The Merchant of Havana: The Jew in the Cuban Abolitionist Archive

221 Pages·2016·1.509 MB·English

by  Stephen Silverstein

The
Merchant

of
HAVANA
The Jew in the Cuban Abolitionist Archive
STEPHEN SILVERSTEIN
The Merchant of Havana

THE Merchant
Havana
of

The Jew in the Cuban Abolitionist Archive
STEPHEN SILVERSTEIN
Vanderbilt University Press Nashville
© 2016 by Vanderbilt University Press
Nashville, Tennessee 37235
All rights reserved
First printing 2016
This book is printed on acid-free paper.
Manufactured in the United States of America
Frontispiece: Lithograph showing a sugar refinery plant in Cuba.
Title: Ingenio Acana propriedad del Señor Dn. J. Eusebio Alfonso //
dibujado y litogrdo. por Edo. Laplante ; litografia de L. Marquier.
Illustration from Los ingenios : coleccion de vistas de los principales
ingenios de azucar . . . de Cuba . . . / por Justo G. Cantero (Habana :
Impreso en la litografia de L. Marquier, 1857)
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data on file
LC control number 2016030960
LC classification number HT1078 .S55 2016
Dewey class number 306.3/6209729109/034—dc23
LC record available at lccn.loc.gov/2016030960
ISBN 978-0-8265-2109-5 (hardcover)
ISBN 978-0-8265-2111-8 (ebook)
For Alla
and for my parents

Contents

Acknowledgments ix
Introduction 1
1 The Notional Jew: Judaizing the Merchant 13
2 Racial Prescriptions and Inscriptions
in Gertrudis Gómez de Avellaneda’s Sab (1841) 35
3 Racial Alchemy and Alejandro Tapia y
Rivera’s La cuarterona (1867) 57
4 The Jewish Escape Hatch from Cuba Impossible:
Cirilo Villaverde’s Cecilia Valdés (1882) 79
Conclusion 105
Notes 111
Works Cited 185
Index 199

Acknowledgments
The Merchant of Havana began and, over several years, developed un-
der the intelligent, patient guidance of Ruth Hill. She is the source of
anything that may be worthwhile in this book.
I am deeply grateful to my teachers in the Department of Spanish,
Italian, and Portuguese at the University of Virginia. Special thanks go
to Fernando Operé, Gustavo Pellón, and Alison Weber. I found valu-
able support in Asher Biemann and the Interdisciplinary Graduate Fel-
lows of Jewish Studies program at the University of Virginia, which he
organized. The Public Humanities Fellowship Program in South Atlan-
tic Studies, sponsored jointly by the College of Arts and Sciences at the
University of Virginia and the Virginia Foundation for the Humani-
ties, provided a venue to calibrate several of my arguments. Research
in Havana was made possible by a Charles Gordon Reid Fellowship
from the University of Virginia, as well as by the generous assistance
of Ana María González Marfud, Carlos Federico Martí Brenes, Ariel
Camejo, and José Antonio Baujín Pérez at the University of Havana. I
thank Jorge and Nardy León for their friendship and hospitality.
I have exceptionally supportive colleagues in the Department of
Modern Languages and Cultures at Baylor University. Heidi Bostic’s
counsel and encouragement have been invaluable, and a chapter of this
study has benefitted from her insightful reading. Elizabeth Willingham
graciously invited me to present some of my ideas at a conference panel
she organized. Marian Ortuño provided smart critique of a portion
of this book. My friends in the Spanish Division have been generous
and kind: Frieda Blackwell, Rafa Climent Espino, Jan Evans, Guill-
ermo García Corales, Baudelio Garza, Karol Hardin, Paul Larson, Fred
Loa, Linda McManness, Alex McNair, Janet Norden, Manuel Ortuño,
Marian Ortuño, Lilly Souza Fuertes, Mike Thomas, and Beth Willing-
[ix]