críticas, en “la educación de la niñez”, ¡Tierra!, 4 de febrero
de 1905.
30
sobre esta cuestión puede verse, amparo sánchez, “metáforas cubanas en el pensamiento
anarquista de comienzos del siglo XX”, en El pensamiento caribeño: siglos XIX y XX, ed. Josef
Opatrný (Praga: Karolinum, 2007), 345-352.
136 Cuba in the World, the World in Cuba
31
la expulsión de los anarquistas españoles de cuba en nuestro artículo, “extranjeros perni-
ciosos. El orden público y la expulsión de anarquistas españoles de Cuba, 1899-1930”, Historia
Social 59 (2007), 171-188.
Part III – Conflicting Political Cultures 137
32
Censo de la República de Cuba, 1907 (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1908), 148-150.
las cifras de españa y estado unidos, en José antonio piqueras, Sociedad civil y poder en Cuba.
Colonia y poscolonia (madrid: siglo XXi, 2005), 341-342.
138 Cuba in the World, the World in Cuba
33
Francisco Ferrer, “la renovación de la escuela”, Boletín de la Escuela Moderna 1 (1908), 6.
M. Lima
Chapter 9
Reflections on the Cuban Student Movement:
1952-1961
1
“designada la nueva directiva de maestros normales”, Revolución, 7 January 1959.
2
Jaime suchlicki, University Students and Revolution in Cuba, 1920-1968 (coral Gables, Fla.:
university of miami press, 1969).
alessandra lorini e duccio Basosi (a cura di), Cuba in the World, the World in
Cuba. Essays on Cuban History, Politics and Culture, isBn 978-88-8453-971-7 (print),
isBn 978-88-8453-962-5 (online), © 2009 Firenze university press
140 Cuba in the World, the World in Cuba
this article focuses on the student movement from 1952 until 1961. it ar-
gues that students responded to the revolution of 1959, motivated by their
own historical expectations, ideology and organizational characteristics. it is
attentive to the heterogeneous responses of young people to the revolution
as well as their agreements and disagreements with the revolutionary gov-
ernment. One key question this article considers is: how prepared were stu-
dents for a revolution as radical as the one that occurred in cuba after 1959?
1. Ideology
3
Raúl Roa, En Pie (Santa Clara: Universidad Central de las Villas, 1959), 173-184.
4
José martí, Obras Completas, vol. 2 (la habana: ciencias sociales), 93-96.
5
“cuban treaty signed”, New York Times, 23 april 1903.
6
robert Whitney, State and Revolution in Cuba: Mass Mobilization and Political Change, 1920-
1940 (chapel hill: university of north carolina press, 2001), 36-101.
7
during the 1930s and 1940s populism became a wide spread political phenomenon in latin
america. there were numerous governments and political movements in the hemisphere
that presented themselves as populists because they mobilized large masses of workers. see
robert h. dix, “populism: authoritarian and democratic”, Latin American Research Review 2
(1985), 29-49; Whitney, State, 94-164.
8
Julio antonio mella, Escritos Revolucionarios (mexico: siglo XXi, 1978), 39.
9
the idea of a collation between workers and students was initiated by Julio antonio mella
Part III – Conflicting Political Cultures 141
who was influenced by the apra movement in peru. the apra was established in 1919 in
lima, peru and advocated alliances between students and workers. see steve stern, Populism
in Peru: The Emergence of the Masses and the Politics of Social Control (madison, Wis.: university
of Wisconsin press, 1980), 129; mella, Escritos, 39.
10
the 1933 revolution led to the establishment of a nationalist government that lasted for 100
days. El Gobierno de los 100 días as it came to be known was led by students and profession-
als. they decreed significant socio political and economic reforms aimed to restructure the
national wealth. there are numerous works on the subject. see for example: Jorge ibarra, La
mediación del 33: Ocaso del Machadato (la habana: editora política, 1999).
11
russell B. porter, “students Guiding the destinies of cuba”, New York Times, 15 september
1933.
12
Julio García Oliveras, José Antonio Echevarría: Lucha Estudiantil Contra Batista (la habana:
editora política, 1980), 227.
13
“manifiesto del movimiento 26 de Julio y la Federación estudiantil universitaria al pueblo
de cuba” in ¡Presente!: Apuntes para la Historia del Movimiento Estudiantil Cubano (la habana:
editora política, 2000), 211-212.
14
this refers to the authentic revolutionary cuban party. they defined themselves the au-
thentic revolutionaries.
15
“en cuba”, Bohemia, 28 december 1952; r. hart phillips, “cuba recovering after revolu-
tion”, New York Times, 12 march 1952.
142 Cuba in the World, the World in Cuba
america16. along with their counterparts from other parts of latin america
and the caribbean, cuban students shaped their ideas and actions as part
of a continental movement against “the dictatorships that oppressed the
continent”. students even went as far as supporting a union of democrat-
ic nations of the americas in a continental campaign to break diplomatic
relations with the Batista government and with the rest of dictatorships
in the hemisphere that did “not respect the human rights of their people,
and used torture against detainees and political prisoners and violate the
right to political asylum”17. the dictatorial landscape of cuba in the 1950s
helps to explain students’ endorsement of violence: because they did not
see any democratic solution to ridding cuba from the Batista dictatorship,
students supported armed insurrection18. they believed that only real hope
for revolution was “con los hierros en la mano”19.
it is interesting to note that students possessed an ideological outlook
with an eclectic combination of radicalism, democracy, nationalism, anti
imperialism and revolution. they demanded a return to the guarantees of
the 1940 constitution, calling for free elections, the respect all individual
rights including freedom of expression, assembly, press, and the inviolabil-
ity of university autonomy. they believed in the separation of powers with
an independent judicial system20, while at the same time holding radical
ideas of change beyond constitutional and legal boundaries of the repub-
lic21. students favored an educational reform that would encourage more
technical programs of study at the university. a strong nationalist, anti im-
perialist sentiment prevailed in the student movement. as several speeches
of José antonio echevarría22 suggest, students condemned united states
interventionism in the americas, particularly their support for dictator-
ships in nicaragua, Guatemala and the dominican republic23.
students had a troubled relationship with the popular socialist party
and the socialist Youth. amparo chaple, for example, a member of the
socialist Youth was elected student president in the school of Biology and
did not offer her vote for echevarría as the president of the Feu24. socialists
did not approve of students violent methods. the popular socialist party,
16
see david F. schmitz “the lesser of two evils” in Problems in Modern Latin American History:
Sources and Interpretations, eds. John charles chasteen and James a. Wood (Washington, del:
sr Books, 2004), 281-286.
17
Oliveras, José Antonio Echevarría, 160.
18
Julio García Oliveras, Los Estudiantes Cubanos (la habana: abril, 2003), 35.
19
this phrase translates “With weapons in hand”, ibid., 198.
20
“declaración de la Feu desde el exilio” in ¡Presente!: Apuntes, 200-201.
21
José antonio echevarría “letters to the times”, New York Times, 14 november 1954.
22
echevarría was the leader of the student urban underground movement. president of the
Feu and the revolutionary directorate between 1954 and 1957.
23
Oliveras, Los Estudiantes, 37-40.
24
Departamento de Versiones Taquigráficas del Gobierno Revolucionario, “Segunda Vista del
Juicio contra el delator marcos rodríguez”, Bohemia, 3 april, 1964.
Part III – Conflicting Political Cultures 143
for example, characterized the attack on the presidential palace and simi-
lar actions as “putchists” and “bourgeoisie”, and claimed that they only
correct strategy was the popular struggle based on the mobilization of the
proletariats25. the historic tensions and conflicts between members of the
socialist Youth and students at the university became a constant source of
tension during the first months of the revolution26. Overall, a close analysis
of student’s ideology suggest that their responses to the 1959 revolution
(either in support or opposition) were shaped by ideas and expectations
developed during years in the urban underground struggle.
2. Organization
25
Juventud Socialista, “¡Fuera la Ingerencia Yanqui en Cuba! ¡Cese el Terror del Gobierno de
Batista¡ ¡Unión y Lucha para Derrotar la Tiranía!”, 18 October 1957, in Instituto de Historia de
Cuba, La Habana, Organizaciones Juveniles Fondo I, P-2 1094.
26
alberto muller, La Cruz Sigue en Pie: Biografía y Escritos de Alberto Muller: Ideario de una Nueva
Generación (caracas: directorio revolucionario estudiantil, 1970), 11.
27
partido socialista popular, VIII Asamblea Nacional: Informes, Resoluciones, Programas, Estatu-
tos (la habana: ediciones populares, 1960), 54.
28
upon learning about the moncada assault, university students in havana discussed possible
actions that day (26 July 1953) in support of the attack but it was impossible as the government
surrounded the university of havana. in the next months students in havana organized a
campaign for the liberation of the moncada assaulters and recognized Fidel castro as the one
who began revolutionary struggle against Batista. Oliveras, José Antonio Echevarría, 103-114.
29
the rich calendar of student martyrs and historical dates served as an opportunity for street
144 Cuba in the World, the World in Cuba
that universities should be free from the ideological and economic pres-
sures of the state, and should act as the social consciousness of the nation30.
university autonomy eventually precipitated conflicts with the revolution-
ary government after 1959 as it forged an oppositionist culture that repre-
sented an obstacle to their integration with any government.
in the early years of the revolution students from both sides of the politi-
cal spectrum responded to the new socio-political and economic realities by
reproducing their pre revolutionary tactics, mobilization strategies, values
and ideology. their political views on dictatorship, democracy, nationalism,
and communism informed their actions and responses to revolution. they
used the physical spaces of the university as their main headquarters for po-
litical mobilization and a defense of the organizational independence of the
Feu. a resurgence in violence to either assert student support or rejection to
the revolutionary laws characterized relationships between the new revolu-
tionary government and students during the early stages of the revolution.
although the revolutionary government counted on the overwhelming
support of the majority of cuba’s younger generation, student responses to
the revolution were as heterogeneous and diverse as their political ideas.
they were divided among two main groups which responded differently
to the revolution. Both favored the revolution, but one expressed uncondi-
tional support while the other backed the state conditionally31. members of
the revolutionary directorate (dr)32, which had been a crucial group in the
protests. some of the more relevant street demonstrations during this period were: the sym-
bolic burial of the 1940 constitution on 6 april 6 1952; the remembrance of antonio Guiteras,
a revolutionary of the 1930 generation assassinated by Batista on 8 may 8 1952; the celebra-
tion of the fall of machado and the 1933 revolution on 12 august 1952; the remembrance of
the offense against the martyrs of the 1933 revolution on 4 september 4 1952; the anniversary
of the assassination of trejo, a student martyr in the struggle against Batista, on 30 september
1952. On 27 November 1952 students jumped into the field of a baseball game broadcasted
on television to display a sign against Batista. see: special to the new York times “student
Protest One Year after Batista’s Coup”, New York Times, 11 march 1953; herbert l. matthews
“Students in Cuba Opposing Batista”, New York Times, 15 april 1952; special to the new York
Times, “5 Students Shot Over Marring of the Statue”, New York Times, 16 January 1953; special
to the new York times, “2 cuban students shot in march”, New York Times, 14 april 1953. the
street protest became a distinguishing characteristic of the student movement in their struggle
against Batista. see mario G. del cueto, “el aporte del directorio revolucionario en la lucha
contra Batista”, Bohemia, 11 January 1959.
30
luis Boza domínguez, La Situación Universitaria en Cuba (santiago de chile: editorial del
pacifico, 1961), 11.
31
lloyd a. Free, Attitudes of the Cuban People Toward the Castro Regime in the Summer of 1960,
(princeton: institute for international social research, 1960), 14.
32
the dr was the armed wing of the university student movement established by echevarría
in 1956 to carry commando operations against members of the Batista regime. after the failed
attack on the presidential palace in 1957 it relocated its operations to rural and urban areas in
central cuba.
Part III – Conflicting Political Cultures 145
urban and rural resistance against the Batista dictatorship, demanded more
participation in the new revolutionary government. despite their support,
alliance and admiration for Fidel castro and the 26 of July movement, the
dr led a series of “symbolic” protests during the first months of 1959. these
demonstrations by the dr included: refusing to turn their weapons over
to the revolutionary government, taking over temporary control over the
university of havana, and occupying the national capitol. the dr did not
agree with government by decree. instead, they called for the establishment
of a legislative body consisting of representation from different revolution-
ary groups. Whereas these differences were later settled between the dr
and Fidel castro33, actions of this type suggested how the students’ ideas
on democracy and dictatorship shaped their initial actions. they responded
to the new socio-political and economic reality of the nation, by reprising
their pre revolutionary tactics, mobilization strategies, values and ideology.
in this case, the idea of contesting government by decree, taking over the
university and other relevant buildings resembled past republican politics.
Youth political action in early revolutionary cuba revolved around
the educational reform which motivated a mixed response among young
people34. support or opposition for the reform differentiated young revo-
lutionaries from oppositionists. students who were fervent supporters of
the revolution passionately favored the reform but perceived the existing
institutions and laws as obstacles to its prompt execution. these students
reacted autonomously from the state when they started taking over control
of several high schools and universities across havana35. through their
actions, students pressured the revolutionary leadership to immediately
implement the reform clauses that ordered the expulsion of professors and
students accused of having collaborated with the previous Batista regime.
the protagonists of these acts were both students affiliated to these insti-
tutions and young radicals that were outsiders to these educational cen-
ters but took an active involvement in student politics. the instituto de la
Vibora, the Colegio Baldor and the University of Havana were three among
many other cases of school takeovers that occurred between February and
april of 1959, and were extensively reported in the press36. in all cases the
student rationale was a sense of urgency to take justice in their own hands,
to act beyond the established laws of those schools and above the judicial
procedures established in the educational reform. students would take
control of several buildings and faculties in their institutions to access the
files of those professors suspected of collaboration with the Batista dictator-
33
“students Yield their arms: revolutionary directorate said it never planned to Fight
against castro”, New York Times, 11 January 1959; R. Hart Philips “Power Struggle Goes On”,
New York Times, 10 January 1959.
34
“sobre la reforma universitaria”, Revolución, 4 February 1959.
35
“Ocupar Planteles es Contrarrevolucionario”, Revolución, 17 april 1959.
36
“intervienen alumnos de institutos y la normal”, Revolución, 4 april 1959.
146 Cuba in the World, the World in Cuba
ship. then, by force of occupation, they would pressure the school to expel
them. the case of Baldor (the founder and director of the Baldor college)
was typical. Baldor had been accused of persecuting revolutionaries, of
evading taxes for over $10,000, and of publicly humiliating and even ex-
pelling any professors that had criticized him37. a similar occurrence took
place at the university of havana where students took over control of the
dean’s offices numerous times. they argued that current university statues
and legal proceedings were unable to ensure the expulsion of corrupt, in-
ept and professors accused of spying for the Batista regime38.
several factors explained these responses, namely: political behavior ac-
quired and transmitted across generations; continuity in the culture of vio-
lence and radicalism that characterized student militancy in the 1930s, 1940s
and 1950s; the institutional vacuum of the early stages of the revolution that
disoriented young people; and, finally, a desire, by those students tortured
by the Batista regime, to take justice in their own hands. Young revolutionar-
ies therefore acted as protagonists of radical change, as an autonomous mo-
bilizing force that pressured the leadership into the quick implementation of
reforms. contrary to what some scholars have suggested when analyzing the
student movement in the early months of the revolution, young people were
not passively targeted and manipulated by the state. although organized
later under government control, in this early moment, young people took
independent actions. students were not manipulated or indoctrinated by the
state at this time (1959), as revolutionary institutions were still in the pro-
cess of been established (only in 1961 was education in cuba nationalized)39.
thus, students’ actions and mobilization in support for the educational re-
form was a consequence of ideological affinities with the revolution. their
ideological convictions from the pre-revolutionary period supported the
idea of the socio-political transformation of cuban society.
the essence that distinguished the student movement (autonomy and
rebelliousness) led to problems with the radical nature of the revolution.
cuban society, between the fall of 1959 and the spring of 1961, was in the
midst of a radical transition and re-definition of political values, ideology
and goals. unity became the hallmark of the new period as the state eventu-
ally considered organizational autonomy out of synch with the objectives of
the revolution. all forms of opposition were considered “anti-cuban” and
“unpatriotic”40. On the international front, the government’s need to obtain
economic support from the soviet union led to a closer alliance between the
revolutionary government of Fidel castro and the socialists. this in turn
37
“acusado Baldor de Graves irregularidades”, Revolución, 28 march 1959.
38
“Dispuesto el Estudiantado a Ocupar la Universidad”, Revolución, 2 February 1959.
39
“intervienen alumnos de institutos y la normal”, Revolución, 4 april 1959, 13; editorial, “Y
ahora a alfabetizar”, Mella, 27 may 1961, 8.
40
partido socialista popular, VIII Asamblea Nacional, 55, 142 and 157.
Part III – Conflicting Political Cultures 147
brought about a new official discourse that redefined political values and
influenced state relationship with students41. What it meant to be a “revo-
lutionary” changed drastically from an earlier humanist understanding to
a radical and pro-socialist conception. to be a revolutionary in early 1959
meant to support a humanist ideology that equally favored social justice,
individual freedoms and human rights42. early revolutionaries were nation-
alists; they were against all forms of tyranny, supported free elections and
reestablishment of the 1940 constitution suspended during the Fulgencio
Batista regime in march of 1952. they supported all the socio-economic re-
forms of the revolution, but some were anti-communists and opposed re-
lations with the soviet union43. during the radical period, support for the
revolution meant unconditional backing of de the state, regardless of its
pro-socialist position at home or its alliance with the soviet union abroad44.
discrepancies over socialism became a conflictive issue for students.
Oppositionists questioned the revolution’s turn to “communism” and its
alliance with the socialist Bloc. they also protested the integration of the
Feu to the international student union which they claimed was controlled
by the Socialist International. They organized a protest against Soviet Vice-
minister anastas mikokyan’s visit to cuba and sabotaged the hiring of pro-
fessors affiliated to the communist party at the university. together with
other oppositionist groups which still held key positions in the media and
religious schools, they actively instigated other students to rebel against
socialism and government interference in university affairs45.
these conflicts were as much over the control of public spaces as they
were over ideology. every protest initiated within university campuses
was tremendously harmful for the image of the state since the university
was a symbol long associated with martyrdom, heroism and revolution-
ary struggle. the political instinct of students was to use the spaces of the
university as an expression of political discontent, but for the revolution-
ary government support from youth was a serious matter which helped
the emerging state to differentiate itself from the repressive Batista past.
in official speeches and newspaper articles, students and young people
were praised as a vital political force, a potentially crucial ally to legiti-
mize the revolution. to use the spaces of the university for oppositionist
purposes, however, was interpreted by the state as a challenge to the le-
gitimacy from the revolution.
41
edward Gonzalez, Cuba under Castro: The Limits of Charisma (Boston: houghton mifflin,
1974), 118-119.
42
Fidel castro, “¿Qué es el humanismo?”, Revista Artes Graficas, 5 July 1959, 5.
43
us department of state, Foreign service despatch, american consulate, santiago de cuba,
“student Group protest communist action”,14 may 1959, file 737.00/5-1459, 1955-1959 cen-
tral decimal File, rG 59, national archives, Washington, d.c.
44
partido socialista popular, VIII Asamblea Nacional, 55-157.
45
muller, Cruz Sigue en Pie, 11-4.
148 Cuba in the World, the World in Cuba
to control the physical and symbolic spaces of the university from op-
positionists, the revolutionary government established the university
Brigades in October 1959. Their goal was to establish an armed militia
at the university of havana to protect the university facilities, day and
night, from “counterrevolutionary students” and to ensure the “universi-
ty was only for revolutionaries”46. the Brigades guarded every square of
the university and every corner. at night, along with members of the state
security, they hid in bushes to prevent “counterrevolutionary” students
from attempting to gain control of the institution. university Brigades for
example made use of the Escalinata as a “sacred site” from where to orga-
nize their political acts. in the official ceremony that announced the forma-
tion of the Brigades on november 27, 1959, students left from the Escalinata
and walked through the streets of havana in military parades47. as alicia
Gómez Granada, a former member of the Brigades, expressed: “students
descended from the Escalinata which has transformed since the triumph of
the revolution in a symbol of joy. the Escalinata is the cradle of revolution,
from where student rebelliousness gathered and marched so many times
in the past”48. another student leader of the time commented: “For the first
time in many years student walked down from the Escalinata for a purpose
other than to turn the flame and protest against a tyrannical government”.
Oppositionist students also gave the Escalinata a similar meaning. in
January of 1960 they organized a protest that would take it as a starting
point. From that point they would then walk to the streets of havana and
meet in the building of a local TV channel to give their support to a docu-
ment that was going to be read on television expressing university stu-
dent rejection of communism and relations with the soviet union. the
university Brigades impeded oppositionists to use the Escalinata. salvador
capote, one of the Brigade leaders recalls what happened that day:
46
maría luisa lafita de Juan, ed., La Brigada Universitaria José A. Echevarría y el Bon (la ha-
bana: editorial politica, 1983), vii.
47
ibid., 14-18.
48
ibid., 27.
49
ibid., 50-51.
Part III – Conflicting Political Cultures 149
ideological justification that impeded the use of symbolic or any other sites
as an avenue for dissidence against the state. the official discourse sup-
ported the idea that only the most unconditional followers of the revo-
lutionary state had the moral authority to use the Escalinata as a way to
legitimize the revolutionary state itself. the struggle to monopolize physi-
cal space inside the university was equated with power in the revolution-
ary era. eventually, the reproduction of pre-revolutionary student politics
clashed with the new political values and culture that emerged during the
radical period of revolutionary transition toward socialism.
On the topic of autonomy, the University of Havana also became a con-
tested site of conflict and resolution. students debated passionately the
issue of university autonomy, which was perceived as one of their main
achievements following the 1933 revolution50. in the republican era, par-
ticularly in the mid-1950s, the autonomy had served as an instrument to
guarantee that the university became an independent institution with le-
gal protection from police intervention and the headquarters of opposi-
tionist activity directed to fight dictatorial and corrupt governments. to
oppositionists, the theme of autonomy was a legitimate claim based on
the student martyrs who had given their lives for the revolution51. to sup-
porters of the state, however, there was no purpose to autonomy as gov-
ernment and university were supposed to be united and not in dispute52.
the new radical mentality of the transition dictated that autonomy was
an obstacle to government attempts to open the university for the hum-
ble classes and implement a new system based on technical and scientific
education in tune with the professional needs of the nation53. eventually,
the idea of autonomy did not have state support and the vision of a uni-
versity united with the government prevailed. the official interpretation
was that autonomy was only a means for students to use the university
as a space for political organization in order to achieve the ultimate goal
of revolution54. among students, there were mixed interpretations about
autonomy, as some believed that it was a historical achievement neces-
sary to ensure that those in power fulfilled their promises to the people.
4. Conclusions
50
Boza domínguez, Situación Universitaria, 18.
51
muller, Cruz Sigue en Pie, 28.
52
Boza domínguez, Situación Universitaria, 52.
53
“sobre la reforma universitaria”, Revolución, 4 February 1959.
54
Boza domínguez, Situación Universitaria, 84.
150 Cuba in the World, the World in Cuba
1
see: ann armbruster, The Life and Times of Miami Beach (new York: random house, 1995);
miguel a. Bretos, Cuba and Florida: Exploration of an Historic Connection, 1539-1991 (miami:
historical association of southern Florida, 1991).
alessandra lorini e duccio Basosi (a cura di), Cuba in the World, the World in
Cuba. Essays on Cuban History, Politics and Culture, isBn 978-88-8453-971-7 (print),
isBn 978-88-8453-962-5 (online), © 2009 Firenze university press
154 Cuba in the World, the World in Cuba
through profound changes from the 1960s to the early 1980s. Finally, luca
spitoni’s mapping of the habana del este during the second half of the 20th
century shows the impact of social and cultural movements on architec-
tural developments.
G. Paolucci
Chapter 10
Transformaciones urbanas y cambios
sociales: el caso de La Habana
en estas páginas trataré de ilustrar algunos de los motivos por los que
la habana, como escribe coyula, se diferencia tanto de cualquier otra gran
ciudad contemporánea. como veremos, las razones de dicha diversidad se
hallan en su historia, especialmente en los años posteriores a la ruptura revo-
lucionaria de 1959. de aquellos eventos la habana es, al mismo tiempo, testi-
go y protagonista, convocada a expresar e incorporar los cambios profundos
1
Mario Coyula, “Vivir La Habana”, La gaceta de Cuba. Arquitectura cubana entre sociedad y la
cultura 6 (2007), 5.
alessandra lorini e duccio Basosi (a cura di), Cuba in the World, the World in
Cuba. Essays on Cuban History, Politics and Culture, isBn 978-88-8453-971-7 (print),
isBn 978-88-8453-962-5 (online), © 2009 Firenze university press
156 Cuba in the World, the World in Cuba
2
Kevin lynch, What Time Is This Place? (cambridge: mit press, 1972).
3
Kevin lynch, ferviente admirador de la revolución cubana, como tantos intelectuales del
mundo, fue invitado por el instituto de planificación Física para impartir conferencias y par-
ticipar en los proyectos innovadores de los primeros años de la revolución. las huellas de la
presencia de Lynch en La Habana son aún muy vivas. Mario Coyula en una entrevista publi-
cada en 2005, recuerda con gran simpatía su presencia en la isla. roberto segre “entrevista al
arquitecto mario coyula”, Ciudad y Territorio. Estudios Territoriales 143 (2005), 209-222.
4
lynch, What Time, 82.
5
simone de Beauvoir, La force des choses (paris: Gallimard, 1963). simone de Beauvoir se refiere
en estos términos a la primerísima fase de la revolución cubana, recordando el viaje que junto
a Jean-paul sartre hiciera en febrero de 1960. en relación al mismo, cfr. el reportaje de sartre
escrito para France Soir, nunca antes publicado en volumen en Francia: Jean-paul sartre, Sartre
on Cuba (new York: Ballantine Books, 1961). sólo en 2008 el reportaje sobre la revolución cubana
ha sido nuevamente publicado en Francia: Jean-Paul Sartre, “Ouragan sur le sucre”, Les temps
modernes 649 (2008). en italia la primera traducción de casi todos los escritos de sartre sobre
el tema, ha sido editada sólo en 2005, para la cual escribí la introducción (Gabriella paolucci,
“introduzione”, en Jean-paul sartre, Visita a Cuba (Bolsena: massari, 2005); ver también Gabriella
paolucci, “sartre’s humanism and the cuban revolution”, Theory & Society 36 (2007), 245-263.
Part IV – Transforming the Urban Space 157
6
roberto segre, Arquitectura y urbanismo de la revolución cubana (la habana: pueblo y educa-
ción, 1989).
158 Cuba in the World, the World in Cuba
7
andres duany, “Foreword”, en Havana. Two Faces of the Antillean Metropolis, eds. roberto
segre, mario coyula y John scarpaci (new York: Wiley, 2002), xxiii.
Part IV – Transforming the Urban Space 159
8
roberto segre, Cuba, l’architettura della rivoluzione (Venezia: Marsilio, 1970), 98.
9
ibíd.
10
roberto segre observa cómo el movimiento moderno comienza a ejercer su influencia en la
isla a partir de los años cuarenta. segre, Arquitectura y urbanismo, 16-17.
160 Cuba in the World, the World in Cuba
los cambios que sobrevinieron fueron muy rápidos. la clase media es-
capó, dejando despobladas zonas extensas de la ciudad. el bloqueo inte-
rrumpió la normal importación de material y equipos. los alquileres dis-
minuyeron con un decreto ley y sucesivamente las casas fueron cedidas
gratuitamente a los inquilinos. muchos sectores fueron nacionalizados y a
los precios de los terrenos se les estableció un costo muy bajo. de repente,
la especulación inmobiliaria desapareció. el gobierno revolucionario cons-
truyó nuevos edificios de apartamentos para colocar a los habitantes de los
barrios más pobres y para alojar a la gran masa de desempleados urbanos,
pero la operación se reveló costosa. […] cayeron las barreras internas; des-
apareció el control privado del acceso al mar y a las playas. se disolvieron los
filtros económicos que regulaban la admisión a los mejores repartos residen-
ciales. Los clubes privados fueron transformados en restaurantes públicos y
en centros sociales. El lujoso reparto de hoteles y rascacielos del Vedado, que
en un tiempo era reservado a turistas y a la alta burguesía cubana, hoy es el
centro cultural y recreativo de toda la ciudad. En la tarde, las calles del Veda-
do se aglomeran de gente que pasea o hace colas en los cines, restaurantes y
heladerías […] los barrios costeros de miramar, abandonados en gran parte
por la clase media, ahora están ocupados por alrededor de 100.000 estudian-
tes llegados de todo el país con becas. el ex palacio de gobierno es hoy mu-
seo. […] las actividades están cambiando rápidamente dentro del ambiente
físico heredado. ¿será posible realizar esta drástica transformación social sin
perder completamente el carácter y los aspectos positivos del pasado?11
11
lynch, What Time, 39-40.
12
segre, Cuba, 74.
Part IV – Transforming the Urban Space 161
13
ibíd.
14
thomas cuenta que el 8 de enero, día en que Fidel castro entró en la habana con su colum-
na, hablando desde la terraza del palacio presidencial a la muchedumbre que lo aclamaba,
aludió al problema del lugar donde establecer la sede del nuevo gobierno, en desacuerdo con
la idea de contar con un palacio presidencial. hugh thomas, Cuba: the Pursuit of Freedom (new
York: harper & row, 1971), 793.
15
mario coyula, “housing in cuba”, Designer/Builder (2000).
162 Cuba in the World, the World in Cuba
16
roberto segre, Diez años de Arquitectura en Cuba revolucionaria (la habana: unión de escri-
tores y artistas, 1970), 99.
17
ibíd., 79.
Part IV – Transforming the Urban Space 163
nueva visión del habitar. uno de los objetivos que se persigue es la sus-
titución de las viviendas precarias de los barrios insalubres y periféricos
de la habana, con un complejo de edificios residenciales que ocupa los
terrenos que en el pasado habían sido reservados para la construcción de
un lujoso centro residencial destinado a la alta burguesía. sin embargo,
en ello no sólo existe la finalidad de tipo funcional. como bien señalan
segre, coyula y scarpaci, las tres “unidades vecinales simbolizan la uto-
pía de la revolución cubana”18. la parte que probablemente reveste un
mayor significado es la Unidad 2, diseñada para cien mil habitantes. los
proyectistas fueron Fernando Salinas y Raúl González Romero, quienes
la conciben como una estructura residencial, concentrando su relevancia
simbólica y expresiva en los edificios públicos y en los espacios abiertos.
las estructuras curvilíneas y las áreas verdes se complementan con mo-
numentos que representan el símbolo de la búsqueda de un nuevo sig-
nificado en las relaciones humanas (la iglesia de “todas las religiones” y
el centro de reuniones), que constituyen una real centralidad dentro del
conjunto construido. el proyecto, bastante complejo y muy costoso, no
fue completamente terminado.
la segunda obra de relieve fueron las Escuelas Nacionales de Arte, las
cuales suponen el complejo arquitectónico más original y más cuestio-
nado en relación a otros proyectos realizados en la primera década de la
revolución19.
las Escuelas nacen con la idea de constituir un centro internacional de
enseñanza para artistas del tercer mundo. el proyecto tiene un valor sim-
bólico explícito, ya sea por la localización (ocupa uno de los panoramas
más bellos de la habana, donde con anterioridad estuviera el Country
Club), que por el contenido: la actividad artística como símbolo de la liber-
tad conquistada. recordando el modo original en que nace la idea de cons-
truir este complejo, John loomis comenta: “en una tarde de enero de 1961,
dos jugadores improbables de golf, Fidel castro y che Guevara, jugaban
un partido en el prado impecable de aquello que había sido el exclusivo
Country Club de la alta burguesía habanera. Y allí, planearon el futuro de
este lugar único para la nueva sociedad donde, en modo alguno, los coun-
try clubs habrían encontrado cabida”20.
para proyectar el complejo arquitectónico que ocupa una de las zonas
más fascinantes y extensas, aledañas a la ciudad, se escoge a un arquitecto
que hacía poco tiempo había regresado al país tras su exilio en Venezuela
18
segre, coyula y scarpaci. Habana, 190.
19
sobre las escuelas ver entre otros: John a. loomis, Revolutions of Forms. Cuba’s Forgotten Art
Schools (new York: princeton architectural press, 1999); hugo consuegra, “las escuelas nacio-
nales de arte”, Arquitectura Cuba 334 (1965); marylin Garbey, “entrevista al arquitecto roberto
Gottardi”, La gaceta de Cuba. Arquitectura cubana entre sociedad y la cultura 6 (2007), 7-9; ester Gia-
ni, Il riscatto del progetto. Vittorio Garatti e l’Ena dell’Avana (Roma: Officina Edizioni, 2007).
20
loomis, Revolutions, 19.
164 Cuba in the World, the World in Cuba
21
sobre esto, roberto Gottardi recuerda: “[…] pudimos proyectar con absoluta libertad. se
nos dio un encargo y no tuvimos ninguna censura. […] Vivíamos en una atmósfera donde
todo parecía posible y no nos habían impuesto limitaciones de carácter económico”.
22
así se manifestó roberto Gottardi, en una entrevista concedida a la autora de este ensayo
en febrero de 2007, cuando tuvo ocasión de visitar el complejo junto al arquitecto. cfr. tam-
bién ester Giani, “las escuelas nacionales de arte: una utopia interrotta”, en Memoria Ascesi
Rivoluzione. Studi sulla rappresentazione simbolica in architettura, ed. Luciano Semerani (Venezia:
marsilio, 2006), 169-221; id., Il riscatto del progetto. Vittorio Garatti e l’Ena dell’Avana (2007).
23
actualmente los trabajos de restauración de las escuelas están en marcha. el gobierno cu-
bano, tras la inserción del complejo en la lista de los monumentos en peligro del “World mo-
nument Watch”, y movido por el animado debate en seno a la ii Bienal de arquitectura de la
habana de 1999, se ha hecho cargo de la restauración y terminación de todo el proyecto.
Part IV – Transforming the Urban Space 165
24
en la campaña contra las escuelas de arte estuvo involucrado roberto segre, uno de los
analistas más conocidos de la arquitectura del período revolucionario a nivel internacional. si
bien recientemente ha cambiado en parte su juicio, en aquel período fue uno de los exponen-
tes más sobresalientes en la campaña contra los tres arquitectos y sus trabajos. al proyecto de
las escuelas, segre contrapone el de la ciudad universitaria, tercera obra de la revolución, por
los métodos constructivos y por el diseño arquitectónico.
25
a nivel local la discusión se resuelve, esencialmente, en la revista arquitectura-cuba, don-
de se enfrentan las dos posiciones pro y contra el proyecto.
26
segre, Cuba.
166 Cuba in the World, the World in Cuba
27
segre, Diez años, 82-83.
28
ricardo porro, uno de los arquitectos de las escuelas, afirma en una entrevista publicada
en Architecture d’Aujourd’hui: “traté de demostrar en la escuela de artes plásticas, la toma de
conciencia de mi país después de la revolución. por ello, busqué un elemento que se encon-
trara en todas las manifestaciones artísticas de cuba, individuándolo en una sensualidad par-
ticular que comparece, en mi opinión, de modo constante”. ricardo porro, “Écoles d’art à la
havane”, Architecture d’Aujourd’hui 119 (1965); id. “el espacio en la arquitectura traditional
cubana”, Arquitectura Cuba 332 (1961).
29
Ver entre otros, Segre, Arquitectura y urbanismo; segre, coyula y scarpaci, Habana; y el
reportaje sobre el VII Congreso de la Unión Internacional de Arquitectos, publicado en Ar-
quitectura Cuba 331 (1964).
30
entre los temas afrontados en las sesiones del congreso, aparecen: “national planning”,
“construction techniques”, “neighbourhood unit”, todas ellas cuestiones muy debatidas en
la cuba de estos años.
Part IV – Transforming the Urban Space 167
31
Ernesto Guevara, “Discurso en la Clausura del Encuentro de Profesores y Estudiantes. VII
congreso de la unión internacional de arquitectos (uia)”, Arquitectura Cuba 331 (1964), 13-
14.
32
el plan regulador de 1958 preveía la destrucción de una parte considerable de la habana
Vieja y la construcción de nuevas torres residenciales, parecidas a las del Vedado, al lugar del
centro histórico. además, se había planificado la construcción de una isla en el mar, a lo largo
del malecón, donde establecer otras estructuras turísticas.
33
una vez eliminada la especulación de los terrenos, se pone en marcha la transformación de
los terrenos libres en áreas verdes, subiendo así el índice de área verde por cada habitante de
La Habana de uno y veintidós a ocho metros cuadrados. Ver entre otros: Segre, Diez años; leo
huberman y paul sweezy, Cuba. Anatomy of a Revolution (new York: monthly review, 1960).
34
las principales medidas son: la ley de la suspensión de los desahucios de las propiedades
urbanas destinadas exclusivamente a viviendas (26 enero 1959), con la cual se establece la
creación del instituto nacional del ahorro (ina), que transforma el lote en un mecanismo
para obtener fondos para resolver el problema de la vivienda. entre las tareas del instituto
se encuentra la construcción de alojamientos mínimos para los que no tienen casa. se prevé,
además, que “todos los apartamentos construidos pasarán a ser propiedad de los inquilinos
mediante el pago del importe del alquiler establecido […] dentro de un período de diez años”
(17 febrero). la ley de la disminución de los precios de los alquileres, con la cual se reducen
del 50% al 30% en proporción inversa a su valor (1 marzo). la ley de la venta obligatoria de
los terrenos libres, que serán utilizados en la construcción de nuevas viviendas. con esta ley
se establece además la “demolición de los edificios que no ofrezcan las condiciones suficientes
168 Cuba in the World, the World in Cuba
de habitabilidad, higiene, duración y seguridad (7 abril). La ley que “declara de uso público
todas las playas y costas del territorio nacional, autorizando a todos a disfrutarlas libremen-
te”. Se declaran también de uso público e interés social las islas y cayos adyacentes a la isla
de cuba que forman parte del territorio nacional, que hayan sido transferidos en pasado a
privados (21 abril).
35
para la realización de dicho objetivo se prevén tres fases. en la primera fase, se entrega a
los inquilinos la propiedad de las viviendas ocupadas en enero de 1959, con una amortización
correspondiente al pago del alquiler por un período que varía de cinco a veinte años. en la
segunda fase (“Fase del futuro inmediato”) se programa “la construcción masiva de viviendas
que serán concedidas en usufructo permanente mediante el pago de un alquiler mensual que
no podrá superar el 10% del rédito familiar”. en la tercera fase (“Fase del futuro próximo”)
el estado, con sus propios recursos, construye las viviendas que cederá en usufructo perma-
nente y gratuito a cada familia. se establecen, finalmente, las normas que disciplinarán los
casos en que el Estado indemnizará a los propietarios, y aquéllos en que no será dado ningún
resarcimiento.
36
Ver Huberman y Sweezy, Cuba; thomas, Cuba.
Part IV – Transforming the Urban Space 169
37
lynch, What Time, 41.
38
ibíd.
Fig. 7 - La Plars Vieja, La Habana (Foto por G. Paolucci).
R. Paloscia
Chapter 11
La Habana: formación y evolución del
patrimonio urbano
alexander von humboldt, Ensayo político sobre la isla de Cuba (alicante: alicante publi-
cación, 2003 [paris: 1826]), 55.
alessandra lorini e duccio Basosi (a cura di), Cuba in the World, the World in
Cuba. Essays on Cuban History, Politics and Culture, isBn 978-88-8453-971-7 (print),
isBn 978-88-8453-962-5 (online), © 2009 Firenze university press
172 Cuba in the World, the World in Cuba
1. Dónde y porqué
Nous entrons de grand matin dans cette rade de la Havane, qu’on dit la
plus belle rade fermée du monde. En effet, elle s’enfonce au pied des colli-
nes qui la dominent, et va tourner derrière la ville, présentant ainsi l’abri le
plus parfait qu’on puisse imaginer. ces collines sont verdoyantes, tapissées
de fleurs jaunes; en quelques endroits, des groupes de palmiers s’inclinent
sur leurs flancs. A droite, la ville s’étale avec ses maisons […] et ses quais
magnifiques […]. Le maisons blanches ou peintes en bleu, en vert, en rose,
en jaune, offrent un aspect bariolé qui étonne d’abord le regard, mais qui le
réjouit4.
1
alexander von humboldt, Ensayo político sobre la isla de Cuba (alicante: alicante publica-
ción, 2003 [paris: 1826]), 55.
2
paul Bairoch, De Jéricho à Mexico. Villes et économie dans l’histoire (paris: Gallimard, 1985), 490.
3
Como tal declarada en 1982 por la UNESCO “Patrimonio cultural de la humanidad”.
4
“entramos de mañana temprano en la rada de la habana, que se dice la más hermosa del
mundo. efectivamente esta se adentra en los pies de las colinas que dominan y curvan detrás
Part IV – Transforming the Urban Space 173
así, otro de los muchos viajeros del siglo XiX fascinados por la isla
describe estéticamente el fuerte impacto visivo que provoca la ciudad5 al
primer contacto, llegando desde el mar, y enumera los elementos que lo
determinan: la bahía, la arquitectura multicolor, las avenidas, la palma real
(planta del 1591-1601, p. 20)6.
de la ciudad originando el mejor refugio que se pueda imaginar. las colinas son verdes, tapi-
zadas de flores amarillas; en unas esquinas grupos de palmeras se inclinan hacia un lado. en
la derecha la ciudad se expande con sus casas […] y sus malecones magníficos […]. las casas
blancas o pintadas de azul, de verde, de rosado, de amarillo ofrecen un espectáculo multicolor
que antes sorprende la mirada, después la alegran”. Jean Jacques ampère, Promenade en Amé-
rique. États-Unis Cuba Mexique (parís: michel levy Fréres, 1856), 169-171.
5
el mito de cuba y de su capital, muy vivo en los ambientes cultos de la primera mitad del
siglo XiX, pasaba también a través de la difusión en europa de publicaciones ricas de detalla-
das incisiones, como la Isla de Cuba Pintoresca de moreau y miahle, o la recogida en la litogra-
fía del gobierno Paseo pintoresco por la isla de Cuba, ambas editadas entre 1839 y 1842. reynaldo
Gonzáles, Cuba. Un’epopea meticcia (Florencia: Giunti, 1995), 9.
6
“una de las palmas más majestuosas entre todas las que se conocen, la palma real, otorga
al paisaje de los alrededores de la habana un inconfundible carácter”. humboldt, Ensayo, 60.
La Palma ha sido elegida como símbolo nacional de Cuba. Ver tambien Cristoforo Colombo e
l’apertura degli spazi (roma: istituto poligrafico dello stato, 1992).
7
Far, dirección política, Historia de Cuba (la habana: ciencias sociales, 1985). el elevado nivel
cultural y tecnológico del pueblo taíno se puso de manifiesto en una gran exposición organizada
en el museo del petit palais, en parís, en 1994. Jacques Kerchache, ed., L’art taïno (paris: paris-
musées, 1994); irving rouse, “les origines et le developpement de la culture taïno”, en ibíd.
8
Maria Victoria Zardoya, “Antecedentes históricos: La ley y el orden”, en Dirección Pro-
vincial de Planificación Física, Ciudad de La Habana (DPPF-CH) y Oficina del Historia-
dor de la Ciudad de La Habana (OHCH), El Vedado, Regulaciones Urbanísticas, (la habana:
union, 2007), 33.
174 Cuba in the World, the World in Cuba
9
Sergio Baroni, “Venti anni di trasformazione del territorio”, Casabella 466 (1981), 37.
10
“la corriente del Golfo, la masa dorada, casi sólida pero fluida que se desplaza incon-
tenible de sur a norte […] un río dentro del mar, de noche una negrura misteriosa donde
brillaban los faroles de los pescadores del alto, de día un hábitat fascinante por los peces que
emergían de ella”. Guillermo cabrera infante, La Habana para un infante defunto (Barcelona:
plaza & Janes, 1986), 329.
11
Carmen Gavira, “Las ciudades en Cuba: fundación y desarrollo (siglo XVI)”, Ciudad y Te-
rritorio 3-4 (1983), 109. los datos numéricos sobre la población de la habana en la primera
parte del siglo XVII son inciertos: por ejemplo, Marrero habla, para ese mismo período, de
3.000 habitantes, refiriéndose probablemente a los residentes intramuros. leví marrero, Cuba:
Economía y Sociedad, tomo ii (madrid: playor, 1975), 53.
12
la construcción de barcos provocó la rápida deforestación en un amplia área alrededor de
la ciudad. “las astillerías de la habana eran tan estratégicas para la corona de españa, que
en un decreto real de 1620 se autorizaba el corte libre en toda cuba de los árboles destinados
a ellas”. roberto segre, mario coyula and John scarpaci, Havana: Two Faces of the Antillean
Metropolis (chichester: Wiley, 1997), 21.
13
carmen Gavira, “historia de un proceso de urbanización: cuba”, Ciudad y Territorio 1
(1976), 65.
Part IV – Transforming the Urban Space 175
14
se trata de una constante cuyo desarrollo cíclico, con altos y bajos vinculados a las riquezas
de la corona española, a la evolución de la política y del comercio internacional y al más reciente
predominio del potente vecino de estados unidos. se provocará un momento de corte brutal
con el triunfo de la revolución castrista, portadora de valores inconciliables con la misma, para
regresar a la superficie en el nuevo contexto a causa de los cambios de los años noventa.
15
roberto segre, “significado de cuba en la evolución tipológica de las fortificaciones colo-
niales de américa”, Revista de la Biblioteca Nacional José Martí 2 (1968).
16
enrico Guidoni y angela marino, Storia dell’urbanistica. Il Seicento (roma-Bari: laterza,
1979), 465.
17
el más conocido es Giovanbattista antonelli, que opera en la habana; antonelli y otro ita-
liano, tiburzio spannocchi, serán protagonistas de las obras de fortificación militar española
a lo largo de las costas del atlántico y del pacífico. mario sartor, “la città latinoamericana tra
antecedenti precolombiani, leggi di fondazione e tradizione”, Zodiac 8 (1992), 39.
176 Cuba in the World, the World in Cuba
18
ernesto Guglielminetti y cecilia massignan, La Habana: Llave del Nuevo Mundo y Antemural
de las Indias Occidentales (pisa: centro studi G. Guidi, 1997).
19
“[…] y cuando hagan la planta del lugar repártanlo por sus plazas, calles y solares a cordel
y regla, comenzando desde la plaza mayor y sacando desde ella las calles a las puertas y
caminos principales y dejando tanto compás abierto que aunque la población vaya en gran
crecimiento se pueda proseguir y dilatar en la misma forma”. De una orden de Carlos V, de
1526, citada en rafael manzano “prólogo” en Javier aguilera rocas y luis J. moreno rexach
(compiladores), Urbanismo Español en America (madrid: editora nacional, 1973), 12.
20
mario Gonzáles, “planos, esquemas y planes directores de la ciudad de la habana”, Arqui-
tectura y Urbanismo 2 (1993), 10.
21
llama la atención la secuencia de las edificaciones religiosas del período: “desde el final
del siglo XVI los discípulos de San Francisco y de San Domenico pusieron las bases para sus
templos; los discípulos de san agostino en 1608; el hospital de los hermanos de san Juan de
Dios se funda en 1602; el templo de Santa Catalina, en 1689; el Santo Cristo del Buen Viaje, en
1640; el santuario de monserrate, en 1690; el oratorio de san Filippo neri, en 1693; el hospital
de paula, nel 1665”. eusebio leal spengler, Detén el paso caminante (milano: electa, 1988), 31.
Part IV – Transforming the Urban Space 177
la ocupación por parte de los ingleses en 1762, que duró poco menos de
un año, constituye un punto de inflexión para la ciudad que, con la ruptura
del monopolio comercial español en las Indias Occidentales, asiste a la caí-
da de la importancia de su posición estratégica, pero que ve cómo se perfila
también la apertura de nuevas posibilidades de tráfico directo con otras colo-
nias americanas, en primer lugar las del norte, todas a punto de lograr la in-
dependencia. la habana deja de ser llave del nuevo mundo, para adquirir
una función diferente, identificándose cada vez más como capital del azúcar.
paralelamente con las otras dos actividades destacadas de la isla (el tabaco ya
desarrollado25 y el café de introducción más reciente), la industria azucarera
empieza su período de máximo desarrollo hacia finales del siglo XVIII, para
llegar a representar desde ese momento en adelante, y con continuidad hasta
nuestros días, el sector más importante para la economía cubana.
la habana, además, constituye el lugar privilegiado para la sacarocracia,
cuerpo central de la nueva burguesía criolla que maneja los cañaverales, in-
mensas cultivaciones de caña, y los ingenios, los centros de transformación,
empleando cuanto gana de los recursos de la isla26 para construir una ciudad
22
segre, coyula y scarpaci, Havana, 21. Ver tambien Carlos Venegas Fornias, “Plaza Vieja,
textos complementarios”, Arquitectura Cuba 355-356 (1983).
23
rachel carley, Cuba. 400 Años de Arquitectura (londres: cartago, 1997), 13.
24
leal spengler, Detén el paso caminante.
25
la industria del tabaco está presente en la habana con 150 molinos a partir de 1715. Gon-
záles, Cuba, 32.
26
en primer lugar, los inmensos bosques están sometidos a una intensa desforestación para
lograr áreas de cultivos y combustible para la elaboración del azúcar. Von Humboldt lamenta
178 Cuba in the World, the World in Cuba
a su imagen y semejanza; una ciudad vivida, cada vez más, con la llegada
del siglo XiX, como capital de un estado que parece existir de hecho, aunque
españa logrará retrasar su independencia durante mucho tiempo.
se violan las viejas murallas convertidas en el límite de una población de-
masiado aglomerada y socialmente indiferenciada, hasta llegar, en 1862, a la
autorización por parte del gobierno a su destrucción progresiva, para llevar a
cabo una urbanización que se expande rápidamente en los distritos, según los
esquemas de asentamiento que más corresponden, en este caso, a una jerar-
quía del censo y a nuevos modelos funcionales (fig. 9, p. 183, la habana en el
siglo XiX [deroy]).
la sacarocracia prefiere a los suntuosos palacios de La Habana Vieja, de
los cuales se realizan todavía algunos ejemplos de interés, las elegantes
quintas: residencias rodeadas por jardines tropicales que se suceden en el
reticulado de anchas avenidas de los nuevos barrios residenciales, plani-
ficados y realizados más allá de las inmediatas expansiones extramuros
hacia suroeste y oeste, como el cerro, primer asentamiento de élite de la
habana27, de la primera mitad del siglo XIX; y el Vedado28, de la segunda.
para muchos de dichos palacios empieza un proceso de abandono y
de degradación, que muchas veces se concluye después de decenas de
años de uso como barbacoas, a los cuales se alternan nuevas interven-
ciones especulativas de solares y ciudadelas29, tipologías diferentes, pero
todas correspondientes a los angostos y animados solares en alquiler en
los cuales se concentra la parte más pobre de la población libre habane-
ra. a lo largo de las arterias ortogonales que delimitan las manzanas de
extramuros del siglo XiX, se alternan edificios residenciales, destinados
fundamentalmente a franjas medio-bajas de la población, y a activida-
des comerciales y productivas. aquí se impone una tipología con portales
frontales continuos que, empleada por primera vez en uno de los lugares
más significativos de la ciudad amurallada, la Plaza Vieja, tendrá amplia
difusión en el curso del siglo XiX, dando como resultado ese recorrido
que desembocará en la imagen de la ciudad de las columnas30. un ape-
que “alrededor de la habana, en el anfiteatro de regla, estas palmas, que eran mi delicia, van
desapareciendo de año en año; desaparecidas las forestas de bambú de un tiempo, los estanques
y las lagunas, hoy secos, se cultivan […] en cuba, la tierra, ya despojada de su estrato vegetal,
ofrece hoy sólo una débil huella de su antigua abundancia selvática”. humboldt, Ensayo, 63.
27
Felicia chateloin, “colón, un territorio clave en el desarrollo habanero”, en El barrio de Co-
lón, ed. Gina rey (la habana: pònton caribe, 2005), 17.
28
El Vedado está destinado, en el curso de su progresiva edificación, a convertirse en un lugar
excelente y paradigmático durante la sucesión armoniosa de las diferentes tendencias de la
arquitectura habanera, acumulando “un rico patrimonio construido que abarca fundamen-
talmente al neoclasicismo, al eclecticismo, art decó y movimiento moderno […] con una
mezcla balanceada de unidad en la variedad que es la esencia eterna de la armonía”. mario
Coyula, “Más acá del río y bajo los árboles a la sombra de un Vedado que ya no es más”, en
DPPF-CH y OHCH, El Vedado, 62.
29
carley, Cuba, 86.
30
“[…] una de las más singulares constantes del estilo habanero: la increíble profusión de
Part IV – Transforming the Urban Space 179
columnas, en una ciudad que es emporio de columnas, selva de columnas, columnata infinita,
última urbe en tener columnas en tal demasía”. Alejo Carpentier, La ciudad de las columnas (la
habana: letras cubanas, 1982), 26.
31
la habana ha sido un lugar de innovaciones en el pasado como, por ejemplo, en el caso de
la construcción del primer acueducto de las américas, la Zanja real (1592), hacia finales del si-
glo XVIII, y ha introducido precozmente muchos símbolos del progreso técnico: sistema postal
(1765), pavimentación de las calles (1780), barcos de vapor (1819), ferrocarril (1837), gas (1848),
telégrafo (1855), teléfono (1881), iluminación eléctrica (1890), cinematógrafo (1897); y ya en
nuestro siglo, el tranvía eléctrico (1901), la radio (1920), la televisión (1950). este elenco, excepto
algunos elementos extraídos de otras fuentes, aparece citado orgullosamente en una publica-
ción del Grupo para el desarrollo integral de la capital, Estrategia (la habana: Gdic, 1990), 10.
32
en concreto el plan de carrillo de albornoz, operativo entre 1830 y 1850, y el de albear y
lara, desde 1861.
33
La influencia de la cultura española se destaca todavía en el Plan del Vedado “[…] un pro-
yecto de vanguardia […] un exponente del inicio de la historia del planeamiento urbanístico
moderno […] inspirado en los ensanches europeos, particularmente el de Barcelona” de ilde-
fonso Cerdà. Gina Rey, “Prefacio”, en DPPF-CH y OHCH El Vedado, 25.
180 Cuba in the World, the World in Cuba
4. La capital
34
roberto segre, “continuità e rinnovamento nell’architettura cubana del XX secolo”, Casabe-
lla 466 (1981), 10.
35
“las casas […] construidas a lo largo de la bahía son verdaderamente elegantes, con una
arquitectura ligera. una vez trazada la planta estas se ordenaban desde los estados unidos
como si fueran muebles”. humboldt, Ensayo político, 63.
36
en la historiografía cubana esta fase se identifica con el nombre de “la danza de los millo-
nes”. Far, dirección política, Historia, 574.
37
sergio Baroni, Hacia una cultura del territorio (la habana: casablanca, 2003), 87.
38
Versión local de “villas-miseria”, compuesta por barracas de escombros, florecidas ilegal-
mente en las periferias no apetecibles de finales de los años Veinte. Julio Le Riverend Brusone,
La Habana, Espacio y Vida (madrid: mapfre, 1992), 218-219.
39
Gavira, “historia”, 67.
Part IV – Transforming the Urban Space 181
40
mario Gonzáles, “planos, esquemas y planes directores de la ciudad de la habana”, Arqui-
tectura y Urbanismo 2 (1993), 12-13.
41
resulta de notable interés la red de cines decó en el interior del centro urbano, “[…] el tem-
plo art decó que fueron los cines construidos en los finales de los años treinta”. cabrera infan-
te, La Habana, 23.
42
sergio Baroni, “rapporto dall’avana”, Zodiac 8 (1992), 181.
43
chateloin, “colón”, 20.
44
“7 km de fachada marítima, de muro de contención y de paseo que discurre entre […] dife-
rentes sectores urbanos cuyas caraterísticas diferenciales acompañan el devenir histórico del
desarrollo urbanístico de la ciudad”. programa malecón. españa + cuba, “el malecón de la
habana. un proceso de trasformación y de comperación”, Ciudadcity 3 (1998), 20.
182 Cuba in the World, the World in Cuba
45
“la rampa […] el tramo final della calle 23 […] termina en la intersección con el malecón
y la calzada de infanta, límite oeste de la ciudad central a principios del siglo XX. ese tramo
fue rellenado con edificaciones en menos de doce años a partir de 1947”. coyula, “más acá del
río”, 61.
8
10
13 14
15
Chapter 12
La Habana del Este: territorio y arquitectura
en la segunda mitad del siglo XX
alessandra lorini e duccio Basosi (a cura di), Cuba in the World, the World in
Cuba. Essays on Cuban History, Politics and Culture, isBn 978-88-8453-971-7 (print),
isBn 978-88-8453-962-5 (online), © 2009 Firenze university press
186 Cuba in the World, the World in Cuba
el final de los años cincuenta y los primeros años de los sesenta mar-
can el fin del movimiento moderno. la renovación de la obra de una ge-
neración de arquitectos como romañach, Quintana, max Borges, Frank
Martínez, Eugenio Batista, se puede resumir como la búsqueda de la ti-
picidad, del espíritu vernacular radicado en el clima y en las costumbres
locales. Fueron los únicos verdaderos innovadores e investigadores de
un nuevo estilo propio, a través de la reinterpretación de las soluciones
esenciales de la arquitectura tradicional cubana en un lenguaje moderno;
una investigación que, además de su carácter expresivo-artístico, era el
resultado de la adaptación a un determinado ambiente físico. los radi-
cales cambios políticos se reflejan intensamente en la arquitectura y en
su forma de producción. se produce la emigración en masa de los prin-
cipales protagonistas del movimiento moderno. entre 1959 y 1961, año
de la declaración del carácter socialista del nuevo gobierno, la prioridad
constructiva se traslada radicalmente a los proyectos de contenido social,
racionalizando la construcción privada de la burguesía local. en 1959 se
crea el INAV (Instituto Nacional de Ahorro y Vivienda) que establece la
base para los planos de realización de las viviendas populares y del sa-
neamiento de los barrios degradados.
se adoptan masivamente los sistemas prefabricados de cemento ar-
mado con elementos estructurales producidos a pie de obra, en los cua-
les se utiliza una tecnología muy simple, con elementos de dimensiones
reducidas para ser montadas manualmente. en 1963, en la habana, se
presenta la Unidad Vecinal N1, que posee una clara intención a todos
los niveles de sustituir el enfoque individual con el del grupo de traba-
jo, y la estética exclusivista con la función social. a partir de este mo-
mento comienza una larga etapa arquitectónica de ausencia de valores
simbólicos y expresivos en las construcciones en masa: la necesidad de
construir, en el menor tiempo posible y al mínimo coste, casas, escuelas
y hospitales genera una utilización cada vez más creciente de elementos
prefabricados, con la consiguiente uniformidad y monotonía que com-
porta, bajando el nivel estético hacia una gran rigidez formal y hacia el
tecnicismo; dicha aptitud se extenderá hasta la actualidad, a causa de las
difíciles condiciones políticas y económicas, sin anular por esta razón
su valor social: construir para el pueblo con los escasísimos recursos del
país. los parámetros en juego desde los primeros momentos de la arqui-
tectura de masa son la disponibilidad de mano de obra, la participación
del pueblo en la construcción, y la escasez de materiales. el camino hacia
190 Cuba in the World, the World in Cuba
lizados para los bloques de viviendas, las escuelas y los hospitales. una
de las mayores realizaciones técnico-formales es sin duda el hotel mar
azul (fig. 20, p. 195) de santa maría del mar, proyectado con el sistema
Girón de Fernando pérez y mario Girona, autor del famoso disco vola-
dor de la heladería coppelia. en miramar, en el mismo período y con
el mismo sistema de moldes deslizantes utilizado en los edificios de
alamar, se erige el tritón, un hotel de 20 plantas. la técnica de cons-
trucción de los hoteles todavía estaba determinada por la necesidad de
levantar en tiempos breves y con recursos muy limitados un número
considerable de centros turísticos, en un período de grandísimas difi-
cultades económicas y de fuerte devaluación de la moneda, en el cual el
turismo constituía sin duda el recurso más consistente al que se podía
echar mano. menos significativo en términos conceptuales y formales
es el uso del repertorio llamado aborigen. la verdadera presencia de la
tradición Taina y Siboney es únicamente reconocible fragmentariamen-
te en las construcciones rurales espontáneas: los Bohíos (fig. 17, p. 195),
que conservan una forma constructiva originaria de la raza aborigen
desaparecida en los primeros años de la conquista española. sobre to-
do en este período la utilización de los materiales autóctonos como la
caña brava, el yarey o el tronco de la palma son aplicados a los temas
arquitectónicos recreativos de carácter turístico. contamos con diversos
ejemplos en el área de las playas del este. aunque la mayor parte de
las veces dichas arquitecturas acaban en el kitch folklórico por la au-
sencia de verdaderas ideas en los proyectos, al menos no contribuyen
a la cementificación. las instalaciones del parque nacional Baconao en
la provincia de santiago de cuba, realizadas por un grupo de jóvenes
arquitectos bajo la dirección de alberto arredondo, constituyen una in-
teresante experiencia arquitectónica de los años 80 en la que se logra in-
tegrar los valores espaciales con la utilización de los materiales locales,
todo ello con un impacto ambiental prácticamente nulo. La búsqueda de
contenidos expresivos en los elementos prefabricados y de alta tecnolo-
gía encuentra su momento más significativo en determinados proyectos
y obras del arquitecto antonio Quintana, ubicados en algunos casos en
la habana del este. en santa maría del mar, Quintana construye la casa
de eduardo rivero. entre 1972 y 1975 propone una serie de proyectos
visionarios de gran interés: el hotel las Brujas en santiago de cuba, el
proyecto del acuario de Guanabo en 1972 (que no se llevó a cabo), en
el que se planteaba la opción de mantener a los peces en su ambiente
natural y de permitir la observación a los visitantes, a través del uso de
un sistema de túneles transparentes. Desgraciadamente, los proyectos
de nicolás Quintana se concretizaron en pocas obras, entre las cuales
cabe destacar el palacio de las convenciones, realizado para la cumbre
de los países no alineados en 1979, y la casa de los cosmonautas de
Varadero. El tema del acuario de Guanabo es también lo aborda el ar-
194 Cuba in the World, the World in Cuba
quitecto Frank martínez, que realiza en santa maría del mar la casa
de carlos estrada. martínez, al igual que Quintana, utiliza la franja de
coral que se extiende delante de la ensenada natural de sibarimar, mo-
viendo al público con embarcaciones a través de unos cilindros vertica-
les de cemento. dichos cilindros están provistos de aperturas de cristal
que permiten admirar la barrera coralina en su dimensión natural.
Fig. 17 – La verdadera presencia de la tra-
dición Taina y Siboney es únicamente reco-
nocible fragmentariamente en las construc-
ciones rurales espontáneas: los Bohíos (Foto
por L. Spitoni).
Fig. 18 – Los nuevos modelos permiten su-
perar en productividad y en empleo masivo
a los sistemas Novoa, Sandino y E14 (Foto
por L. Spitoni).
Fig. 19 – En 1966, el arquitecto Mario Gi-
rona realiza en el Vedado la heladería Cop-
pelia (Foto por L. Spitoni).
Fig. 20 – El Hotel Mar Azul de Santa
María del mar, proyectado con el sistema
Girón de Fernando Pérez y Mario Girona
(Foto por L. Spitoni).
17 18
19 20
196 Cuba in the World, the World in Cuba
22
21 23
24 25
Fig. 21 – Obra de Rafael de Cárdenas, que culmina los años veinte construyendo mansiones
eclécticas y comienza los años treinta y cuarenta con un énfasis de modernidad que lo con-
vierte en la vanguardia del momento (Foto por L. Spitoni).
Figg. 22-23 – Las Escuelas Nacionales de Arte (Foto por L. Spitoni).
Fig. 24 – El Club Bancario Nacional, hoy Hotel Atlántico, de Lanz y Del Pozo, donde se
pone de relieve la clara influencia de la arquitectura de Niemeyer (Foto por L. Spitoni).
Fig. 25 – Edificio experimental de 17 pisos, realizado en la zona del Malecón, en el Vedado. Es un
prototipo de bloque alto construido con la tecnología de moldes deslizantes (Foto por L. Spitoni).
Part V
1
For a synthesis of the historical forms of cuban culture from a variety of perspectives, see:
rafael rojas, “apuntes para una historia intellectual”; Françoise moulin-civil, “literatura”;
dolores Gonzáles-ripoll, “prensa y cine”; Zoila lapique Becali, “la arquitectura, las artes
plastic y la musica en la cultura cubana”, in Historia de Cuba, ed. Consuelo Naranjo Orovio
(madrid: dos calles, 2009), 393-474; anke Birkenmaier and roberto Gonzáles echevarría,
eds., Cuba: un siglo de literatura 1902-2002 (madrid: colibrí, 2004).
2
moulin-civil, “literatura”, in Historia de Cuba, ed. Orovio, 417.
alessandra lorini e duccio Basosi (a cura di), Cuba in the World, the World in
Cuba. Essays on Cuban History, Politics and Culture, isBn 978-88-8453-971-7 (print),
isBn 978-88-8453-962-5 (online), © 2009 Firenze university press
200 Cuba in the World, the World in Cuba
at aesthetic renovation in their search for “pure” poetry was dulce maría
loynaz whose life and works are explored in coral García’s essay in this
section. Born at the same time as the cuban republic in 1902, loynaz trav-
eled extensively but never left cuba where she died in 1987. as García ar-
gues, loynaz’ poetry does not have any social or political content, yet the
soul of her beloved island of cuba is a pervasive presence from which ex-
udes an ideal cultural continuity with spain. almost belonging to loynaz’
generation, but not to her bourgeois background, the cuban painter Julio
Girona (1914-2002) took a different path. Girona lived in some of the most
stimulating artistic communities of paris, mexico city and new York city
from the 1930s to the 1950s and he spent most of his life abroad, yet his
works were shaped by cuban social and political content. as his daughter
ilse Girona recalls in this section, the cuban painter traveled regularly to
cuba and exulted in the triumph of the revolution of 1959. during the last
fifty years, both inside and outside cuba, the complexity of the island’s cul-
ture can perhaps be captured by two opposite interpretations: the cuban
past as a source of critical reflection on the present and the marketing of
the past as nostalgia. Broadly speaking, the old and never-fully-answered
question regarding the limits of artistic freedom has constantly generated
conflicts and tensions3, and the global commercialization of cuban music
reflects one of these tensions4. By centering on the bright and dark sides of
Wim Venders’ famous documentary film Buena Vista Social Club, Vittorio
perna’s essay offers fresh insights on the role that music has in conveying
multiple and contradictory images of cuba’s past and present.
3
in a often-quoted speech of 1961 Fidel castro synthesized the revolution’s attitudes to-
wards intellectual freedom. By making an explicit commitment to artistic freedom he also
warned that no citizen had the right to threaten the existence of the revolution: “Within the
revolution, everything; against the revolution, no rights at all”. Palabras a los intellectuales
(pamphlet), english translation available at Castro Speech Database on-line, lanic.utexas.edu/
la/cb/cuba/castro/1961/19610630. On the Revolution’s extraordinary impulse to make cultural
expressions accessible to the masses see: roberto Gonzáles echevarría, “criticism and litera-
ture in revolutionary cuba”, Cuban Studies/Estudios Cubanos 1 (1981): 1-17.
4
see: leonardo acosta, Otra visión de la música popular cubana (la habana: letras cubanas,
2004).
C. García
Chapter 13
Dulce María Loynaz, entre Cuba y España
alessandra lorini e duccio Basosi (a cura di), Cuba in the World, the World in
Cuba. Essays on Cuban History, Politics and Culture, isBn 978-88-8453-971-7 (print),
isBn 978-88-8453-962-5 (online), © 2009 Firenze university press
202 Cuba in the World, the World in Cuba
1
manuel moreno Fraginals, Cuba/España, España/Cuba. Una historia común (Barcelona: crítica,
1995).
2
Véase a título de ejemplo el revelador estudio de Santos Julià, Historias de las dos Españas
(madrid: taurus, 2004).
3
Véanse los versos de cierre del poema “Te vi venir, presintiéndote”: Con el brillo de tu es-
pada / las sienes se me encendieron”, en c. méndez, Vida a vida (madrid: hiperión, 1995), 63.
4
Fina García marruz, Valoración múltiple (la habana: casa de las américas, 1991), 170.
Part V – Examples of the Transnational Dimension of Cuban Culture 203
vo linaje”. con los ojos del hoy, muy parciales hay que ser para no destacar
que la intención de la autora es ya, desde los primeros versos, destruir la
convención, para afirmar incluso orgullosamente su diferencia. el poema
parte, es cierto, con la constatación de que la esterilidad lleva a ser “madre
imposible: pozo cegado, ánfora rota, / catedral sumergida”, pero verso a
verso, se llega a la exaltación de la “unidad perfecta”, a ser “(estrella que
en la estrella se consume, / flor que en la flor se queda)”. la cuarta estrofa
reza así:
5
dulce maría loynaz, Homenaje a Dulce María Loynaz. Premio Cervantes 1992 (miami: univer-
sal, 1993), 104.
6
dulce maría loynaz, Jardín. Novela lírica (la habana: letras cubanas, 1993 [madrid: 1991]), 34.
204 Cuba in the World, the World in Cuba
7
Juan ramón Jiménez, Españoles de tres mundos (madrid: alianza, 1987 [Buenos aires: 1942]).
la semblanza en cuestión había aparecido en 1942 en la revista porteña Sur.
8
dicho sea de paso, este caso podría hacernos pensar que había dejado de estar vigente en
cuba la costumbre de casar a las hijas criollas con peninsulares.
Part V – Examples of the Transnational Dimension of Cuban Culture 205
pero también Adriano del Valle, José García Nieto, Antonio Oliver Belmás y
concha espina. no tengo constancia de que la poetisa cubana conociese la
poesía de pedro salinas, al que se recuerda de inmediato, al leer el poema de
ecos juanramonianos “Yo te fui desnudando”, casi una respuesta en femeni-
no al “perdóname por ir así buscándote” del madrileño:
Isla mía, ¡qué bella eres y qué dulce! […] Tu cielo es un cielo vivo, todavía
con un calor de ángel, con un envés de estrella.
Tú mar es el último refugio de los delfines antiguos y las sirenas de-
smaradas. Vértebras de cobre tienen tus serranías, y mágicos crepúsculos se
encienden bajo el fanal de tu aire.
9
Carmen Conde, Once grandes poetisas americohispanas (madrid: cultura hispánica, 1967).
206 Cuba in the World, the World in Cuba
Isla mía, Isla fragante, flor de islas: tenme siempre, náceme siempre, de-
shoja una por una todas mis fugas.
esa isla dentro de una isla que fue su casa y su poesía. Junto a ellos, por el
estanque, se mueven los célebres cisnes azules de rubén darío, los versos
encendidos de José martí o de Julián del casal, sin olvidar la poesía fran-
cesa y anglosajona… En una lectora insaciable como Loynaz, la búsqueda
de fuentes acabaría por llevarnos hasta la sequía propia de los desiertos.
lo que sí podemos afirmar es que ella se ha creado su isla de soledad
donde ser libre, aunque sea entre barrotes10. pero se trata de barrotes o
puertas cerradas que parece haberse impuesto ella sola, espacios privados
donde el anhelo del amor y el deseo de escapar encuentran siempre bar-
reras y obstáculos difíciles de sobrepasar: su jardín se erige en muro entre
la casa y el mar, el jardín mismo se cierra como una planta carnívora, la
convierte en planta, y por eso le nacen raíces que la atan a la tierra, que la
condenan a la inmovilidad. la insularidad hace gala de sí misma como car-
acterística enraizada en la sangre, como una herencia acumulada durante
generaciones de la que no se puede o no se quiere escapar. la libertad se
encuentra entonces ligada a la literatura, vista como un inmenso océano
por el que caminar siguiendo su propio rumbo:
10
aludo al título del ensayo de Juan ramón de la portilla, La mirada entre los barrotes (pinar
del río: loynaz, 2000).
11
en dichas ocasiones el premio fue a manos de ernesto sábato y carlos Fuentes, respectiva-
mente.
12
pablo armando Fernández, “el agua fina y alta”, en Sobre Dulce María Loynaz, eds. carmen
208 Cuba in the World, the World in Cuba
su patria pre-natal. maría Zambrano que afirmó que españa volvía a re-
cuperar su ser más auténtico al renunciar a sus ambiciones imperialistas.
maría Zambrano, ubicando en segovia la quintaesencia de lo castellano y
español. la meseta, tan admirada también por dulce maría loynaz, que
a la hora de evocar el lugar que más le había impresionado de españa, no
menciona la isla de tenerife a la que dedicó un libro entero, sino segovia.
después de años y años de intensa actividad cultural y poética, dulce
maría loynaz entra en una extensa etapa de silencio creativo que dudará
dos décadas. se ha dicho que fue un silencio voluntario, pero hay que
recordar que coincide con un período en el que su marido se exilia a las
canarias, marcado, además, por el luto en familia: mueren sus padres, y
poco después el hermano enrique. la vuelta de pablo Álvaro de cañas a
cuba en 1972, en tristes condiciones, terminará con su muerte dos años más
tarde, seguida por la desaparición del hermano menor, carlos manuel, en
1977. le quedará sólo su hermana pequeña Flor, pero morirá también antes
que ella, en 1985.
en los ochenta y noventa empiezan a llegar los reconocimientos por parte
del ministerio de cultura de cuba, unidos a la publicación de Bestiarium16 y
Poemas naúfragos17. el primero es una colección de poemas “zoológicos” es-
critos en los años 20 que, de haber aparecido en su momento, habrían sido
catalogados como poesía de vanguardia. en 1987 se le concedió el premio
nacional de literatura, ocasión en la que declara su emoción por tratarse
de un premio cubano, “y me lo ofrece mi país para demostrarme que aun
en medio de mi clausura voluntaria o involuntaria, no se me había olvida-
do […] el premio de cuba me da o me devuelve lo que di por perdido”.
así, dulce maría se desprenderá al fin del desencanto hacia su patria. a es-
te respecto, recordemos que en una carta fechada dos años antes y dirigida
a aldo martínez malo, loynaz afirmaba tajantemente tanto su condición
de burguesa como su deseo de quedarse en cuba, a pesar de no compar-
tir la ideología del régimen y a pesar de haber recibido propuestas para ir
a estados unidos y a españa, donde la invita, ofreciéndole casa y medios
de subsistencia, su editor aguilar. Y dice textualmente: “Yo estoy aquí por
mi voluntad y a todas sus consecuencias […] sucediera lo que sucediera,
preferiría quedarme y correr la misma suerte de mi país”. el final de la carta
resultó profético: “seguiré pues viviendo en cuba, espero que sin mayores
sustos, sin pedir nada a nadie y con un gobierno que aún sabiendo que no
comparto su ideología, creo que me lo agradece y hasta hace lo posible por
reparar los viejos errores que pudo tener conmigo” 18.
16
dulce maría loynaz, Bestiarium (la habana: ministerio de cultura y unión de escritores y
artistas de cuba, 1991).
17
dulce maría loynaz, Poemas náufragos (la habana: letras cubanas, 1991).
18
dulce maría loynaz, Cartas que no se extraviaron (Valladolid: Fundación Jorge Guillén – Fun-
dación hermanos loynaz, 1997), 171-172.
210 Cuba in the World, the World in Cuba
19
Gastón Baquero, Acercamiento a Dulce María Loynaz (madrid: cultura hispánica, 1993).
Gastón Baquero (1914-1997) fue uno de los prohombres intelectuales de la cuba de los años
cincuenta, antes de la revolución de Fidel castro, tras la cual se exilió en españa. acogido por
el régimen franquista, la intelectualidad antifranquista le volverá la espalda. son, evidente-
mente, motivos políticos los que impiden durante años el reconocimiento merecido de su
obra poética, que llegará más tarde de mano de poetas más jóvenes como Francisco Frines. de
Baquero cito, entre otros, su Memorial de un testigo (madrid: rialp, 1966) y sus Poemas invisibles
(Madrid: Verbum, 1991).
20
pablo armando Fernández, “el agua fina y alta”, en Sobre Dulce María Loynaz, eds. ale-
many Bay y mataix azuar, 32-39. Fernández (1930-) vivió en estados unidos, pero regresó
a cuba en 1959, donde ha desarrollado una intensa vida cultural. ha representado a cuba
como diplomático y como poeta (también ha escrito novela y teatro). entre sus obras, cito el
Libro de los héroes (la habana: casa de las américas, 1964). ha recibido el premio nacional
de literatura de su país.
21
García marruz, Valoración múltiple, 170. Fina García marruz (1923-). perteneció al grupo
de poetas de la revista Orígenes. Casada con el célebre poeta Cintio Vitier, alumna de
maría Zambrano, reconocida ensayista, es una de las poetisas cubanas más destacadas del
siglo XX. ha recibido el premio nacional de literatura de cuba y el iberoamericano de
poesía pablo neruda. entre sus obras cito Visitaciones (la habana: instituto cubano del
libro, 1970).
22
césar lópez (1933-), poeta, traductor, ensayista e intelectual, forma parte del grupo que
permanece en cuba. recibió el premio nacional de literatura de su país. es autor de Silencio
en voz de muerte (la habana: unión, 1963).
23
emilio Ballagas (1908-1954), poeta y profesor, fue uno de los primeros cubanos en abordar
la literatura afrocubana; de hecho publicó una Antología de la poesía negra Hispano Americana
(madrid: aguilar, 1935). entre sus obras más destacadas figura su Elegía sin nombre (la ha-
bana: [s.n.], 1936). Colaboró, con G. Baquero, E. Diego, F. García Marruz y C. Vitier en la
revista Clavileño.
24
eugenio Florit (1903-1999), poeta y diplomático cubano, nacido en madrid, amigo de poetas
españoles exiliados de la generación del 27 como Jorge Guillén, luis cernuda y pedro salinas,
a los que conoció en la universidad, en estados unidos. es autor de Doble acento (la habana:
ucacia, 1937), prologado por J.r. Jiménez.
25
Margara Russotto (1946-), de origen italiano, estudia en Venezuela y Brasil. Profesora uni-
versitaria, ensayista, se ocupa sobre todo de literatura femenina. como poetisa es autora,
entre otros, de El diario íntimo de Sor Juana (poemas apócrifos) (madrid: torremozas, 2002).
26 Aldo Martínez Malo, “Fe de vida: un libro escrito a través de una correspondencia”, en
Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes on-line, www.cervantesvirtual.com/ bib_autor/loynaz/
fedevida.shtml.
27
dulce maría loynaz, Fe de vida (madrid: libertarias, 1999). se publica póstumamente, por
deseo de su autora.
Part V – Examples of the Transnational Dimension of Cuban Culture 211
cañas. la conclusión final, a pesar de los “trece años perfectos los que
pasé a su lado”, en los que “volcó en mi canastilla de bodas los días más
felices de mi vida, los días de españa” 28, adquiere tonos resignados al
llegar a la meta, porque “sé que los dos hemos vivido en vano”.Y enton-
ces “empieza a llover”29. dos años antes habían aparecido Las cartas que
no se extraviaron, publicadas en Valladolid. Ambos textos, como suele
ocurrir en estos casos, nos ofrecen pistas interesantes para entender de-
terminados acontecimientos de la vida de la autora, y para la compren-
sión de su producción poética.
en la madrugada del 27 de abril de 1997, dulce maría loynaz murió
en su casa. pocos días antes había recibido un homenaje del centro
cultural de la embajada de españa en cuba. en los años siguientes apa-
recen biografías sobre la autora como la de ana cabrera, titulada La voz
del silencio (2000), Amor sin alas, de aldo martínez malo (2001) o Dulce
María Loynaz, la agonía de un mito, de ileana Álvarez y Francis sánchez
(2001).
los homenajes se duplican tanto en cuba como en españa. el punto
final para nosotros se traslada al año 2002, en el que se celebran dos con-
gresos, uno a cada lado de las dos orillas: en noviembre, el seminario
organizado por el cemaB (centro de estudios iberoamericanos mario
Benedetti) de la Universidad de Alicante; y en diciembre el V evento
iberoamericano, en pinar del río, cuba. con la excusa de celebrar el
centenario del nacimiento de la autora, se nos ofrece una excelente pan-
orámica de toda la obra de la escritora cubana: la poesía, la prosa y sus
opiniones literarias 30. recordemos que la universidad de alicante ha
publicado las intervenciones de diversos estudiosos, entre los que de-
staca el ensayo de pablo armando Fernández (leído en pinar del río),
con otras contribuciones sin duda excepcionales de profesores de las
universidades de madrid y de alicante. además, un año antes se había
creado en el “cervantes virtual” la biblioteca de autor dulce maría
loynaz, donde se ha recopilado una serie de materiales críticos y audio-
visuales de consulta obligada para los que se interesen por la produc-
ción de nuestra poetisa31.
se han cumplido, por tanto, las conocidas y proféticas palabras del
poeta Ballagas, y más allá de parcialidades, loynaz ha entrado por la
puerta grande en la posteridad, en la “eternidad”, título de uno de sus
primeros poemas:
28
ibid., 293.
29
Íbid., 295.
30
dichos ensayos aparecen recopilados en Sobre Dulce María Loynaz, eds. alemany Bay y
mataix azuar.
31
Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes on-line, www.cervantesvirtual.com/bib_autor/loynaz.
212 Cuba in the World, the World in Cuba
eternidad
No quiero, si es posible,
que mi beneficio desaparezca,
sino que viva y dure toda la vida de mi amigo.
seneca
Para ti lo infinito
o nada; lo inmortal
o esta muda tristeza
que no comprenderás…
Chapter 14
Julio Girona: A Cuban Painter
at Home and Abroad
One day my grandfather decided to take his son to see an artist friend,
to ask, as is the custom, “if the boy had talent”. the artist was a caricaturist
1
Orto was a literary magazine founded in manzanillo in 1912. published for 45 years, its cir-
culation spread to various countries of the spanish-speaking world.
alessandra lorini e duccio Basosi (a cura di), Cuba in the World, the World in
Cuba. Essays on Cuban History, Politics and Culture, isBn 978-88-8453-971-7 (print),
isBn 978-88-8453-962-5 (online), © 2009 Firenze university press
214 Cuba in the World, the World in Cuba
One day I went to visit José Maria. We sat in the large rocking chairs on the
porch. After a little while, a man who looked Spanish came in through the gate
of the garden fence. he was wearing a white shirt with wide sleeves and no
tie. his hair was very black and his beard bluish, even though he appeared to
have shaved that morning. i thought he was a waiter in some café. i was intro-
duced to him, and with a firm voice he said, “Hello”. He didn’t sit down but
instead started talking, pacing from one end to the other of the ample porch,
as if he were on stage in a theater. i didn’t know who he was, but José maria
called him Federico. later i found out that it was Federico García lorca4.
in the early 1930s, havana entered a period marked by the great eco-
nomic crisis that followed the 1929 stock market crash, which affected poor
countries even more than rich ones. in cuba, these were the years of the
machado dictatorship, when the country was governed by the police and
the military. my father enrolled at the academia de san alejandro, where
he studied sculpture with Juan José sicre, known still today for his por-
traits of public figures and, in particular, for his colossal monument to José
martí in the plaza de la revolución5. however, with the intent of checking
social ferment, machado closed institutions of higher learning, including
the academy, considered hotbeds of revolt. sicre invited his pupil to con-
tinue studying in his private studio. he did portraits of well-known figures
such as Raúl Roa and Juan Marinello, he did death masks of historical fig-
ures, and he met the habitués of sicre’s studio, such as pablo de la torriente
Brau, who would die in 1936 in the spanish civil War.
2
conrado W. massaguer (1889-1965), cuban caricaturist and editor whose work was widely
published in europe and the united states, as well as in cuba.
3
Social was a monthly magazine of art and literature founded by massaguer in havana in
1916. it was published until 1938.
4
Julio Girona, Memorias sin título (la habana: letras cubanas, 1994), 59. alejo carpentier
(1904-80), cuban novelist, essayist, and musicologist. Federico García lorca (1898-1936), the
spanish poet and dramatist, was in cuba in the spring of 1930. José maria chacón y calvo
(1892-1969), cuban literary critic, essayist, and scholar.
5
Juan José sicre (1898-1974), cuban sculptor and professor of sculpture at the academy of
san alejandro.
Part V – Examples of the Transnational Dimension of Cuban Culture 215
After the fall of Machado, when they freed many revolutionaries and
others returned from exile, i did a number of portraits. i did a head of Juan
Marinello and also one of Raúl Roa and Ramón Guirao, the poet. They would
come by the studio in the afternoon. Emilio Roig de Leuchsenring, Pablo de
la torriente, and navarro luna gathered there, among others6.
in 1933, after the fall of machado, the mendieta government granted fifty
scholarships for study abroad “with the intention of sending ‘young trouble-
makers’ out of the country”7. my father received one of these scholarships,
to study something of which he did not know the meaning: “the pedagogi-
cal methods of teaching”. For this reason, in 1934, at the age of nineteen,
he left cuba, traveled around the mediterranean, spent some time in Berlin,
and settled down in paris, where, instead of pedagogy, he studied sculpture.
he attended the académie ranson, patronized by aristide maillol8, and the
académie de la Grande chaumière. his decision to leave cuba, like that of
many other artists and writers in the thirties, was conditioned not only by his
natural interest as a young man to see the world, but by the socio-political
situation, the impossibility of finding work, and poverty. even in a middle-
class family like his, poverty meant hunger and eviction for not paying the
rent. my father told heart-rending stories about how, as the oldest of seven
children, he would often go to pawn his father’s law books, in search of some
money for lunch, and would come back home ashamed at not having suc-
ceeded in obtaining more than a few insufficient cents.
although he found himself in a relatively rich country like France with
the privilege of having all his expenses paid, the young scholarship stu-
dent Julio did not forget his past nor lose his social consciousness. While
studying and living in paris, fascinated by the artists who regularly fre-
quented the cafés of montparnasse and Boulevard saint michel, he joined
the “Comité Iberoamericano para la Defensa de la República Española”, to-
gether with other latin american foreigners, such as carpentier, neruda9,
César Vallejo10 and anaïs nin11, and followed political events with increas-
ing anti-Fascist sentiment.
6
Girona, Memorias, 65. Raúl Roa García (1907-1982), essayist, journalist, and politician. Juan
Marinello Vidaurreta (1898-1977), Cuban essayist and poet. Pablo de la Torriente Brau (1901-
1936), cuban journalist and writer who went to spain in 1936 as a war correspondent and
died fighting in the defense of madrid. ramón Guirao (1908-1949), cuban journalist, essayist,
and poet. emilio roig de leuchsenring (1889-1964), cuban historian and journalist. manuel
navarro luna (1894-1966), cuban poet and journalist. member of the Grupo literario de
manzanillo.
7
ana suárez díaz, “andar y desandar hacia la verdad”, Revolución y Cultura 1 (1997), 32.
8
aristide maillol (1861-1944) French sculptor.
9
pablo neruda (1904-1973), chilean poet, assigned to the chilean consulate first in Barcelona
and then in madrid during the spanish civil War.
10
César Vallejo (1892-1938), Peruvian poet.
11
anaïs nin (1903-1977), French writer, daughter of the cuban-spanish musician-composer
Joaquin nin.
216 Cuba in the World, the World in Cuba
When the war broke out in spain, we latin americans organized a group to
support the spanish republic in its struggle against Fascism. We would meet in
a café, the dupont on [Boulevard] saint michel. We had our weekly meetings
in the basement, where they held banquets. The people who attended were,
among others, pablo neruda, his wife delia del carril, who they called La hor-
miguita, César Vallejo with Georgette, Alejo Carpentier, Félix Pita Rodríguez,
the mexicans andrés iduarte with his wife, Graciela, and renato leduc, the
poet-telegraphist of John reed’s reports during the revolution of Zapata and
Pancho Villa, in addition to some students from Central and South America.
On one occasion, we had to meet on Anaïs Nin’s barge, which was docked
on the banks of the seine, in front of notre dame12.
12
Girona, Memorias, 73.
13
an article in La Voz, a magazine published in new York, reproduces the political cartoon it-
self and reports on the legal action solicited by the German and italian diplomats. La Voz com-
ments: “The creative mind and sharp pencil of ‘our Girona’ are raising a storm in international
journalism.” La Voz, 21 February 1938, 5.
14
Girona, Memorias, 73.
Part V – Examples of the Transnational Dimension of Cuban Culture 217
rial (posters, flyers) as works of art for sale: “in very little time”, writes cuban
art critic Carmen Bermúdez, “[the Taller de Gráfica Popular] became a presti-
gious school of graphic techniques. […] mexican graphics was committed to
popular culture, social struggle, and social problems. as the semiologists have
said, signs have memory; thus, the socio-realistic memory of graphic art pen-
etrates Girona’s universe, giving his drawings force, civic-mindedness”15. he
was given a position selling prints on commission at the gallery of the taller,
but all the same, he suffered hunger – and what is more, he ended up in el
pocito jail, detained together with all the other members of the workshop on
the day after the first assassination attempt on trotsky. his stay in mexico,
nevertheless, had an important effect on his career, because there he met the
Mexican painter Pablo O’Higgins, one of the founders of the Taller, who of-
fered him hospitality and encouraged him to become a painter.
15
Carmen Paula Bermúdez, “Apuntes de la guerra: Un estudio a los dibujos de Julio Girona”,
La Gaceta de Cuba (January/February 1999), 17.
16
suárez díaz, “andar y desandar”, 33.
17
ibid., 34.
218 Cuba in the World, the World in Cuba
soldiers, embracing them, would say, “don’t cry, honey. i will come back”.
the only woman who was not crying was ilse, my wife; i was the one with
tears rolling down my cheeks, and she was saying, “don’t worry, you’ll be
back”.
Hemingway, an imposing figure in a war correspondent’s uniform, was
standing next to us18.
For three years, from 1943 to 1946, he was a soldier in england, France,
and Belgium. But what he found in the army was very different from what
he had imagined.
undoubtedly, in World War ii, there were many american soldiers commit-
ted to the defeat of nazi-Fascism. But in the specific experience of my father, he
found himself among men who had been drafted against their will and who
were often very poorly educated and lacking in political consciousness. the
soldiers in his company ridiculed him for having volunteered for the service.
“Gentlemen”, announced louis, in one of the stories about the war that
my father would later write, “if you have never seen an idiot”, he said, turn-
ing Julio around as if he were a mannequin, “here you have one. take a look
at him from the front, from the side, and from the back”19. Years later, among
family and friends, we heard and savored so many anecdotes about this
world in which my father, as an idealistic but rather naïve soldier, would re-
mind us of his beloved chaplin. to begin with, since his english was so poor,
he would misunderstand what was said to him. they gave him a small pack-
age the size of a matchbox, containing a disinfectant powder. “to kill germs”,
said the sergeant. Julio understood “to kill Germans”. demonstrating how to
use it, the sergeant pressed the box a couple of times, “shooting out” a yellow
powder to a distance of about two feet. “it frightened me to think that the
fight would be at such close quarters”, my father would later comment20.
many of the accounts of these years as a cuban soldier in the united
states army – collected in 1990 in his first book, Seis horas y más, which
won the premio de la crítica of that year in cuba – although written in a
light vein, constitute a strong denunciation of war and of the absurdity of
life in the army. my father noticed from the start the total lack of reference
to anti-Fascism; it was not mentioned in their weekly political education
classes, nor did they speak about events leading up to the war or its causes.
instead, a typical subject for these classes was “the cowardice of negroes”.
in an episode of the book, a lieutenant explains:
“If they kill one of our boys in combat, we fight like tigers to retaliate
for his death. a negro doesn’t react in the same way. he doesn’t care about
anything. he has no principles. he’s slack, lazy, cowardly […]”.
18
Girona, Memorias, 74-75.
19
Julio Girona, Seis horas y más (la habana: letras cubanas, 1990), 31.
20
ibid., 74.
Part V – Examples of the Transnational Dimension of Cuban Culture 219
“how come you talk so funny?” a soldier asked my father. “You don’t
talk like us”. he was referring to his accent.
Another soldier offered an explanation: “It’s because he comes from
cuba”.
“What does that have to do with it?”
“Well”, the second soldier added, “because in cuba they don’t have the
same name for things”.
The first soldier was amazed. He didn’t know that things could be called
by other names.
suspicious, not wanting to be duped, he asked: “are you telling me that
a house is not a house?…”
“Well”, my father answered, “house is casa”.
“You’re kidding”, said the soldier, surprised. “how about sky?”
“it’s called cielo”.
“snow?…”
“don’t be stupid”, the other soldier replied. “how could they have the
word ‘snow’ if it’s always hot in Cuba?”22.
in his backpack, the soldier Julio carried a pencil, india ink, and a note-
book, and, at moments of repose, he drew. the result was a collection of
portraits that in recent years have been the subject of exhibitions, publica-
tions, and critical commentary. the drawings form a social chronicle of the
21
ibid., 95.
22
ibid., 92-93.
23
suárez díaz, “andar y desandar”, 34.
220 Cuba in the World, the World in Cuba
[…] [I]n the hallway, I saw my first German prisoner. I was relieved to see
his size. He was thin and not very tall. He didn’t resemble the ‘superman’
that we saw in the documentaries, the invincible soldier who had conquered
almost all of europe. he was a corporal and he wore a red and black medal
on his chest.
i took my sketch book out of my backpack. i told him to sit down so i could
draw him. he sat quietly, without saying a word. he seemed sad. While i
was drawing i thought that he should have been glad to be alive […]25.
From a purely aesthetic point of view, there are clear references to the
painters that my father admired: above all picasso and matisse, but also
modigliani and cézanne. there are also elements drawn from his experi-
ence as a caricaturist: his use of black and white, the importance of line,
the neutrality of the background, the economy of composition, an almost
implicit text.
after the war, when my father returned to his family in new York – he
had married ilse erythropel, his fellow sculpture student at san alejandro,
and he had a daughter, annie – he took advantage of the G.i. Bill, the
roosevelt program that paid veterans to study. he enrolled at the art
students league, where he studied with morris Kantor, a well-known ab-
stract painter out of whose classes came many of the painters of the new
York school26. in this period he was a member of the tenth street “club”, a
group of avant-garde artists animated by the critic harold rosenberg27.
24
Bermúdez, “Apuntes de la guerra”, 16.
25
Girona, Seis horas, 119.
26
the abstract expressionist movement in new York in the late 1940s and 1950s.
27
harold rosenberg (1906-1978), new York intellectual and art critic who played a major role
in the affirmation of the new York school painters.
28
Willem de Kooning (1904-1997), robert motherwell (1915-1991), and Franz Kline (1910-
1962) were among the most prominent artists of the new York school.
29
suárez díaz, “andar y desandar”, 39.
Part V – Examples of the Transnational Dimension of Cuban Culture 221
30
harold rosenberg, “the american action painters”, Art News 8 (1952), 23-39.
31
Fayad Jamis (1930-1988), mexican-born cuban poet and painter.
32
The ‘Group of Eleven’ was composed of eleven Cuban painters and sculptors who exhibited
together in the 1950s, “understanding that the basis of art today is the total freedom of the
individual artist” and claiming that “the sculpture and the painting of today aspire to being
an object in its own right.” Pintores cubanos (la habana: ediciones r, 1962), 40.
33
suárez díaz, “andar y desandar”, 39.
34
nicolás Guillén, (1902-1989), cuban “national” poet.
35
roa was cuban Foreign minister from 1959 until 1976. see also note 9.
222 Cuba in the World, the World in Cuba
36
suárez díaz, “andar y desandar”, 39.
37
Sahily Tabares, “No soy un pintor ‘abstracto’”, Bohemia.
38
ibid.
39
Orlando Hernández, “Otro piropo para Julio Girona”, Desde la ventanilla. Pinturas de Julio
Girona (la habana: centro cultural cinematográfico charles chaplin, 1990), 4.
Part V – Examples of the Transnational Dimension of Cuban Culture 223
all his life my father had cuba in his heart, but like many other cubans
who the journalists of other countries tend to forget, he left his country in
the difficult 1930s, in order to realize his dream of becoming an artist. he
claimed that today, differently, the cuba that is trying to create a society
with greater autonomy, dignity, and justice, although economically mod-
est, sustains its culture and its artists, young and old. he found that the
artists in revolutionary cuba are even privileged .
[…] (t)he revolution has given artists prestige, it has taken them into ac-
count, and today, more than ever, painters and sculptors develop their art
under favorable conditions, receiving moral and material encouragement.
Before, this wasn’t the case, just the opposite […]. today, a young painter,
not even 25 years old, has already had the opportunity to exhibit in a dozen
european capitals and in other parts of the world. and this gives him the
inspiration to continue working and all the freedom he needs to create40.
40
rudel Zaldívar, “Julio Girona: retrospectiva de un pintor”, La Nueva Gaceta (October/No-
vember 1986), 25.
41
a retrospective exhibition “Julio Girona: una historia personal” is currently on view at the
museo nacional de Bellas artes in havana. it opened on January 23, 2009.
42
this essay, now revised, was originally presented in italian with the title “l’opera artistica
e letteraria di Julio Girona” at the conference Cuba dentro e fuori, university of Florence, 6-8
may 2008.
Fig. 27 – Drawing of woman with yellow
background, 1970s(?); particular.
Fig. 28 – Profile of woman with hat. Black
and white ink drawing on paper, dated
1975.
Fig. 29 – Photo of Julio Girona, working
in his studio in Teaneck, New Jersey, ear-
ly 1960s(?).
28
29
V. Perna
Chapter 15
Recovering from the “Buena Vista Syndrome”.
Cuban Music on Film
today people around the world are probably aware of the existence of
cuba mainly because of its revolution and its music. cuban politics has in-
spired analyses, controversies, and mythologies for almost fifty years; and
cuban music has been central to both the island’s self-representation and
its international image for at least a century. in the last decade, the global
discourse on cuba has received a powerful boost from Wim Wenders’ docu-
mentary Buena Vista Social Club (Germany, 1999). since 1999, the film has gen-
erated an enormous attention in the international press and media, reviving
the fortunes of artists such as late compay segundo and ibrahim Ferrer and
putting cuba again on the international cultural map. By mixing images of
elderly musicians and havana’s architectural grandeur with a sense of musi-
cal intimacy and nostalgia, Buena Vista has offered international audiences
an intriguing, seductive portrayal of the caribbean island.
a critical assessment of the role of music in mediating the image of cuba,
however, requires looking beyond the charm of reminiscence and the depic-
tion of music as a natural vehicle for caribbean exuberance. in this article, i
discuss some recent foreign films on cuban music, reflecting on the contri-
bution of music – via the silver screen – to the construction of global repre-
sentations of cuba2. in the first part of the article, i look briefly at the history
1
Quoted in david e. thigpen, “hidden havana”, Time on-line, www.time.com, 15 september
2001.
2
in this article i will focus exclusively on Western film productions dealing with cuban mu-
sic. For an overview of post-1959 cuban cinema, see michael chanan, Cuban Cinema (minne-
apolis: university of minnesota press, 2004).
alessandra lorini e duccio Basosi (a cura di), Cuba in the World, the World in
Cuba. Essays on Cuban History, Politics and Culture, isBn 978-88-8453-971-7 (print),
isBn 978-88-8453-962-5 (online), © 2009 Firenze university press
226 Cuba in the World, the World in Cuba
of the popularity of cuban music on the international arena and at its use by
hollywood. i then focus on the case of Buena Vista Social Club, analyzing how
the film has set an enormously influential discourse on cuba and its music.
in the final section, i examine two documentaries screened at the 2007 edi-
tion of Festival dei Popoli3, discussing them in the light of the social and artistic
changes that have taken place on the island during the período especial4.
this overview, i believe, emphasizes the central role played by music
in old and new cinematographic representations of cuba. it also shows
how recent foreign film production on cuban music seems to have shifted
from a distant, politically disengaged, neo-colonial angle to an increasing
incorporation of cubans’ views and perspectives. such shift, in a sense, has
been made possible by the very economic crisis, which has laid bare social
contradictions, given birth to new expressive forms, and tied the island to
Western economic and cultural markets, allowing foreign directors to ex-
plore everyday life and art on the island and engage in a dialogue with
contemporary cuban society.
3
La Fabri_K – The Cuban Hip-Hop Factory (lisandro pérez-rey, 2004) and El telón de azúcar
(Camila Guzmán Urzúa, 2006). The Florentin Festival dei Popoli hosted a special section on
cuba during its 2007 edition.
4
the euphemistically-called período especial en tiempo de paz was proclaimed by Fidel castro in
1990. as castro announced his retirement from public office in early 2008, however, ordinary
cubans were still struggling with the same harsh economic reality of the previous decade.
5
John storm roberts, Latin Jazz. The First of the Fusions. 1880s to Today (new York: schirmer, 1999).
6
John storm roberts, The Latin Tinge. The Impact of Latin American Music in the United States
(Tivoli, NY: Original Music, 1985).
Part V – Examples of the Transnational Dimension of Cuban Culture 227
Fig. 30 – Promotional brochure of the 1950s distributed by a New York club (from the
exhibit american sabor: latinos in u.s. popular music, ottobre 2007 – settembre 2008,
EMPSFM, Seattle, USA).
7
Jonathan Greenberg, “the performance of assimilation: power and commerce in The Cuban
Love Song”, paper presented at the 13th Biennial Conference of The International Association for the
Study of Popular Music, rome, 25-30 July 2005.
8
On the concept of ‘epistemic violence’, see Gayatri Spivak, “Can the Subaltern Speak?”, in
Marxism and the Interpretation of Culture, eds. cary nelson and lawrence Grossberg (chicago:
university of illinois press, 1988).
9
cristóbal díaz ayala, Música del areyto a la nueva trova (miami: universal, 1993).
228 Cuba in the World, the World in Cuba
the advent of the revolution had deep effects on the production and
consumption of music in cuba10, making an impact on the international
arena as well. On the one hand, US political hostility and embargo increas-
ingly marginalized music originating from the island. On the other hand,
the new cuban leadership proved scarcely enthusiastic about pursuing
cultural contacts with the West, leading to what one cuban author has de-
scribed as a “cultural self-blockade”11. With few and selected exceptions,
all this resulted in the virtual disappearance of music made on the island
from the Western scene for almost three decades12.
cuban music re-emerged on the international arena on a massive scale
only during the 1990s, and mainly as an indirect result of the economic
crisis produced on the island by the dissolution of the soviet union, which
forced the cuban government to open to tourism and foreign investors,
including foreign record labels. as it had already happened in the 1930s,
much of the responsibility for the renewed global interest in cuban music
and cuba fell on movies.
10
the revolutionary government, for example, abolished gambling, established state control
over media and music venues, made it difficult for musicians to travel abroad, and obviously
influenced musical tastes. see robin moore, Music and Revolution. Cultural Change in Socialist
Cuba (Berkeley: university of california press, 2006).
11
leonardo acosta, “the problem of music and its dissemination in cuba”, in Essays on Cu-
ban Music, ed. peter manuel (lanham: university press of america, 1990).
12
the same, it must be noticed, was not true for the music made by cuban expatriates, which con-
tinued to enjoy international exposure and success. it was only in 1988 that the Berman amend-
ment to us embargo laws made cultural trade between the us and cuba possible again.
13
the film Buena Vista Social Club was produced in Germany in 1999. the cd, produced by
World circuit in 1997, won a Grammy and sold 7 million copies, a figure previously unthink-
able for a ‘world music’ album. Among the many exceptional factors surrounding the success
of Buena Vista, we could mention the absence of involvement of major record labels and in-
ternational stars, and the album’s stylistic remoteness from anglo-american pop in terms of
both sounds and language.
Part V – Examples of the Transnational Dimension of Cuban Culture 229
14
Juan de marcos Gonzáles (artists & repertoire for Buena Vista Social Club), interview with
the author, london, november 1999.
15
the same can be said for latin american audiences, who were hardly impressed by Buena
Vista because they were already quite familiar with the sounds of bolero and son (Vincenzo
perna, “dancing the crisis, singing the past. musical dissonances in cuba during the Período
Especial”, Journal of Latin American Cultural Studies 2 (2002), 213-229.
16
See, for example, Italian TV reportage in the Italian tour of the I. Ferrer Orchestra: Dan-
iela tagliafico, “in viaggio con i supernonni”, tG2 dosssier, rai/italy, July 1999. the music
of Buena Vista did not reflect any national folk ‘tradition’, but assembled a series of popular
genres and styles from the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s that incorporated ample foreign influences
and were already mass-produced in their own time. think, for example, of the strong us jazz
influences found in the style of Buena Vista pianist rubén González (1919-2003).
17
Vincenzo Perna, Timba, the Sound of the Cuban Crisis (aldershot: ashgate, 2005).
18
the film received an academy award nomination, a Best documentaryaward from the
european Film awards, and various other prizes.
230 Cuba in the World, the World in Cuba
of cuba the david to the arrogance of the us Goliath. at the close of the
1990s, a Buena Vista big band offered a concert to un delegates at their
headquarters in new York, and the film was projected in the presence of
un secretary General Kofi annan. according to a document issued in 2000
by an International NGO, “[today] Americans are more open than ever to
Cuba […]. What some have called the ‘Buena Vista Social Club syndrome’
[…] is a desire by many americans to learn about cuba, to visit cuba, and
one day, to trade goods with cuba”19.
By bringing to the fore its lively viejitos, nonetheless, the success of
Buena Vista produced a distortion of historical perspective, deflecting in-
ternational attention towards cuban vintage sounds and artists and com-
pletely bypassing contemporary production.20 the international success of
Buena Vista, therefore, generated in the West a number of significant effects.
it essentialized and stereotyped specific segments of music of the past as
the only relevant type of Cuban music. Through its fairytale of ‘discovery’
and success abroad, it portrayed such music and its musicians from an an-
gle that was strikingly reminiscent of the narrative of old hollywood films.
it obliquely suggested that, on a musical/cultural level, nothing important
had happened in cuba after the revolution – except, perhaps, that socialism
had unwillingly preserved some ‘treasures of the past’. And, most disturb-
ingly, it offered a patronizing portrait of cuban artists as children and bon
sauvages, waiting in the shadow of history to be discovered by the world
(read: sold to the Western market). some critics of the film have noticed its
complete silence on the political confrontation us-cuba, the embargo and
the período especial21. the favourable reception of the film by both us liber-
als in new York and conservative cuban-americans in miami is, perhaps,
another indirect indicator of its political ambiguities22.
19
‘Epilogue: Trade Partners, not Trade Enemies’, in Oxfam America 2000, Going Against the
Grain, www.oxfamamerica.org.
20
the 1990s economic crisis, in fact, had produced a flourishing of live music bands in the
field of jazz, folklore, rap, and música bailable or timba (a variant of cuba dance music mixing
son, rumba and jazz), none of which was reflected by Buena Vista. timba’s eclecticism and ties
with tourism, in particular, had made it into a soundtrack for tourists’ dolce vita and a social
chronicle of the período especial. But they also made dance music appear as far more commer-
cial and contentious, and far less romantic than ‘traditional’ son as celebrated by Buena Vista.
as a result, timba was eventually censored by the cuban authorities and remained at the
margins of the international discourse on cuban music. see: perna, Timba.
21
For Wenders’ reply, see richard phillips, “the culture of independent film criticism has gone
down the drain”, World Socialist Web Site, www.wsws.org/articles/2000/jan2000/wwen-j10.shtml.
22
See Art Levine, “Viva Buena Vista Social Club”, Salon.com on-line, 9 march 1999, www.
salon.com. Buena Vista caused also considerable effects in cuba, generating controversies be-
tween ‘retro’ and ‘modern’ musicians and a delighted reaction by the state media (with a later
dismissal). It also made an obvious impact on the local presence and visibility of ‘traditional
music’: “In the tourist quarters of Old Havana it can seem at times as if every Cuban with a
guitar has come out to sing the songs that Buena Vista made famous. it’s as if you were to go
to liverpool and find bands singing Beatles songs on every street corner.” “now we make
politics”, The Economist on-line, 15 december 2006, www.economist.com.
Part V – Examples of the Transnational Dimension of Cuban Culture 231
23
The Italian promotional brochure reads, “After Buena Vista Social Club, Wim Wenders
presents Música cubana”, describing Wenders as “the father of Música cubana” (2004).
232 Cuba in the World, the World in Cuba
interestingly, all three films discussed above employ loosely similar plots,
with obscure musicians facing new opportunities offered them by foreign-
ers. it is perhaps ironic that the most realistic portrait of music and life in
today’s cuba should emerge from the entirely fictional Habana Blues, which
manages to touch on themes very familiar to the cubans of the período espe-
cial, such as lack of money and perspectives, disintegration of family, exploi-
tation by dodgy foreigners, migration, and exile.
24
she is the daughter of patricio Guzmán, a well-known chilean director who documented
the years of the allende government.
Part V – Examples of the Transnational Dimension of Cuban Culture 233
Within such trend a special place has been occupied by cuban rap,
a movement emerged in havana in the early 1990s and now boasting a
national festival, hundreds of bands and a certain degree of institutional
support25. its popularity reflects both the recognition of us popular cul-
ture in cuba and the proximity between afro-cuban and us black ur-
ban culture26. proud of its own barrio origins, marginality and cultural
25
deborah pacini-hernandez and reebee Garofalo, “the emergence of rap cubano: an his-
torical perspective”, in Music, Space, and Place, ed. sheila Whiteley, andy Bennett and stan
Hawkins (Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2004), 89-107.
26
music styles like rap and rumba, for example, originate from similar conditions of marginal-
ization, and are both based on verbal/physical dexterity and performed by voice on percussive
sounds (in its early days, in fact, cuban rap was accompanied by beating on wooden crates, just
like early rumba). Internationally, Cuban rap has acquired resonance with the Orishas’ album A lo
cubano (2000), and has generated a number of (mainly us) documentaries such as Cuban Hip Hop
All-Stars (Joshua Bee alafia, 2004); Cuban hip hop. Desde el principio (Vanessa & Larissa Diaz, 2006);
East of Havana (emilia menocal and Jauretsi saizarbitoria, 2006); and Guerrilla Radio (thomas nybo,
234 Cuba in the World, the World in Cuba
5. Conclusions
2007). despite being the expression of a fascinating subculture, however, local rap in cuba is today
certainly not as popular as reggaeton among street kids, or as timba among working-class adults.
27
Geoff Baker, “la habana que no conosces. cuban rap and the social construction of urban
space”, Ethnomusicology Forum 2 (2005), 215-246.
Part V – Examples of the Transnational Dimension of Cuban Culture 235
28
in June 2007, italian leftist daily Liberazione published a series of highly critical reportages on
present-day cuba, written by angela nocioni. the articles caused an outrage among many read-
ers of the paper, and were criticized by a cuban journalist’s website, which published an insult-
ing personal attack on nocioni (miguel del padrón, “la indecencia se sube hasta las conciencias.
los periódicos mafiosos e indignos de miami insultan al pueblo cubano y el italiano los imita”,
Unión de Periodistas de Cuba on-line, www.cubaperiodistas.cu/noticias/junio07/04/05.htm).
Fig. 32 – Commercial ad of Wim Wenders’ Buena Vista Social Club, published by a British magazine
in September 1999.
Part VI
1
Odd Arne Westad, The Global Cold War (cambridge: cambridge university press), 2004; Jef-
fry Frieden, Global Capitalism (new York: norton, 2006), pp. 334-337.
alessandra lorini e duccio Basosi (a cura di), Cuba in the World, the World in
Cuba. Essays on Cuban History, Politics and Culture, isBn 978-88-8453-971-7 (print),
isBn 978-88-8453-962-5 (online), © 2009 Firenze university press
240 Cuba in the World, the World in Cuba
heid regime of south africa. heeding the mpla’s call for support, cuban
combat troops (with logistical support from the soviet union) quickly in-
tervened with Operacion Carlota and helped block a South African inva-
sion from the south2. this was the beginning of cuba’s longest and most
extensive military mission abroad, which lasted until the lusaka peace
accords of 1989 reached after cuba’s victory over south african troops
at cuito cuanavale following the largest field battle in africa since the
second World War (1987-1988). in terms of world history, cuba’s “african
odyssey” showed that the confrontation between the two superpowers is
far from having exhausted the spectrum of international relations in the
second half of the 20th century3. in fact, according to pablo arco pino’s es-
say, all that ended with the lusaka accords was cuba’s military projection
in africa, while the internationalist project still continued for years in the
form of medical and technical cooperation.
2
piero Gleijeses, “conflicting missions: havana, Washington, and africa, 1959-1976”, chapel
hill: university of north carolina press, 2002.
3
piero Gleijeses, “moscow’s proxy? cuba and africa 1975-1988”, Journal of Cold War Studies
2 (2006), 3-51.
P. Arco Pino
Chapter 16
La presencia cubana en África (1963-1989)
1
Sergio Guerra Vilaboy y Maldonado Gallardo Alejo, Historia de la Revolución Cubana (Quito:
la tierra, 2005).
2
carlos lechuga, En el ojo de la tormenta. F. Castro, N. Jruschov. J. F. Kennedy y la crisis de los
misiles (la habana: si-mar, 1995); aleksandr Fursenko and timothy J. naftali, One Hell of a
Gamble: Khrushchev, Castro, and Kennedy, 1958-1964. The Secret History of the Cuban Missile Crisis
(new York: norton, 1998).
3
piero Gleijeses, Jorge risquet y Fernando ramírez, Cuba y África historia Común de lucha y
sangre (la habana: ciencias sociales, 2007); piero Gleijeses, “cuba and the independence of
namibia”, Cold War History 2 (2007), 285-303; William m. leogrande, Cuba’s Policy in Africa,
alessandra lorini e duccio Basosi (a cura di), Cuba in the World, the World in
Cuba. Essays on Cuban History, Politics and Culture, isBn 978-88-8453-971-7 (print),
isBn 978-88-8453-962-5 (online), © 2009 Firenze university press
242 Cuba in the World, the World in Cuba
Ya estoy todos los días en peligro de dar mi vida por mi país y por mi de-
ber, puesto que lo entiendo y tengo ánimos con que realizarlo – de impedir
a tiempo con la independencia de cuba que se extiendan por las antillas los
estados unidos y caigan, con esa fuerza más, sobre nuestras tierras de amé-
rica. cuanto hice hasta ahora y haré, es para eso […] viví en el monstruo, y
le conozco las entrañas: -y mi honda es la de david […]6.
6
José martí, Obras Completas, tomo XX (la habana: editorial nacional de cuba, 1965), 161.
7
Calificativo asignado a la república que se funda tras la ocupación estadounidense de la isla
caracterizada por la corrupción y el latrocinio y la dependencia respecto a estatdos unidos.
Véase el alegato que constituye el trabajo de Emilio Roig de Leuchsenring, Males y vicios de
Cuba republicana sus causas y sus remedios (La Habana: Oficina del Historiador de la Habana,
1959).
244 Cuba in the World, the World in Cuba
8
aurea matilde Fernández, Segunda República y Guerra Civil (la habana: ciencias sociales,
2004).
9
Volker Skierka, Fidel Castro: A Biography (new York: Wiley-Blackwell, 2004), 26.
10
luís Báes, Secretos de generales. Desclasificado (la habana: si-mar, 1996).
11
ernesto Guevara, Pasajes de la guerra revolucionaria: Congo (Barcelona: Grijalbo, 1999).
12
piero Gleijeses, Misiones en conflicto. La Habana, Washington y África 1959-1976 (la habana:
ciencias sociales, 2007).
Part VI – Cuba and the International Scene of the Cold War 245
13
charles Zorgbibe, Historia de las relaciones internacionales, tomo ii, Del sistema de Yalta hasta
nuestros días (madrid: alianza, 1997).
14
piero Gleijeses, “moscow´s proxy? cuba and africa, 1975-1988”, Journal of Cold War Studies
2 (2006), 3-51: 8.
246 Cuba in the World, the World in Cuba
5. El último golpe
15
Ver, por ejemplo, Jussi M. Hanhimäki, The Flawed Architect: Henry Kissinger and American
Foreign Policy (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004), 401-10.
16
Gleijeses, “moscow´s proxy?”, 12.
Part VI – Cuba and the International Scene of the Cold War 247
tado cubano decide ayudar con todos sus medios al gobierno de aquella
nación sin avisar a los soviéticos, ocupados entonces en la instauración de
la “perestroika” y en su “política de distensión” con los estados unidos.
pero esta vez el objetivo que se planteó la dirigencia cubana fue el de propi-
nar una derrota definitiva a las fuerzas sudafricanas y dar un vuelco fun-
damental a la correlación de fuerzas en aquella zona de África. para ello
trasladó a territorio angolano a tropas élites de las fuerzas armadas cuban-
as acompañadas de una buena parte del mejor armamento con que contaba
la nación en momentos en que se hacía patente la creciente agresividad del
gobierno republicano estadounidense hacia la isla.
a pesar de la superioridad inicial de los invasores las tropas cubanas, en
unión con las Fapla, resistieron la ofensiva del enemigo combatiendo con
intensidad especialmente en puntos neurálgicos del territorio como fue el
caso de cuito cuanavale, pequeña aldea alrededor de la cual se enfren-
taron grandes contingentes y donde se decidió el desarrollo posterior de
los acontecimientos.
con las victorias de cuito cuanavale y la de cualueque se abrió la posi-
bilidad de avances en profundidad de las tropas cubanas hacia la frontera
con namibia, territorio colindante con sudáfrica. en tales circunstancias
al gobierno de pretoria no le quedó más remedio que sentarse en la mesa
de conversaciones junto a funcionarios estadounidenses y frente a la del-
egación cubano-angolana, para terminar aceptando las demandas formu-
ladas por el representante cubano: sudáfrica tendría que retirar sus tropas
de angola en el plazo de 30 días. cinco meses más tarde, en nueva York,
el enviado de sudáfrica firmaba los acuerdos de paz que incluían el re-
conocimiento de la independencia de namibia. era el comienzo del fin
del gobierno de minoría blanca en sudáfrica y con ello, del “apartheid”17.
Finalizada la contienda angolana los soldados cubanos desplegados en
África iniciaron el regreso a casa, a lo cual siguió el traslado de los restos de
2077 combatientes caídos en combate.
6. A manera de resumen
17
La paz de Cuito Canavale: Documentos de un proceso (la habana: editora política, 1989).
18
Ver el ensayo de Fernando Ramírez en Gleijeses, Risquet y Ramírez, Cuba y África, 112.
248 Cuba in the World, the World in Cuba
Chapter 17
Investigating Cuban Internationalism:
the First Angolan Intervention, 1975
1
Gaddis smith, The Last Years of the Monroe Doctrine, 1945-1993 (new York: hill and Wang,
1994), 6.
2
For example, the so-called “scramble for africa” ushered in the twentieth century, followed
by the abyssinian [ethiopian]-italian crises of the 1920s and 1930s. post-1945 the general pro-
cess of decolonization saw several african crises, including the mau mau uprising in Kenya
(1952-60), and the congo crisis (1960 to roughly 1965).
alessandra lorini e duccio Basosi (a cura di), Cuba in the World, the World in
Cuba. Essays on Cuban History, Politics and Culture, isBn 978-88-8453-971-7 (print),
isBn 978-88-8453-962-5 (online), © 2009 Firenze university press
250 Cuba in the World, the World in Cuba
unita), waged a dual struggle for the soul of the nation, competing as
much for internal legitimacy (from ethnically diverse angolans) as for ex-
ternal recognition (from the international community). simultaneously, at
the high point of the conflict, no less than six external powers provided
weapons and materiel: us support bolstered the portuguese metropole,
contiguous african states harboured competing revolutionaries, and great
and medium powers, including Zaïre (now the democratic republic of
congo), the people’s republic of china (prc), apartheid-era south africa,
the soviet union, and most surprisingly, cuba, provided weapons, combat
troops, and mercenaries to the three main liberation parties.
a generation after the historic first military intervention, the cuban
involvement in angolan crisis continues to fascinate historians and po-
litical scientists3. the cuban military intervention in angola was decisive,
and took the international community (even the soviet union) by surprise.
Yet upon reflection, it appears entirely in keeping with the nature of Fidel
castro’s cuba. the angolan intervention culminated a decade of interest
in african affairs, and was a prime example of cuban internationalism.
cuban internationalism denotes the duty of every cuban to support fel-
low revolutionary movements in latin america and beyond. it is virtually
impossible to view cuban foreign policy except through the prism of its
recent revolutionary past. this is not just a western conceit, born of the
fifty-year adversarial relationship between the cuba and the united states.
rather, the cuban government has explicitly historicized, conceptualized
and projected its image as that of a revolutionary state and, that most elu-
sive category, a revolutionary power4. necessary to the goal of being a rev-
olutionary power is an explicit commitment to the projection of power and
influence – military, economic, ideological – known in the cuban context as
‘internacionalismo’. It is largely this experience of Cuban internationalism
which catapulted angola into the international spotlight, confounded the
us and forced the soviet union to scramble to keep up.
angola was not cuba’s first foray into african politics, nor was it the last.
Other important interventions included Algeria, 1963, and Ethiopia, 19775. Yet
angola was undoubtedly the most successful, stabilizing the mpla until it
formed a government in luanda. recently cuban scholars have begun to res-
urrect la epopeya – “the epic feat” – adding the angolan intervention to the
canon of revolutionary triumph, in line with the 1953 raid on the moncada
3
cuban forces intervened in angola again in 1988 to support the communist armed Forces
for the liberation of angola (Forças Armadas Populares de Libertação de Angola, Fapla) against
a resurgent unita. the final withdrawal took place in 1991.
4
see louis a. peréz, Jr., “in the service of the revolution: two decades of cuban historiog-
raphy, 1959- 1979”, Hispanic American Historical Review 1 (1980), 83.
5
the cuban government also deployed military aid to congo-Brazzaville (1965) and Guinea
(1966).
Part VI – Cuba and the International Scene of the Cold War 251
Barracks and the 1961 Bay of pigs6. the cuban intervention in angola can
thus be seen as providing an informative case-study of cuban international-
ism. as such, it is worth investigating, not simply because it is a fascinating
story, but also because of what it suggests about the nature of cuban interna-
tionalism and cuba’s distinctive place in the history of the twentieth century.
certainly the cuban state has not been the only one to tie its existence to
the principle of revolutionary internationalism. the twentieth century man-
ifestation of socio-political revolution often takes internationalization as a
given – revolution is a political commodity to be exported7. however, cuba
remains the only small, third World nation, to explicitly project its military
and ideological influence outside of contiguous states. some form of inter-
nacionalismo had been present since the beginning of the revolution. in
February 1959 ernesto “che” Guevara established an informal “liberation
department” in havana. referencing orthodox marxist-leninism as well
as nineteenth century nationalists such as simón Bolívar, máximo Gómez
and José martí, in 1960 Guevara published the cuban variant of marxist-
leninist revolution, la Guerra de guerrillas. simplified, Guevara’s foco
principles were: that popular forces could defeat a conventional army; that
revolutions could, and should, be created by a dedicated vanguard; and
that rural latin america was the best battlefield for revolution8.
castro and Guevara split, and Guevara’s last point was entirely discredited
in the jungles of Bolivia. most cuban attempts to export the revolution failed:
the US convinced the Organization of American States (OAS) to expel Cuba
in 1962 and cuba’s policy of encouraging socialist revolutions among its latin
american neighbours culminated in the murder of Guevara in Bolivia in 1967
(though by this point che was acting largely independently). however, the
Bay of pigs and the cuban missile crisis – the latter of which infuriated castro
when the settlement was negotiated between us president John F. Kennedy
and soviet premier nikita Khrushchev without his input – highlighted
6
said one cuban author: “the history of europe’s imperialist and neocolonial pillage and
plunder of Africa, with the full support of the United States and NATO, as well as Cuba’s
heroic solidarity with its sister nations, have not been sufficiently known, if only as a well-
deserved reward for the hundreds of thousands of men and women who wrote that glorious
page, which, as an example for the present and future generations, should never be forgotten.
that does not negate the need to continue making it known”. rose ana dueñas, “cuba in
africa: internationalists tell their story”, Digital Granma Internaciónal on-line, www.granma.
cu/ingles/2007/junio/vier29/cuba-in-africa.html (cited 29 June 2007).
7
Fred halliday, “revolutionary internationalism and its perils”, in Revolution in the Making
of the Modern World: Social Identities, Globalization and Modernity, eds. John Foran, david lane
and andreja Zivkovic (london: routledge, 2008), 65.
8
Gerald m. houser, “us policy in southern africa”, in US Policy Toward Africa, ed. Frederick
s. arkhurst (new York: praeger, 1975), 18.
252 Cuba in the World, the World in Cuba
cuba’s insecurity. although the island aligned with the soviet union, tensions
emerged quickly in that relationship. never a member of the Warsaw pact,
cuba actively sought allies in the socialist brotherhood. strategically, the prin-
ciple of internationalism was in part an attempt to repair cuba’s hemispheric
isolation. supporting socialist states in africa became the cuban iteration of
norberto ceresole’s geopolitica de liberación pursued, as William leoGrande
noted, “on the fringes of the bipolar system”9. as scholar Jorge domínguez
asserted in 1989, “[t]he support of revolutionary movements, in cuba’s view,
is an effective means to combat the united states and its allies throughout the
world”10. in angola, cuba launched the largest military and economic inter-
vention in its history, successfully propping up the failing mpla. this inter-
nationalist act helped transform a localized war of national independence into
a key cold War battlefield, and arguably gave cuba its highest international
profile since the cuban missile crisis thirteen years earlier.
9
Gerhard drekonja-Kornat, “review: understanding cuba’s presence in africa”, Journal of
Interamerican Studies 1 (1983), 127.
10
Jorge i. domínguez, To Make a World Safe for Revolution: Cuba’s Foreign Policy (cambridge,
ma: cambridge university press, 1989), 114.
11
see for example michael h. hunt, Ideology and US Foreign Policy (new haven: Yale univer-
sity press, 1987), 58-62.
Part VI – Cuba and the International Scene of the Cold War 253
for both the us and the soviet union. ironically, both sides excelled in spout-
ing anticolonial rhetoric and highlighting their own statuses as kindred free
states born of revolution – yet neither side committed human or financial re-
sources to actively aiding african anticolonial struggles.
the angolan crisis and the cuban intervention thus took place within
the backdrop of us intervention in latin america and preoccupation with
communist radicalization and hemispheric disorder. since castro seized
power in January 1959, us policymakers had devoted astonishing amounts
of resources to getting rid of him. in the understanding of many us poli-
cymakers, castro was not only a declared marxist with close ties to the
soviet union, but was also vociferously hostile to american intervention
in cuban affairs, having denounced capitalism and nationalized millions
in us assets. communist cuba’s geographical proximity to the us was par-
ticularly intolerable, and much was made of the security risks of having a
communist satellite “ninety miles from american shores”12.
the angolan crisis is also firmly situated in a cold War context. since
1968 the us and the soviet union had made significant efforts at dé-
tente, lessening the tensions and limiting the arms race13. however, dé-
tente’s parameters were never clearly articulated, particularly with respect
to interventions in the third World. While the public dialogue spoke of
rapprochement and cooperation, realistically the us-soviet adversarial re-
lationship remained. there was no specific treaty outlining the “rules” of
détente. the closest statement, the Basic principles agreement of 1972, was
a statement of intent rather than a binding contract14. While the us under-
stood the process to mean a halt on all global interventions, the soviets
likely conceived of the process with respect to the european continent.
neither side was prepared for cuban unilateralism.
12
smith, The Last Years, 4.
13
central intelligence agency, “implications for us-soviet relations of certain soviet ac-
tivities”, Interagency Intelligence Memorandum (NIO IIM 76-D30J), est. pub. date 1 June 1976
(declassified: 13 november 1997), 3.
14
the Basic principles of relations between the united states of america and the union of
soviet socialist republics was signed on 29 may 1972 on the last day of the moscow summit
meeting. historians debate the relative importance of the document. raymond Garthoff holds
that while Brezhnev held the agreement in high regard, particularly since it acknowledged
the soviet union’s need for “equal security”, nixon and Kissinger merely found it a useful
gesture of goodwill. raymond l. Garthoff, Détente and Confrontation: American-Soviet Relations
from Nixon to Reagan (Washington, dc: Brookings, 1994), 326-7 and 332-3.
254 Cuba in the World, the World in Cuba
15
Central Intelligence Agency, Interagency Intelligence Memorandum (NIO IIM 76-004), “So-
viet and cuban aid to the mpla in angola from march through december 1975”, 24 January
1976, in central intelligence agency, Freedom of Information Act on-line, www.cia.foia.gov.
16
John stockwell, In Search of Enemies: A CIA Story (new York: norton, 1978), 67.
17
John a. marcum, The Angolan Revolution: Exile Politics and Guerrilla Warfare (1962-1976), vol.
2 (cambridge, ma: mit press, 1978), 2.
18
marcum, The Angolan Revolution, 38.
Part VI – Cuba and the International Scene of the Cold War 255
19
indeed, one story which remains to be written in english is the history of portugal’s
Revolução dos Cravos (carnation revolution).
20
houser, “us policy”, 97-98.
21
Garthoff, Détente, 558.
22
piero Gleijeses, Conflicting Missions: Havana, Washington, and Africa, 1959-1976 (chapel hill:
university of north carolina press, 2002), 233.
23
ibid.
24
it is generally held that the Fnla broke the ceasefire.
25
unita combatants generally fought guerrilla campaigns in central and southern angola.
Gleijeses, Conflicting Missions, 257.
26
Piero Gleijeses, “Conflicting Versions: Cuba, the United States and Angola”, 120, in Instituto
Português de Relações Internationais on-line, www.ipri.pt/eventos/pdf/Flad05_pGleijeses.pdf.
256 Cuba in the World, the World in Cuba
27
Vladislav M. Zubok, A Failed Empire: The Soviet Union in the Cold War from Stalin to Gorbachev
(chapel hill: university of north carolina press, 2007), 253.
28
Gleijeses, Conflicting Missions, 256.
29
mary alice Waters, ed., How Far We Slaves Have Come!: South Africa and Cuba in Today’s World
(new York: pathfinder, 1991), 8.
30
house of representatives, United States Policy on Angola: Hearing before the Committee on
International Relations, 94th congress, 2nd section, 26 January 1976, 5-6 and 11-12.
31
piero Gleijeses, “moscow’s proxy? cuba and africa 1975-1988”, Journal of Cold War Studies
2 (2006), 9.
32
roger sargent, “commentary”, Rand Daily Mail, 17 February 1976, 10.
Part VI – Cuba and the International Scene of the Cold War 257
Why had castro risked cuban prestige and credibility, not to mention
antagonizing both superpowers, on a risky operation in a low-priority
zone? What could be gained by a show of force 11,000 km away, on a con-
tinent that rarely figured in cold War calculations? the particular circum-
stances of angola in 1975 provide at least a partial response to the above
questions. historically, the legacy of the transatlantic slave trade gave
cuba a substantial african demographic, many of whom were from the re-
gion that became angola. more important, the mpla’s socialist credentials
were beyond reproach. leader agostinho neto was an established marxist
intellectual and poet, and a personal friend of the castro brothers.
there was also a formal-legal aspect to the cuban intervention. cuba’s
support bolstered a nationalist movement in defense of an established na-
tion-state, with inviolable boundaries and international recognition. the
Cuba action was approved by the Organization of Africa Unity (OAU, now
the african union). tactically, it appears that castro learned much from
Guevara’s failed congolese and Bolivian campaigns. in the angolan inter-
vention, cuban forces joined an existing armed liberation struggle, rather
than attempting to foment one from scratch. On a strategic level, Cuba’s
force projection into angola displayed its military and technical acumen
to the entire world, and especially to the us. though Brezhnev later au-
thorized soviet logistical assistance, cuba’s feat remains unparalleled. at
the international level, superpower détente provided a “permissive world-
context”33. With both the soviet union and the us preoccupied with arms
control and limiting each others freedom of movement, cuban actions–
while still scrutinized–were more difficult to contain.
perhaps most significantly, the cuban intervention came at the direct
request of neto, and was directed against a clear case of external aggres-
sion from the us and south africa. the arrival of the sadF and their re-
ported collusion with retreating portuguese troops, the cia and unita,
completely discredited the Fnla and unita and legitimized cuban inter-
vention in the eyes of most black african states34.
33
see for example James de Fronzo, Revolutions and Revolutionary Movements (Boulder: West-
view, 2007), 17.
34
With the notable exceptions of the former Belgian and French territories of Zaïre, senegal
and côte d’ivoire, and former British territory Zambia.
258 Cuba in the World, the World in Cuba
35
For a recent photographic examination of this theme see alex harris, The Idea of Cuba (albu-
querque: university of new mexico press, 2007).
36
While scholars are still divided on Gleijeses’ interpretation of events, his key postulate
– that cuba acted independently, in keeping with castro’s revolutionary ethos and security
demands – is the most plausible. the “moscow’s proxy” argument, most popular in the 1980s,
has been largely discredited.
37
Wolf Grabendorff, “Cuba’s Involvement in Africa: An Interpretation of Objectives, Reac-
tions and limitations”, Journal of Interamerican Studies and World Affairs 1 (1980), 9.
38
despite an awkward period in the late 1980s and early 1990s, cuban-angolan relations
remain strong. a recent Toronto Star photograph depicted a frail but smiling Fidel castro in
reunion with dos santos. at the time, dos santos was the first foreign leader to meet with
castro in four months. see The Toronto Star, 24 september 2007.
Part VI – Cuba and the International Scene of the Cold War 259
while the us’ tacit collusion with south africa only reinforced its image as
a neo-imperialist hegemon. domestically, revelations about iaFeature
confirmed every negative assumption about the us intelligence commu-
nity and the policy of covert action. though angola stopped making head-
lines, the Ford administration never regained the public’s confidence.
castro emerged from his calculated risk in angola as the near-undis-
puted leader of the third World. no other power, revolutionary or other-
wise, could point to such a specific and successful instance of third World
solidarity. in 1976 the nonaligned movement (nam) unanimously elected
havana as the site of its next summit meeting39. despite being accused of
causing rifts in the nam, cuba’s aggressive action in angola was reward-
ed by the third World community.
One of the clearest iterations of the internationalist nature of Cuban for-
eign policy is castro’s speech of 4 February 1962, known as the second
declaration of havana. in it castro outlines a program for a revolutionary
foreign policy committed not only to revolution, but also to activist inter-
nationalism. said castro in 1962:
What is cuba’s history but that of latin america? What is the history of
Latin America but the history of Asia, Africa, and Oceania? And what is the
history of all these peoples but the history of the cruellest [sic] exploitation
of the world by imperialism? […] the duty of every revolutionary is to make
revolution. We know that in america and throughout the world the revo-
lution will be victorious. But revolutionaries cannot sit in the doorways of
their homes to watch the corpse of imperialism pass by. the role of Job does
not behoove a revolutionary40.
39
h. michael erisman, Cuba’s Foreign Relations in a Post-Soviet World (Gainesville, Fl: univer-
sity press of Florida, 2000), 102.
40
Fidel castro, “second declaration of havana”, 4 February 1962, in Internet Modern His-
tory Sourcebook on-line, www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1962castro.html. also, domínguez,
To Make, 116.
41
Fidel castro, “We Will never return to the slave Barracks”, speech at rally on the thirty-
eighth anniversary of the raid on the moncada Barracks, matanzas province, cuba, 26 July
1991, in How Far, ed. Waters, 67.
260 Cuba in the World, the World in Cuba
42
Laurence Whitehead, “On Cuban Political Exceptionalism”, Debating Cuban Exceptionalism,
eds. Bert hoffman and laurence Whitehead (new York: palgrave macmillan, 2007), 3.
M.S. Rognoni
Chapter 18
Cuba and Angola in the 1970s: War,
Revolution and Nation-Building
the present essay raises and addresses questions about the roots and
consequences of cuba’s role in angola. Following a brief outline of the con-
ditions surrounding the angolan war for independence, the external atten-
tion attracted by the crisis, especially from the world’s superpowers, will
be considered in order to contextualize cuba’s position. the post-indepen-
dence phase will subsequently be examined and a set of issues advanced
– namely the domestic effects of the foreign involvement, in particular the
unresolved question of government legitimization and the nation-building
process – which deserve further analysis and debate1.
the 1970s marked the beginning of a post-colonial phase for most sub-
saharan african countries. development and economic growth were the
imperatives, and some results were actually achieved, though often at the
expense of initial expectations linked to the very idea of independence
like peace, democracy and social development. the colonies of portugal,
on the other hand, were just beginning their struggles for national libera-
tion against a repressive and obsolete colonial power2. this discrepancy
between the political evolution of portuguese african colonies and most
other european colonies could be traced back to the 1930s and would have
1
the present contribution is mainly based on primary sources available at the national ar-
chives and the national security archive in Washington d.c., as well as the most relevant litera-
ture. some of the subjects addressed here will be expanded during the next stage of this research
once new documentary evidence from the cuban and south african archives is obtained.
2
see Basil davidson, L’Angola nell’occhio del ciclone (torino: einaudi, 1975 [lonodn: 1972]),
157-158.
alessandra lorini e duccio Basosi (a cura di), Cuba in the World, the World in
Cuba. Essays on Cuban History, Politics and Culture, isBn 978-88-8453-971-7 (print),
isBn 978-88-8453-962-5 (online), © 2009 Firenze university press
262 Cuba in the World, the World in Cuba
3
christine messiant, “angola, les voies de l’ethnisation et de la decomposition”, Lusotopie
(1995), 159-167.
4
malyn newitt, “angola in historical context”, in Angola. The Weight of History, eds. patrick
Chabal and Nuno Vidal (New York: Columbia University Press, 2007), 71.
5
On Salazar’s colonial policy, see inter alia, malyn newitt, Portugal in Africa: The Last Hun-
dred Years (london: hurst, 1981); G. clarence-smith, The Third Portuguese Empire (manchester:
manchester university press, 1985); Fernando rosas, História de Portugal, vol. 7, O Estado Novo
(lisboa: estampa, 1998), 109-126.
6
m. da silva cunha, O Sistema Português de Politica Indigena (coimbra: lda, 1953), cited in
davidson, In the Eye, 159.
7
see inge Brinkman, “language, names, and War: the case of angola”, in African Studies
Review 3 (2004), 154-155.
8
On those formative years, see the personal recollection of Mário de Andrade in Mário de
andrade and christine messiant, “sur la première generation du mpla: 1948-1960. mário de
andrade, entretiens avec christine messiant (1982)”, Lusotopie 1 (1999), 185-221.
9
davidson, In the Eye, 167-168.
Part VI – Cuba and the International Scene of the Cold War 263
indeed, marxist ideas had an important impact on those few african in-
tellectuals in lisbon. Yet it soon became quite clear that in order to promote
change at home it would be essential to adapt those principles to a totally dif-
ferent context and, at the same time, to fill the immense gap between them-
selves, privileged but deracinés, and the rest of the population in angola. the
process of re-africanization as envisaged by the pioneers of pan-africanism
during the early 20th century required a complete reappraisal of african his-
tory and called upon the members of the continent’s diaspora throughout the
world along the slave trade route, especially in the americas10.
White exploitation based on racial discrimination11 was still strongly
perceived and suffered in 1950s angola, especially in the agricultural sec-
tor, which had long been the backbone of the colonial economy. as david
Birmingham makes clear, the anti-colonial war that started at the begin-
ning of the 1960s did not result from the actions of an intellectual avant-
garde but was instead mainly triggered by the grievances of exasperated
peasants in different parts of the country. Furthermore, the “virulence of
rivalry between different colonial peoples with different experiences of
exploitation”12 was at the roots of the division of the nationalist movement
itself. economic and social factors interlinked with the evolution of the co-
lonial system gave rise to a political divide expressed by the foundation of
three liberation movements, each with separate social, economic and cul-
tural backgrounds and distinct political agendas13. agostinho neto’s mpla
was basically an urban political movement rooted in the old14 and new
middle class of asimilados15, with its largest following composed of peo-
ple from the region around luanda, who defined themselves as mbundu.
holden roberto’s Fnla (initially the upa), the strongest of the three
movements from a military point of view and the best organized, had deep
10
See, for instance, the quotations from Viriato da Cruz’s poem, ibid., 165.
11
Franz-Wilhelm heimer, The Decolonisation Conflict in Angola, 1974-1976 (Geneva: institute
for international studies, 1979), 10-2. see also patrick chabal, “E Pluribus Unum: transitions in
angola”, in Angola, eds. Chabal and Vidal, 3.
12
david Birmingham, “angola”, in A History of Postcolonial Lusophone Africa, ed. patrick cha-
bal (london: hurst, 2002), 140-145; newitt, “angola”, 56-65; sousa Jamba, “the idea of an-
gola”, The Times Literary Supplement, 8 June 2001, 12.
13
there was also a fourth movement, the Flec (cabinda enclave liberation Front), which
aimed at the secession of the cabinda region and did not take part in the independence ne-
gotiations. For a thorough analysis of the revolution in angola before and immediately after
independence, see, among others, the classical two-volume text by John marcum, The Angolan
Revolution: the Anatomy of an Explosion (1950-1962) (cambridge, mass.: mit press, 1969); and id.,
The Angolan Revolution: Exile, Politics and Guerrilla Warfare (1962-1976) (cambridge, mass.: mit
press, 1978). see also W. martin James, A Political History of the Civil War in Angola, 1974-1990
(new Brunswick: transaction, 1992); patrick chabal, “angola e mozambico: il peso della storia”,
in Africa e Mediterraneo 1 (1998), 23; davide tramontano, “la decolonizzazione angolana: lotta
per l’indipendenza e Guerra civile”, in Il colore rosso dei jacaranda. A 30 anni dalle indipendenze delle
ex colonie portoghesi, eds. livia apa and mario Zamponi (san marino: aiep, 2005), 59-73.
14
newitt, “angola”, 19-37.
15
marcum, The Angolan Revolution: Exile, 18.
264 Cuba in the World, the World in Cuba
roots in the Bakongo in the north and strong links with mobutu’s Zaire.
and Jonas savimbi’s unita, the latest to come on the scene, gained con-
sensus mainly among the Ovimbundu16, the majority ethnic group in the
country, by emphasizing the differences between the urban sectors (closer
to the mpla) and the mass population of the countryside.
this tripartition, bound to survive the end of the colonial regime and
mark the political evolution of the country until recently, implied certain
domestic and international consequences17. at home, the harsh confronta-
tion between the three factions paralleled the anti-colonial struggle, creat-
ing splits that would encumber the subsequent nation-building process as
well as the chance of the final prevailing group, the mpla, of claiming ac-
tual legitimacy. in the international arena, the existence of three competing
movements initially not so easily distinguishable from ideological and po-
litical points of view, only contributed to the influence of ‘third’ powers18.
the international factor, i.e., the support of outside or third countries, took
on a primary role because of the overwhelming colonial repression of the
1960s and the difficulty maintaining domestic consensus, while at the same
time strongly influencing the prospects of each movement19.
another crucial issue was the bond between angola’s struggle for indepen-
dence and the anti-apartheid fight in south africa. What the leaders of each of
the angolan movements decided to do in this respect acquired a special rel-
evance. in particular, savimbi’s choice to accept military aid from south africa,
as wise as it might have seemed initially since it nearly led unita to prevail
in the autumn of 1975, eventually turned out to be counter-productive for two
main reasons. On the one hand, fearing a negative impact on public opinion,
in both africa and the global context, south african forces ended up retreating
from angola in march 197620. On the other hand, the ideological factor – i.e.
the idea that one should fight against the pretoria-backed unita just to avert
the south-africanization of angola – strengthened the international prestige
of the mpla and the steadfastness of its main supporter, cuba.
this brief outline is intended to reflect the complexity of the angolan
fight for independence in the 1960s and 1970s. the independence formally
gained in november 1975 posed new challenges to the emergent and frag-
ile angolan state. during the previous decade, Kwame nkrumah, the first
president of Ghana, had been able to make a plea for the “political king-
16
linda heywood, Contested Power in Angola, 1840s to the Present (rochester: university of
rochester press, 2000).
17
chabal, “angola e mozambico”.
18
Odd Arne Westad, The Global Cold War (new York: cambridge university press, 2005),
218-227.
19
chabal, “E Pluribus”, 4. see also the curious but significant quotations that open the volume
by daniel spikes, Angola and the Politics of Intervention (Jefferson: mcFarland, 1993).
20
piero Gleijeses, “moscow’s proxy? cuba and africa 1975-1988”, Journal of Cold War Studies
2 (2006), 3-51.
Part VI – Cuba and the International Scene of the Cold War 265
dom”, which was the core, at least initially, of independence. more than
fifteen years later, however, that “political kingdom” had proven not to be
enough. Victory over colonial power would come to mean instead the ini-
tiation of real change and social revolution.
the 1970s marked a new step in the evolution of relations between the
world’s superpowers with the bipolar confrontation. technological devel-
opments and détente had allowed the us to shift from the “european bias”
to a more global approach, as epitomized by the nixon-Kissinger diploma-
cy. the ussr, on the other hand, while engaged in détente policy, showed
no will to abandon its leading role as the engine of the socialist revolution.
to the contrary, the contemporary evolution of china-us relations called
for more assertiveness wherever possible in order to counter the setbacks
in the pacific and the middle east21, and angola looked like a great oppor-
tunity22. nevertheless, as arne Westad points out, “soviet involvement in
africa was slow to come”, and it was not until late 1975, under cuban pres-
sure, that moscow “finally made a major investment in one of its southern
african alliances, and thereby made the mpla a regional ally second in
importance only to the south african anc”23.
On the field in Angola, after the collapse of the Alvor agreement24, the con-
flict that opposed the mpla to the other two national liberation movements,
the Fnla and unita, reached a climax between the summer and autumn
of 197525. secretary of state henry Kissinger, in his turn, saw the situation in
21
arthur Gavshon, Crisis in Africa. Battleground of East and West (Boulder: Westview, 1981),
223-257; see also Jay Klinghoffer, “the soviet union in angola”, in The Soviet Union in the
Third World: Successes and Failures, ed. robert h. donaldson (Boulder: Westview, 1981), 99-100
and 115-116; Westad, The Global, 214-215.
22
While this new african approach prevailed among moscow’s leaders, agostinho neto was
faced with a soviet offer of military and logistical assistance. showing a remarkable ability to read
between the lines of the sino-soviet split and make good use of it, he was ready to strengthen
the mpla’s commitment to the soviet union, considered “the party’s main international ally”.
though moscow’s support for the mpla declined during this period, until late 1975, neto’s
movement remained the “main angolan connection” of the soviets. see Westad, The Global, 217.
23
ibid., 218.
24
Following the “carnation revolution” in portugal, the destiny of portuguese colonies was
marked by the decision to grant independence as fast as possible. in the case of angola, after a
diplomatic mediation promoted by Kenya’s president Jomo Kenyatta in January 1975, an agree-
ment was reached at alvor by the portuguese and the three angolan liberation movements:
independence by 11 november and a coalition government. in the meantime, a transitional
government with representatives of the three movements was to work together with a portu-
guese high commissioner. the agreement collapsed a few weeks later as the result of the exter-
nal fuelling of the rival parties and their inability to reach a satisfactory compromise. see José
marques-rocha, A descolonização. 24 de abril de 1974 a 11 de novembro de 1975. Os mensageiros da
Guerra (Braga: Grafibraga, 2002), 289-294. see also Witney schneidman, Engaging Africa: Wash-
ington and the Fall of Portugal’s Colonial Empire (lanham, md: university press of america, 2004).
25
Westad, The Global, 228-241.
266 Cuba in the World, the World in Cuba
26
see, in particular, state department, memorandum for the senate Foreign relations commit-
tee, “u.s. policy towards angola”, 16 december 1975, doc. 37, in South Africa and the United States:
The Declassified History, ed. Kenneth mokoena (new York: the new press, 1993), 220-225.
27
raymond Garthoff, Détente and Confrontation (Washington: Brookings, 1994), 574-582.
28
ibid., 560-565; see also house select committee on intelligence, “selection from the pike
report relating to angola”, February 1976, doc. 38, in South Africa, ed. mokoena, 226-227.
29
see Walter isaacson, Kissinger. A Biography (new York: simon & schuster, 1992), 673-85. com-
menting on the angolan issue, isaacson states: “angola was a paradigm of an unnecessary, self-
inflicted defeat” (p. 684). see also William Burr, ed., The Kissinger Transcripts: The Top-Secret Talks
with Beijing and Moscow (new York: the new press, 1999), 453, and national security archive
on-line, www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/nsa/publications/DOC_readers/kissinger/notes.htm.
30
robert d. Johnson, “the unintended consequences of congressional reform: the clark and
tunney amendments and u.s. policy towards angola”, Diplomatic History 2 (2003), 215-243; id.,
Congress and the Cold War (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2006). On the Ford Admin-
istration’s reactions to these amendments see also William Burr, ed., “launch on Warning: the
development of u.s. capabilities, 1959-1979”, in national security archive on-line, Electronic
Briefing Books, http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/nsaeBB/nsaeBB43/, in particular doc. 18 (min-
utes, national security council meeting, “salt (and angola)”, 22 december1975, top secret).
Part VI – Cuba and the International Scene of the Cold War 267
31
see Westad, The Global, 170-174; Olga Nazario and Juan F. Benemelis, “Cuba’s Relations
with Africa: An Overview”, in Cuba Internationalism in Sub-Saharan Africa, ed. sergio díaz-
Briquets (pittsburgh: duquesne university press, 1989), 12-15.
32
see Juan F. Benemelis, Castro, Subversión y Terrorismo en Africa (madrid: san martín, 1988),
207-210.
33
piero Gleijeses, Conflicting Missions. Havana, Washington and Africa, 1959-1976 (chapel hill:
university of north carolina press, 2002), 21-29.
34
On this issue, see, among others, Westad, The Global, 175-7; William ratliff, “cuban military
policy in sub-saharan africa”, in Cuba Internationalism, ed. díaz-Briquets, 30.
35
nazario and Benemelis, “cuba’s relations”, 18-20; ratliff, “cuban”, 33-34.
268 Cuba in the World, the World in Cuba
36
Gleijeses, “moscow’s proxy”, 98.
37
see messiant, “angola”, 171.
38
see marcum , The Angolan Revolution: Exile, 276; Gleijeses, Conflicting Missions, 311.
39
marcum, The Angolan Revolution: Exile, 272.
40
see inge tvedten, Angola. Struggle for Peace and Reconstruction (Boulder: Westview, 1997),
68. On the issue of recognition see also, Abegunrin Olayiwola, “Angola and the Soviet Union
since 1975”, Journal of African Studies1 (1987), 26. On Kaunda’s position in favor of Savimbi,
see, inter alia, Gleijeses, Conflicting Missions, 285 and 297-298.
41
ibid., 273-299; Westad, The Global, 234 and 237.
Part VI – Cuba and the International Scene of the Cold War 269
While external recognition had represented a crucial step forward for the
pra’s image, one cannot forget that the civil war continued, as did internal
strife within the mpla. But from 11 november 1975 onwards, cuban com-
mitment aimed at preserving the newborn government in luanda against
both internal and external threats – a commitment that was presented as a
question of principle as well as a sound political choice. this issue can be
traced back to the mid-1960s when the mpla managed to win the compe-
tition for cuba’s exclusive attention to its own fight against portugal at the
expense of its rivals, the Fnla and unita. not surprisingly, these groups
started complaining that the “tricontinental [conference] gave the mpla a
platform from which to fabricate and distort facts”42. But this achievement
was possible because neto’s movement was able to assert itself as the most
credible third-world revolutionary force in angola long before 1975, thus
building personal connections that would count a great deal in the future43.
But castro’s choice does not come as a surprise if one considers the ori-
gins of the mpla leadership as described by christine messiant:
starting in november 1975, the main issue on the field was not only to
increase support to a movement that shared close cultural ties, but also to be-
come the determining factor in a confrontation that opposed socialist forces
with “imperialist forces”. the choice to sustain neto’s mpla would produce
major results for havana’s position in the international arena and in particu-
lar among third world countries. castro’s proud words on the occasion of
neto’s visit to cuba in July 1976 seem particularly significant in this respect:
This attitude of our country, willing to fight, to help, on one terrain or ano-
ther, is a good way to measure its maturity and its revolutionary conscience.
42
marcum, The Angolan Revolution: Exile, 225. On the Tricontinental Conference and the Cu-
ban attitude, see Benemelis, Castro, 211-219.
43
see Westad, The Global, 212-213.
44
messiant, “angola”, 162. the Fnla is in turn described as an ethno-nationalist movement
and its ideology is defined as “un nationalisme libéral mais africain radical car très opposé
non seulement au colonialisme mais aux colons et à l’imposition de la culture européenne”,
ibid., 163. Whereas UNITA “s’oppose comme le FNLA à l’‘aristocracie créole’ du MPLA vue
comme une ‘caste’, elle se définit face à celle-ci comme ‘africaine’ (et non comme ‘angolaise’),
valorise sa communautée culturelle, linguistique et raciale avec le peuple, et oppose à cette
caste sa propre supériorité, de ‘fils du peuple’”, ibid., 166.
270 Cuba in the World, the World in Cuba
that is why the imperialists always make mistakes with cuba; because they
have no equipment to measure this moral attitudes. They have no way of me-
asuring the spirit and morale of the people. they made a mistake at the Bay of
pigs. and now, when they planned the invasion of angola, they again made a
mistake […]. the most important thing about a country is not its wealth. the
imperialists have a lot of wealth, but they do not have moral spirit. the most
important thing about a country, a society, is its morale and its spirit45.
45
Fidel castro, “speech on the 23rd anniversary of the assault on moncada Barracks”, 26 July
1976, castro speech database on-line, www1.lanic.utexas.edu/la/cb/cuba/castro.html.
46
ratliff, “cuban”, 30-33.
47
Gleijeses, Conflicting Missions, 372; Westad, The Global, 238-41.
Part VI – Cuba and the International Scene of the Cold War 271
phase of it, cuba’s military aid remained crucial throughout this period, even
if civilian support continued to mark an important aspect of the island’s as-
sistance to angola48. From a local perspective, however, the awareness of the
support granted by cuba, against not only external pressures but also inter-
nal threats, might have been the factor that prevented the development of an
open political debate among different currents within the mpla49, leaving
room for a centralization and personalization of power. three subsequent
crises, one internal and two external, while calling for a different kind of in-
volvement from cuba, seemed to push in this direction: the attempted coup
by nito alves in may 1977 and the two shaba crises of 1977 and 1978.
in may 1977, while discontent over the direction taken by the mpla’s
leadership spread among young people, some branches of the army and
the urban unemployed in particular, an attempted coup promoted by nito
Alves and José Van Dunem (both key members of the MPLA belonging to
the current of “internationalists”, the supposed soviet favorite)50 failed. the
prompt military response of cuban troops, who seized the radio station
that the insurgents had been unable to control, allowed neto himself and
most members of the government to survive (while other government and
military leaders were killed during the uprising). the situation was brought
back under control, but the abortive coup had heavy consequences. though
little evidence has surfaced regarding the post-coup phase, there is a general
agreement among scholars that the official reaction to the coup was not lim-
ited to hitting the insurgents but also inaugurated a period of massive repres-
sion of any form of dissent, thereby enforcing the divide between the power
elite and the population51. at the same time, the dissent brought dramatically
to the surface by the coup failed to be addressed in any form thereafter.
the two shaba crises erupted in march 1977 and may 1978 respectively
when guerrilla forces (Zairian exiles) calling themselves the Front de Libération
National Congolais attempted to invade the shaba province of Zaire from the
angolan territory. cuba denied any involvement, despite allegations from
the West52. nevertheless, a “side-effect” of both crises was a new increase in
48
sergio díaz-Briquets and Jorge pérez-lópez, “internationalist civilian assistance: the cu-
ban presence in sub-saharan africa”, in Cuba Internationalism, ed. díaz-Briquets, 48-77.
49
Birmingham, Portugal and Angola, 143 and 149.
50
For the roots of the coup and an accurate analysis of the ethnic and political background of
its promoters, see, in particular, messiant, “angola”, 172-3. see also Birmingham, Portugal and
Angola, 151-5; Westad, The Global, 239-240 and 244; lara pawson, “the 27 may in angola: a
View from Below”, in Relações Internacionais 14 (2007), 1-18.
51
regarding the evolution of the mpla’s leadership after the attempted coup, see messiant,
“angola”, 173-176. see also tvedten, Angola, 44.
52
at the outbreak of the first crisis, in march 1977, the us government adopted a cautious
position. see, for example, Z. Brzezinski to J. carter, 18 march 1977, secret, in Jimmy carter
library, atlanta (Jcl), Zbigniew Brzezinski collection, box 41, Wnsr 5. however, in may
1978, under pressure from Belgium and France, the us administration agreed to give logis-
tical support to their mission in shaba. this decision seemed to validate the unconfirmed
hypothesis that Katangans had been trained by cubans and that the whole operation against
272 Cuba in the World, the World in Cuba
cuban military presence in angola. Furthermore, the whole affair gave new
political strength to neto when he needed it most53, since the may 1977 coup
had revealed old but unresolved divisions among mpla ranks and notable
weaknesses within the angolan leadership, which could remain thus thanks
to the “external crisis”. consequently, as was long the case in the war against
unita54, shaba i and ii gave the government in luanda new arguments with
which to avoid facing the most crucial problems of the country, including se-
vere shortages in agricultural production, poor food distribution and a lack
of basic viable infrastructures55. after José edoardo dos santos’ appointment
as president following agostinho neto’s death in 1979, the concentration of
power increased and the government was formally subordinated to the party
until the constitutional changes of the early 1990s56. at the same time, rising
oil revenues allowed the regime not just to survive but to prosper unchecked
in terms of its legitimacy and accountability57.
4. Conclusions
despite the many expectations for the angolan independence that start-
ed in november 1975, the country did not enter a phase of peace and de-
mocracy. On the contrary, civil war continued in various forms for over
twenty-five years. the mpla government, which had managed to declare
the foundation of the people republic of angola amidst a ferocious inter-
nal fight for power, was unable to live up to its promises.
the consequences of a continuous civil war added to the already heavy
burden inherited from portuguese colonialism, creating a situation in
mobutu’s regime could not have been planned and organized without luanda and moscow’s
consent. New evidence produced by Gleijeses rules out any direct Cuban involvement. On
this issue and american reactions, see Garthoff, Détente and Confrontation, 686-695; Gleijeses,
“truth or credibility: castro, carter, and the invasions of shaba”, The International History Re-
view 1 (1996), 70-103; Birmingham, “angola”, in A History, ed. Chabal, 153-5. On the Angolan
and soviet points of view see also memo of conversation (loginov with luvualu), 27 June
1978, secret, in cold War international history project, Virtual Archive Collections on-line, “the
cold War in africa”, http://www.wilsoncenter.org/index.cfm?topic_id=1409&fuseaction=va2.
browse&sort=collection. For the new evidence on cuba’s role during both crises, see, in par-
ticular, Gleijeses, “moscow’s proxy”, 9-21.
53
the global repercussions of the two shaba crises were twofold. While mobutu’s regime was
spared, neto denied any involvement and managed to achieve significant diplomatic success
by receiving a commitment from mobutu to end all interference in angolan affairs, i.e. his
support for the Fnla and the Flec, in return for neto’s similar assurances to maintain peace
along the border.
54
On the absence of effective political and social dissent against the increasingly oppressive
nature of the mpla regime, messiant argues that this was a by-product of the prolonged civil
war in angola: christine messiant, “the mutation of hegemonic domination”, in Angola, eds.
Chabal and Vidal, 97.
55
see d. Birmingham, Portugal and Africa, 146-152.
56
messiant, “angola”, 175-176. see also tvedten, Angola, 46.
57
messiant, “the mutation”, 95-98.
Part VI – Cuba and the International Scene of the Cold War 273
58
“By the early 1980s, as much as 50 per cent of the foreign exchange came to be used for
military purposes and another 20 per cent for food imports”, ibid., 72.
59
Jakkie cilliers and christian dietrich, eds., Angola’s War Economy: The Role of Oil and Dia-
monds (pretoria: iss, 2000); tony hodges, Angola from Afro-Stalinism to Petro-Diamond Capital-
ism (Oxford: James Currey, 2001); Philippe Le Billon, “Angola’s Political Economy of War: The
Role of Oil and Diamonds, 1975-2000”, African Affairs (2001), 55-80; messiant, “angola”, 176-8.
On the concept of “gatekeeper state” in post-colonial Africa, see Frederick Cooper, Africa Since
1940 (new York: cambridge university press, 2002), 156-189.
60
the battle of cuito cuanavale (1988) was a turning point in the angolan civil war. nelson
mandela and Fidel castro, How Far We Slaves Have Come (new York: pathfinder, 1991), 20.
61
it is also important to recall that domestic criticism of cuba’s involvement in angola in-
creased over the years. see, inter alia, Olga Nazario, “Cuba’s Angolan Operation”, in Cuba
Internationalism, ed Díaz-Briquets, 120-2. On the domestic impact of internationalism, see, in
particular, Juan m. del aguila, “the domestic attitude towards internationalism: evidence
from Émigre interviews”, ibid., 124-143.
274 Cuba in the World, the World in Cuba
62
Nuno Vidal, “The Angolan Regime and the Move to Multiparty Politics”, cit., 131-143. See
also mathieu petithomme, “the instrumentalization of disorder in angola”, Human Security
Journal 4 (2007), 82-95.
63
chabal, “E Pluribus”, 6.
64
Nuno Vidal, “Post-Modern Patrimonialism in Africa”, in Community and the State in Luso-
phone Africa, eds. malyn newitt, patrick chabal and norrie macQueen (london: King’s col-
lege, 2003), 1-14. christine messiant, “angola: Why did Bicesse and lusaka Fail? a critical
analysis”, in south african regional poverty network on-line, www.sarpn.org.za/docu-
ments/d0001958/Bicesse_lusaka_2005.pdf; id., “angola: le retour à la guerre ou l’inavouable
faillite d’une intervention internationale”, L’Afrique Politique 1 (1994), 201-229.
65
Alex Vines et al., Angola. Drivers of Change: An Overview (london: chatham house, 2005).
Part VII
For cuba, the collapse of the soviet union and the disintegration of
the eastern bloc at the beginning of the 1990s implied a loss of more than
four fifths of its foreign markets. From 1990 to 1993, cuban Gdp fell by
one third. Years of shortages of virtually everything followed in what soon
came to be known as the período especial (the “special period”, which has
not formally ended yet in 2009). the hostile attitudes among us political
elites did not end, however, with the collapse of the soviet union. the us
congress passed two distinct acts – the torricelli act of 1992 and the helms
Burton act of 1996 – aimed at exploiting cuba’s dramatic economic cri-
sis in order to provoke a regime change on the island1. While most of the
scholarship from that same period anticipated the end of the revolution-
ary experience, such predictions did not come true and, by the early 21st
century, cuba seems to have recovered, at least in part, from the shock.
domestic economic recovery went hand-in-hand with the reconstruction
of diplomatic, political and economic international ties. One notable recent
development is the strengthening of cuba’s ties with its close neighbors
– particularly Hugo Chávez’s Venezuela – in an increasingly left-leaning
latin america. according to duccio Basosi’s essay, however, the origins of
such rapprochement date back to the second half of the 1980s when a well-
orchestrated diplomatic offensive brought Fidel castro to denounce the
“neoliberal” restructuring of latin america’s heavy foreign debts. many
1
richard Gott, cuba. A New History (new haven: Yale university press, 2004). different per-
spectives on cuban economy and society in the late 20th and early 21st century are in Jorge i.
Domínguez, Omar E. Pérez Villanueva and Lorena Barberia, eds., The Cuban Economy at the Start
of the Twenty-First Century (cambridge, ma: harvard university press, 2005); carlos mesa-lago
and Jorge F. pérez-lópez, Cuba’s Aborted Reform: Socioeconomic Effects, International Comparisons
and Transition Policies (Gainesville: university press of Florida, 2005).
alessandra lorini e duccio Basosi (a cura di), Cuba in the World, the World in
Cuba. Essays on Cuban History, Politics and Culture, isBn 978-88-8453-971-7 (print),
isBn 978-88-8453-962-5 (online), © 2009 Firenze university press
278 Cuba in the World, the World in Cuba
challenges still face the cuban government on its way towards a renew-
al of socialism. its dual currency system in particular (introduced as an
emergency measure to earn hard currency in 1993, and kept in place since
then, notwithstanding the formal substitution of the us dollar with the pe-
so convertible) seems one of the hardest to overcome, as discussed in davide
Gualerzi’s essay. at the same time, as Filomena critelli maintains in her
essay on cuba’s resilience, the choices of the período especial (aimed at keep-
ing social expenditures high regardless of growing material constraints)
helped the cuban leadership maintain its legitimacy domestically while
also providing cuba with some highly-prized assets (knowledge, medical
doctors, teachers, technicians) to exchange for much-needed goods (ener-
gy, foodstuffs) in global and regional markets.
D. Basosi
Chapter 19
In the Shadow of the Washington Consensus:
Cuba’s Rapprochement with Latin America in
a World Going Unipolar, 1985-1996
the late 1980s and the early 1990s are often described as a period of
great loneliness for cuba. the retrenchment, and then the fall, of the soviet
union deprived the island of its main ally. the us government’s hostility
towards the Revolución remained unwavering. economically, the decline
and collapse of the eastern Bloc forced the cuban economy into a period
of adjustment that ended in the dramatic período especial. despite the seem-
ingly unstoppable advance of capitalism that marked those years, howev-
er, cuba did not follow in the footsteps of the former soviet union and the
other members of the eastern Bloc. the cuban government, led since 1959
by Fidel castro, confirmed instead its commitment to socialism1.
the cuban anomaly seemed particularly striking in the context of the pro-
cesses that had been taking place in the Western hemisphere from the early
1980s on. Faced with deep financial crises, the major latin american economies
took a drastic turn towards unfettered capitalism. the us treasury’s partici-
pation in the process, as well as its powerful influence in multilateral organi-
zations such as the international monetary Fund (imF) and the World Bank,
made the us government’s footprint on the economies of latin america so
heavy that the policies adopted by most governments in the region were soon
known worldwide as the policies of the “Washington consensus”2. however,
while the hegemonic role played by the united states in latin america in the
twilight and immediate aftermath of the cold War cannot be seriously ques-
1
On Cuba and the Cuban revolution: Richard Gott, Storia di Cuba (milano: mondadori, 2007
[New Haven: 2005]). Among the many biographies of Castro, see: Volker Skierka, Fidel: A
Biography (cambridge: polity, 2006).
2
John Williamson, “What Washington means by policy reform”, in Latin American Adjust-
ment: How Much Has Happened, ed. John Williamson (Washington dc: institute for interna-
tional economics, 1990), 7-20. also: Jorge F. pérez-lópez, “the cuban economy in the age
of hemispheric integration”, Journal of Interamerican Studies and World Affairs 3 (1997), 3-47.
alessandra lorini e duccio Basosi (a cura di), Cuba in the World, the World in
Cuba. Essays on Cuban History, Politics and Culture, isBn 978-88-8453-971-7 (print),
isBn 978-88-8453-962-5 (online), © 2009 Firenze university press
280 Cuba in the World, the World in Cuba
tioned, this essay argues that the cuban government did not merely struggle
to survive in the changing international economic and political conditions, but
undertook a set of skilled diplomatic moves during the latin american debt
crisis and, somewhat surprisingly, managed to keep a certain degree of “soft
power” for the island even during the hardships of the período especial.
cuba entered the 1980s with a certain political and economic dynamism,
but in virtual isolation from most of its close neighbors. politically, the cuban
government was playing an international role by acting as chair of the non-
aligned movement and by maintaining its extensive military commitments
to revolutionary movements in africa. as far as the Western hemisphere was
concerned, however, the continuing ban from the Organization of American
States (OAS) symbolized the solidity of the cordon sanitaire built by the US
around the island in the early 1960s. economically, the blockade established
by the united states, and endorsed by most latin american countries, was
still in place. With the virtually lone exception of mexico, no major latin
american country had substantial trade relations with the socialist island.
nevertheless, cuba still capitalized on its own strategic relevance in the
global context of the cold War, which had allowed it to gain from several
favorable trade agreements with the soviet union, including, in particular,
the exchanges of cuban sugar and soviet oil at subsidized prices. during
the first half of the 1980s, cuba’s economic performance was a striking ex-
ception in the latin american landscape. integration into the cmea (the
socialist camp’s council of mutual economic aid) had helped cuba reach
an average annual Gdp growth rate of 6.7% from 1981 to 19853. in the rest
of latin america, during those same years, the combination of large exter-
nal imbalances (often connected to the energy crisis of the early 1970s) and
the high interest rates imposed by the us Federal reserve on international
money markets had led instead to a virtual halt of economic growth4. latin
america’s total external debt, calculated at $30 billion in 1970, reached $331
billion in 1982 and grew to $410 billion by 1987 ($115 billion in Brazil, $105
billion in Mexico, $50 billion in Argentina, $34 billion in Venezuela and $20
billion in chile)5. With free-falling currencies, inflation sky-rocketed and
3
c. tablada, “les nouveaux agents économiques dans une societé socialiste (cuba)”, in Cuba,
quelle transition?, ed. aurelio alonso tejada (paris: l’harmattan, 2001), 27-49: 32.
4
latin american Gdp had grown at an average of 5.7% from 1961 to 1970 and 6.0% from 1971
to 1980: inter-american development Bank, Economic and Social Progress in Latin America: 1985
Report (Washington dc: idB, 1985). more generally: John Ward, Latin America: Conflict and
Development since 1945 (london: routledge, 1997), 13-20.
5
data reported in rudi dornbusch, “the latin american debt problem: anatomy and solu-
tions”, in Debt and Democracy, eds. Barbara stallings and robert Kaufman (Boulder: Westview,
1989), 7-22: 12.
Part VII – The Contemporary Scene 281
production fell. By the beginning of 1987, overall latin american Gdp was
6.5% below 1980 levels. in the same period, real consumption fell by 8% in
Brazil and mexico, 14% in peru and 17% in argentina and chile6.
the phrase “Washington consensus” did not simply hint at the us in-
volvement in the debt crisis but also indicated a discernible set of privatiz-
ing and laissez faire-oriented measures that latin american governments
had to undertake in order to enter new agreements for debt-financing and
debt-rescheduling with private creditors, foreign governments and inter-
national institutions7. such policies were extremely harmful from a social
standpoint. the costs of adjustment often weighed more on employed
workers than on other social groups, while the concluding sales of pub-
lic industries often provided comfortable profit opportunities to part of
the local elite and to foreign investors (at the same time, they guaranteed
the flow of repayments to foreign commercial banks and other lending
institutions)8. however, since it was consistent with classic liberal assump-
tions, it was officially assumed that, in the longer term, the “magic of the
marketplace” would provide a more efficient allocation of resources with
beneficial effects for the greater majority of the population9.
in most of the countries involved in the debt crisis, the early phase of
structural adjustment was managed by authoritarian regimes, who often as-
sisted in keeping opposition down10. even as new parliamentary regimes en-
tered the scene by the mid-1980s, little changed in government approaches
to debt negotiations. in countries where the transition towards parliamen-
tary democracy occurred under close military control (Brazil, argentina,
uruguay and chile), the civilian leaders that guided the transitional govern-
ments were often carefully selected from conservative technicians that would
not challenge the existing understandings between the outgoing military
elite and international financial centers11. But even when the transition al-
lowed wider room for political maneuvering, new leaders often campaigned
6
data reported in howard handelman and Werner Baer, “introduction: the economic and
political costs of austerity”, in Paying the Costs of Austerity in Latin America, eds. howard
handelman and Werner Baer (Boulder: Westview, 1989), 2-15.
7
For a critical approach, see: david harvey, A Brief History of Neoliberalism (New York: Oxford
university press, 2005).
8
the debate over the outcomes of such policies is analyzed in donald huddle, “post-1982 ef-
fects of Neoliberalism on Latin American Development and Poverty: Two Conflicting Views”,
Economic Development and Cultural Change 4 (1997), 881-97.
9
see, for example, president reagan’s remarks: “responses to Questions submitted by latin
american newspapers”, 30 november 1982, in university of california at santa Barbara, The
American Presidency Project on-line (app), www.presidency.ucsb.edu (cited 25 march 2008).
10
this was acknowledged in cia, national intelligence estimate, “Brazil: prospects for the re-
gime”, 25 april 1984, secret; cia, national intelligence estimate, “chile: prospects for a demo-
cratic transition”, 1 december 1985, secret. Both documents are in central intelligence agency,
Freedom of Information Act on-line (CIA-FOIA), www.cia.foia.gov (cited 25 March 2008).
11
For an in-depth appraisal of this point, see the contributions collected in: stallings and
Kaufman, eds., Debt and Democracy.
282 Cuba in the World, the World in Cuba
against the harsh conditions attached to the financial packages, only to end
up accepting them shortly after taking office. relative bargaining weakness,
a seeming lack of alternatives and true admiration for what then seemed the
miracle of “free market” policies in the us and some developing countries
(namely south Korea), often combined with the lures of tangible personal
advantages (which sometimes translated into sheer corruption) to determine
the new leaders’ adherence to the Washington consensus. in a complete re-
versal of the development strategies followed in previous decades, privatiz-
ing state-owned companies, reducing tariffs, eliminating controls on flows
of capital and limiting the bargaining power of unions all came to be seen as
the primary tools to re-launch exports and repay debts.
protests and revolts against the deteriorating living conditions did take
place in several countries. Vis-à-vis the creditors, the main Latin American
debtors also threatened to enhance their bargaining position by joining in
the “cartagena consensus” to denounce the political, and not simply eco-
nomic, nature of the debt problem12. the newly elected president of peru,
alan García, unilaterally declared that his country would limit debt repay-
ment until after the domestic recession had been overcome13. the catholic
church, an influential player on the latin american field, questioned the
morality of the policies of the Washington consensus14. however, where-
as there were minor changes in the modalities in which the us-sponsored
model of economic adjustment was promoted and applied, its basic phi-
losophy remained unchanged throughout the period15. Governments kept
divesting public sectors and cutting social expenditures, even though this
frequently meant selling off the most strategic industries (including the
water supply in Bolivia’s case) to (often foreign) private companies and
creating wide areas of poverty. according to World Bank data about the
region, apart from variations, inequality peaked, malnutrition grew and by
1996, a third of latin americans were living on less than two dollars a day
(from a mere 11% in 1969)16.
12
Judith teichman, “the World Bank and policy reform in mexico and argentina”, Latin
American Politics and Society 1 (2004), 39-74.
13
Eduardo Ferrero Costa, “Peruvian Foreign Policy: Current Trends, Constraints and Oppor-
tunities”, Journal of Interamerican Studies and World Affairs 2 (1987), 55-78.
14
pontifical Justice and peace commission, “an ethical approach to the international debt
Question”, Origins 34 (1987), 601-611.
15
in the early 1980s, in particular, the us government refused to commit federal resources to
debt-rescheduling plans, which not only forced latin american countries into faster adjust-
ment and a worse bargaining position but also made payments to creditor banks more dif-
ficult. eventually, with the so-called “Brady plan” of 1989 (from the name of then secretary of
the treasury William Brady) the us agreed to guarantee private loans to indebted countries.
What did not change throughout the years was the “tight conditionality” that was attached to
the financial packages. On this, see: Secretary of the Treasury Regan to Reagan, “Results of the
1983 WB/IMF Annual Meetings”, 6 October 1983, Confidential, Ronald Reagan Presidential
Library, Simi Valley, USA (RRL), Executive, Secretariat NSC, Subject File, box 42, IMF.
16
huddle, “post-1982”, 886-887.
Part VII – The Contemporary Scene 283
17
castro’s speeches and thoughts on the debt crisis are collected in: Fidel castro, La deuda
externa (La Habana: Editoria Politica, 1989). On the Cuban anti-debt campaign: Philip O’Brien,
“‘The Debt cannot Be Paid’: Castro and the Latin American Debt”, Bulletin of Latin American
Research 1 (1986), 41-63. more generally: Michael Kline, “Castro and ‘New Thinking’ in Latin
america”, Journal of Interamerican Studies and World Affairs 1 (1990), 83-118.
18
Joseph treaster, “castro’s modest proposal”, New York Times, 25 august 1985.
19
castro, La deuda externa, 46-58, 59-62 and 88-97.
20
Jim hoagland, “conversation with castro. marathon session: castro talks economics, not
revolution”, The Washington Post, 3 February 1985.
284 Cuba in the World, the World in Cuba
21
roger lowenstein, “cuba is in Good standing With Bankers despite castro’s talk of can-
celing debt”, The Wall Street Journal, 30 July 1985.
22
Joseph treaster, “cuban meeting stokes emotions on latin debt”, New York Times, 1 august
1985.
23
us officials were well informed about the inner weakness and divergences in the cartagena
consensus even before they emerged publicly: (nsc staffer) mulford to interagency Group
on international debt, “a meeting of the iG”, 19 september 1984, confidential, rrl, executive
secretariat nsc, subject File, box 42, imF.
24
treaster, “cuban meeting”.
25
Joseph treaster, “castro Builds relations with south america”, New York Times, 19 may 1985.
26
tad szulc, “cuba’s emergence, america’s myopia”, New York Times, 5 may 1985.
27
catherine Gwin, US Relations with the World Bank 1945-92 (Washington dc: Brookings,
1994), 38-45.
28
see: national security decision directive no. 235, “strengthening us policy toward cuba”,
18 august 1986, secret, in Federation of america scientists, national security decision direc-
tives on-line, www.fas.org/irp/offdocs/nsdd/index.html (cited 25 march 2008).
Part VII – The Contemporary Scene 285
29
Roger Lowenstein, “Cuba’s Castro Finds Friends in Region By Urging West to Pay Off Latin
debts”, The Wall Street Journal, 23 may 1985.
30
tablada, “les nouveaux”, 39.
286 Cuba in the World, the World in Cuba
rather than competing with the West, the caribbean island’s strategic
significance diminished significantly for the soviets31. Bilateral contracts
were renegotiated and eventually the flow of commodities came to a vir-
tual halt with the end of the soviet state. as Boris Yeltsin hauled the red
flag down from the Kremlin in december 1991, the new russian lead-
ership ended all relevant economic and political relations with socialist
cuba.
after his first meeting with Gorbachev in moscow in march 1986, Fidel
castro had been extremely critical of perestroika and declared that he did
not want to be involved in it32. however, given cuba’s dependency on
the soviet union, non-involvement was hardly possible. cuba’s economy
had to adjust. the first step was the “readdressing of mistakes” (politica
de rectificación de errores), which diverted investments from inefficient
sectors towards tourism, pharmaceutics and construction, while still aim-
ing to strengthen and rationalize the centrally-planned economy33. much
more radical changes would occur after castro’s second meeting with
Gorbachev, which took place in havana in april 1989, only seven months
before the fall of the Berlin Wall.
in January 1990, faced with the global retrenchment of the soviet
union, Fidel castro spoke of the need for cuba to enter a “special pe-
riod in peacetime”34. the months that followed formed the most dramatic
period for the cuban economy after the Revolución. Between 1990 and
1993, cuban foreign trade plummeted by 70%. since most of the imports
from cmea were in strategic raw materials and spare parts for indus-
trial plants, the resulting scarcity ignited a chain of economic shortages.
annual sugar production was halved, while the end of soviet subsidies
coincided with dropping prices in international markets. cuban Gdp
dropped by nearly 30% in three years35, energy consumption was cut by
half36 and by 1996 the cuban calorie intake had fallen 27% below the level
in 199037.
31
On perestroika and “new thinking” in Gorbachev’s foreign policy: Vladislav Zubok, A Failed
Empire. The Soviet Union in the Cold War from Stalin to Gorbachev (chapel hill: university of
north carolina press, 2007), 265-302; danuta paszyn, The Soviet Attitude To Political And Social
Change in Central America, 1979–1990 (new York: st. martin’s , 2000).
32
Bill Keller, “Gorbachev-Castro Face-Off: A Clash of Style and Policies”, New York Times, 2
april 1989.
33
tablada, “les nouveaux”, 36-38.
34
Gott, Storia, 335-349.
35
Jorge i. domínguez, “cuba’s economic transition: successes, deficiencies, and challeng-
es”, in The Cuban Economy at the Start of the Twenty-First Century, eds. Jorge i. domínguez,
Omar E. Pérez Villanueva and Lorena Barberia (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press,
2005), 17-48: 19 and 20.
36
Omar E. Pérez Villanueva, “The Cuban Economy Today and Its Future Challenges”, in The
Cuban, eds. Domínguez, Pérez Villanueva and Barberia, 49-89: 65 and 76.
37
statistics of the havana-based Centro de Investigaciones de la Economía Mundial, cited in
domínguez, “cuba’s economic”, 43.
Part VII – The Contemporary Scene 287
38
the most-quoted incorrect prediction on the imminent collapse of cuban socialism is an-
drés Oppenheimer, Castro’s Final Hour (new York: touchstone, 1993).
39
respectively: national intelligence council, “soviet assistance to cuba: new estimates
for 1986-90 and Outlook”, 9 September 1991, secret; and CIA, National Intelligence Estimate,
“Cuba: The Outlook for Castro and Beyond”, 1 August 1993, secret. Both documents are in the
CIA-FOIA database. The only CID/Gallup poll carried out in Cuba during the período especial
found that, in 1994, roughly 69% of cubans considered themselves revolutionaries, socialists
or communists and 58% thought that the revolution had comparatively more achievements
than failures: peter roman, People’s Power: Cuba’s Experience with Representative Government
(lanham: rowman & littlefield, 2003), 144.
40
Geraldine lievesley, The Cuban Revolution: Past, Present and Future Perspectives (Gordons-
ville: palgrave, 2004), 161-6.
41
see: stephen lisio, “helms-Burton and the point of diminishing returns”, International Af-
fairs 4, The Americas: European Security (1996), 691-711; and Julia Sweig, “Fidel’s Final Victory”,
Foreign Affairs 1 (2007), 5-13.
42
Jorge i. domínguez, “u.s.-cuban relations: From the cold War to the colder War”, Journal
of Interamerican Studies and World Affairs 3 (1997), 49-75.
43
Osualdo Martínez Martinez, “Cuba dans le contexte de l’économie mondiale”, in Cuba, ed.
alonso tejada, 167-179: 174.
288 Cuba in the World, the World in Cuba
the cuban leadership sought to quickly work out a “socialist” way out
of the deep economic crisis. although tourism was immediately identified
as the most promising source of hard currency, the long-held suspicion
towards external partners and the objective lack of consolidated relations
with non-socialist countries initially led to an attempt to maintain the ex-
ternal balance by reducing consumption alone and concentrating the small
amount of hard currency available on strategic imports44.
additional radical measures were undertaken after 1993. carlos lage, a
former pediatrician who became cuba’s economic czar, legalized the own-
ership and use of the us dollar while seeking foreign investments in joint
public-private ventures (in tourism and other selected industries) where
the cuban state would hold at least 51% of the ownership. domestically,
lage moved on to diversifying agriculture and partially deregulating self-
employment for small-scale economic activities while allowing rural coop-
eratives to sell their surplus products in town markets. he also introduced
taxation, with a heavy emphasis on private activities45.
the development of these measures was a series of (sometimes con-
fusing) stops and gos that would last well into the first decade of the 21st
century, when many cuban economists – not to mention their foreign
counterparts – continued to debate the appropriate balance between pri-
vate, cooperative and public control over economic activity46. although it
was not conceived as a first step towards capitalism, nor as a way to change
the basic orientation of the cuban welfare-state system (even with all its
economic “inefficiencies”), this second wave of adjustment policies did im-
ply a larger degree of opening up to the once-abhorred market tools and a
greater shock to cuba’s social organization. though the economy did even-
tually rebound (Gdp growth averaged 3.6% between 1994 and 2001)47, the
44
cuban economists reported a 31% fall in consumption from 1990 to 1993, with a 7% decline
in social and government spending and a 39% drop in private spending. See: Viviana Togores
and anicia García, “consumption, markets, and monetary duality in cuba”, in The Cuban,
eds. Domínguez, Pérez Villanueva and Barberia, 245-295: 247.
45
domínguez, “cuba’s economic transition”, 25-30.
46
after the end of the cold War, debating the prospects of the cuban economy has been
a widely practiced activity outside cuba. Forecasting and prescribing, however, has largely
prevailed over analyzing and describing. a compendium of this type of work can be found
in carlos mesa-lago and Jorge F. pérez-lópez, Cuba’s Aborted Reform: Socioeconomic Effects,
International Comparisons and Transition Policies (Gainesville: university press of Florida, 2005).
in contrast, while during the 1990s most cuban economists shifted away from the ideologi-
cal marxism and statism of previous decades, their work did not abandon a basic orientation
towards an economic system based on social solidarity. see Fernando martínez heredia, “iz-
quierda y marxismo en cuba”, Alternatives Sud, 3 (1996); and anthony maingot, “epistemic
‘Organic Intellectuals’ and Cuba’s Battle of Ideas”, Florida International University, Cuban
research institute report no. 4, 26 may 2007 (available on-line at http://cubainfo.fiu.edu/cu-
bacontext/reports/maingot4.swf).
47
A complete set of data on Cuba’s recent economic performance is in Omar E. Pérez Villan-
ueva, “Economía y Nivel de Vida en Cuba: Avances y Retos”, paper presented at the confer-
ence Governance and Social Justice in Cuba: Past, Present and Future, mexico city, 21-22 april,
Part VII – The Contemporary Scene 289
firmly egalitarian society of the 1960s and 1970s was deeply shaken by the
creation of tangible economic differences between those that could access
foreign currencies (through tourism and foreign remittances) and those
that could not48. at the same time, in a well-publicized report of the mid-
1990s, the un economic commission for latin america and the caribbean
(cepal) emphasized that “given the size of the external shock, the policies
of adjustment [in cuba] has been relatively low […] in comparison with
other latin american economies”, attributing such an outcome to the “ori-
entation towards solidarity” of the cuban social context49.
4. Concluding Remarks
the rapprochement with the latin american countries did not end
with the beginning of Cuba’s economic troubles. On the contrary, those
years saw the consolidation of the cuban government’s institutional links
with most latin american countries and ties with the progressive move-
ments of the continent. in 1987, eight latin american countries pushed
for Cuba’s re-admission into the Organization of American States for
the first time50. the attempt was unsuccessful, but in august 1989 the
latin american countries contributed to the election of cuba as a non-
permanent member of the un security council51. in 1991, notwithstand-
ing us critiques made to the mexican organizers, Fidel castro was the
uncontested star at the ibero-american summit, which brought together
the heads of state and government of all latin american countries, plus
spain and portugal52. precisely when us pressures for cuba’s domestic
change were intensifying, the latin american governments turned their
traditional abstentions into votes against the us blockade in the un
General assembly, causing total votes against the blockade to jump from
59 to 101 between 1992 and 1994. at the same time, the cuban way out of
the crisis, with virtually no budgetary cuts to health care, education and
social security, confirmed – or even increased – the country’s attractive-
53
luiz ignacio “lula” da silva (elected Brazil’s president in 2002 and confirmed for a second
term in office in 2006) visited havana in 1989 as a union organizer and presidential candidate.
Hugo Chávez Frias (elected Venezuela’s President in 1998 and confirmed for new terms in of-
fice in 2000 and 2006) was welcomed in the cuban capital with military honors in 1994.
D. Gualerzi
Chapter 20
Cuba: Political Success and Economic
Failure?
1
see in particular the essays by duccio Basosi, maria stella rognoni and candace sobers in
this volume.
alessandra lorini e duccio Basosi (a cura di), Cuba in the World, the World in
Cuba. Essays on Cuban History, Politics and Culture, isBn 978-88-8453-971-7 (print),
isBn 978-88-8453-962-5 (online), © 2009 Firenze university press
292 Cuba in the World, the World in Cuba
cuba is a strategic island for the caribbean, latin america and the
world for one simple reason: it is the site of an experiment with the poten-
tial for profound change. its interest and originality depends largely on the
way its economic development has been addressed since the revolution.
the challenge facing all developing countries is industrialization and the
development of an industrial structure that can integrate into or compete
in foreign markets. in order to produce the manufactured goods necessary
to promote development, a country must be able to sell in foreign market-
places in the first place. a country has to sell in order to have access to the
hard currency that allows it to buy foreign-produced goods. so a country
has to sell in order to buy, and it has to buy in order to develop. One of the
main issues, then, known in development literature as the “balance-of-pay-
ments constraint”, concerns the relationship between exports and imports2.
the faster a country develops, the faster its imports grow. if the country
cannot then match that rise with a corresponding rise in exports, it runs a
commercial deficit, which, given the structural and financial weaknesses of
a developing nation, poses a serious threat to the development process.
the more a country attempts to industrialize and ensure at least an initial
diversification of its growing industrial base, the stronger its need to buy. a
strong inter-industry structure and diversified output are among the distin-
guishing characteristics of developed economies. Only reasonably diversi-
fied economies can claim the status of being developed. the challenge, then,
is two-fold: to ensure rapid industrialization while also building an economic
structure that is both efficient and, if possible, diversified. But herein lies the
problem. a country with little industry and a relatively uniform economy
does not produce many of the goods it needs and therefore has to buy them
from foreign markets. however, according to the aforementioned process,
it has to sell in order to buy. the “reasonable” response, then, would be to
specialize in what is more likely to ensure a conspicuous stream of exports,
in order to pay for imports. in other words, in order to develop and diver-
sify, a country first has to do the opposite, that is, specialize. are developing
nations going to specialize in industrial or advanced-technology products,
which are already successfully produced by industrial economies? Of course
not. developing economies will typically specialize in their traditional in-
dustries and the goods they produce best or, as economic theory would sug-
gest, in what they can produce with a reasonably competitive advantage.
this is precisely what developing nations are told to do, specialize in what
they can rapidly export, and of course the items first on the list are agricultur-
al products and raw materials in general. this, then, is the trap, because when
2
John mccombie and mark roberts “the role of the Balance of payments in economic Growth”,
in The Economics of Demand-Led Growth, ed. mark setterfield (cheltenham: elgar, 2002).
Part VII – The Contemporary Scene 293
For cubans, their victorious revolution also meant having to cope with
the problem of development, which gave rise to a caribbean socialist ex-
periment that was bound to face the same problems encountered by central-
ly-planned economies. this vast topic touches on the island’s variations on
the basic soviet model and the considerable debate that took place among
cuban leaders, as witnessed for example in the economic writings of ernesto
“che” Guevara. it is unnecessary to expand on the topic here. suffice it to
observe that socialism meant economic integration into the soviet bloc and a
system of exchanges with other socialist economies. For this reason, cubans
did not have to deal with the challenge of integrating into the international
market as an indispensable premise for their country’s development. they
did not have to sell (export) to import, since the development process could
be sustained via a transfer of technology and goods with administered prices
among socialist economies. it was still an exchange of manufactured goods
for agricultural products, i.e. sugar, but rather than productivity and prices,
it reflected a broader set of goals involved in a privileged relationship be-
tween cuba and the soviet union, cemented in the solidarity of the socialist
camp. While the solution had its problems, it did get around the suffocating
constraints imposed by the balance of trade and market prices.
admittedly, the cubans made good use of this privileged relationship.
Overall, the economic integration into the market constituted by the social-
ist economies – at least partially insulated from international prices – en-
sured the economic basis for the cuban government’s remarkable social
policy and the possibility of experimenting with industrial and development
policy. together with investments in health, education and social services
were attempts at industrial development and diversification. most impor-
tant, however, was the overall positive effect on cuban living standards. the
public provision of goods and services lessened the pressure on salaries that,
294 Cuba in the World, the World in Cuba
the collapse of the soviet union brought all of this to a rapid close. the
período especial that followed was therefore the manifestation of problems
that had been deferred by the previous “arrangement”, based on subsi-
dized prices for sugar and integration into a protected socialist market.
the dramatic effects on the economy and the standard of living, with a
decrease of national income and per capita consumption, were similar to
those of the debt crisis in latin america (mexico, Brazil, argentina) dur-
ing the early 1980s. the causes and consequences were, however, entirely
different. in the latin american case, it was precisely the integration into
foreign financial markets, and therefore a dependence on the monetary
policy of the us Federal reserve, that caused the problem, whereas in the
cuban case it was the end of a relative insulation from those markets. as
for the results, in the case of latin america, the crisis opened the way for
a firmer establishment of neo-liberalism, a turn in economic policy that
was to lead to the disaster best witnessed by the argentinean crisis at the
beginning of the 21st century. in cuba, it was instead the beginning of a
painful transition, one that brings the central issue discussed here into
focus.
cuba was now forced to face the problem of integrating its economy into
the international market, since doing otherwise would lead to economic col-
lapse and the consequent weakening of its socialist institutions. there was
no time to waste and every possible resource was needed, from economic
ones developed over thirty years of socialism to any international relations
that had survived the island’s isolation, all largely depending on the relent-
less hostility of the us and its ongoing embargo. in response to this unavoid-
able dilemma, cuba ended up accepting, and fostering the rise of, a “dual
economy”. the policy was less a choice than a necessity, but at least it made
room for more than one option. more resources would be allocated to those
industries that could conceivably achieve an acceptable level of productivity
and quality so as to become export sectors in a few years. their moderniza-
tion and capacity to sell in foreign markets, i.e. to be competitive, would go
on to mark the path and set the pace at which part of the cuban economy
Part VII – The Contemporary Scene 295
would integrate into the international market3. these industries would earn
the hard currency badly needed for imports, in addition to that already en-
tering the cuban economy via industries like tourism, which traditionally
worked on the basis of hard currency and international prices, and remit-
tances from relatives living abroad, which had formerly been the primary
channel through which cubans had accessed hard currency.
the 1993 decision to legalize the circulation of the us dollar, aside from
the need to respond to the emergency created by the período especial, is part
of this same course of action. What had previously only been tolerated be-
came part of a determined effort to create a sector using the us dollar for
its transactions and therefore operating under international market condi-
tions. the “dollarization” of the cuban economy4, although manifesting all
the problems and risks implicit in a dual economy, was to be understood
as an indispensable and transitory step within the more general strategy of
integration into the world economy. indeed, one can appreciate the differ-
ence between this dual-economy approach and the adoption of the dollar
as the national currency – as done, for instance, in ecuador – by the fact
that a cuban currency soon took the place of the dollar: the peso convertible,
introduced around the same time that the us dollar became legal currency
in the mid-1990s, was in wide use by 2004.
When the dollar was banned from all domestic commercial transactions
on november 8 of that year, it became the regulating currency for interna-
tional transactions alone, under the control of the government. the peso
convertible, which exchanges for hard currency at a fixed rate and has main-
tained a fairly stable rate of exchange with the cuban peso over the years,
effectively became the domestic currency regulating the new modernizing
sector. in this sector, prices and salaries are now in convertible pesos, which
provide access to goods previously only bought using us dollars, thereby
creating the conditions for domestic demand as part of the effort to build
an internationally-integrated sector of the economy.
3
For an analysis of the evolution of cuban exports, see hiram marquetti, “cuba: importancia
actual del incremento de las exportaciónes”, in La economia cubana en el 2001, ceec-centro de
estudios de la economia cubana ed. (la habana: universidad de la habana, 2002).
4
Antonio Covi, Alessandra Lorini and Davide Gualerzi, “The ‘dollarization’ of the Cuban
economy: problems and prospects”, paper presented at the First conference Por el equilibrio
del mundo, la habana, 27-29 January 2003.
296 Cuba in the World, the World in Cuba
5
it has been observed that at the beginning of the 21st century the life of the majority of the
population had become more “complex” and social differentiation more acute. see: ceec-
centro de estudios de la economia cubana, La economia cubana en el 2000 (la habana: univer-
sidad de la habana, 2001), 4.
Part VII – The Contemporary Scene 297
this very limited sketch is sufficient to drive home the main point.
though probably unavoidable, cuba’s economic reform has nevertheless
laid the groundwork for a differentiation that is bound to have an impact
on both the country’s social fabric and the prospects of further transforma-
tion of its economy. considering the economic results at the macro level,
speaking of a failure might appear excessively harsh. still, it is an intention-
ally provocative reminder of the fundamental issue. this failure belongs to
a socialist experiment that, deprived of external support, seems unable to
advance an alternative development strategy. From this point of view, the
dual economy signals a turning point: it could either be followed by an ac-
celeration down the path of growing inequality and wealth concentration
or by a rethinking of economic and social policy in the pursuit of a new
socialist model. however, it is striking how this problem contrasts with the
tremendous improvement of cuba’s image and political status in the inter-
national arena. Both the end of its political isolation from latin america
and, to a lesser extent, the rest of the world, as documented by Basosi in
this volume, as well as the growing prestige of the cuban leadership must
be seen in the context of the island’s rising criticism of neo-liberal doctrine
and policies. While only partially depending on the political stance of cuba
alone, and largely on the failure of these policies, this assessment has vin-
dicated cuban leaders’ long-standing criticism of capitalism and its effects
on the regional and world scales, giving a tremendous boost to the image
and political status of the strategic island. interestingly enough, this vindi-
cation and political success is occurring at a time when economic reform is
leading the island to a new and crucial phase of its development, as the rise
of the dual economy suggests.
One positive outcome of the reform would of course be a progressive
integration into the international market while maintaining the desirable
aspects of the social-economy model and, in particular, avoiding a mas-
sive rise in inequality. economic and social inequality is the main problem
facing progressive governments in latin america, which have profound-
ly changed the political landscape of the continent in the last few years.
although the social polarization so evident in most of latin america is
hard to imagine in cuba, the risk of a two-tier society is a distinct pos-
sibility contained within further development of the dual economy. the
country’s challenge lies in determining how to properly handle the grow-
ing social differentiation that arises from a progressive integration into the
world economy.
Younger generations in particular, who have not lived through the rev-
olutionary fervor and achievements of cuban socialism of the 1960s and
1970s, have much less incentive to look positively at the social economy,
298 Cuba in the World, the World in Cuba
Chapter 21
A Barrel of Oil for a Doctor: Resilient Cuba
ever since the cuban revolution triumphed in 1959, its imminent de-
mise has been predicted and eagerly awaited by various critics, especially
Washington and the cuban exile community. consistent efforts have been
made to hasten such demise in the more than four decades since. Yet, there
are numerous indicators that cuba is proving to be more durable than
imagined. a peaceful post-Fidel castro transition appears to be in progress.
cuba is reintegrating with latin america amid a resurgence of popularity
and support in latin america that has lead to innovative partnerships and
trade agreements. there are growing divisions regarding us policy toward
cuba within the united states and throughout the world1.
representations of cuba usually attribute its staying power to Fidel
castro’s authority, concentrating on economic and political deprivations.
they fail to capture cuba’s domestic and international sources of legitima-
cy, which have instead fostered its remarkable resilience. resilience, a term
referring to the ability of a system to cope with adversity and to recover
from or resist being affected by shocks or traumas is certainly applicable to
cuba. diverse social science disciplines have attempted to identify the fac-
tors and forces that enable some individuals or systems challenged by ad-
versity to make positive adaptations and in some case to emerge stronger,
with capacities that they may have not developed otherwise2. two articles in
1
Julia Sweig, “Fidel’s Final Victory”, in The Cuba Reader: History, Culture and Politics, eds. avi-
va chomsky, Barry carr and pamela m. smorkaloff (durham: duke university press, 2004),
235-243; Warren Hoge, “Cuba: UN Vote Reaffirms Opposition to US Embargo”, New York
Times, 31 October 2007; John McKinley, “For US Exporters in Cuba, Business Trumps Politics”,
New York Times, 12 november 2007; soraya castro mariño, “us-cuban relations during the
clinton administration”, Latin American Perspectives 4 (2002), 47-76.
2
margaret Waller, “resilience in ecosystemic context: evolution of the concept”, American
Journal of Orthopsychiatry 3 (2001), 290-297.
alessandra lorini e duccio Basosi (a cura di), Cuba in the World, the World in
Cuba. Essays on Cuban History, Politics and Culture, isBn 978-88-8453-971-7 (print),
isBn 978-88-8453-962-5 (online), © 2009 Firenze university press
300 Cuba in the World, the World in Cuba
this volume, Basosi’s “in the shadow of the Washington consensus: cuba’s
rapprochement with latin america in a World Going unipolar, 1985-
1996”, and sobers’ ”investigating cuban internationalism: the First angolan
intervention, 1975”, although addressing differing aspects of aspects of
cuba’s history and development offer insight into these factors. Both articles
reveal characteristics that have enabled a small developing nation with lim-
ited resources not only to survive and adapt, but also develop in the face of
unrelenting hostility and “shocks” to its system, to even claim an influential
role in world affairs through its international actions. this theme is further
explored through the following comments on the Basosi and sobers articles.
3
theodore macdonald, Third World Health Promotion and its Dependence on First World Wealth
(new York: mallen, 2001), 228-229.
4
Julie Feinsilver, Healing the Masses: Cuban Health Politics at Home and Abroad (san Francisco:
university of california press, 1993).
Part VII – The Contemporary Scene 301
5
Edward Lansdale, “Operation Mongoose”, in The Cuba Reader, eds. chomsky, carr and
Smorkaloff, 540-544; Select Committee to Study Government Operations with Respect to In-
telligence Activities, “The Assassination Plots”, ibid., 552-557; Juan Tamayo, “One More As-
sassination Plot”, ibid., 666-670; Tim Anderson, “Contesting ‘Transition’. The US Plan for a
‘Free Cuba’”, Latin American Perspectives 6 (2005), 28-46.
6
ana maria Goicoechea-Balbona and enrique conill-mendoza, “international inclusiveness:
Publicizing Cuba’s Development of the ‘Good Life’”, International Social Work 43 (2000), 435-
451; Sweig, “Fidel’s Final Victory”, 235-243; Hans-Jurgen Burchardt, “Contours of the Future:
the new social dynamics in cuba”, Latin American Perspectives 6 (2002), 57-74; mao Xianglin,
“Cuban Reform and Economic Opening: Retrospective and Assessment”, Latin American Per-
spectives 6 (2007), 93-105; luis salazar. “cuba’s Foreign policy and the promise of alBa”,
NACLA Report on the Americas 4 (2006), 27-32.
7
Sweig, “Fidel’s Final Victory”, 235-243.
8
Anderson, “Contesting ‘Transition’”; Xianglin “Cuban Reform”.
302 Cuba in the World, the World in Cuba
knowledge9 and were bolstered by the strong political commitment of the ma-
jority of the population10. Facing critical scarcities of food, electricity and medi-
cal supplies and a debilitated transportation system, cuba fashioned its own
form of structural adjustment. it differed from the massive restructuring of
social services and public sectors experienced by other latin american nations
that reduced the capacity of their state health and welfare systems11 in con-
trast, cuba’s austerity measures emphasized the equalization of hardship and
priority on maintenance of the system of social guarantees, health standards,
and state regulation of labor relations. castro described this approach:
For us, the essential thing isn’t just to survive but also to develop […]
apart from the privations to which we may be subjected for an indeter-
minate length of time […] as a matter of principle [...] resources must be
shared amongst us all. [if workers are unemployed] we will guarantee a
large part of their wage. Nobody will be left without support.[Cuba has
been] deprived of more resources than any latin american country, but
we haven’t closed any schools, hospitals, polyclinics or medical services
at all, and we haven’t thrown anybody out of work with no pay12.
9
Ken cole, “cuba: the process of socialist development”, Latin American Perspectives 3 (2002), 40-
56; agustin davila, “cuba and the Knowledge economy: cuban Biotechnology”, Monthly Review
7 (2006), available at Monthly Review on-line, http://monthlyreview.org/1206lagedavila.htm.
10
miguel centeno, “the return of cuba to latin america”, Keynote speech given at the
Annual Conference of the Society for Latin American Studies, leiden, the netherlands, 2-4 april
2004, available at www.princeton.edu/~cenmiga/works/the%20return%20of%20cuba%20
to%20latin%20america.doc (cited 2 February 2008).
11
Carlos Muntaner et al., “Venezuela’s Barrio Adentro: An Alternative to Neoliberalism in
health care”, International Journal of Health Services 4 (2006), 803-11.
12
Quoted in tomás Borge, Face to Face with Fidel Castro (Melbourne: Ocean Press, 1993), 115-
116, emphasis added.
13
Miguel Centeno, “The Return”; Burchardt, “Contours”, 57-74; Pol DeVos, “‘No One Left
abandoned’: cuba’s national health system since the 1959 revolution”, International Journal
of Health Services 1 (2005), 189-207.
14
richard Garfield and sarah santana, “the impact of the economic crisis and the us em-
bargo on health in cuba”, American Journal of Public Health 1 (1997), 15-20.
Part VII – The Contemporary Scene 303
and cuba’s infant mortality rate was 6 per 1000 live births, a figure less than
that of the united states, which was 7.0 per 1000 live births in 200715 cuba’s
patient-to-doctor ratio is still among the best in the world and significantly
better than those of the united states and canada16.
cuba spends 32% of its Gdp in social programs, the highest investment
in latin america which demonstrates the strong political will, the proactive
role of the state in social welfare and the commitment to universal accessibil-
ity17. the commitment of public spending on education means that cuban
children attend relatively well-funded and adequately equipped elementary
schools, where the student-teacher ratios are among the most favorable in
the world. Cuba is smaller than the state of Virginia, yet it contains 57 cen-
ters of higher education. this has resulted in an exceedingly highly educated
population where a 99.8%, the adult literacy rate, places cuba on a par with
the world’s most developed nations and averages 15 percentage points high-
er than the literacy rates found in other latin american countries18.
still, the health and education systems did not remain unscathed through-
out the austerity of the special period. school quality declined because of lack
of funds for cleaning materials and school supplies as well as the exodus of
teachers due to low salaries19. cuba’s model health program has been threat-
ened by serious shortages of medical supplies and the inability to replace
simple diagnostic equipment or purchase drugs due to lack of currency. the
infant mortality rate was not affected, but there was a increase in underweight
children and a decrease in their nutritional status. illnesses such as tuberculo-
sis, sexually transmitted and water-borne diseases have reappeared20.
the economic measures such as the expansion of tourism, expansion of
the private sector and the dollarization of the economy solved some of the
immediate problems but also generated new ones that have impacted cuban
society. the measures were embarked upon reluctantly for fear of unleashing
market mechanisms and were viewed as the only alternative for saving the
revolution21. the cuban government attempted to increase the flow of dol-
lars by legalizing their possession and by opening dollar stores for cubans
15
United Nations Development Program, “Human Development Report 2006/2007”, ac-
cessed at united nations development program on-line, http://hdrstats.undp.org/country_
fact_sheets/cty_fs_cuB.
16
ibid.
17
lorena Barberia, “poverty and inequality in cuba”, Hemisphere: A Magazine of the Americas
17 (2007), 20-29.
18
lavinia Gasperini, “the cuban education system: lessons and dilemmas”, World Bank
Country Studies, Education Reform and Management Publications Series 1 (2000), 1-28.
19
miren uriarte, “social impact of the economic measures”, in Reinventing the Revolution:A
Contemporary Reader, eds. philip Brenner at al. (lanham, md: rowman and littlefield, 2008),
285-291; Gasperini. “the cuban education”.
20
robin Williams, “in the shadow of plenty, cuba copes with a crippled health care system”,
in Reinventing the Revolution, eds. Brenner et al., 281-284; michele Barry, “effect of the us embargo
and economic decline on health in cuba”, Annals of Internal Medicine 132 (2000), 151-154.
21
uriarte, “social impact”.
304 Cuba in the World, the World in Cuba
22
ibid.
23
susan eckstein, “dollarization and its discontents: remittances and the remaking of cuba
in the post-soviet era”, Comparative Politics 36 (2004), 179-192.
24
ibid.; uriarte, “social impact”.
25
eckstein, “dollarization”.
26
maria isabel domínguez, “cuban Youth: aspirations, social perceptions and identity”, in
Reinventing the Revolution, eds. Brenner et al., 292-299; uriarte, “social impact”.
27
domínguez, “cuban Youth”.
28
ibid.
29
pedro monreal, “cuban development in the Bolivarian matrix”, NACLA Report on the Amer-
ica 4 (2006), 22-27; Xianglin “cuban reform”.
Part VII – The Contemporary Scene 305
30
davila, “cuba and the Knowledge economy”.
31
ibid.; lynn mytelka, “pathways and policies to (Bio) pharmaceutical innovation systems in
developing countries”, Industry and Innovation 13 (2006), 415-435.
32
monreal, “cuban development”.
33
ibid.
34
salazar, “cuba’s Foreign policy”.
35
Sweig, “Fidel’s Final Victory”; Julie Feinsilver, “Cuban Medical Diplomacy: When the Left
Got it right”, in Council on Hemispheric Relations on-line, www.coha.org/2006/2006/10/30/cu-
ban-medical-diplomacy (cited 30 October 2006).
36
salazar, “cuba’s Foreign policy”.
306 Cuba in the World, the World in Cuba
cuba and the united states”37. to this end, cuba has sent thousands of doc-
tors, teachers, and other personnel on humanitarian assignments to vari-
ous countries since the earliest years of the revolution38.
sobers’ article in this volume analyzes what is probably the most dra-
matic example of cuba’s international solidarity when it deployed more than
300,000 cubans in angola between 1975 and 1991, as well as serving in a va-
riety of civilian positions such as doctors and educators. they succeeded in
repelling south african invasions and contributed to the decisive defeat of the
south african armed forces at cuito cuanavale in the largest battle in africa
since World War ii39. sobers augments the compelling evidence that the cost-
ly and politically risky actions were an organic component of cuba’s foreign
policy, done in the service of the commitment to international solidarity, rather
than strategic ones or as a proxy of the soviet union. cuba’s actions placed the
country squarely in the center of the international discourse on racism and co-
lonialism, inspiring admiration and gratitude in many part of the world, espe-
cially africa. nelson mandela himself credited cuba with changing the course
of history in southern africa and contributing to the end of apartheid:
the cuban people hold a special place in the hearts of the people of africa.
the cuban internationalists have made a contribution to african independence,
freedom, and justice unparalleled for its principled and selfless character. We in
africa are used to being victims of countries wanting to carve up our territory
or subvert our sovereignty. it is unparalleled in african history to have another
people rise to the defense of one of us. the defeat of the apartheid army was
an inspiration to the struggling people in South Africa! The defeat of the racist
army at Cuito Cuanavale has made it possible for me to be here today!40
37
salazar, “cuba’s Foreign policy”; Feinsilver, “cuban medical diplomacy”.
38
h. michael erisman, “cuban development aid: south-south diversification and counterde-
pendency politics”, in Cuban Foreign Policy Confronts a New International Order, eds. h. michael
erisman and John Kirk (Boulder: lynne rienner, 1991), 139-165; Feinsilver, “healing the masses”.
39
isaac saney, “african stalingrad: the cuban revolution, internationalism, and the end of
apartheid”, Latin American Perspectives 5 (2006), 81-117.
40
nelson mandela, Nelson Mandela Speaks: Forging a Non-Racist South Africa (new York: path-
finder, 1993).
41
Feinsilver, “cuban medical diplomacy”.
Part VII – The Contemporary Scene 307
42
Pol De Vos et al., “Cuba’s International Cooperation in Health Care”, International Journal
of Health Services (2007), 761-776; aasim akhtar, “cuban doctors in pakistan: Why cuba still
inspires”, Monthy Review 7 (2006), 49-55; Feinsilver, “cuban medical diplomacy”.
43
Feinsilver, “cuban medical diplomacy”.
44
Warren Hoge, “Cuba: UN Vote Reaffirms Opposition to US Embargo”, New York Times, 31
October 2007; Feinsilver, “Cuban Medical Diplomacy”.
45
salazar, “cuba’s Foreign policy”.
46
robert huish and John Kirk, “cuban medical internationalism and the development of the
latin american school of medicine”, Latin American Perspectives 6 (2007), 77-92.
47
DeVos, “No One Left Abandoned”; Muntaner et al., “Venezuela’s Barrio Adentro”.
48
monreal, “cuban development”.
308 Cuba in the World, the World in Cuba
49
salazar, “cuba’s Foreign policy”; Muntaner et al., “Venezuela’s Barrio Adentro”.
50
Feinsilver, “cuban medical diplomacy”.
51
Fidel castro, speech on 1 may 2006, cited in larry Birns and adrienne nothnagel, “cuba
comes in from the cold”, Council on Hemispheric Affairs on-line, www.coha.org/2006/07/31/
(cited 31 July 2006).
List of
Contributors
Rick Halpern is the chair of american studies and the principal of new college
at the university of toronto. his publications include Down on the Killing Floor: Black
and White Workers in Chicago’s Packing Houses, 1904-1954 (1997); Racializing Class,
Classifying Race: Labour and Difference in Britain, the USA and Africa (2000); The American
South and the Italian Mezzogiorno: Essays in Comparative History (2002); and Slavery and
Emancipation (2002). his research interests focus on race and labor in a number of na-
tional and transnational contexts.
alessandra lorini e duccio Basosi (a cura di), Cuba in the World, the World in
Cuba. Essays on Cuban History, Politics and Culture, isBn 978-88-8453-971-7 (print),
isBn 978-88-8453-962-5 (online), © 2009 Firenze university press
310 Cuba in the World, the World in Cuba
territorial, especificamente en los paises del sur, has coordenado muchas investiga-
ciones y proyectos de cooperación internacional, come habana ecopolis. ha publi-
cado libros y ensayes sobre ese subyecto en italia y al extranjero.
Ilse Girona, daughter of cuban painter Julio Girona, studied fine arts and liter-
ature in the united states and italy, before receiving her ph.d. from the committee
on social thought at the university of chicago. she presently teaches english lan-
guage in the Faculty of letters of the university of Florence. in recent years, she has
exhibited her drawings and paintings locally.
Davide Gualerzi holds a ph.d. from the new school for social research, new
York. he currently teaches political economy at the department of economic
sciences, university of padua, and had teaching experiences at the university of
pisa and Bard college (nY, usa). his most recent publication is the essay The com-
ing of Age of Information Technologies and the Path of Transformational Growth (london
2009). he has done research in the fields of political economy, macroeconomics,
Growth and structural change, urban and regional development; his most re-
cent interests are in development and industrial structure in latin america and
cuba. a consultant to italian and international institutions, including the european
commission and the italian ministry for Foreign affairs, he was twice in eritrea to
work on projects of the italian cooperation.