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SOCIOPOLITICAL HISTORY OF CUBA.   Term Paper ID:30157 Click to get this paper

Essay Subject: Discusses hopes for racial equality as Cuba fought against Spanish Colonial rule, & the impact of the Cuban Revolution.... More...

6 Pages / 1350 Words 2 sources, 6 Citations, Format $24.00 Return to List of Papers

Paper Abstract: Discusses hopes for racial equality as Cuba fought against Spanish Colonial rule, & the impact of the Cuban Revolution. Importance of race in Cuban liberation. Cuban people's struggle for freedom. State of racial equality before and after Castro took over. Role of the U.S. in the independence movement of the Cuban people. Paper Introduction: Taken together, Ada Ferrer's Insurgent Cuba: Race, Nation, and Revolution, 1868-1898, and Alejandro de la Fuente's "Race and Equality in Cuba, 1899-1981," provide a complete picture of one issue essential to Cuban history. Ferrer explores the hopes of nationalists for racial equality as they fought against Spanish colonial rule, while de la Fuente shows how those hopes were only partly realized after independence. As with most political and social movements based on idealism to a certain degree, the Cuban revolution did alter the sociopolitical landscape, but not nearly as significantly as they would have hoped. Ferrer's book is rooted in the historical archives of Cuba, the United States, and Spain. It gives a full portrait of the importance of race in the movement for Cuban liberation under Spain in the last three decades of the nineteenth century, Text of the Paper: The entire text of the paper is shown below. However, the text is somewhat scrambled. We want to give you as much information as we possibly can about our papers and essays, but we cannot give them away for free. In the text below you will find that while disordered, many of the phrases are essentially intact. From this text you will be able to get a solid sense of the writing style, the concepts addressed, and the sources used in the research paper. On the one hand are government spokespeople whoargue that "There is no racial problem in contemporary Cuba" (de la Fuente131). Insurgent Cuba. This position holds that the Cuban revolution led by Fidel Castro,which took control of Cuba in 1959, has indeed brought about some degree ofracial equality among the different ethnic groups in the nation. Heseems to argue, in contrast to Ferrer, that there is an inherent element ofracism in Cuban culture that exists alongside the desire, goal or value ofracial justice and harmony. Ferrer explores the hopes of nationalists for racialequality as they fought against Spanish colonial rule, while de la Fuenteshows how those hopes were only partly realized after independence. Chapel Hill: U of North Carolina P, 1999.----------------------- 1 In fact, says de la Fuente, those anti-Castroites in the UnitedStates who claim that Castro has not practiced racial equality compare hispolicy to a false pre-Castro standard. As withmost political and social movements based on idealism to a certain degree,the Cuban revolution did alter the sociopolitical landscape, but not nearlyas significantly as they would have hoped. The blacks, ex-slaves,might have believed that they would automatically win equality and freedomon a par with whites after the war, but the reality was far from such adream. Ferrer also argues that the historical record is too often focused onthe role of the United States in the final andcrucial years of the last century, when Spain's dominance was finallyoverthrown. While this may have beendisappointing to those Cubans who truly hoped for and/or expected a racialparadise in the wake of the wars against the Spanish, it is not anunexpected result of such a set of circumstances. While the Cuban rebel army itself was racially integrated, victoryover the Spanish did not bring about the elimination of racial inequalitiesand injustices hoped for by the Cubans. Among the goals of the revolutionaries was the establishment of asociety, which did not discriminate against individuals based on theirrace. Modern, post-revolutionary Cuba's record on racerelations reflects its overall success in bringing about the socialequality it promised, says de la Fuente, which is a qualified success. However, in bothemotional and historical senses, Ferrer's work is indeed more compellingand instructive. On the other extreme "are those who deny that there has been anyimprovement in race relations in revolutionary Cuba." Such a pessimisticview is held by Cuban exiles and their supporters in the United States,says the author (de la Fuente 131). Ferrer goes on to show the sustained and determined effort of theCuban people in their long struggle for freedom, and the reader comes tobelieve that once freedom is achieved, the Cuban people will be able tofulfill the dreams of liberation, including racial equality and the justicefor all that flows from such equality. It is not surprising, then, to find the same occurrence in Cuba. It gives a full portrait of the importance ofrace in the movement for Cuban liberation under Spain in the last threedecades of the nineteenth century, decades, which saw three wars fought inattempts to throw off the Spanish rulers. The strongest part of Ferrer's book is her evidence--based onarchival material--that the rebels of the last three decades of thenineteenth century in Cuba were clearly in favor of racial integration andequality, despite the fact that, as de la Fuente shows, those desires andmotivations were not fulfilled in the early decades of the twentiethcentury after the ousting of the Spanish: If this integrated army was one pillar of the revolution, the other was significantly less tangible. The fact that the hopes of the rebels of the nineteenthcentury did not begin to be fulfilled for decades after the rebellionagainst the Spanish does not diminish the poignant story of a multiracialarmy of Cubans fighting a colonial force for freedom and equality. In fact, the two works do notconflict but rather complement one another, giving the reader a portrait ofchange in Cuba over a century of struggle for freedom. Not only is this inaccurate, the author says, but it diminishesthe actual role played by Cubans as well asthe efficacy of the entire independence movement of the Cuban people. 3 , 1995. . Ferrer takes the reader through a detailed anddeep study of the nature of the rebellion against the Spanish and the Cubanpeople who carried out that rebellion. Vol. That pre-Castro state was far fromracially equal or just, and to pretend that it was effectively steals fromCastro his right to claim that he and his government have indeed won somedegree of racial equality since the revolution proved victorious in 1959. . Whatever the mixed success of Castro's Cuba with respect to race,it has been a great success compared to what came before 1959. However, the author notes that other data suggest that inequality--especially as it affects blacks--continue to exist in Cuban society.Therefore, to say that there has been no advance in racial equality wouldbe to deceive, just as it would be deceptive to say that racial inequalityhad been eliminated. Ferrer's book is rooted in the historical archives of Cuba, theUnited States, and Spain. Works Citedde la Fuente, Alejandro. De la Fuente, on the other hand, shows that once independence waswon, this ideal goal was only partly manifested in post-colonial rule. It is the latter quality of Ferrer's book, the drama and struggleportrayed over three decades, that moved this reader more than thestatistics-based study by de la Fuente. In fact, the same results followed the Civil War in the United Stateswhere blacks served in the fight against the South. Another crucial aspect of Ferrer's study is the fact that the armyitself arose basically from a culture of slavery: "That this revolutionemerged from that slave society makes the story of Cuban independence aremarkable and compelling one" (Ferrer 3). Even then, the results were moderatecompared to what they had hoped would come about at the turn of the century(that is, the turn from the nineteenth to the twentieth). In fact, de la Fuente walks a middle roadbetween the two extremes. In such an historical context, de la Fuente concludes that Castro'sCuba has indeed seen some success in bringing about greater racialintegration and equality: Inequality has been greatly reduced--in some areas eliminated-- but the indicators we have used come from those very areas where the revolution has been particularly successful: health and education (de la Fuente 161). At thesame time, however, this degree of racial equality, almost a century afterthe nation won independence from Spain, is far from the dream and the idealheld by the revolutionaries in the late nineteenth century. The aims of therebellion or insurgency were clearly stated with respect to racial issues.The Cuban fighters wanted to do away with the slavery institutionalized bythe Spaniards, as well as the elimination of all forms of social, economicand political racism. (Ferrer 3). 131-168.Ferrer, Ada. De la Fuente's analysis is additionally useful insofar as it allowsthe reader to compare the race-related hopes of the nineteenth centuryrevolutionaries to the reality of racial relations up to the time ofCastro. Taken together, Ada Ferrer's Insurgent Cuba: Race, Nation, andRevolution, 1868-1898, and Alejandro de la Fuente's "Race and Equality inCuba, 1899-1981," provide a complete picture of one issue essential toCuban history. Most importantly in measuring the sincerity of the Cubans in theirdesire for racial equality, Ferrer shows that the rebel army was indeedmultiracial in its struggle for freedom and independence. It was a powerful rhetoric of antiracism that began to flourish during the first rebellion and became much more dominant. When de la Fuente picks up the historical struggle after the Spanishrule, he shows how the dreams for such equality have not been realized, buthe also shows that they were not as utterly dashed by postcolonial realityas some pessimists might hold. For example, examining census reports, de la Fuentefinds that "these data do not support assertions of a process of 'racialintegration'--in the sense of increasing racial equality--in pre-revolutionary Cuba," with reference to whites, blacks and mulattos (de laFuente 138-139). The major problem in determining the true state of racial equality inCastro's Cuba is determining the state of that equality before Castro tookover. . Therevolutionaries examined by Ferrer would surely be disappointed to findthat the racial equality they sought in their decades-long struggle againstthe Spanish did not begin to yield significant results until six moredecades into the twentieth century. De la Fuente considers most accurate "an intermediate position" whichholds that a student of Cuban history must be able to differentiate betweentruths existent in different eras of Cuban society in the twentiethcentury. De la Fuente applies both the integration thesis and the structuralapproach to his examination of the state of racial relations in Cuba in thetwentieth century. Ferrer has far more time to examine his subject in his book than doesde la Fuente in his essay. "Race and Equality in Cuba, 1899-1981." Journal of Contemporary History. If this paper is not what you are looking for, you can search again: Search for: or Click here to request an essay written just for you.