CUBAN COLOR CLASSIFICATION AND IDENTITY NEGOTIATION: OLD TERMS IN A NEW WORLD by Shawn Alfonso Wells BA, Hamilton College, 1992 Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of The University of Pittsburgh in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy University of Pittsburgh 2004 UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH FACULTY OF ARTS AND SCIENCES This dissertation was presented by Shawn Alfonso Wells It was defended on January 9, 2004 and approved by Dr. Joseph Adjaye Dr. Carol McAllister Dr. Frank McGlynn Dr. Hugo Nutini Dr. Richard Scaglion Dissertation Director ii [Copyright by Shawn Alfonso Wells 2004] iii Cuban Color Classification and Identity Negotiation: Old Terms in a New World Shawn Alfonso Wells PhD University of Pittsburgh, 2004 This thesis analyzes how the Cuban Revolution’s transnational discourse on blackness positively affected social attitudes, allowing color identity to be negotiated using color classification terms previously devalued. In the Caribbean and Latin America, most systems of social stratification based on color privilege “whiteness” both socially and culturally; therefore, individuals negotiate their identities with whiteness as the core element to be expressed. This dissertation examines how this paradigm has been overturned in Cuba so that “blackness” is now the featured aspect of identity. This is due in part to the popular response to the government’s rhetoric which engages in an international political discourse of national identity designed to situate Cuba contextually in opposition to the United States in the global politics of color. This shift has occurred in a dialectic environment of continued negative essentialized images of Blacks although blackness itself is now en vogue. The dialogue that exists between state and popular forms of racial categorization serves to recontextualize the meanings of “blackness” and the values attached to it so that color classification terms which indicate blackness are assumed with facility in identity negotiation. In the past, the concepts of whitening and mestizaje (race mixture) were employed by the state with the goal of whitening the Cuban population so that Cuba would be perceived as a majority white country. Since the 1959 Revolution, however, the state has publicly claimed that Cuba is an Afro-Latin nation. This pronouncement has resulted in brown/mestizo/mulatto and not white as being the national ideal. The symbolic use of mestizaje in Cuban society and the fluidity inherent in the color classification system leaves space for manipulation from both ends of the color spectrum and permits Cubans from disparate groups to come together under a shared sense of identity. The ideology of the state and the popular perceptions of the symbolism that the mulatto represents were mediated by a color continuum, which in turn was used both by the state iv and the populace to construct, negotiate, maintain, and manipulate color identities. This study demonstrates that although color classification was not targeted by the government as an agent to convey blackness, it nevertheless does, and the shift in how identity is negotiated using racial categories can be viewed as the response of the populace to the state’s otherwise silent dialogue on “race” and identity. v TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction: Mulatas del Caribe.............................................................................................. 11 Chapter One: The problem of race ........................................................................................... 16 Problematizing Race................................................................................................................. 16 Field Setting.............................................................................................................................. 35 Conducting Fieldwork in Cuba................................................................................................. 42 Methodology............................................................................................................................. 46 Chapter Two: Historical Context of Color Classification in Latin America and the Caribbean .................................................................................................................................... 51 History of racial/color categorization in Cuba......................................................................... 58 The Era of Conquest and Colonization..................................................................................... 60 The Plantation Era .................................................................................................................... 63 Color classes......................................................................................................................... 65 Pigmentocracy/ Whitening.................................................................................................... 70 The Era of Capitalism............................................................................................................... 73 The Era of Socialism and Castro .............................................................................................. 74 Chapter Three: Terms of Classification ................................................................................... 78 Settings...................................................................................................................................... 78 The Census............................................................................................................................ 78 The Carnet ............................................................................................................................ 86 The Medical Establishment................................................................................................... 90 Cognitive Categories of Color Classification ........................................................................... 94 Features of Classification........................................................................................................ 108 Constructing Identity .............................................................................................................. 115 Blancos................................................................................................................................ 116 Mestizos,Mulatos and Mestizaje ......................................................................................... 121 Negros................................................................................................................................. 133 Chinos ................................................................................................................................. 135 Chapter Four: The social significance of classification......................................................... 139 Contested classifications......................................................................................................... 147 Stereotypes and Social Status ................................................................................................. 154 Shifts in meaning and preference of terms ............................................................................. 158 Chapter Five: Mulatizaje and Cubanidad.............................................................................. 164 Mestizaje, Mulattoization and Cubanidad .............................................................................. 168 The typical Cuban............................................................................................................... 180 Claiming Identity and Negotiating Mulatizaje ....................................................................... 190 Extended Case Study #1...................................................................................................... 192 Case study #2 ...................................................................................................................... 201 Case study #3 ...................................................................................................................... 205 Case study #4 ...................................................................................................................... 208 Case Study #5...................................................................................................................... 209 Case study #6 ...................................................................................................................... 210 Case study #7 ...................................................................................................................... 211 vi Case study # 8 ..................................................................................................................... 212 Case study #9 ...................................................................................................................... 213 Case study #10 .................................................................................................................... 214 Case study #11 .................................................................................................................... 215 Conclusions................................................................................................................................ 218 Appendices................................................................................................................................