Wow! eBook
A Nation for All: Race, Inequality, and Politics in Twentieth-Century Cuba New Edition
Author(s): Alejandro de la Fuente (Author)
- Publisher: University North Carolina Pr
- Publication Date: 30 April 2001
- Edition: New
- Language: English
- Print length: 466 pages
- ISBN-10: 0807849227
- ISBN-13: 9780807849224
Book Description
After thirty years of anticolonial struggle against Spain and four years of military occupation by the United States, Cuba formally became an independent republic in 1902. The nationalist coalition that fought for Cuba's freedom, a movement in which blacks and mulattoes were well represented, had envisioned an egalitarian and inclusive country-a nation for all, as Josace Martei described it. But did the Cuban republic, and later the Cuban revolution, live up to these expectations? Tracing the formation and reformulation of nationalist ideologies, government policies, and different forms of social and political mobilization in republican and postrevolutionary Cuba, Alejandro de la Fuente explores the opportunities and limitations that Afro-Cubans experienced in such areas as job access, education, and political representation. Challenging assumptions of both underlying racism and racial democracy, he contends that racism and antiracism coexisted within Cuban nationalism and, in turn, Cuban society. This coexistence has persisted to this day, despite significant efforts by the revolutionary government to improve the lot of the poor and build a nation that was truly for all.
Editorial Reviews
Review
"A long-awaited study on historical race relations in modern Cuba. . . . Recommended reading for those interested in the history, culture, and politics of Cuba." -- Colonial Latin American Historical Review
"An important and original contribution to the reassessment of race in Cuba." --
Journal of Latin American Studies"No monograph on Cuban history to date has placed race so squarely and fruitfully at the center of Cuba's twentieth-century history; and none has been able to combine so successfully, the way this book does, a sweeping political narrative with careful attention to detail, nuance, and contradiction. . . . A lasting contribution to the field of Cuban history, as well as to the contemporary study of the revolution and its uncertain future." --
American Historical Review"This is first-rate scholarship: judicious, sophisticated, and intellectually rewarding." --
HistorianAbout the Author
lejandro de la Fuente is associate professor of Latin American history at the University of Pittsburgh.
