Blacks in Latin America - Cuba

Cuba received

about 780,000 African slaves, almost twice the number that arrived in the United States

When Fidel Castro took over Cuba

he declared “socialism would put an end to the racism that was an endemic part of Cuban Society”

Christopher Columbus landed in Cuba in

1492

Cuba’s economy didn’t take off until the 18th and early 19th century because

The Haitian Revolution cut off sugar so countries had to turn to Cuban planters for resources

To also fill the absence of Haiti, slaves were

imported in mass to Cuba

Taino

indigenous slave plantation in Cuba

Santoria Religious ceremony

spiritual practices blending Yoruba and Catholic traditions, often involving drumming, dancing, and singing to honor deities called orishas in Cuba

Elegua

“God of the Pathways” in Afro-Cuban history, key dieity in the Santería religion

In Brazil the same rituals used in Vodou (Haiti), 3.20 mark

Cuba didn’t abolish slavery until

1886, 21 years after America did

By 1840

Cuba had become the largest producer of sugar, after haiti and was worked by african slaves

Angerona, Artemisa Province of Cuba

former coffee plantation in Cuba aka Ruins of the Old Angerona Coffee Plantation

initallly 428 slaves

produced coffee, sugar on a very large scale

Professor Carmen Barcia

dedicated life to study of slavery in Cuba

What was the effect of the Haitian Revolution on white people and planters?

Fueled unrest and fear of the slaves uprising against their masters

The Haitian slaves revolted against their masters in 

1791

Cuban planters were scared because the Haitian revolution proved slaves could show dominance, they changed to operate their plantations

like prisions

Cuban planters constructed

watchtowers to watch their slaves

By 1825, all of Spain’s American colonies were independent except

Puerto Rico and Cuba

Cuba did not give up slavery because

The sugar industry in Cuba was too profitable to lose

Santiago de Cuba

Province in Cuba, also Cuba’s second largest city where most of the battles of freedom were fought

Carlos Manuel de Céspedes

Cuban planter who launched the war for the Ten Years’ War of Cuban Independence

October 10th, 1868, Carlos told his slaves

that he was going to launch a war of independence against Spain and invited them to join him (after freeing them)

In 1874, Cespedese (Carlos) was

killed by Spanish troops

The 10 years war ended in

1788

Antonio Maceo

Referred to as Cuba’s “Bronze Titian” was a prominent military figure during Cuba’s fight for independence from the Spanish

Antonio Maceo joined the was a common soilder yet promoted to general in the span of

weeks, days

Antonio Maceo said

“Yes, I am a man of color and because of that I don’t think I am any less than anyone else”

Spain tried to use the fact that Maceo and over half of his army were black to

fearmonger that independence would only lead to another Haiti

Antonio Maceo was accused of

wanting to start another Haiti

Jose Marti, leader of the movement proclaimed

the idea of this being another Haiti would be blasphemous, calling Spain’s bluff

Black and white soilders during the Cuban Independence Movement

fought and died together

To Maeco

Blacks and whites were Cubans, and Spain was their enemy

Between 1895 and 1898, the United States Government

‘Cast a weary eye’ both on the Spanish conduct of the war and the Cuban Army

As conflict rises, the American Government sent

USS Marine to protect American interests in January 1898, and the warship mysteriously exploded in Havana

Parts of the sunken battleship were visible in Havana for over

14 years

How did the American intervention affect the war of Indpendence?

It put an end to Cuban colonial history and the 400 years of colonization, and it is also thought that the explosion of the ship led to heavy American involvement in the Cuban war, expelling Spain from Cuba.

The war between Spain and Cuba was over in

10 weeks

Vicente Gota More

Black priest sent a letter congratulating one of the Cuban generals on the war

In Vicente’s letter, he mentions

“long live our land and a free Cuba”

Why was it unusual for a black man to write a letter?

Many slaves who came to Cuba did not know how to write and were illiterate

The US intervention in Cuba’s fight for independence agaisnt Spain

prevented the birth of an independent republic

In 1902, Cuba was allowed to [] while the US remained in total control of the island

elect their own President

America tried to impose

Segregationist policies on the Cuban people, the US government forced Cubans to have segregated police and artillery forces

American racial polices aline with

Cuban Elites, relatives of slave owners

During the American occupation on September 19th, 1899, America

exhumed and examined Antonio Maeco’s brain and body to analyze whether he was more European (white) or black, 3 years after his death

Dr. Armando Rangel Rivero

Montane anthropological museum worker

Americans concluded that Antonio

couldn’t be black and interpreted him to be European, messing with his portrayal in history

Quinton Banderas

powerful black leader in the Revolution Cuba

Post war, Quinton Banderas

struggled to find a job, 4 years later, he was imprisoned and then ordered to be executed by the President of Cuba

Pedro Ivanet

a co-founder and leader of the Partido Independiente de Color (PIC), the Independent Party of Color, a Cuban political party founded in 1908 by Afro-Cuban veterans of the War of Independence. declared he would fight for a racially equal republic

Bubponic plauge

diease spread by rats and other animals that killed Cubans

Black people were depicted the same in Cuba as in America because they were drawn as

monkeys

Tradition in Parks

Blacks could not enter parks because they were ‘white areas’

How many of Pedro’s followers were killed in his revolt against the government?

3,000 of his followers

Pedro Ivanel died by

being shot in the back while trying to escaoe

Many white Cubans

wanted to distance themselves from blackness and wanted to be similar to Jim Crow America

Carnival in Cuba was made by

slaves and poor whites in the 17th and 18th century

Afro-Cubans were banned from

playing African instruments and celebrating african religions during Carnival

1906 Immigration law appropriated 1 million dollars ‘whiten Cuba’, bringing

600,000 Europens mostly from Spain for the next 20 years. this caused black music to be surpressed

son

Black musical style in Cuba developed toward the end of the 19th century. Was originally played in hiding but had gained prominence

son was banned because

police would come and arrest

son is made up of the instruments from

Spanish string guitar, African drums, and the vocals are more African than Spanish

Son became officially recognized as Cuban culture/unbanned after

Cuban President Machado had a son band play for his birthday in 1925

Cubanidad

concept that originated in the 1920s to explain the multicultural and the multicolored people of Cuba

ajiaco cubano

stew/soup in cuba

ajiaco metaphor

cuba loses some of its original flavor to gain new flavors

In the 1940s, Cuba began to officially

Embrace its mixed culture and ban racial discrimination

American tourists came to Cuba in the 20th century to

havana’s hotels and increased Cuba’s prosperity

Myer Lanksy

An American gambler and mafia member wanted to turn Havana into the Caribbean’s Las Vegas, and his influence held great power after General Fulgencio Batista got in power in 1952

General Fulgencio Batista

was the guardian of North American interests in Cuba, he was a mulatto

Batista didnt change

the racial segregation in Cuba, and still brought slaves after slavery was abolished

By 1957, cuba enjoyed

one of the highest per capita incomes but the prosperity was not equally distributed

Cuba saw two different Cubas in the 1950s

One well off and overwhelming white while the other black and overwhelmingly poor

1955, riots against 

Anti-Basitita demonstrations emerged, rebels were tortured and killed 

A group of revolutionaries rose against him, led by young attorny

Fidel Castro, waged a gurilla warfare against him

Commander Victor Dreke joined the cuban army at

15, and served for the next half century

The legendary battle that put victory above Batista

The Fall of Santa Clara

After the fall of Santa Clara

Batista fled the country with 180 of his cronies and 4 million us dollars

Fidel Castro proclaimed Racism to be

over, making it difficult to talk about racism

Informal Racism

something that sprouted after the Revolution

Castro’s government

proclaimed black and white were equal under the law,