Copyright by Takkara Keosha Brunson 2011
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Copyright by Takkara Keosha Brunson 2011 The Dissertation Committee for Takkara Keosha Brunson Certifies that this is the approved version of the following dissertation: Constructing Afro-Cuban Womanhood: Race, Gender, and Citizenship in Republican-Era Cuba, 1902-1958 Committee: Frank Guridy, Supervisor Jossianna Arroyo Seth Garfield Tiffany Gill Cherise Smith Constructing Afro-Cuban Womanhood: Race, Gender, and Citizenship in Republican-Era Cuba, 1902-1958 by Takkara Keosha Brunson, B.A.; M.A. Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of The University of Texas at Austin in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy The University of Texas at Austin August 2011 Dedication To my parents, James and Kathleen, and my sister Tamerit. Acknowledgements As I reflect on the process of writing this dissertation, I am reminded of the African proverb: It takes a village to raise a child. I believe that the same can be said for bringing a dissertation to fruition, and I am deeply appreciative of each individual who has offered me guidance, support, and encouragement. First and foremost, I would like to thank my committee members for their insightful comments and advice on how to make this dissertation a better project. I am particularly indebted to my dissertation chair Frank Guridy, who believed in my project from the moment that I first entered the University of Texas at Austin. He has read countless drafts and provided constructive feedback, consistently challenged me to expand my understanding of the sources and historiography, and advanced my capabilities as a historian. Tiffany Gill has provided me with intellectual support in a variety of ways over the course of my graduate career, and having the opportunity to work with her in the classroom has given me invaluable experience. Seth Garfield has been essential to my understanding of modern Latin American history, and has always been a source of encouragement. Jossianna Arroyo’s enthusiasm and knowledge provided inspiration during crucial moments of the writing process. Cherise Smith provided key insights and motivation for moving this project beyond the dissertation. I first conceptualized this project as an undergraduate student at Spelman College, a place of sentimental value that I will always consider home. At Spelman, I encountered a vibrant and rigorous community of scholars who nurtured my passion for Black feminist theory and the history of the African Diaspora. My mentors M. Bahati Kuumba and Dalila de Sousa Sheppard offered me life lessons and provided a solid foundation for studying the experiences of women of African descent. I am also indebted to professors v Ayoka Chenzira, Gloria Wade Gayles, Beverly Guy-Sheftall, Estelle Finley, Kathleen Phillips-Lewis, and Sheila Walker. Generous support from a number of institutions made the research for this project possible, including the Ford Foundation and the administration of the National Research Council of the National Academies, as well as the Social Science Research Council— Mellon Mays Graduate Initiative. Both institutions provided me with a community of scholars who have been vital to my success, in addition to financial support. I am also grateful to the various units at the University of Texas at Austin who also supported my research, including the Department of History, the Graduate School, the Warfield Center for African and African American Studies, and the Teresa Lozano Long Institute of Latin American Studies. My research in Cuba and the United States could not have been carried out without the support of scholars, archivists, and staff at multiple institutions. In Cuba, the sponsorship of the Instituto de Historia enabled me to conduct research at libraries and archives throughout the island. In particular, I want to thank Belkis Quesada y Guerra for helping me obtain visas and letters of introduction. I am grateful for the assistance and friendship offered by the staff at the library and archive of the Instituto de Historia, as well as the staff at the Instituto de Literatura y Lingüística. My research also benefited from the assistance of the staffs at the Archivo Nacional de Cuba, the Biblioteca Nacional de Cuba José Martí, the Archivo Histórico Provincial de Camagüey, the Archivo Historico Provincial de Cienfuegos, the Biblioteca Provincial Martí in Villa Clara, the Archivo Histórico Provincial de Santiago de Cuba, and the Archivo Histórico Municipal de Trinidad. I would also like to thank historians Tomás Fernández Robaina, Pedro Cubas, and Alejandro Fernández Calderón for enthusiastically offering their expertise, in addition to the many stimulating conversations that we had about this project and so vi much more. I am especially thankful for the many families with whom I stayed during my travels. They welcomed me into their homes as family and looked out for my wellbeing. In the United States, I have had the privilege of working with the library and archival staffs at the Cuban Heritage Collection at the University of Miami, the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, the National Archive for Black Women’s History, the Library of Congress, and the Nettie Lee Benson Latin American Collection at the University of Texas at Austin. When I began graduate school at the University of Texas at Austin, I joined an enthusiastic and supportive group of faculty and students. Professors James Sidbury, Susan Deans Smith, Ann Twinam, Mauricio Tenorio, Virginia Garrard-Burnett, Ted Gordon, João Vargas, Jennifer Wilks, and Omi Osun Joni L. Jones played a vital role in my intellectual development. Colleagues Shennette Garrett, Jackie Zahn, José Adrián Barragán, Matthew Gildner, Larry Gutman, Evan Ross, Benjamin Narváez, and Amanda Warnock offered me guidance and friendship as I navigated the graduate school process. My dissertation writing group members Jeff Parker, Renata Keller, Jessica Luther, Jesse Cromwell, and Kristen Cheasty Miller Anderson read chapter drafts and provided critical feedback. The friendship and support of Juli Grigsby, Christina García, Jacqueline Smith Francis, Lauren Hammond, Damien Schnyder, Raquel de Souza, Peggy Brunache, Mitsy Chanel-Blot, Paul Conrad, Courtney Morris, Celeste Henery, Chris Loperena, Irene Garza, Nedra Lee, and Claudia Rueda has insured my success in immeasurable ways. I have also been blessed with childhood/college friends and family who served as my biggest cheerleaders, opened their homes to me for much needed vacations, and kept me afloat during the past six years. Katasha Charleston, Jessica González Sida (and her mother, Hortencia González), Tida Srey, Lauren Shands, Tina Moore, DeLaine Valdez vii Ferguson, Moya Bailey, Algernon Cargill, and Chloë Caudillo have been with me for every hurdle and success, and they celebrated each of my achievements as if they were their own. I am also grateful to Raul Borromeo, who not only supported and encouraged me during a challenging year of revising and completing the dissertation, but also made sure that I ate regularly, balanced work with play, and stopped to enjoy the small moments of each day. Last, but not least, I am forever indebted to my family for my successes in life. Among them, my aunt Catherine Mallard provided a home away from home during my stay in Texas. My sister has always encouraged me to go for what I want and to expect nothing less. Most importantly, my parents raised me to be confident and motivated, and to pursue my dreams, no matter how far they might take me from home. My father—who instilled in me a passion for history at an early age—carefully read drafts of every paper and dissertation chapter, and flew down to Austin to be present during the “big moments” of graduate school. My mother checked in on me every day to provide emotional support, listen to me ramble or vent, and ensure that I took care of myself. Both of my parents made sure that I had whatever I needed in order to focus on school, assured me of my capabilities, never let me quit, and made sure that I maintained my faith in God. To thank my parents for all that they have given me feels incredibly insufficient. I dedicate this dissertation to them. viii Constructing Afro-Cuban Womanhood: Race, Gender, and Citizenship in Republican-Era Cuba, 1902-1958 Takkara Keosha Brunson, Ph.D. The University of Texas at Austin, 2011 Supervisor: Frank Guridy This dissertation explores continuities and transformations in the construction of Afro- Cuban womanhood in Cuba between 1902 and 1958. A dynamic and evolving process, the construction of Afro-Cuban womanhood encompassed the formal and informal practices that multiple individuals—from lawmakers and professionals to intellectuals and activists to workers and their families—established and challenged through public debates and personal interactions in order to negotiate evolving systems of power. The dissertation argues that Afro-Cuban women were integral to the formation of a modern Cuban identity. Studies of pre-revolutionary Cuba dichotomize race and gender in their analyses of citizenship and national identity formation. As such, they devote insufficient attention to the role of Afro-Cuban women in engendering social transformations. The dissertation’s chapters—on patriarchal discourses of racial progress, photographic representations, la mujer negra (the black woman), and feminist, communist, and labor movements—probe how patriarchy and assumptions of black racial inferiority simultaneously informed discourses of citizenship within