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Virgin Soil : the Modernization of Social Relations on a Cuban Sugar Estate

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Virgin Soil : the Modernization of Social Relations on a Cuban Sugar Estate '*'^ VIRGIN SOIL: THE MODERNIZATION OF SOCIAL RELATIONS ON A CUBAN SUGAR ESTATE- THE FRANCISCO SUGAR COMPANY, 1898-1921 By ROBERT NAIRNE LAURIAULT A DISSERTATION PRESENTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PfflI.OSOPHY UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA 1994 To Delia, whose heart is like the heavens, without limit. The struggle of the modern age has always been ... to give man freedom and sever him from his bondage to the land, and for the freedom of the land, liberating it from the monopolistic tyranny of man. The farmer is becoming a member of the proletariat, just another laborer, without roots in the soil, shifted from one district to another. The whole life of the central is permeated by this provisional quality of dependence, which is a characteristic of colonial populations whose members have lost their stake in their country. Fernando Ortiz All our invention and progress seem to result in endowing material forces with intellectual life, and in stultifying human life into a material force. Karl Marx ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Over the course of a seventeen year career in graduate school, there are necessarily many persons to thank. Hardly knowing where to begin, I will, like a good historian, begin at the beginning. R. Hunt Davis, Jr., in his course on southern African history provided the spark that ignited my desire to do more than major in history, but rather to become an historian. I would also like to thank him for supporting me in my application for financial assistance in the form of a Title VI Graduate Fellowship and a University of Florida Graduate School Award. As a master's student in African history I was privileged to study under Rene Lemarchand, of the Department of Political Science, whose erudition revealed a new world beyond my imaginings. He has unfailingly supported my own slow crawl toward academia, and I count him as a close friend. Also while still a master's student I was lucky enough to be associated, prior to his retirement, with Neill Macaulay, who helped to imbue me with a love of things Latin, especially the worlds of Brazil and Cuba. He too I count as a friend. I would like to thank other faculty members of the University of Florida, including all the members of my doctoral committee among whom is Robert D'Amico, who acted as my mentor in those IV early days. Without Bob's patient guidance I could never have come to a mutual understanding with Professor Karl Marx. Among other faculty members I would like to acknowledge my dear friend Felicity Trueblood, who has given much moral and intellectual support. Jane Landers delayed her own promising career to be a selfless supporter, freely giving her time to me and the other graduate students of our "generation." I thank Elois Scott and Willa Wolcott, for providing me the opportunity to teach in the warm and collegial environment of the University's Reading and Writing Center for seven years. More recently, I owe an enormous debt of gratitude to Carla Summers and Carl Van Ness of the University Archives, who have given me the opportunity to immerse myself freely in the agricultural history of Florida and the Caribbean, bas both a professional archivist and a student of history. Without Carl's vast knowledge of the Braga Brothers Collection this dissertation would not have been possible. I am fortunate to count them both as excellent colleagues and warm friends. I am also indebted to these good friends who have offered invaluable assistance in a number of other ways: Merrill Wilcox who afforded me the opportunity to visit Cuba; Jose Ignacio Avellaneda, who offered much help with paleographic problems and difficult translations; Tom Sawallis, who has spent many hours unraveling the mysteries of Macs; Richard Phillips, Rosa Mesa, and Mary Gallant of the University of Florida's Smathers Libraries' Latin American Collection; Susan Fernandez, who has shared with me her insights into Cuban history; Dave Macally, who freely shares his insights into everything; and my dear friends Bruce and Laura Chappell, who are always there. I am deeply appreciative of the hospitality afforded me by all my Cuban friends on my brief visit there in 1991, especially Ruben Aiion Canedo. I wish to thank Henry Owens and Donald Sheffield, whose labors have maintained our orange grove while I labored in a different fashion. My greatest gratitude must be reserved for surely one of the finest human beings and most accomplished and giving scholars in our field, Murdo Macleod, who arrived from out the desert like a winged Cleo to make this thing possible, , . and for Delia McClelland and my children who have endured more than I wish to say. VI F'^'- TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS iv LIST OF TABLES xi LIST OF FIGURES xU Cuba showing the location of the Francisco Sugar Estate and selected cities xiii The Francisco Sugar Estate and environs xiv ABSTRACT xv INTRODUCTION 1 Primary Considerations 1 Background 1 The Movement of Sugar Production to Eastern Cuba 3 The Colonato 4 Other Considerations 8 The Material World of a Twentieth-Century Sugar Estate 8 The natural environment 8 The built environment 9 The Frontier 10 The Great Tradition of Rebellion in the East 1 CHAPTERS I. THE ENVIRONMENT 12 The Extant Natural Environment of the Southeastern Coast of Cuba in the Late Nineteenth Century 12 The Physical Geography 1 2 The Climate 1 5 The Vegetation 2 The Human Environment 2 4 The Local Economy 2 4 Population Characteristics 2 8 Land Tenure 3 2 Vll Traditional Subsistence Crops and the Cuban Diet 3 4 Traditional Cash Crops 3 7 Housing 3 9 Health and Sanitation 4 1 The Life of the Guajiro 4 4 Southern Camagiiey in 1900 4 8 II. CUBA TRANSFORMED: 1868-1898 5 4 The Eastern Economy Before Big Sugar 5 4 Sugar and the Ten Years War: 1868-1878 5 7 The Aftermath 6 2 The Crisis of the Eighties 6 3 The Emergence of the Colonato 6 8 The Cuban War of Independence, 1895-1898 7 3 The Occupation: Sugar Looks East, 1899-1902 7 7 1 III . THE ORIGINS OF THE FRANCISCO SUGAR COMPANY 8 Who Were the Riondas? 8 1 The Riondas and Cuban Sugar (1878-1896) 8 4 Who Were the First Francisco Investors? 8 5 Birth of the Francisco Sugar Estate 8 9 Raising Capital in New York and Philadelphia 9 6 Cuba and the World Sugar Market in 1900 9 6 Manuel Rionda Floats a New Sugar Company 9 9 IV. CARVING A SUGAR ESTATE OUT OF THE FOREST 1 3 9 Cuban Sugar Production at the Turn of the Twentieth Century. 139 The Agronomic Requirements of Sugar Cane Production in the Cuban Environment 1 3 9 Environmental requirements 1 3 9 The culture of sugar cane 142 Labor and the Colonato 1 4 8 The Initial Development of the Francisco Estate: 1899- 1902 151 The Year 1899 1 5 1 The Year 1900 1 8 9 The Year 1901 2 1 1 The Spring of 1902: Sugar Making Begins 220 Vlll 1 V. A FAILURE OF EXPECTATIONS: 1903-1909 228 Production Gets Underway: 1902-1904 228 The Crisis in Management 2 2 8 The Technology of Sugar Production in early Twentieth Century Cuba and Related Costs 23 2 Completing the Sugar Factory 23 5 The First Zafras 2 3 8 The Question of Tariffs 241 From Reciprocity Through the Second Occupation: 1904-1909. .. 25 Capital Growth Continues 25 1 Cuban Political Developments and the Liberal Uprising 25 3 The Second Occupation 257 Parallel Developments: North American Sugar Investments, 1899- 1915 279 VI. THE FRANCISCO COMES INTO ITS OWN: 1909-1917 287 Rionda Takes Back Francisco: 1909-1916 287 La Guerra Negra: The Rebellion of 1912 296 Growth and Contradiction 3 1 La Chambelona: The Revolution of 1917 309 8 VII . WORLD WAR AND THE DANCE OF THE MILLIONS 3 2 The Rise of Sugar Demand and Prices during the World War: 1914- 1920 3 28 Production and Profits at Francisco 3 3 1 The Labor Crisis 3 3 2 Wartime Conditions 33 2 Postwar Conditions 3 3 6 The Colonos Prosper 3 3 9 Price Controls in the War and Postwar Economy 1917-1920 344 The Francisco Sugar Company at the Brink 345 The Acquisition of Central Elia 345 Enlightenment in a Prosperous Time 348 Speculation and Collapse: 1920-1921 349 XI. CONCLUSIONS 3 5 2 Freedom, Labor, and Class 3 5 2 Freedom and Dignity 3 5 2 The Escape to the East 3 5 5 IX The Role of the Cuban Bourgeoisie 35 6 Why Sugar Went East 3 5 7 The Proletarianization of Rural Cuba 3 60 The Tabula Rasa 3 6 Western Cuba 3 63 The Delicate Balance 3 7 On the Frontier of Capital's Advance 37 2 GLOSSARY OF AGRICULTURAL, SUGAR-MAKING, AND RELATED TERMS, SOME PECULIAR TO THE ISLAND OF CUBA 3 8 APPENDICES A. PROSPECTUS OF THE FRANCISCO SUGAR COMPANY 3 7 8 B. NARRATIVE OF NAN RISLEY 3 8 1 C. THE TRANSFER OF THE GUAYABAL LANDS TO THE FRANCISCO SUGAR COMPANY: PREAMBLE AND RESOLUTIONS 3 9 9 D. FRANCISCO SUGAR COMPANY COLONOS WITH AREA OF COLOMA, MARCH, 1917 402 REFERENCES 404 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 4 1 8 LIST OF TABLES Table page 0.1 Production of Sugar by Area in Four Year Averages 3 from 1916 with the Average of 1912-1914 (three years)(sums in thousands of English tons). 1.1 Mensural rainfall at the batey, seasons 1910/11- 1920/21 18 1.2 Criminal Charges Brought in Municipal Court, Municipio of Manzanillo, Jan.
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