DOCSLIB.ORG

To-Morrow in Cuba

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
To-Morrow in Cuba %, ^ %. ^ '^o tS <js % r- '^ fU. \? ?°« a\> </\ ,,: - ^> <£ % #'% <-* * \*\ ' "W ^ ^° <?* <£ - % -^ "3-" V cf> ,<^ *^v ^ r^ *V V^ ^ ^ Oo .0 % ^ *y ** c^M- OO 1 - ^ x . \ % ? %/ i«* .%• 8 4 "^ -5° ,0© "%. : ^ <**«. Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2011 with funding from The Library of Congress http://www.archive.org/details/tomorrowincubaOOpepp To -Morrow in Cuba BY CHARLES M. PEPPER NEW YORK AND LONDON HARPER & BROTHERS PUBLISHERS 1899 TWO COPIES RECEIVED, ossicr KGif : i> \m SECOND COPY, Copyright, 1899, by Harper & Brothers, All rights reserved. JDe&fcatfom TO THE MEMOBY OF MY FATHEK, THE REVEREND GEORGE W. PEPPER. PREFACE My profession as a newspaper correspondent took me to Cuba in the spring of 1897. With the exception of a short intermission passed with the American army and navy outside the island, it kept me there in the midst of the events shaping the destiny of the Antilles. Impressions of these events as they appeared to me were published in various journals. They were record- ed from time to time as they were caught up at the moment. In the new responsibilities that have come to the American people in the border tropics, exact informa- tion is above all things desirable. At the end of more than two years it has seemed to me possible to give information with perhaps more confidence than in the beginning. What is set forth in these pages is not for the purpose of supporting preconceived opinions or of defending any special policy. While the author's views are stated, it has been his aim to set forth the facts on which these views are based. Some persons, doubtless, will reach different conclusions. Whatever opinions may be developed, it is important to know that the problems of Cuba cannot be settled from without. On the surface are the political questions ; but deeper than these lie the social and economic problems. It has PEEFACE seemed to me that if the American people could feel themselves more at home in the surroundings in which all these problems must be worked out, they would be better equipped for the task. As the majority of them cannot see for themselves, I have sought to make them see through other eyes, with the belief that they will be the better able to discriminate between the fretting cir- cumstances which are transitory and the underlying conditions which are permanent. To do this it is nec- essary to know something of the past, and it has been my aim to exhibit the revolutionary movements of the island in their true perspective. In conclusion, the utterance of an Italian statesman may be paraphrased, "Cuba is made, but who shall make the Cubans?" and the answer be given, "Them- selves." But under what conditions? Perhaps these pages may aid those who seek an answer for the good of Cuba and for the proper discharge of the responsibilities of the United States. C. M. P. Washington, D. C. CONTENTS. PAGE CHAPTEK I. Prologue to Autonomy, . .3 CHAPTEK II. The Western Invasion, . .23 CHAPTER III. Campos and Weyler, ........ 47 CHAPTER IV. Wooing the Lost Colony, 65 CHAPTER V. Epilogue to Autonomy, ........ 84 CHAPTER VI. Transition to Local Home Rule, 107 CHAPTER VII. Provinces as a Federal Framework, 124 CHAPTER VIII. The Race or Color, ........ 141 CHAPTER IX. The Spanish Colony, 159 CHAPTER X. Immigration and Colonization, ...... 175 CHAPTER XL Sugar and Tobacco—Other Products, 192 vii — TO-MOEEOW IN CUBA. PAGE CHAPTER XII. Trade and Taxation—Railways and Internal, Develop- ment, .......... 214 CHAPTER XIII. Religion as a Withered Branch, . 235 CHAPTER XIV. Cuban Priests the Living Branch, ..... 253 CHAPTER XV. Manners and Morals, . 273 CHAPTER XVI. American Military Control, 291 CHAPTER XVII. Political Aptitudes, ........ 309 CHAPTER XVIII. To-Day, . .328 Appendix A Bibliography, 350 Appendix B Trade Prospects, 356 PART I CHAPTERS FROM YESTERDAY — TO-MORROW IN CUBA CHAPTER I Prologue to Autonomy Record of an Experiment—The Pact of El Zanjtfn—Concessions Which Were Not Autonomy—Grouping into Political Parties Programme of the Liberals—Loyalists the Union Constitutionals —Echo of European Democratic Movement—Points of Agree- ment—Disappointment of Autonomists—Promulgation of Con- stitution—Growth of Autonomist Movement—Alarm of the Privileged Classes—Farce of Cuban Representation in the Cortes—Birth of Reformist Party—Its Members Opportunists- Parties Engulfed in the Waves of Revolution—Influence of Reciprocity Repeal and the Sugar Market. Autonomy was instituted in Cuba on New Year's Day, 1898. Twelve months later to a day Spanish sovereignty was yielded in trust to the United States. The developments of the intervening year were swift. So rapidly had they moved that the chapter with which they began was forgotten. In the broader field of world domain that has opened to the United States as a con- sequence of the war with Spain, the brief existence of this colonial experiment has almost passed from mind. Yet it was the first attempt of Spain in four centuries to give her colonies a system of self-government. Short as was the period, the story of the experiment is worthy of record. 3 TO-MORROW IN CUBA When the system was decreed in Cuba, the fondness of the Latin intellect for historical sequences caused much philosophical and reflective writing, which traced the series of events precedent as the prologue to a national drama. The real prologue to autonomy in the Spanish Antilles was the Ten-Years' War, which raged from 1868 to 1878. The machete and the torch then gained what peaceful agitation had not been able to achieve. The pact of El Zanjon which brought that insurrection to an end was arranged by Martinez Cam- pos and Maximo Gomez. It affirmed forgetfulness of the past and gave pledges for the future. It was based on j)romises to Cuba which were to insure to the rebel- lious island, once more become faithful, distinct politi- cal rights. Radical changes were to be made in the organic laws and in the administrative system. Cubans were to be recognized and to share in the government of Cuba. They were to have representation in the Cortes of Spain the same as Puerto Rico. Spain carried out the letter of the pact of El Zanjon. The organic laws were changed. The restrictive stat- utes of printing, of public meetings, and of associations or societies were modified and liberalized. A sup- posedly popular basis of Cuban representation in the Cortes was provided, and the electoral law was passed in conformity with that provision. In the administra- tive system the statute changes were many. They were carried into effect to the extent of a nominal compliance with the new laws. Mediaeval absolutism yielded some of its cherished and hereditary privileges. Tet neither the spirit nor the letter of the legislation enacted in 1878, and in subsequent years, was autono- A R I B B B a 5x<i TO-MOBKOW IN CUBA mous. It was as if one of the provinces of the penin- sula which had been under a discriminating system of laws and administration had succeeded in getting itself placed on the same plane as the other provinces. For a colony beyond seas requiring a definite measure of independence there was no recognition. A critical study of the statutes and the administrative reforms enacted by the Spanish Government after the peace of El Zan- jon produces a plain deduction. A Cuban citizen as a Spanish subject could engage in political agitation with less danger of coming under the charge of conspir- acy than formerly. Theoretically, also, his right to a share in the local administration was conceded. With a sincere and honest purpose on the part of the supe- rior authorities a reasonable degree of local and insular government might have been put in force. But the analysis of the legislation and of the decrees of 1878 and subsequent years shows that in essence there was little dilution of what had always been the cardinal principle of Spanish colonial government. This was military rule. The paths were sometimes crooked, the passages wound into labyrinths of cedulas, decrees, orders, edicts, circulars, and bandos. They brought up at the same barrier. The beginning and the end was the Gov- ernor-General exercising his military functions as Cap- tain-General. After 1878, Cuba had good, bad, and indifferent Captain-Generals. Their character was re- flected in the administration of the island. It would be an unnecessary task to set forth more in detail wherein the legislation and the administrative acts following the compact of El Zanjon were not autonomous. A comparison with the actual regime of autonomy TO-MOEEOW IN CUBA when established twenty years later is sufficient to demonstrate it. Though the conception of colonial home rule for Cuba was non-existent among the Spanish statesmen of that day, the perception of it was clear on the part of the thinking people of the island. They had felt it when, three years before raising the cry of Yarain 1868, they signed a petition thanking the Duke de la Torre for his motion in the Senate that political rights be granted Cuba. All those things and many more, they said in this document, foreshadowed that within a few years there would be a change in policy, and Cubans would be allowed some voice in the government of their own island. The educated and wealthy Cubans who in 1865 formed themselves into a national party and urged administrative and economic changes upon Madrid felt the lack of understanding among Spanish statesmen. The concessions asked were not a broad ap- plication of civil liberties. When their programme was rejected in its entirety they ceased to ask favors.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Spanish American War 8/6/11 1:19 PM Page Iii
    DM - Spanish American War 8/6/11 1:19 PM Page iii Defining Moments The spanish- American War Kevin Hillstrom and Laurie Collier Hillstrom 155 W. Congress, Suite 200 Detroit, MI 48226 DM - Spanish American War 8/6/11 1:19 PM Page v Table of Contents Preface . .ix How to Use This Book . .xiii Research Topics for Defining Moments: The Spanish-American War . .xv NARRATIVE OVERVIEW Prologue . .3 Chapter One: American Expansion in the 1800s . .7 Chapter Two: Spain and Its Colonies . .23 Chapter Three: The Call to Arms: Remember the Maine! . .35 Chapter Four: A “Splendid Little War” in Cuba . .53 Chapter Five: The War in the Philippines . .71 Chapter Six: American Imperialism in the New Century . .85 Chapter Seven: Legacy of the Spanish-American War . .103 BIOGRAPHIES Emilio Aguinaldo (1869-1964) . .121 Filipino Rebel Leader and Politician George Dewey (1837-1917) . .124 American Naval Commander of U.S. forces in the Pacific during the Spanish-American War William Randolph Hearst (1863-1951) . .128 American Newspaper Publisher of the New York Journal and Leading Architect of “Yellow Journalism” v DM - Spanish American War 8/6/11 1:19 PM Page vi Defining Moments: The Spanish-American War Queen Lili’uokalani (1838-1917) . .132 Last Monarch of the Kingdom of Hawaii Antonio Maceo (1845-1896) . .136 Cuban Military Leader in the Ten Years’ War and the Spanish-American War José Martí (1853-1895) . .140 Cuban Revolutionary Leader and Writer William McKinley (1843-1901) . .143 President of the United States during the Spanish-American War Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) . .147 Hero of the Spanish-American War and President of the United States, 1901-1909 Valeriano Weyler (1838-1930) .
    [Show full text]
  • African-Americans and Cuba in the Time(S) of Race Lisa Brock Art Institute of Chicago
    Contributions in Black Studies A Journal of African and Afro-American Studies Volume 12 Ethnicity, Gender, Culture, & Cuba Article 3 (Special Section) 1994 Back to the Future: African-Americans and Cuba in the Time(s) of Race Lisa Brock Art Institute of Chicago Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.umass.edu/cibs Recommended Citation Brock, Lisa (1994) "Back to the Future: African-Americans and Cuba in the Time(s) of Race," Contributions in Black Studies: Vol. 12 , Article 3. Available at: https://scholarworks.umass.edu/cibs/vol12/iss1/3 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Afro-American Studies at ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst. It has been accepted for inclusion in Contributions in Black Studies by an authorized editor of ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Brock: Back to the Future Lisa Brock BACK TO THE FUTURE: AFRICAN­ AMERICANS AND CUBA IN THE TIME(S) OF RACE* UBA HAS, AT LEAST SINCE the American revolution, occupied the imagination of North Americans. For nineteenth-century capital, Cuba's close proximity, its C Black slaves, and its warm but diverse climate invited economic penetration. By 1900, capital desired in Cuba "a docile working class, a passive peasantry, a compliant bourgeoisie, and a subservient political elite.'" Not surprisingly, Cuba's African heritage stirred an opposite imagination amongBlacksto the North. The island's rebellious captives, its anti-colonial struggle, and its resistance to U.S. hegemony beckoned solidarity. Like Haiti, Ethiopia, and South Africa, Cuba occupied a special place in the hearts and minds of African-Americans.
    [Show full text]
  • Ever Faithful
    Ever Faithful Ever Faithful Race, Loyalty, and the Ends of Empire in Spanish Cuba David Sartorius Duke University Press • Durham and London • 2013 © 2013 Duke University Press. All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper ∞ Tyeset in Minion Pro by Westchester Publishing Services. Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data Sartorius, David A. Ever faithful : race, loyalty, and the ends of empire in Spanish Cuba / David Sartorius. pages cm Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978- 0- 8223- 5579- 3 (cloth : alk. paper) ISBN 978- 0- 8223- 5593- 9 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Blacks— Race identity— Cuba—History—19th century. 2. Cuba— Race relations— History—19th century. 3. Spain— Colonies—America— Administration—History—19th century. I. Title. F1789.N3S27 2013 305.80097291—dc23 2013025534 contents Preface • vii A c k n o w l e d g m e n t s • xv Introduction A Faithful Account of Colonial Racial Politics • 1 one Belonging to an Empire • 21 Race and Rights two Suspicious Affi nities • 52 Loyal Subjectivity and the Paternalist Public three Th e Will to Freedom • 94 Spanish Allegiances in the Ten Years’ War four Publicizing Loyalty • 128 Race and the Post- Zanjón Public Sphere five “Long Live Spain! Death to Autonomy!” • 158 Liberalism and Slave Emancipation six Th e Price of Integrity • 187 Limited Loyalties in Revolution Conclusion Subject Citizens and the Tragedy of Loyalty • 217 Notes • 227 Bibliography • 271 Index • 305 preface To visit the Palace of the Captain General on Havana’s Plaza de Armas today is to witness the most prominent stone- and mortar monument to the endur- ing history of Spanish colonial rule in Cuba.
    [Show full text]
  • The Spanish-American War (A 'Splendid Little War')
    THE SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR (A 'SPLENDID LITTLE WAR') - A main target of American imperialism was the nearby Caribbean area as expansionists from the South had coveted Cuba since the 1850s - In the 1890s, American investments in Cuban sugar, Spanish misrule of Cuba, & the Monroe Doctrine provided justifications for U.S. intervention in the Caribbean's largest island CAUSES OF WAR - In the 1890s, U.S. public opinion was being swept by a growing wave of jingoism-a form of nationalism calling for an aggressive foreign policy - Expansionists demanded that the U.S. take its place with the imperialist nations of Europe as a world power - Presidents Cleveland & McKinley were among many who thought military action abroad was morally wrong & economically unwise - Nevertheless, specific events combined with background pressures led to overwhelming popular demand for war against Spain 1. CUBAN REVOLT - Bands of Cuban nationalists had been fighting for ten years to overthrow Spanish colonial rule - In 1895, they adopted the strategy of sabotaging Cuban plantations to force Spain's withdrawal or involve the U.S. in their revolution - Spain responded by sending General Weyler and over 100,000 troops to suppress the revolt 2. YELLOW PRESS - Promoting war fever in the U.S. were sensationalistic city newspapers with their bold headlines of crime, disaster, & scandal - "Yellow Journalism," as this newspaper reporting was called, went to new extremes as two NY newspapers-Joseph Pulitzer's New York World & William Hearst's New York Journal-printed exaggerated & false accounts of Spanish cruelty in Cuba - Believing what they read in the newspapers, many Americans urged Congress & the president to intervene in Cuba to stop the suffering 3.
    [Show full text]
  • A Splendid Little War"
    A S P L E N D I D L I T T L E W A R A CHRONOLOGY OF HEROISM IN THE SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR By C. Douglas Sterner Table of Contents Introduction ................................................................................................................. 1 A War Looking for an Excuse to Happen ................................................................... 3 Manifest Destiny & Yellow Journalism ................................................................. 5 Prelude to War ............................................................................................................. 8 Remember the Maine .................................................................................................. 11 Trouble in Paradise ...................................................................................................... 17 The Battle of Manila Bay ............................................................................................ 21 Cutting the Cables at Cienfuegos ................................................................................ 25 Cable Cutters Who Received Medals of Honor ..................................................... 29 The Sinking of the Merrimac ...................................................................................... 33 War in The Jungle ....................................................................................................... 43 Guantanamo Bay ................................................................................................... 44 The Cuzco Well .....................................................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • Our “Splendid Little War”: the Volunteer Regiment Rallies to The
    WashingtonHistory.org OUR "SPLENDID LITTLE WAR" The Volunteer Regiment Rallies to the Cause in the Philippines By James B. Dahlquist COLUMBIA The Magazine of Northwest History, Spring 2000: Vol. 14, No. 1 In 1898 over 1,200 men from Washington volunteered for military service, thinking they would fight the Spanish armed forces and free Cuba of colonial rule. They were, however, shipped in the opposite direction, and the Washington volunteers ultimately found themselves on an obscure archipelago in the Pacific Ocean. That year became a pivotal one in the history of both Washington and the rest of the nation. People from the Pacific Northwest usually identify 1898 with the famed Klondike Gold Rush and the economic growth it brought to the region, but it is better known nationally for a conflict later called our "Splendid Little War." In one summer America gained a far-flung empire and emerged as a new world power. The aftermath saw the nation leaving behind isolationist policies, entangling itself in foreign affairs, and fighting its first unpopular overseas war. President McKinley, who led our nation into the 20th century, was assassinated, and a war hero named Teddy Roosevelt rose to take his place, becoming one of America's most renowned presidents. Today the direct role that Washington played during the Spanish American War is not well- known, and many contemporary Northwest historians have also overlooked this chapter of the area's history. So what did Washington have to do with Admiral Dewey or Teddy Roosevelt? What about Santiago, Manila, or San Juan Hill? Weren't Washingtonians of 1898 preoccupied with gold fever? They certainly were, but while some fought the arctic conditions of the Yukon, another group of Washingtonians fought tropical heat, disease, and the native army of the Philippine Islands.
    [Show full text]
  • The Blood of Our Heroes: Race, Memory, and Iconography in Cuba, 1902-1962
    The Blood of Our Heroes: Race, Memory, and Iconography in Cuba, 1902-1962 Robert C. Nathan A dissertation submitted to the faculty of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of History. Chapel Hill 2012 Approved by: Louis A. Pérez, Jr. John Chasteen Laurent Dubois W. Fitzhugh Brundage Cynthia Radding © 2012 Robert C. Nathan ALL RIGHTS RESERVED ABSTRACT ROBERT C. NATHAN: The Blood of Our Heroes: Race, Memory, and Iconography in Cuba, 1902-1962 (Under the direction of Louis A. Pérez, Jr.) This dissertation examines how Cubans mobilized the memory of their wars of independence as the symbolic and narrative foundations of their nationhood. “The Blood of Our Heroes” argues that the creation of a set of heroes, icons, and parables was crucial to to consolidation of the Cuban republic and to the establishment of political and racial norms that sustained it. Cuban independence was threatened from its outset by the prospect of U.S. intervention. In this context, securing political stability and social unity became matters of national survival. The sanctification of national heroes enabled Cubans to demonstrate the historical legitimacy of their fragile republic, and Cubans circulated narratives emphasizing the cooperation of black and white Cubans in the anti-colonial struggle to deny and forestall conflicts over racial inequality. Because of the authority Cubans assigned to these narratives and symbols, however, memory became a decisive weapon for oppositional movements. Throughout the republic, Cubans reframed the independence wars to undercut the legitimacy of republican governments and assert a claim to power, a process of historical revision that reached its apogee in the successful revolutionary movement of the late 1950s.
    [Show full text]
  • Basques in Cuba
    Diaspora and Migration Studies Series No. 11 Basques in Cuba Edited by William A. Douglass Translated by Aritz Branton Center for Basque Studies Press University of Nevada, Reno This book was published with generous financial support from the Basque Goverment. Basque Diaspora and Migration Series, No. 11 Series Editor: Xabier Irujo Center for Basque Studies University of Nevada, Reno Reno, Nevada 89557 http://basque.unr.edu Copyright © 2016 by the Center for Basque Studies All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. Translation copyright © 2016 Center for Basque Studies Book design by Daniel Montero Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Douglass, William A., editor. | Branton, Aritz, translator. Title: The Basques in Cuba / edited by William A. Douglass ; translated by Aritz Branton. Other titles: Vascos en Cuba. English Description: Reno : Center for Basque Studies, University of Nevada, Reno, 2016. | Originally published in Spanish under title: Vascos en Cuba. Vitoria, Spain : Servicio de Publicaciones del Gobierno Vasco, 2015. | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2016017479 | ISBN 9781877802980 (pbk. : alk. paper) Subjects: LCSH: Basques--Cuba--History. | Pais Vasco (Spain)--Relations--Cuba. | Cuba--Relations--Pais Vasco (Spain) Classification: LCC F1789.B37 V3713 2016 | DDC 305.899/9207291--dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016017479 We dedicate this book to the memory of the great Bascologist, Jon Bilbao Contents Acknowledgments ix Preface xi Editor’s
    [Show full text]
  • Mambises in Whiteface: U.S. Versus Cuban Depictions of Freedom Fighters in the War of Independence Against Spain
    Mambises in Whiteface 89 Mambises in Whiteface: U.S. versus Cuban Depictions of Freedom Fighters in the War of Independence against Spain Philip Beidler Whether in war, politics, trade, or popular-culture history, the U.S. has always constructed an image of Cuba in terms of its own ideological presup- positions. This has been emphatically true of the racial imagination, from the days of the pre–Civil War annexationists through the current half-century of the Communist era. At no time was this more apparent than when it mattered the most, at the crucial moment of U.S.-Cuban military collaboration concluding the 1895-98 Cuban War of Independence. The racially inflected images produced and circulated at that time—of U.S. military liberators on one hand, and of their Cuban revolutionary counterparts on the other—would prefigure the political and cultural history of the two peoples for the next century and beyond. Indeed, with the first stirrings of an active Cuban revolutionary indepen- dence movement against Spain in the mid-nineteenth century, response in the United States was dictated by a distinct racial subtext. From the highest levels of government to the arena of popular myth, pervaded a fear among supporters and opponents alike that the Cuban Revolution would be in large measure racially “black”—a re-imaging of Toussaint L’Ouverture’s Haitian overthrow of colonial mastery a century earlier, but now in a place ninety miles off the southern tip of Jim Crow America. This, too, was an island, after all, so entrenched in its own institutional history of a white minority’s enslaving of a vast population of African chattel and their descendants that pre–Civil War Southerners had been tempted to several schemes of annexation—most famously those led by the 0026-3079/2013/5202-089$2.50/0 American Studies, 52:2 (2013): 89-101 89 90 Philip Beidler Venezuelan filibustero Narciso López, finally garroted in Havana after a third ill-fated try.
    [Show full text]
  • Irish Migration to Cuba, 1835-1845: Empire, Ethnicity, Slavery and 'Free' Labour
    Provided by the author(s) and NUI Galway in accordance with publisher policies. Please cite the published version when available. Title Irish Migration to Cuba, 1835-1845: Empire, Ethnicity, Slavery and 'Free' Labour Author(s) Brehony, Margaret Publication Date 2012-03-16 Item record http://hdl.handle.net/10379/3181 Downloaded 2021-09-27T04:34:22Z Some rights reserved. For more information, please see the item record link above. Irish Migration to Cuba, 1835-1845: Empire, Ethnicity, Slavery and ‘Free’ Labour ________________________________________ Margaret Brehony Submitted for the Degree of Ph.D. to the National University of Ireland, Galway Centre for Irish Studies School of Humanities March 2012 Director of Centre: Dr. Louis de Paor Research Supervisor: Dr. Kathy Powell Table of Contents ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ........................................................................................................... I ABSTRACT ........................................................................................................................... IV LIST OF FIGURES AND ILLUSTRATIONS .................................................................................. V MAP OF THE HAVANA – GÜINES RAILROAD, C. 1837 ........................................................... VI CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................. 1 METHODOLOGICAL AND THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK ............................................. 7 THE ARCHIVAL FIELD ..............................................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • David Healy ONE WAR from TWO SIDES the Cuban
    Healy, David. “One War from Two Sides: The Cuban Assessment of U.S.-Cuban Relations,” Cercles 5 (2002) : 31- 38 <www.cercles.com>. ©Cercles 2002. Toute reproduction, même partielle, par quelque procédé que ce soit, est interdite sans autorisation préalable (loi du 11 mars 1957, al. 1 de l’art. 40). ISSN : 1292-8968. David Healy University of Wisconsin (Milwaukee) ONE WAR FROM TWO SIDES The Cuban Assessment of U.S.-Cuban Relations Wars play a large part in forming national myths and memories, the material of national identity. What historians say forms a part of the national memory, and often reveals some of its myths. The historiography of the Spanish- Cuban-American War is a useful case in point. People in the United States had significantly different perceptions of the Spanish-Cuban war from people in Cuba. The U.S. public learned of the war in Cuba through the press and from the Cuban Junta in New York, both of which presented highly colored and romantic pictures of the struggle. The realities of a largely guerrilla war were played down or concealed. Thus when the U.S. army arrived in Cuba, its men expected to find ranks of Cuban in- fantry in formation, cavalrymen on fine horses, proper uniforms, much dashing activity. The new arrivals were quickly disillusioned by the Cuban Liberation Army. It was ragged, ill-equipped, and mostly black, at a time of acute racism in the United States. Worse yet, it played no visible role in the Battle of San Juan Hill, the only major engagement in which the Americans fought.1 Cubans, however, were aware of their own contributions, of which most Americans were ignorant.
    [Show full text]
  • To the Victors Belong the Spoils: How the United States and Cuban Elites
    McNair Scholars Journal Volume 20 | Issue 1 Article 10 2016 To the Victors Belong the Spoils: How the United States and Cuban Elites Undermined the Ideals of the Raceles Nation and Cuba Libre (1898-1913) Daylin Pujol Lopez Grand Valley State University Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.gvsu.edu/mcnair Recommended Citation Pujol Lopez, Daylin (2016) "To the Victors Belong the Spoils: How the United States and Cuban Elites Undermined the Ideals of the Raceles Nation and Cuba Libre (1898-1913)," McNair Scholars Journal: Vol. 20 : Iss. 1 , Article 10. Available at: https://scholarworks.gvsu.edu/mcnair/vol20/iss1/10 Copyright © 2016 by the authors. McNair Scholars Journal is reproduced electronically by ScholarWorks@GVSU. https://scholarworks.gvsu.edu/ mcnair?utm_source=scholarworks.gvsu.edu%2Fmcnair%2Fvol20%2Fiss1%2F10&utm_medium=PDF&utm_campaign=PDFCoverPages To the Victors Belong the Spoils: How the United States and Cuban Elites Undermined the Ideals of the Raceles Nation and Cuba Libre (1898-1913) In Cuba there is no fear of a war of racial categorization in the United States. A races. Man is more than white, more two-tier racial system existed in Cuba, where than mulatto, more than Negro. On the blacks, mulattos and whites were separated battlefields of Cuba, white and blacks by visible characteristics, instead of the have died and their souls risen together one-drop rule that existed in the U.S.6 Thus, to heaven. In the daily life of defense, of in Cuba race was a fluid concept, whereas loyalty, of brotherhood, of cunning, besides in the U.S.
    [Show full text]