Guantánamo: a Working-Class History Between Empire and Revolution
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GUANTÁNAMO AMERICAN CROSSROADS Edited by Earl Lewis, George Lipsitz, Peggy Pascoe, George Sánchez, and Dana Takagi Guantánamo A Working-Class History between Empire and Revolution JANA K. LIPMAN UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS Berkeley Los Angeles London University of California Press, one of the most distinguished university presses in the United States, enriches lives around the world by advancing scholarship in the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences. Its activities are supported by the UC Press Foundation and by philanthropic contributions from individuals and institutions. For more information, visit www.ucpress.edu. University of California Press Berkeley and Los Angeles, California University of California Press, Ltd. London, England © 2009 by The Regents of the University of California Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Lipman, Jana K. Guantánamo : a working-class history between empire and revolution / Jana K. Lipman. p. cm.—(American crossroads ; 25) Includes bibliographical references and index. isbn 978-0-520-25539-5 (cloth : alk. paper) isbn 978-0-520-25540-1 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Guantánamo Bay Naval Base (Cuba)—Employees— History. 2. Civil-military relations—Cuba—Guantánamo Bay. 3. Navy-yards and naval stations, American—Cuba— History. 4. Caimanera (Cuba)—History. 5. Guantánamo (Cuba)—History. I. Title. VA68.G8L57 2009 359.7097291'67—dc22 2008021092 Manufactured in the United States of America 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 09 10 987654321 This book is printed on Natures Book, which contains 50% postconsumer waste and meets the minimum requirements of ansi/niso z39.48–1992 (r 1997) (Permanence of Paper). For Eli This page intentionally left blank Contents List of Illustrations / ix Introduction Between Guantánamo and GTMO / 1 Prologue Regional Politics, 1898, and the Platt Amendment / 19 1 The Case of Kid Chicle: Military Expansion and Labor Competition, 1939–1945 / 29 2 “We Are Real Democrats”: Legal Debates and Cold War Unionism before Castro, 1940–1954 / 61 3 Good Neighbors, Good Revolutionaries, 1940–1958 / 100 4 A “Ticklish” Position: Revolution, Loyalty, and Crisis, 1959–1964 / 144 5 Contract Workers, Exiles, and Commuters: Neocolonial and Postmodern Labor Arrangements / 191 Epilogue Post 9/11: Empire and Labor Redux / 215 Appendix: Guantánamo Civil Registry, 1921–1958 / 229 Notes / 235 Selected Bibliography / 293 Acknowledgments / 309 Index / 313 vii This page intentionally left blank Illustrations FIGURES 1. Early postcard representing local fruit sellers in Guantánamo Bay. 20 2. “Hoisting the Flag at Guantánamo, June 12, 1898.” 22 3. World War II–era postcard of downtown Caimanera. 40 4. Caricature of Lino Lemes García, August 1955. 47 5. Lorenzo Salomón describing being struck by a U.S. officer, October 15, 1954. 63 6. Eusebio Mujal, political advertisement, May 1948. 77 7. U.S. Admiral Taylor at a local Guantánamo function, June 1955. 106 8. World War II–era postcard of U.S. sailors on liberty arriving in Guantánamo. 107 9. World War II–era postcard of a bar in Caimanera. 108 10. Campesino rejecting U.S. rent for the naval base, July 17, 1964. 147 11. Cuban base workers receiving pay, February 1, 1960. 159 12. East boundary fence of Guantánamo naval base, January 11, 1961. 163 ix X ILLUSTRATIONS 13. Cuban base workers on the Guantánamo naval base, February 1, 1960. 165 14. “Guard and Sentry Dog Patrol Border,” March 1961. 170 15. The Plaza of the Revolution in Guantánamo, April 2006. 189 MAPS 1. Cuba. xi 2. Guantánamo and the U.S. naval base in Guantánamo Bay (GTMO). xii FLORIDA N Miami ATLANTIC OCEAN BAHAMAS Havana CUBA Guantánamo Santiago de Cuba U.S. naval base at HAITI DOMINICAN Guantánamo Bay REPUBLIC JAMAICA 0 150 mi 0 250 km CARIBBEAN SEA Map 1. Cuba. railroad Guantánamo road to Northeast Gate opened 1955–56 N GUANTÁNAMO BAY Caimanera Boquerón Northeast Gate U.S. naval base U.S. naval base 0 123 mi 02341 5 km CARIBBEAN SEA Map 2. Guantánamo and the U.S. naval base in Guantánamo Bay (GTMO). Introduction Between Guantánamo and GTMO met Robert Duncan in Havana at a Cuba-Jamaica World Cup soccer qualifying match in 2001. I was conducting research on exchanges be- Itween Cuba and Jamaica in the 1950s and 1960s, and the Jamaican Embassy staff had invited me to the game. At halftime, I was introduced to Robert, an older Cuban man who spoke perfect English with a Ja- maican accent. I told Robert that I was interested in learning about Ja- maican descendants living in Cuba before and after the Cuban revolu- tion. Without further prompting, he shared his story. Robert’s parents were born in Jamaica and, like thousands of British West Indians in the early twentieth century, they migrated to Cuba look- ing for work. In the end, his father and mother both found positions on the U.S. naval base in Guantánamo Bay. Robert explained that his par- ents were apolitical and conservative and, like many West Indians of the era, opted to remain outside of Cuban politics. In contrast, Robert was eager to take part in the fight against Fulgencio Batista’s corrupt and il- legitimate government. In 1958 Cuban rebels camped out in the nearby hills surrounding the city of Guantánamo. Sixteen-year-old Robert de- cided to run off and join the revolutionaries. His choice caused discord and debates within his family, but Robert insisted. He was born in Cuba, and he wanted to join the struggle. Despite his family’s initial anger and 1 2 INTRODUCTION political neutrality, Robert’s father clandestinely pilfered boots, back- packs, and supplies from the base to help his son. Robert could rattle off a list of his compañeros who were also descendants of West Indians with ties to the base. He commented that he and his friends were more pro- fessional than the other rebels, because they had regular contact with the naval base and were accustomed to military culture and discipline. The rest, as they say, is history: Batista fled, Robert marched with the rebel forces into Havana, and the revolution triumphed. Robert remained a career army officer, training in Moscow and serving with distinction as a lieutenant colonel in Angola.1 Robert’s testimony intrigued me because it so gracefully revealed a multinational community within Guantánamo where Cubans, West In- dians, and North Americans lived in close proximity. It also suggested a local history of the U.S. naval base in Guantánamo that I had never imag- ined, and one that pointedly demonstrated the limits of U.S. imperial power. Even along the perimeter of its naval base, the United States could not stop the Cuban revolution, nor could it prevent men like Robert from joining the rebel forces or, in the case of his father, from stealing U.S. supplies. On this same research trip, I traveled to Guantánamo, Cuba, to meet with members of the British West Indian Welfare Centre. There, too, men and women told me how their families had worked on the U.S. military base. As most North Americans might be, I was startled to learn there was a relatively large Cuban city named Guantánamo, with more than a hundred thousand people, an active city center, two movie theaters, and a network of horse and buggy routes that looped through the city. There was no immediate evidence that we were just over a dozen miles away from a U.S. military base, and only the overwhelming heat re- minded me that, for all intents and purposes, Guantánamo was land- locked. From the city, Guantánamo Bay and the base were invisible and inaccessible. One month after I returned from Cuba, Al Qaeda terrorists attacked the United States on September 11, 2001. With the subsequent invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, the U.S. government made the unprecedented decision to imprison alleged Al Qaeda members on the U.S. naval base in Guantánamo Bay. The former nineteenth-century Caribbean military outpost had a newfound purpose in the War on Terror. Notwithstand- ing more than one hundred years of occupation, the U.S. government claimed that the U.S. Constitution did not extend to the base, and “ulti- mate sovereignty” remained with the Cuban government. This legal fic-.