Table Of ContentThe historical dictionaries present essential information on a broad range
of subjects, including American and world history, art, business, cities,
countries, cultures, customs, film, global conflicts, international relations,
literature, music, philosophy, religion, sports, and theater. Written by experts,
all contain highly informative introductory essays on the topic and detailed
chronologies that, in some cases, cover vast historical time periods but still
manage to heavily feature more recent events.
Brief A–Z entries describe the main people, events, politics, social issues,
institutions, and policies that make the topic unique, and entries are cross-
referenced for ease of browsing. Extensive bibliographies are divided into
several general subject areas, providing excellent access points for students,
researchers, and anyone wanting to know more. Additionally, maps, pho-
tographs, and appendixes of supplemental information aid high school and
college students doing term papers or introductory research projects. In short,
the historical dictionaries are the perfect starting point for anyone looking to
research in these fields.
Historical Dictionary
of Cuba
HISTORICAL DICTIONARIES OF
THE AMERICAS
Jon Woronoff, Series Editor
Honduras, 2nd edition, by Harvey K. Meyer and Jessie H. Meyer. 1994.
Mexico, 2nd edition, by Marvin Àlisky. 2008.
Colombia, by Harvey F. Kline. 2012.
Panama, by Thomas M. Leonard. 2015.
Dominican Republic, by Eric Paul Roorda. 2016.
El Salvador, by Orlando J. Perez. 2016.
Chile, 4th edition, by Salvatore Bizzarro. 2017.
Peru, by Peter F. Klarén. 2017.
Venezuela, 3rd edition, by Tomás Straka, Guillermo Guzmán Mirabal, and
Alejandro E. Cáceres. 2018.
Guatemala, by Michael F. Fry, 2018.
Trinidad and Tobago, by Rita Pemberton, Debbie McCollin, Gelien Mat-
thews, and Michael Toussaint. 2018.
Costa Rica, new edition, by David Diaz-Arias, Ronny Viales Hurtado, and
Juan José Marin Hernández. 2019.
Argentina, new edition, by Bernardo A. Duggan and Colin M. Lewis. 2019.
Ecuador, by George M. Lauderbaugh. 2019.
Haiti, 2nd edition by Fequiere Vilsaint and Michael R. Hall. 2021.
Cuba, 3rd edition, by Antoni Kapcia. 2022.
Historical Dictionary
of Cuba
Third Edition
Antoni Kapcia
ROWMAN & LITTLEFIELD
Lanham • Boulder • New York • London
Published by Rowman & Littlefield
An imprint of The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc.
4501 Forbes Boulevard, Suite 200, Lanham, Maryland 20706
www.rowman.com
86-90 Paul Street, London EC2A 4NE, United Kingdom
Copyright © 2022 by Antoni Kapcia
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any
electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems,
without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote
passages in a review.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Kapcia, Antoni, author.
Title: Historical dictionary of Cuba / Antoni Kapcia.
Description: Third edition. | Lanham : Rowman & Littlefield, [2022] |
Series: Historical dictionaries of the Americas | Previous editions
written by Jaime Suchlicki and published by Scarecrow Press. | Includes
bibliographical references. | Summary: “Historical Dictionary of Cuba
contains a chronology, an introduction, and an extensive bibliography.
The dictionary section has several hundred cross-referenced entries on
important personalities, politics, economy, foreign relations, religion,
and culture. This book is an excellent resource for students,
researchers, and anyone wanting to know more about Cuba”—Provided by
publisher.
Identifiers: LCCN 2021057097 (print) | LCCN 2021057098 (ebook) | ISBN
9781442264540 (cloth) | ISBN 9781442264557 (epub)
Subjects: LCSH: Cuba—History—Dictionaries.
Classification: LCC F1754 .K37 2022 (print) | LCC F1754 (ebook) | DDC
972.91003—dc23/eng/20211129
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021057097
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021057098
™
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of
American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper
for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992.
Contents
Foreword ix
Reader’s Note xi
List of Acronyms and Abbreviations xiii
Maps xix
Glossary xxi
Chronology xxix
Introduction 1
The Dictionary 7
Bibliography 643
About the Author 673
vii
Foreword
There is no need to argue that Cuba is a special country. There are some coun-
tries that have been ruled by a single party (often enough communist) during
decades, but rarely for as long as Cuba. Indeed, most of those who read this
book will not have known it to be led by any party other than the Communist
Party since 1965, six years after Fidel Castro came to power and became
prime minister, was elected president in 1976, and then only ceased being
president in 2008 when he stepped down for health reasons. He was then
followed briefly by his brother and long-time collaborator Raúl Castro. But
while the man at the top did change, especially with the coming of Miguel
Diaz-Canel, the regime still did not change much until the time of writing this
preface. So to say that Cuba is unique is no exaggeration.
What will happen next we do not know, although we can make more or
less educated guesses, and among them is certainly that it will remain a “com-
munist” country, although it will certainly not be the same sort of place it was
before. This makes the coincidental appearance of this historical dictionary
particularly fortuitous. For this is a particularly good time to look both for-
ward and backward in order to see what was accomplished by the seemingly
endless regime and also what may come to pass in the coming years. Prob-
ably as President Biden and many others have said, this is a “failed state,”
in terms of both what it achieved and even more so what had been expected
in the heady days of the Cuban Revolution. But this conclusion is simplistic,
as even then some things have been accomplished, and certainly overall a lot
has changed. So we are particularly happy to come out with a new edition of
this book.
Writing a book on modern Cuba is not an easy task, and we are most
fortunate to have found someone who knows the country so well and has in
fact devoted most of his professional life to studying, visiting, and lecturing
about Cuba, namely Antoni Kapcia. He is presently emeritus professor of the
University of Nottingham, where most of his career was devoted to Cuba and
during which he has written numerous articles and other works, including two
books: Leadership in the Cuban Revolution: The Unseen Story (2014) and A
Short History of Revolutionary Cuba: Revolution, Power, Authority and the
State from 1959 to the Present Day (2020). His career concluded with the
ix
