Cuba and the Cubans

nm^mmm THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES Digitized by tine Internet Archive in 2007 with funding from IVIicrosoft Corporation http://www.archive.org/details/cubacubansOOcabriala Cuba AND THE Cubans BY I RAIMUNDO £ABRERA Author of " Mis Buenos- Tiempos," " Los Estados Unidos, " IMPRESIONES DE VlAJE," ETC., ETC. MEMBER OF THE BaR OF Cuba. Provincial Ex-Deputy. Member of the Executive Committee of the Cuban Autono- mist Party, Etc. TRANSLATED FROM THE EIGHTH SPANISH EDITION OF "CUBA Y SUS JUECES" By LAURA GUITERAS REVISED AND EDITED BY LOUIS EDWARD LEVY AND COMPLETED WITH A SUPPLEMENTARY APPENDIX BY THE EDITOR ILLUSTRATED WITH 124 ENGRAVINGS AND A MAP PHILADELPHIA THE LEVYTYPE COMPANY 1896 Copyright 1896 THE LEVYTYPE COMPANY PHILADELPHIA -J F TO THE MEMORY OF HER BELOVED UNCLE EUSEBIO GUITERAS THIS TRANSLATION IS DEDICATED BY HIS NIECE LAURA GUITERAS 1470160 EDITOR'S PREFACE. At a time when the condition of Cuba and its people has been forced upon the attention of the civilized world by another sanguinary contest between Spain and its Great Antillan colony, there is no need of an apology for the appearance of the present work. The American people, especially, have an abiding interest in Cuba, not alone as a matter of sentiment, but by reason of extensive commercial relations with the island and of the important economic facts resulting from those relations ; the condition of Cuba and the Cubans largely concerns us, and a disturbance of those conditions affects our material interests in many ways. Since the beginning of 1895 the prolonged contention between the Cuban colonists and the mother country, which in the past has resulted in numerous insurrections and in a devastating civil war of ten years' duration, has again been taken out of the domain of parliamentary discussion by a resort to force. The political agitation for administrative reforms and a due measure of self government which has constantly and per- sistently been maintained by the progressive parties among the Cuban people, especially since the ; EDITOR'S PRKFACE. fuilure of the Spanish government to develope tlie reforms agreed upon by the C/Om}>roraise of 1878, has again been replaced bv an insurrectionary movement tliat has spread over the greater part of the island of Cuba. Again the Cuban question, turgid with the wrongs of centuries, distorted by social misconceptions and by political chicanery, an anaclironism at the close of the 19t]i century, is illuminated by the torch of war. But the gleam of battle fire illuminates an historic subject in but a garish and imperfect light. Its various phases are brought out in gross relief against a sombre background and such presentations are necessarily misleading in their nature. In the midst of the confusion and turmoil incident to a clash of arms, statements of fact, discussions of opinion and contentions of argument inevitably j)artake of the heat of the conflict and are apt to be over-colored by passion or prejudice. Affected by these conditions, the press and the tribune are alike prone to give expression to the rancors of the conflict, rather than the calmly ascertained causes which underlie and it have produced ; the real import of those causes is apt to be obscured l)y the bitterness of partisanship and the far-reaching significance of their effects hidden in the smoke of battle. To afford a true light under such circumstances there is need of a competent and acknowledged editor's preface. vii authority, whose position is conceded and whose standpoint is fully recognized; an authority un- affected by the rancors of the moment, actuated by logical and well-determined motives and influenced by considerations apart from present exigencies. Such a light is afforde(i b}' th(> volume before us. It renders accessible to English readers Rainuindo Cabrera's Guha y sus jneces. That work, as will be found noted in its admirable prologue by Rafael Montoro, attracted universal attention throughout the Spanish-speaking world at the time of its first publication in 1887. Since then it has gone through eight editions in the Spanish, and has been accepted as a faithful reflex of public opinion among the liberal thinkers not only of Cuba, but of the mother country as well. The work affords the most comprehensive and thorough statement of the Cuban question that has thus far emanated from Ihe press ; it has stood the test of criticism and review by all parties in Cuba and in Spain, and remains an un- questioned and unimpeached authority on the subject of Cuba and the Cubans. The idea of presenting tliis work to the English speaking public had been conceived by the present editor some years ago, when, as publisher of the seventh Spanish edition, he became minutely con- versant with its contents. The author's permission to translate the work was then obtained with that viii editor's prepack. end ill view, and now, with the growing interest of the American people in the struggle between Spain and its rebellious colonists, an English translation of this standard work will especially commend itself In view of the existing situation of affairs, the editor has deemed it proper to confine the translation to the text as it was published in the Spanish edition of 1891, which was the seventh of the series and the last which received the revision of the author, he having then augmented his pre- vious work with numerous notes and supplemented it with appendices and illustrations. A brief sum- mary of descriptive and historical data, which the author, writing for a Spanish and particularly a Cuban public, naturally regarded as unnecessary, has been added to this translation by the editor, and the illustrations of the original work have been in- creased by a number of photographic views and a map of the island and its surroundings. Sefior Cabrera has dealt with his subject-matter from the vantage ground of an acknowledged leader- ship of the Autonomist party of Cuba. His statements may therefore be regarded as an expression of that element of the Cuban people whose hopes of the future of their countiy have been based on the belief that their aspirations could be realized through an effective system of Autonomy, and who looked forward to achieving their political aims by editor's prepack. Ix constitutional agitation, rather than by the possibly shorter but immeasurably more costly method of a resort to arms. The earnest and thoughtful leaders of the Autonomists based their contention for a peaceful propaganda of the reform movement upon the fact that socio-political problems which, a gene- ration ago, seemed impossible of determination ex- cept by force, were now open for solution by appeals to justice and to reason; that the intelligence and education ujx)n which they relied were being rapidly disseminated by the spread of commerce and of in- dustry; that the spirit of the times was making strongly for their cause and that the progress of modern thought and enlightenment, slow though it was in making an impress on Spanish policy, might still with confidence be left to work its way in Cuba, as it had worked and was yet working thi'oughout the civilized world. Cabrera's book indeed, as voic- ing the demands of the Cuban people for reform.s which Spain has constantly postponed or absolutely refused, has commanded the recognition and resj)ect of the advanced rank of Spanish statesmen. The original publication of this work in the Spanish, as already noted, marked an era in the agitation for Cuban Home Rule. It was put forth, as is indicated by Montoro in his Prologue, and by the author in his introductory chapter, as a refuta- tion of statements by a Peninsular writer, published X editor's PRKFAf'E. " ill H book entitled Cnha y su gente" (CiibH and its People), and hence proceeds upon a plan of disserta- tion which Cabrera found forced upon him. But the latter's work is much more than a polemic; it takes a wider sweep and presents a broad and philosophic statement of its subject. With scholarly insight and thorough analysis, (vabrera traces the existing social, political, and economic condition of Cuba and the Cu- bans with a facile pen, in brief but comprehensive outlines and in a lucid and trenchant style. He elucidates the needs and aspirations of the Cuban people as evinced by that portion of the community of which Cabrera liimself is a typical representative, the thoughtful, conservative and substantial elements of society, which form the true basis of the social structure. It was these elements that com- posed the Autonomist party of Cuba, which sought, through eveiw possible peaceful effort, to move the Home Government to a recognition of the needs of the times, of the demands of justice, and of the dic- tates of an enlightened self-interest, and it is these elements which must form in Cuba, as in all civilized societies, the foundation whereon the lasting recon- struction of the community must eventually be based. Louts Edwari> Levy. Philadelphia, February, 1896. TABLE OF C0NTP:NTS. Editor's Prepack ..... V Prolo(ute . 17 Explanatory Introduction — The Port of Ha- vana—The Harbor Officials—Custom Hoube Examinations—Streets of the City — Archi- tectural Peculiarities — Charaiteristics of the City Crowds — The Neijroks and the Chinese— The "Section of Hygiene" —Other Features . 29 II. Havana Inns and Hostklries—IjOW Cost of Liv- ing — The Royal Lottery — The Country Monopolized and Exploited — Cuban Sacri- fices during the Separatist Wars . 87 HI. The Press of Cuba — Irs Genesis — The Two Classes of the Community— Their Respective Aims and Ideals — The Two Classes of Jour- Xii TABLE OF CONTENTS.

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