Historical Perspectives

307 Pages·2011·7.57 MB·English

Cuba Futures Series
H I S T O R I C A L
P E R S P E C T I V E S
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Presented at the International Symposium
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CUBRA FUTURES: PAST AND PRESENT
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March 31- April 2, 2011
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The Cuba Project Bildner Center for Western Hemisphere Studies
The Graduate Center, CUNY
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C F :
UBA UTURES
H P
ISTORICAL ERSPECTIVES
Edited by M. Font
Bildner Center for Western Hemisphere Studies
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Presented at the international symposium “Cuba Futures: Past and
Present,” organized by the The Cuba Project
Bildner Center for Western Hemisphere Studies
The Graduate Center/CUNY, March 31–April 2, 2011
EssaysOnCubanHistory.book Page iv Friday, June 17, 2011 12:09 PM
iv Chapter 1
EssaysOnCubanHistory.book Page i Friday, June 17, 2011 12:09 PM
C F :
UBA UTURES
H P
ISTORICAL ERSPECTIVES

Bildner Center for Western Hemisphere Studies

www.cubasymposium.org
www.bildner.org
EssaysOnCubanHistory.book Page iii Friday, June 17, 2011 12:09 PM
Table of Contents
Preface v
The Early Cuban Republic
1 Democracy in Cuba Principles and Practice, 1902-1952
Mary Speck 1
2 Cuban Corporatism: Batista’s Three-Year Plan and a Nation Betrayedt
Brenden M. Carbonell 29
3 An Anarchist Crucible: International Anarchist Migrants and Their
Cuban Experiences, 1900-1915
Kirwin R. Shaffer 53

The 1950s and Revolution
4 Sugar and Revolution, 1952-2002
Luis Martínez-Fernández 75
5 From Fighting Batista to Defending the Revolution: Mobilization and Popular
Support for Revolutionary Change, 1952–1961
Albert Manke 101
6 El Derecho de Nacer: Legitimidad, historia y literatura en Cuba (1952-1976)
Rafael Rojas 129
7 Young People, Youth Organisations and Mass Participation, 1952-1962
Anne Luke 153
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8 La encrucijada histórica de los años 50 en Cuba: Revolución o Reforma
Jorge Renato Ibarra Guitart 175
9 ¿Sujetos olvidados? Trabajadores, historiografía y revolución en Cuba
Ricardo Quiza 189
10 Meeting the Neighbors: Fidel Castro’s April 1959 Trip to the United States
Matt Jacobs 215

Nineteenth-Century Cuba
11 Cuba’s Attempts at Democracy: The Colony
Roger Betancourt 239
12 The War of 1868 and the Growth of Cuban New York
Lisandro Pérez 261
13 The Hernández Family: Migration, Cubanidad, and Transnational
Identities
Evelyn Powell Jennings 277
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Preface
The dynamics of contemporary Cuba—the politics, culture, economy, and
the people—were the focus of the three-day international symposium, Cuba
Futures: Past and Present (organized by the Bildner Center at The Graduate
Center, CUNY). As one of the largest and most dynamic conferences on
Cuba to date, the Cuba Futures symposium drew the attention of specialists
from all parts of the world. Nearly 600 individuals attended the 57 panels
and plenary sessions over the course of three days.
Over 240 panelists from the US, Cuba, Britain, Spain, Germany, France,
Canada, and other countries combined perspectives from various fields
including social sciences, economics, arts and humanities. They provided in-
depth treatment of a wide range of topics, including US-Cuba relations,
healthcare, the history and legacy of the Cuban revolution, the increasingly
complex Cuban diasporas, cinema, music, literature, and cultural institutions,
the visual and performing arts, religion, the role of intellectuals, urban
spaces, civil society, democracy, the impact of the Internet and technology,
social development, non-governmental organizations, Afro-Cuban cultural
movements, gender and sexuality, tourism, and race and ethnicity. The con-
ference also discussed Cuba's links to the rest of the world.
The conference was organized by Bildner Center director Mauricio A.
Font and the Cuba Futures organizing committee, consisting of a growing
number of Cuba specialists at the City University of New York, with support
from the Bildner Center staff. Since 1997, The Cuba Project has been orga-
nizing related conferences creating a space for sustained dialogue on con-
temporary issues of Cuban society. The papers in this volume were
presented during the Cuba Futures conference and focus on Cuban history.
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Democracy in Cuba:
1
Principles and Practice,
1902–1952
By Mary Speck
Cubans and Cuba scholars (like their U.S. counterparts) tend to stress
the island nation’s exceptionalism. Before 1898, Cuba was exceptional
as “la isla siempre fiel,” one of only two Spanish colonies in the Ameri-
cas (along with Puerto Rico), that did not win independence in the
early 19th century. It was exceptional again after it finally broke away
from Spain in 1898 only to the humiliating status of US protectorate
under the Platt Amendment. Cuba became even more exceptional
after 1959, when Fidel Castro succeeded in transforming the island
into the only communist state in the Western Hemisphere. This thrust
Cuba into the center of the Cold War, spawning a profusion of books
and articles on the origins and evolution of the Cuban revolution.1
The rarity of work—especially comparative work—on the Cuban
Republic contrasts starkly with the abundance of scholarship on the
Cuban revolution. Few historians and political scientists have both-
1. I would like to thank the National Endowment for Democracy where I conducted
research for this paper as a visiting fellow.
1