Merrit - Race, Crime - Tesis

Howard University
Race, Crime, and the Construction of a Cultural Identity,

Havana, Cuba, 1880-1895
A Dissertation
Submitted to the Faculty of the
Graduate School
of
HOWARD UNIVERSITY
in partial fulfillment of
the requirements for the
degree of
DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
Department of History
By
Abraham Merritt Smith
Submitted in partial fulfillment of the PhD in History
Washington, DC
May 2007
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
UMI Number: 3283271
INFORMATION TO USERS
The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy
submitted. Broken or indistinct print, colored or poor quality illustrations and
photographs, print bleed-through, substandard margins, and improper
alignment can adversely affect reproduction.
In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript
and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if unauthorized
copyright material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion.
UMI
UMI Microform 3283271
Copyright 2007 by ProQuest Information and Learning Company.
All rights reserved. This microform edition is protected against
unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code.
ProQuest Information and Learning Company

300 North Zeeb Road
P.O. Box 1346
Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346
HOWARD UNIVERSITY
GRADUATE SCHOOL
DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY
DISSERTATION COMMITTEE
Vincent C. Peloso, Ph.D.
m bit'
Franklin W. Knight, Pf?D
Professor of History
Johns Hopkins University
Dissertation Advisor
Candidate: Abraham Merritt Smith
Date of Defense: April 30, 2007
Dedication
I dedicate this work to my father and mother, Alvin William Smith and Julia Hazel
Smith, the angels that chose me to be a part of their lives and taught me to be inquisitive;
and to Joseph Kenneth Smith, Vera-Ellen Montserrat Trice, and Catherine-Anne Azucena
Bullard, my brother and sisters, who stimulate my search for knowledge and challenge
me to become the best I can be; and to my wife Christine Romero Smith, and sons
Abraham and Sebastian who have stuck by me through this process.
iii
Acknowledgement
First and foremost, I want to thank the Most High God and my family, my mother
and father, Alvin and Julia Smith, my brother Joseph K. Smith, and my sisters Vera-Ellen
M. Trice, and Catherine-Anne A. Bullard for all of their support to complete this work.
This dissertation would not have been accomplished without the eternal support of my
friend and wife Christine M. Romero for whom I have no words to express my gratitude.
This process began twenty years ago at Dillard University in New Orleans, Louisiana,
where I was advised by Dr. Karen Becnel Moore that I belonged in academia. It was
there that Dr. Dorothy V. Smith, my history professor, opened my eyes to a whole history
of the world that I never knew existed when she gave me a copy of Chancellor Williams
The Destruction o f Black Civilization. It was that work that made me question why the
history of black people throughout the world had been untold, or distorted. After seven
years away from academia and continuous prodding by Dr. Moore, I decided to enroll in
the Department of History at Howard University. There I was embraced by the Dr.
Vincent C. Peloso, who taught me Latin American history, and to whom I am extremely
grateful for advising me on my dissertation, Dr. Selwyn H. H. Carrington, who taught me
about the proud heritage of Caribbean history, Dr. Edna G. Medford, who showed me
how to write history, Ms. Bessy Hill, who was always there with a comforting word, and
the entire Graduate Faculty who taught me what it means to be a historian of the African
Diaspora. The Graduate School at Howard was also instrumental financing my research
and writing with the Doctoral Scholars Program and the Sasakawa Fellowship. I am
especially thankful to Dr. Orlando Taylor and Ms. Gloria Lloyd for all of their help. In
2003,1 accepted a Mellon Learning Fellowship from Bates College in Lewiston, ME.
iv
There I learned an incredible amount what it meant to bring an interdisciplinary

perspective to history necessary today from Dr. Lillian Guerra, whose passion for Cuba
rubbed off on me. In Cuba I developed life-long friendships with my familia Cubana,
Dona Angelita, Jesus, Sixta, Osdanys, and Liety, and a professional relationship with the
historians in the Instituto de Historia, and the Sala Cubana of the National Library of
Cuba where I spent innumerable hours during my visits to the island. I owe Dr. Yolanda
Diaz, who guided through the maze of Cubas repositories special thanks. In my early
days at Howard University, Dr. Peloso introduced me to my other family in the
Hispanic Division of the Library of Congress who I owe a special debt of gratitude.
Finally, I want to recognize my family in Columbia, Maryland who kept me going with
words of encouragement when I thought I could not go on.
Abstract
An essential step in the founding of the Cuban nation during the end of the
nineteenth-century was the creation of a nacionalidad cubana, a Cuban national identity.
The idea of a nacionalidad cubana first arose several decades prior to the Ten Years War
from 1868 to 1878, in pronouncements by Cuban intellectual Jose Antonio Saco. He
argued that Cuba was a white nation, and the only way it would become a modern nation
would be through white immigration, the abolition of the slave trade, and the eventual
disappearance of the black race.1
When Cubas first war for independence, the Ten Years War, began in 1868,
Afro-Cubans joined the insurgency in large numbers. Their participation in what was
then a movement for autonomy within the Spanish empire was central to its
achievements. As vital participants in Cuban society in general, and the wars of
independence in particular, Afro-Cubans of all classes demanded an active role in the
body politic of the island whether it remained a Spanish colony or became independent.
In spite of their need for the Cubans of African decent to fight in the anti-slavery and
anti-colonial wars, the elites feared the potential meanings of freedom and equality for a
large part of the island's population. Their fears were expressed in the means they
discussed to impose order on society, and in the relationship they saw between disorder
and the former slaves. To combat the potential for disorder, many elite intellectuals
offered formulas for incorporating ideas about social control within a system of freedom
and equality for all members of society.
1 Saco, Jose Antonio, La supresion del trdfico de esclavos africanos en la isla de Cuba examinada con
relacion a su agriculturay su seguridad, Paris: Imprenta de Panckoucke, 1845, and La vagancia en Cuba.
Vigencia de Saco, p o r Rafael Estenger, Havana : Ministerio de Educacion, 1945. Although Cuba was not a
political nation, Saco described it as a nation in the cultural sense.
vi
A significant feature of those formulas was a discussion about crime and criminal
behavior, and about how to identify the potentially dangerous social sources of criminal
behavior. In the course of those discussions, color, or race, was associated with
criminality. The more the association was made, the more white intellectuals were
convinced that darkness of skin was a potential marker of criminal activity. This
dissertation focuses principally on the continuous and intensified relationship created
between crime and race in Cuba at the end of the Spanish colonial period. It examines the
relationship between race and crime from the end of the Ten Years War (1878) and the
implementation of the Spanish Constitution of 1870 and the Codigo Penal (1879), to the
beginning of the final war for independence (1895).
vii
Table Of Contents
Committee Approval Form....................................................................................................ii
Dedication................................................................................................................................ iii
Acknowledgement............................
iv
Abstract....................................................................................................................................vi
Chapter 1. Introduction....................................................................................................... 11
Historical Scope of the Project and Historiographic Issues............................................. 16
Analytical Approach and Theoretical Considerations...................................................... 19
Outline of Chapters..............................................................................................................25
Chapter 2. Jose Antonio Sacos exclusionary Nacionalidad Cubana........................... 27
Introduction.......................................................................................................................... 27
Sacos Race and Nation....................................................................................................... 31
Saco and the Revolutions.................................................................................................34
The Early Years................................................................................................................... 40
Sacos Speaks out against Spain......................................................................................... 62
Saco, Anti-annexationist..................................................................................................... 69
Conclusion.............................................................................................................................78
Chapter 2. Structure of Society, 1880-1895..................................................................81
Introduction.......................................................................................................................... 81
The Physical Space..............................................................................................................83
The Underclass and their Living Conditions..................................................................... 86
Havana after the War............................................................................................................87
Economics............................................................................................................................ 88
Socio-Political Reforms...................................................................................................... 91
Abolition of Slavery.............................................................................................................93
Census...................................................................................................................................95
Free people of Color.............................................................................................................96
Immigration, Competition and Racism.............................................................................. 98
viii
Social Control in Havana................................................................................................... 100

103
Conclusion..............................................
Chapter 3. Intellectuals and Their Views........................................................................105

Introduction......................................................................................................................... 105
Nacionalidad Cubana.........................................................................................................106
Transformation of Race, Racism and Society................................................................. 108
Scientific Racism............................................................................................................... 110
Revista de Cuba..................................................................................................................I l l
Sociedad Antropologica de La Habana............................................................................ 120
Revista General de Derecho..............................................................................................125
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................... 130
Chapter 4. Crime and the Criminalization of the Black ..........................................132
Introduction........................................................................................................................ 132
Social Control in a Slave Society...................................................................................... 134
Social Control, 1840s-1860s..............................................................................................139
Social Control, 1870s-1880s..............................................................................................143
Cabildos de N ation............................................................................................................ 148
The End of the Cabildos de N ation..................................................................................150
Who and what is Abakua?................................................................................................. 154
White Abakua.....................................................................................................................157
Membership in Abakua..................................................................................................... 159
Abakua as Crime................................................................................................................ 161
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................... 166
Chapter 5. Crime and Race in Havana...................................................................... 169
Introduction........................................................................................................................ 169
The Penal Code...................................................................................................................172
Discrimination against the Black in the Legislation....................................................... 173
Crime in Havana, 1870-1895.............................................................................................176
Vagrancy..............................................................................................................................183
Property Crimes..................................................................................................................184
Hurto (Petty Theft) and Robberies....................................................................................185
ix
Fraud.................................................................................................................................... 193
Violence and Social Disorder............................................................................................196
Institutions of Social Control............................................................................................ 200
From Arrest to Incarceration............................................................................................ 201
The Police and the Underclass.......................................................................................... 204
The Judiciary.......................................................................................................................208
Penal Institutions................................................................................................................ 212
Prisoners............................................................................................................................. 213
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................... 217
Chapter 6. Conclusion........................................................................................................ 221
Bibliography.........................................................................................................................226
Chapter 1. Introduction
An essential step in the founding of the Cuban nation during the end of the
nineteenth-century was the creation of a nacionalidad cubana, a Cuban national identity.
The idea of a nacionalidad cubana first arose several decades prior to the Ten Years War
from 1868 to 1878, in pronouncements by Cuban intellectual Jose Antonio Saco. Despite
the fact, at the time, almost half the population was African or Airo-Cuban, he argued
that Cuba was a white nation, and the only way it would become a modern nation would
be through white immigration, the abolition of the slave trade, and the eventual
disappearance of the black race.2
Sacos writings gave intellectual legitimacy to contemporary elites, future Creole
intellectuals, and colonial policy-makers who looked to exclude Afro-Cubans from
participation in Cubas social, economic and political life through various means. Such
measures included state support for (or official endorsement of) European immigration,
the patronato3 following slavery, the suppression of Afro-Cuban activities, and the
criminalization of Afro-Cubans as a class on racial terms. It seems they were unwilling to
admit how important a role the Afro-Cubans had played in the history of the twin Cuban
struggles for freedom from slavery and colonialism.
When Cubas first war for independence, the Ten Years War, began in 1868,
Afro-Cubans joined the insurgency in large numbers. Their participation in what was
then a movement for autonomy within the Spanish empire was central to its
2 Jose Antonio Saco, La supresion del trafico de esclavos africanos en la is la de Cuba examinada con
relacion a su agriculturay su seguridad, Paris: Imprenta de Panckoucke, 1845, and La vagancia en Cuba.
Vigencia de Saco, p o r Rafael Estenger, Havana: Ministerio de Educacion, 1945. Although Cuba was not a
political nation, Saco described it as a nation in the cultural sense.
3 The patronato, a period o f eight years immediately following slavery was a so-called apprenticeship
period in which former slaves were forced to work for their same masters for no wage.
11
achievements. Later, they gave widespread support to the push for independence. As vital
participants in Cuban society in general, and the wars of independence in particular,
Afro-Cubans of all classes demanded an active role in the body politic of the island
whether it remained a Spanish colony or it parted company with the metropolis. Thus
when the military action ended and the association of crime with color grew louder Black
Cubans turned their eyes toward this new threat to their participation in the body politic.
In spite of their need for the Cubans of African decent to fight their anti-slavery and anti
colonial wars, the elites feared the potential meanings of freedom and equality for a large
part of the island's population. Their fears were expressed in the means they discussed to
impose order on society, and in the relationship they saw between disorder and the
former slaves. To combat the potential for disorder, many elite intellectuals offered
formulas for incorporating ideas about social control within a system of freedom and
equality for all members of society.
A significant feature of those formulas was a discussion about crime and criminal
behavior, and about how to identify the potentially dangerous social sources of criminal
behavior. In the course of those discussions, color, or race, was associated with
criminality. The more the association was made, the more white intellectuals were
convinced that darkness of skin was a potential marker of criminal activity. This
dissertation focuses principally on the continuous and intensified relationship created
between crime and race in Cuba at the end of the Spanish colonial period. It examines the
relationship between race and crime from the end of the Ten Years War (1878) and the
implementation of the Spanish Constitution of 1870 and the Codigo Penal (1879), to the
beginning of the final war for independence (1895).
12
During the Turbulent Respite,4 Cubans witnessed the radical social, political,
and economic transformation of the island as a consequence of increasing political and
economic pressures from Spain and the islands expanding relationships with the outside
world. The Ten Years War (1868-1878), forced the implementation of the Moret Law in
1868,5 and the Guerra Chiquita that followed (1878-1879), the patronato, and the end of
slavery before white society was willing, among a host of other reforms, undermined the
legitimacy of Spains colonial rule, its political authority and institutions of social
control. At the same time, by the end of the Guerra Chiquita, Cuba suffered tremendous
material and social losses and by the mid-1880s, the island was rocked by severe
economic depression. As instability increased, so did crime, in both rural and urban areas
throughout the island.6
Several factors contributed to the instability in Cubas capital city including
urbanization, the end of slavery, economic depression, and the growing call for
nacionalidad cubana very important to understanding of the emergence of new
ideologies in a society in transition. Some historians claim the post-1895 period is when
the development of discourses of modernity began, my dissertation parts from previous
approaches by examining the origins of debates on modernity in relationship to race that
emerged as early as the 1870s within the context of colony. These debates had everything
to do with the creation of standards forjudging and justifying the exclusion of Blacks
4 The Turbulent Respite was a term coined by Cuban Intellectuals and revolutionary Jose Marti to define
the period o f unrest between the two wars o f independence, from 1878 to 1895.
5 The Moret Law was introduced by the Spanish colonial government to appease black people in general
and slaves in particular. The law provided for the release o f all slaves over the age o f 60, those who
participated in the Ten Years War on the rebel side, and children born after 1868.
6 Perez, Louis A., The L ord o f the Mountains: Social Banditry and Peasant Protest in Cuba, 1878-1918,
Pittsburgh, PA: University o f Pittsburgh Press, 1989, Chp. 1, and Maria del Carmen Barcia, Las Luchas por
la independencia nacionaly las tranformaciones estructurales, 1868-1898, LaHabana: Institute de
Historia, Editora Politica, 1996, p. 159 Alejandra Mariana Bronfman, Reforming Race in Cuba, 19021940, Ph.D, Princeton University, 2000.
13
from the body politic and their criminalization standards that transcended both the 1895
war and the post independence republic.7 This study seeks to demonstrate that the
development of ideologies about the relationship between race and crime went hand in
hand as elites sought to give coherence to a heterogeneous society But it also serves the
more basic purpose: of explaining the emergence and resilience of criminalized images of
blacks and the criminalizing discourses of blackness along all points of the social and
political spectrum in Cuba at the end of the nineteenth century.
Recent scholarship has addressed the issue of race and racism during the prolonged
fight for independence, and the transition from colony to independent state in Cuba
within the context of the wars of independence. As ideas such as racelessness, or the
myth of racial equality, became central to the rhetoric of black military leaders like
Antonio Maceo and white independentistas like Jose Marti there continued to be an
underlying fear among Creole elites in particular, and whites (both Cuban and Spanish) in
general, of the ever-present possibility of Africanization Scare. This fear along with the
promotion of nascent scientific theories of Social Darwinism influenced ideas about
inferiority, criminality, and the overall danger that Afro-Cubans represented in the
discourse of modernity and the construction of a nacionalidad cubana between the wars.
In addition, it shaped notions about the imposition of law in Cuba during what
revolutionary intellectual Jose Marti called the Turbulent Respite from 1878 to 1895.
An examination of lo criminal, or that deemed criminal during this vital period in
Cuban history will reveal on-going efforts on the part of Cubas elites and white
7 See Lillian Guerra,, Ada Ferrer, Insurgent Cuba: Race, Nation, and Revolution, 1868-1898, Chapel Hill,
NC: The University o f North Carolina Press, 1999, pp. 152-159 and Chp. 7, Bronfman, Alejandra, En
Plena Libertad y Democracia: Negros Brujos and the Social Question, 1904-1919 in HAHR, 82:3,2002.
Stephen Palmie, Wizards & Scientists: Explorations in Afro-Cuban Modernity & Tradition, Durham, NC:
Duke University Press, 2001.
14
intellectuals to exclude Afro-Cubans from the body politic during the colonial period. At
the same time, it will demonstrate efforts by subaltern groups to counteract their
criminalization and shape for themselves notions of modernity and nacionalidad cubana.
The principal objective of my research is to examine the development of the Cuban
nationalist dialogue among elites and subaltern groups as it related to crime and the
criminalization of Afro-Cubans.
To establish the role race and crime played in the construction of a nacionalidad
cubana at the end of the nineteenth century, this work will examine the fate of both
insular and imported ideologies as illustrated in the emerging fields of social science of
the epochcriminology, penology, and anthropologyduring a crucial period of
political, social and economic transformation when the inclusion of Afro-Cubans in the
body politic loomed large. Material for these subjects was found in the collections of
personal papers, correspondence, and unpublished manuscripts of various scientists of the
late nineteenth-century available in different collections in Havana. These sources
provided evidence about the external influences on Cuban scientists ideas about
modernity and the role of Afro-Cubans in the Cuban discourse of modernity.
A critical examination of the intellectual discourse revealed when they began to
use science to justify Afro-Cuban inferiority and criminality. Finally, intellectual
discourse can also help to explain the impact their activities and discourses had on the
construction of a national identity and perhaps more importantly, on colonial policies
regarding the individual rights of Afro-Cubans and their associations. It was important to
reconstruct how the development of these ideological, social, and cultural influences
shaped the treatment of Afro-Cubans in general. Their responses as violators of the law in
15
particular, that is, in criminological discourse, through actions taken in the public sphere,
were studied in detail as were police and judicial efforts to define reduce and control
crime and criminality within a colonial context. These records helped my effort to
determine that Afro-Cuban cultural expressions were criminalized for being uncivilized
in a society trying to modernize.
Historical Scope of the Project and Historiographic Issues
An important lacuna exists in the discussion of Afro-Cuban crime and criminality
and the end of the colonial period. The literature in English addresses questions of race
largely within the context of the wars for independence and the Afro-Cuban struggle for
political inclusion and greater economic mobility prior to, and immediately following
independence. In Our Rightful Share Aline Helg contends that Creole elites generated a
myth of racial democracy in which they argued publicly that all Cubans were equal
regardless of race. Meanwhile in private discourse they clung to the view that all AfroCubans were inferior. In Insurgent Cuba, historian Ada Ferrer argues that instead of
creating the myth, Creole elites simply silenced the discussion of race.8 While these
books represent important contributions to the historiography of race in Cuba during the
period in question, they did not consider attempts on the part of Creole elites and Spanish
policy-makers to exclude Afro-Cubans from the existing colonial body politic through
the discursive and process of criminalization.
The few works published in English that address crime in Cuba, pick up the
subject in the period immediately following independence. They focus principally on the
persecution of Afro-Cuban men as witches, or brujos, and how this played out vis-a-vis
8 Aline Helg, Our Rightful Share: The Afro-Cuban Struggle fo r Equality, 1886-1912, Chapel Hill, NC: The
University o f North Carolina Press, 1995; and Ada Ferrer, Insurgent Cuba: Race, Nation, and Revolution,
1868-1898, Chapel Hill, NC: The University o f North Carolina Press, 1999.
16
the modernization of the island as a nation-state. However they do not address other
aspects of the criminalization of Afro-Cubans such as common crimes, or the persecution
of African-centered societies. For historian Alejandra Bronfman, the persecution of
brujos and the discussion of Afro-Cubans as criminals and their criminalization began
with the advent of independence in 1902.9 Palmie agreed with Bronfman by arguing The
Zoila case [1904] marked a historical watershed in terms of both the social construction
of Afro-Cuban religious practices and the practice of their persecution.10 While their
arguments do not address the persecution and criminalization of Afro-Cubans during the
end of the colonial period, they do offer a point of departure for researching race and
crime during this period. Moreover, the limitations of these arguments to post
independence Cuba beg the question: Were Afro-Cubans not persecuted as criminals
prior to independence?
To ignore this question is to ignore the central paradox of a discourse that merges
crime with race in late colonial Cuba. Rebel leaders sought independence from Spain but
realized it could only be gained with the support of the popular sectors, especially AfroCubans both enslaved and free. Meanwhile, rebellious Creoles cooperated with the
Spanish colonial government to control and channel that popular energy in the hope of
limiting its impact on power in the future. Their task was to maintain control of the crime
issue, and to gain the support of the popular sectors for their moral vision of the criminal.
The Spanish government and loyal white elites continued to promote the Africanization
Scare, while turning to Social Darwinism in order to perpetuate ideas about the
9 Alejandra Mariana Bronfman, Reforming Race in Cuba, 1902-1940, PhD Dissertation, Princeton
University, 2000.
10 Stephan Palmie, Wizards & Scientists: Explorations in Afro-Cuban M odernity & Tradition, Durham,
NC: Duke University Press, 2001, p. 217. This case is used frequently in this scholarship to discuss the
persecution o f brujos during the early republican period (1904).
17
inferiority, danger and criminality of Afro-Cubans. The political needs of all these
interests met through the formulation and promotion of science and especially scientific
principles that eschewed racelessness and the legitimacy of racial equality. Out of the
scientific formulation of white supremacy and racial inferiority came ideas of the
criminal behavior of people of African descent.
Whereas scholarship concerning race and crime during Cubas early
independence does not fully address the questions posed above, it offers significant
insights into the process of the criminalization of Afro-Cubans. Offered within the
framework of an emerging Cuban nationalist ideology, the centrality of race in the
construction of nation, Afro-Cubans place in Creole elites construction of nation, and
the ideas of Afro-Cubans about their place in a colonial or independent Cuba current
scholarship paves the way for closer analysis of crime at the end of the colonial era. The
literature concerning the persecution of brujeria during the early republican period also is
useful in that it helps to contextualize the criminalization of Afro-Cubans in the period
under study. These studies open the door to an interpretation of race and crime, or the
criminalization of Afro-Cubans as affected not by independence, but by earlier internal
processes and intellectual debates influenced by events and the penetration of theories
from abroad. These debates centered on the abolition of slavery, the usefulness of new
social theories like Comtes Positivism, and the applicability of Darwinian approaches to
human society. Much of the debate reflected the establishment of new scientific
academies and similar institutions in late colonial Cuba.
Examination of the kinds of crimes that increased during inter-war years from
1878 to 1895 is a critical element of this study. A typology of crimes will help to
18
illustrate how the racialization of crime may have affected urban populations caught up in
increasing conflicts with the state over the rights of labor, the affects of immigration,
hunger, and influences of political ideologies. At that level social questions framed the
issue of race and crime. Likewise, when Cuban separatists became committed to
independence their abandonment of the Spanish judicial and penal processes the last
line of defense against crimemeant that those processes also had lost their legitimacy
amongst the elite. The implications of the abandonment of Spanish law were fearsome for
the Afro-Cubans. In the absence of Spanish law, the Cuban elite were free to further
confuse race and crime at the level of the nation.
Analytical Approach and Theoretical Considerations
While Cuba remained a colony of Spain during the early first half of the
nineteenth century, dramatic social, political and economic changes took place
throughout the world. The maturation of the Age of Enlightenment and the Industrial
Revolution brought with them the concept of social engineering. According to historian
Robert Buffington, several factors contributed to understanding these new attempts at
social organization including the expansion of capitalist relations of production (sugar in
the case of Cuba); the consolidation of bourgeois political hegemony; and the rise of
nation states. Buffington points out that social theorists as diverse as Michel Foucault and
Jurgen Habermas have argued for a profound epistemological shift in European notions
of political authority and social control during this period. On one hand, Habermas
argued, the Enlightenment project provides a modelthe bourgeois public spherefor
liberation. On the other, for Foucault it produced the carceral system for repression.
19
While both theories help to shape ideas about social control in Latin America, in Cuba
elites embraced the Enlightenment model for liberation.11
This study will critically assess contemporary published and unpublished
literature that addressed the question of how Cuba would become a nation. Widely
different social actors became involved in this debate, including members of the Creole
elite, Spanish colonial officials, and Afro-Cuban writers, intellectuals, activists, artisans
and workers. In particular, my intention was to uncover and critically examine the
discourses of Cuban identity and modernity as conceptualized by Creole elites and the
Spanish colonial administration. I reviewed this literature within the framework of their
attempts to develop and apply discriminatory, controlling policies on freedom from
slavery, the activities of Afro-Cuban organizations, and the politics of criminality as it
was associated with blackness. The promises of modernity held fascination for the
popular sectors in Cuba as well as for the elites. For the underclass, modernity meant,
at the very least, freedom from slavery, and opportunities to develop skills or to make use
of skills already acquired, while for elites it meant something very different. Elites
envisioned improved technology and other material consequences of participation in the
world market, new investments in urban infrastructure, and expanded state institutions
that would allow for more rigorous control of subaltern groups. Yet elites also had to ask
how all this could be implemented within a colonial relationship whose benefit to the
economy, and to their own political security, was in serious decline.
During the last years of Spanish control, Creole elites became increasingly
ambiguous about the role Spain should play on the island, yet, they continued to look to
11 Ricardo D. Salvatore, et al. Crime and Punishment in Latin America: Law and Society since Late
Colonial Times, Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2001, p. x.
20
'y
Spain to control the black masses. At the same time, Spanish colonial administrators
took various steps to gain the support of Afro-Cubans in the fight against independence.
This dissertation proposes that Creole elites ambivalence and colonial policies that
conceded a certain number of rights to Afro-Cubans represented a fa9ade that concealed
these groups real intentions: containing and restraining Afro-Cubans within the body
politic whether defined as a colony or as an independent nation-state, required careful
planning and the strategic use of persuasion and repression.
According to historian Gilbert Joseph, Latin American elite-run states, in an
effort to stake their claim as progressive modernizing societies, expanded the ideological
and public sphere, unleashing and empowering social forces they were soon forced to
monitor and control if they were to remain in power. Elites developed new fields of
medical, anthropological, and legal knowledge to define unruly popular forces as
criminal and deviant. Inversely, members of these same dangerous classes attempted, in
their own ways, to use the legal system to advance claims to the rights of citizenship and
the promises of modernity around which they have been mobilized, [in Cubas case, the
fight for independence].13
At the same time, Brazilianist Martha Huggins contends, theories of crime
[within a nation-state] could not begin to capture the socio-structural configurations that
resulted from colonialism and socio-political dependency [as in the case of Cuba]." She
went on to argue that any study of a colonized region, or one in a state of transition, has
to take into account the influence of the metropoliscolony relationship on life within
12 See Franklin W. Knight, Slave Society in Cuba in the Nineteenth Century, Madison, WI: University o f
Wisconsin Press, 1970.
13 Gilbert M. Joseph, Preface in Crime and Punishment in Latin America: Law and Society since Late
Colonial Times, eds., Ricardo D. Salvatore, Carlos Aguirre, and Gilbert M. Joseph, Durham: Duke
University Press, 2001, p. xi.
21
the country.14 In Cuba, while the dialogue among the elite centered on the formation of
a nacionalidad cubana, the island remained a colony of Spain. Therefore, it was subject
to legislation passed by the Spanish Cortes (legislature) and put in place by the colonial
administration.
In this sense, as in the rest of Latin America, Cuba elites spent much of their time
opening scientific academies and developing medical, anthropological and legal
knowledge to define how the masses fitor did not fittheir ideas of a modern Cuba.
The constraints of Spanish colonialism prevented the full flowering of these ideas in the
form of policy and legislation before the end of the Spanish colonial period although
from time to time colonial legislation reflected the influence of colonial intellectuals.
Despite the influence some creoles wielded with colonial bureaucrats, the ultimate
decisions about policy and legislation remained in the hands of the Spanish colonial
government. At the same time, Afro-Cubans shaped their own ideas about modernity, and
they used the Spanish colonial judicial system to bring forth their claims to equal
participation in the body politic.
Spanish colonial control of Cuba was in a decline that had been foreshowed early
in the nineteenth century. Before 1860 the metropolitan government underwent important
and dramatic changes that caused the loss of its American mainland empire, and the
weakening of its hold on its remaining colonies. Due to Spain's weak control, many
forms of social thought entered Cuba throughout the century. Ideas about human equality
and fraternity spread rapidly among the colonials and had an important influence on the
elite moral vision. Cuban Creole elites' view of society became less tied to the views of
14 Martha Huggins, From Slavery to Vagrancy in Brazil: Crime and Social Control in the Third World,
New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, cl985, p. 79.
22
the metropolis, particularly the Catholic Church. One effect was the secularization of
morality and its reconceptualization as a set of principles intimately connected to the
cultural and racial conditions of society. Rather than rights deriving from universal
conditions, an argument arose that mans rights were a product of his cultural and racial
composition.
In Europe after 1878, Italian sociologist Cesare Lombroso, introduced the idea
that particular identifiable physiognomic, psychological, and cultural traits distinguished
criminals from the rest of the population. While Lombroso attributed criminality to the
atavistic inheritances of individuals, Latin American social scientists, particularly
Cubans, used Lombrosos theories to criminalize the entire Afro-Cuban community.
Drawing on this scientific credo, the police and the press treated Afro-Cubans as a clearly
identifiable social group, and they often associated them with the criminal type. As a
result, many men and women were unfairly arrested and punished. The question of race
also shaped ideas and theories about lo criminal. By examining lo criminal during this
volatile period in Cuban history, we can better understand the role race played in elite
attempts to construct their idea of what it would mean to be a citizen in a de-colonized
Cuba.
In the period after 1878, as calls for independence increased, the colonial
government became more repressive, a process that possibly made laws on treason and
conspiracy as prominent as laws against vagrancy, theft and assault. Perhaps these two
previously unrelated legal phenomena became increasingly conflated. In any case, it will
be important for this study to ask: to what degree did the colonial police succeed in
enforcing laws related to crimes against persons and property? How did the colonial
23
government perceive the rising problem of crime in terms of race? What kind of
punishments did both enslaved and free black criminals receive compared to whites
convicted of the same crimes? Finally, did these measures help make Afro-Cubansboth
enslaved and freesympathetic to the independence movement?
During the inter-war years from 1878 to 1895, rebel leaders quickly realized they
could not sustain a successful rebellion against Spain without addressing the issue of
emancipation and enlisting slaves and free people of color in their cause. They were
aware that a more inclusive rebellion meant a socially transforming popular mobilization,
and to their credit they decided to take the risk. Eventually the promise of liberty and
equality for all in the new nation became central to the idea of Cuban nationhood itself.
Rebel leaders attempted to forge a philosophy of legitimacy that lent a degree of
credibility to Afro-Cuban insurgents and in some measure accommodated their interests,
practices, and goals. Nonetheless, the continued propagation of beliefs about black
inferiority and criminality on the part of Creole elites haunted the independence
movement throughout the period, a reality that fundamentally shaped the post
independence polity. This dissertation will trace these beliefs, explain their permutations
in the spectrum of Cubas political possibilities, describe the various responses of AfroCubans to the Creole arguments, and assess the meaning of the arguments surrounding
independence. The context for this analysis of the clash of race and modernity is the
period between the Ten Years War for personal freedom and the War of Independence
from colonial rule.
24
Outline of Chapters
The dissertation will comprise six chapters, including an "Introduction" and a
"Conclusion." Chapter 1 is an overview of the broad social, political and economic
trends in Cuba during the volatile last three decades of the nineteenth century, especially
as they affected the Afro-Cuban sectors of society. Chapter 2 examines the discursive
contribution of Cuban elite intellectuals to the construction of a common framework for
the meaning of criminality and citizenship in the context of a growing anti-colonialism.
The discussion will center on two processes: the institutionalization of the social sciences
and the increased attention given by social scientists to the subjects of crime and
criminality. As the two processes merged, they helped influence Spanish colonial policies
with regard to the newly free (and generally) Afro-Cuban sectors of the population.
Chapter 3 discusses the criminalization of blacks as individuals and their organizations
throughout the nineteenth century. The focus of the chapter will be the laws applied by
Spanish colonial officials at the behest of Creole elites throughout the nineteenth century.
It will pay special attention legislation passed outlawing the African-centered cabildos de
nation, and the Abak.ua secret society. Chapter 4 addresses the reality of crime in Havana
during the period in question (1880-1895). It analyzes police blotters in newspapers and
journals to see the kind of crimes that were committed, the perpetrators and victims, in
order to see if Creole elite fears were substantiated. In addition, it will analyze prison
records to see why people were sent there and to determine whether prison rates reflected
the demographics of Havana society, or that societys racial prejudices. Close attention
will be paid to the organizations relationship with colonial authorities over time, and the
kinds of criminal activity of which they were accused. Chapter 5, the conclusion, will
25
analyze the uses to which the social dynamics of race and crime were put in the
construction of a nacionalidad cubana during the inter-war years.
26
Chapter 2. Jose Antonio Sacos exclusionary Nacionalidad Cubana

Introduction
In order to establish the link between his exclusionary vision of Cuba and the
criminalization of black people and culture during the second half of the nineteenth
century when the island was a colony in decline. In the mid-nineteenth century, in the
aftermath of the wars of independence on the mainland, and in response to Cubas
possible annexation to the United States, Saco introduced the idea of nacionalidad
cubana, or Cuban national identity, while Cuba remained a colony of Spain. He believed
if Cuba were annexed by the United States, the island and its people would lose its
cubanidad, or Cubaness, and be overwhelmed by the Anglo-Saxon race of the United
States.
Sacos concept of nacionalidad cubana was politically and socially limited to
white males. While he posited that Cuba and Cubans were separate from Spain and
Spaniards he also believed Cubas freedom from Spain should be limited to political
autonomy for the island under Spanish domination. Saco opposed Cubas independence
because he thought it would lead to rebellion by the large number of Africans and people
of African descent, and ultimately, the creation of another Black Republic like
neighboring Haiti. It was Sacos nacionalidad cubana, with its exclusion of Africans and
their descendents that had an effect on debates about nationhood in Cuba during the rest
of the colonial period. Here I argue that black exclusion shaped by Sacos nacionalidad
cubana was the centerpiece of Sacos ideology of nationhood. Moreover, his writings
contributed to the development of exclusionary policies and strategies that attempted to
exclude Black people from the body politic.
27
The central tenant in Sacos nacionalidad cubana was that Cuba should be for
Cubans.15 An important element of his thought, and one crucial to understanding it, is
that for Saco and Creole elites and intellectuals, both, on the island, and in the rest of
Latin Americacitizenship in new and future republics was limited to whites. For
decades [Saco] only expressed these distinctions in economic and political terms. It was
the annexation controversy and his experience with European nationalism that enabled
him to formulate a theory of national community sharing a common language, culture,
religion and tradition.16 While many historians see Sacos anti-annexationist stance as
central to his theory of nacionalidad cubana, not until recently did writers begin to
address the racial component of his thinking as reflected in his writings.
In this chapter, I posit that Sacos nacionalidad cubana was not unique, and like
Creole intellectuals throughout Latin America; his thoughts about nation were shaped by
internal and external influences. Included among these were ideas about nation,
liberalism and racist theories at times, standing in stark contrast to each otherthat
emerged simultaneously from Europe during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth
centuries. According to historian David Goldberg, the new liberal philosophy surfacing in
Europe sought to transcend particular historical, social, and cultural differences and
concern itself with broad identities that it insisted united people on moral grounds, rather
than with those identities that divided people politically, culturally, geographically, or
temporally. The philosophical basis of this broad human identity of an essential human
15 In a letter to Jose Luis Alfonso, dated 21 January 1837, Saco told him My desires have always been that
Cuba should be for the Cubans.. .but because this may not happen, because this government pushes us to
revolution, w e have no other recourse than to throw ourselves into the arms o f the United States. This is
the idea that should be delivered to everybody. See Saco to Jose Luis Alfonso, 21 January 1837, in
Domingo Figaro la Caneda, ed., Jose Antonio Saco, Documentos para su vida, La Habana: Imprenta El
Siglo XX, 1921, pp. 10-12.
16 Josef Opatrny, Jose Antonio Sacos Path Toward the Idea o f Cubanidad in Cuban Studies, Vol. 16, p.
39.
28
nature was taken to lie in a common rational core within each individual, in the capacity
to be moved by Reason. It takes itself to be committed to equality.... From the liberal
standpoint, particular differences between individuals have no bearing on their moral
value, and by extension should make no difference concerning the political or legal status
of individuals.
17
At the same time, Liberalism plays a foundational part in the process
of normalizing and naturalizing racial dynamics and racist exclusion.18

Therefore, liberalism spawned racist theories that in turn, allowed for the
inclusion and exclusion of people based on the belief that phenotype somehow made
them uncivilized and irrational. Because rational behavior is at the heart of liberalism,
and black and brown people were seen as irrational, they would never be included in the
body politic of these new and modern nations. As evidenced by his writings, European
intellectual thought influenced much of what Saco wrote. Concurrently, and perhaps
more importantly, his ideology was necessarily informed by his islands colonial status
and everything that this entailed. A basic premise of liberalism was the right of the
individual to be treated equally before the law. Indian tribute and communal lands,
special categories like ecclesiastical and military fueros, entailed estates, and slavery and
other forced labor institutions would come under attack. Liberals in multi-racial societies
frequently compromised and even betrayed their principles. Such was the case in Mexico,
Guatemala, Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia, where liberals excluded Indians from their push
to increase individual liberties, and in Brazil, Venezuela and Cuba, where liberals
justified the enslavement of Africans and their descendents because they were seen as
irrational.
17 David Theo Goldberg, Racist Culture: Philosophy and the Politics o f Meaning, Oxford, UK: Blackwell
Publishers, 1993, p. 5.
18 Ibid, p .1.
29
Throughout his life Saco wrote prolifically on a myriad of topics including themes
as disparate as: the state of physical science in Havana; road construction in Cuba;
Sundays in the United States; vagrancy; conflicts with Spanish scientist Ramon de la
Sagra concerning his legitimacy; slaves and free African and Asian laborers. Many of his
published and private writings highlight his concerns about the need for a modern and
autonomous Cuba. Saco launched a new phase in the development of a Cuban identity
separate from Spain. While his contemporary Creole intellectuals, in the newly
independent Latin American countries, had the opportunity to contribute their nationshaping ideologies, as a colonial subject of Spain, Saco, like most Cuban Creole elites
and intellectuals, was not interested in independence because he believed the large
number of Black people, both enslaved and free, that lived on the island were not only a
detriment to modernization, but more importantly, a threat to white security. Therefore,
he could only write what he imagined Cuba would look like in the future. Nonetheless,
like his Creole counterparts, he did write prolifically about the same kinds of issues
facing newly independent nations in Latin America. Central among these thoughts was
the role black and brown people would, or would not play in the new nations, or in
Sacos imagined community.
An analysis of Jose Antonio Sacos work will enable us to understand the nascent
stages of Cuban cultural nationalism that eventually lead to political nationalism and the
fight for independence. It will also show how his ideas about the exclusion of Africans
and their descendents, shaped the concept of a Cuban nation, and the future fight for
independence that incorporated ideas such as the myth of racial equality, racelessness,
and the insidious manner in which white elites persisted in their efforts to exclude of the
30
Black population from the Cuban body politic during and after the thirty year fight for
independence.
Sacos Race and Nation
Jose Antonio Sacos nacionalidad cubana was shaped by internal and external
forces that at times complemented each other, and at other times, stood in opposition.
The late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries saw tremendous change in the social,
political and economic hierarchies and the conceptualization of those realities as a result
of, and in response to, armed rebellions that led to the overthrow of monarchical control
in the United States, France, Haiti, and throughout Latin America (except the Spanish
speaking Caribbean) and the beginning of limited public participation in the state.
During this same period, European and American intellectuals expanded their thought to
include concepts such as liberalism, modernity, nation and racism.
European intellectuals viewed their philosophies as universally applicable and
acceptable, while on the other side of the Atlantic, their American counterparts
regurgitated European intellectual thought and shaped it to fit their very different realities
with varying degrees of success. Racism based on newly established definitions of race
that included color and phenotype in favor of cultural traits were used to determine
peoples aptitude to participate in the polity of emerging nations. The use of radicalized
constructs to judge a persons ability to be rational enabled white elites to exclude both
indigenous and black people from the new republics and from the concept of nation in
Cuba.
According to historian David Goldberg, liberalism plays a foundational part in
the process of normalizing racial dynamics and racist exclusion [and is] one of the central
31
inventions of modernity.19 Modernity was defined by the social and political idea that
people (white men) were rational beings that could think for them. It replaced God and
religious doctrine (i.e., the divine right of kings) with Reason and Nature and notions
material, moral, physical, and political improvement. New liberal ideas imbibed with
modernity saw men as rational beings and as a result, free. Liberalism was limited to
white men in Europe and the Americas and their white descendants or criollos.
As liberalism with its individual freedoms spread through these two areas, racial slavery
continued unabated throughout the Americas. It is in racial slavery that one can see the
contradictions of liberalism. The goal of liberalism was to unite people (white men) from
very different social, economic and political backgrounds together to create a common
consciousness of self and community. In heterogeneous societies this consciousness was
based on racial sameness. Sufficiently broad.. .race offers itself as a category capable of
providing a semblance of social cohesion [and] historical particularity....20 In other
words, while there continued to be class distinctions, and therefore, conflicts among
whites, elites sought to elevate the importance of race in order to limit dissention among
the lower classes. It worked.
Liberalism and its accompanying racism were introduced at the same time that
people began to fashion ideas of nationhood based on concepts of commonality
including; geographical proximity, language and customs. It is important for this work to
identify and contextualize the idea of nation found in Sacos writings without entering the
broader debate concerning the construction of nation that began in the nineteenth-century,
and continues today with no clear definition. According to Benedict Anderson in his
19 Ibid, p. 1.
20 Ibid, p. 4.
32
seminal, and oft-quoted work Imagined Communities, nations are political communities
imagined by their members, as limited and sovereign territories sharing horizontal
comradeship.. .nations are not necessarily fabrications but rather cultural creations rooted
in social and historical processesthat his, ideological constructs with personal and
collective significance.21 At the same time, historian Josep Opatrny, argued that two
concepts of nation emerged in the nineteenth century. The first was a West European
conception of nation in which the nation consisted of individuals original subjects of one
ruler, then citizens of a united independent state. The second grew out of German
romanticism and conceived of the nation as a community united by a single culture,
history, body of traditions and customs.. .or a linguistic community.22 Opatrny posited
that Sacos model nation developed out of these two ideas.
Most thinkers who addressed questions of nationhood point to sovereignty as one
of its central elements. During the nineteenth century Cuba remained a colony of Spain.
Therefore, concepts of nation that fit the construction of modern sovereign states in
Europe, and newly formed republics in Latin America, during the nineteenth century
could not necessarily apply to the Spanish colony. Saco conceptualized Cuba as a
separate cultural space from Spain, but rejected a political departure. Recent discussions
of nation have expanded to include concepts such as cultural nationalism. In his work,
The Puerto Rican Nation on the Move, anthropologist Jorge Duany used the concept of
cultural nationalism when writing about present-day Puerto Rico, an idea useful to some
extent for understanding Sacos notion of nacionalidad cubana. Duany redefined the
nation not as a well-bounded sovereign state but.. .as a translocal community based on a
21 Benedict Anderson, Im agined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread o f Nationalism,
London: Verso, 1991, p. 5-7.
22 Opatrny, p. 48.
33
collective consciousness of a shared history, language and culture. Duany made a careful
distinction. Political nationalismbased on the doctrine that every people should have its
own sovereign governmentand cultural nationalismbased on the assertion of the
moral and spiritual autonomy of a people.
While the theory of a translocal community does not apply to nineteenth-century
Cuba, other themes in Duanys conceptualization of cultural nationalism are useful.
Perhaps most important to Sacos concept of nations, is Duanys argument that Puerto
Ricans are a people with a strong national identity but little desire for a national state,
living in a territory that legally belongs to, but is not considered a part of the United
States. The distinctions between nineteenth-century Cuba and twentieth-century Puerto
Rico are obvious. Nonetheless, elements of Duanys theory defining Puerto Rico as a
nation can also be applied to nineteenth-century Cuba. As in the case of present-day
Puerto Rico, around the time Saco began to develop his idea of a nacionalidad cubana,
Cuba was neither a province equal to those on the peninsula, nor a sovereign nation.
Similarly to what Duany posits for present-day Puerto Rico, this created an ambiguous,
problematic, and contested political status for Cuba throughout the nineteenth century.23
The idea of nation was shaped by the realities on the ground.
Saco and the Revolutions
The changes that took place as a result of wars of independence in the Americas
and social revolutions in Europe were analogous and dissimilar from one place to the
next, and illustrate the varied impact that Liberal and racial theories had in shaping these
new societies. In the United States the change occurred at the top, white elites declared
23 For Duanys interpretation o f cultural nationalism, see Jorge Duany, The Puerto Rican Nation on the
Move: Identities on the Island and in he United States, Chapel Hill, NC: University o f North Carolina
Press, 2002, Introduction.
34
their independence from English elite colonist and took control of the former colony.
Contrasting themesbased in the liberalism of the day emerged to shape and influence
the future of American societies. On one hand,
. .the idealized political sentiments
announced to the world in the Declaration of Independence, and on the other, the fact
that the status of persons became a more elaborate legal concept with the growing
authority of the state and included the distinctive concept of race.24 In addition
citizenship was described by law and included among other things; land ownership and
literacy requirements. The racialization of citizenship enabled an increasing number of
whites, regardless of their class status to be included in the body politic while excluding
all Native Americans and Black people from the process regardless of their status.
Shortly thereafter, the French Revolution caused the removal from power of the
monarchy and the advent of public participation in government in the homogenous
metropolis of the French empire. This social revolution introduced a rejection of the
notion of the divine right of kings and replaced it with theories of equality, fraternity
and liberty. As for their overseas colonies, with large enslaved populations, the French
preferred to avoid embarrassing questions of colonial autonomy, racial equality, abolition
of the slave trade, and slave emancipation.. .that were grave threats to French prosperity,
threats that the Declaration of the Rights of Man appeared rashly to promote. The
colonial question thus tested the universalist claims of French revolutionaries.25
As the French debated the fate of their colonies, enslaved Africans and their
descendents in St. Domingue took matters into their own hands. In response to various
24 Philip Yale Nicholson, Who Do We Think We Are? Race an d Nation in the M odern World, London: M.E.
Sharpe, 1999, p. 69.
25 David Geggus, Racial Equality, Slavery and Colonial Succession during the Constitutional Assembly
in American Historical Review, Dec 89, Vol. 94, Issue 5, p. 1290.
35
factors, including the brutality of their situation, in the only true revolution in the
Americas, enslaved Africans and their descendents overthrew the repressive white slave
system and imposed their own forms of government. For reasons noted, and a host of
other rationalizations, these revolutions tremendously impacted. Creole thinkers both
positively and negatively. The Haitian Revolution sent shivers throughout slave-holding
societies in the Americas and tremendously impacted Creole elites fears of the possible
consequences that racial slavery could produce. Throughout the nineteenth century the
so-called Africanization Scare impacted every aspect of Cuban life; from responses to
Aponte Rebellion of 1812; to the island-wide alleged slave conspiracy called La
Escalera in 1844; through to the failures of the Ten Years War and the Guerra
Chiquita in 1880. Saco like his contemporaries throughout Latin America, particularly
those in the Caribbean, reflected tremendous fear and concern that the outcome of the
Haitian Revolution could occur in Cuba if the slave trade continued. Saco and others who
opposed a continuation of the slave trade were consumed with numbers. They argued that
when the number of black people exceeded that of whites, the end for whites would be
near!
In the case of mainland Latin America, in the wake of independence liberal
patriots had to construct nations in societies with large indigenous and Black
populations. The shaping of nation took on many forms depending on local
circumstances. While Creole intellectuals shaped their ideas of a citizenry to liberal
notions of racelessness, etc., their ideal citizens were white, literate, property-owning
males. Creole intellectuals were convinced they needed to exclude the large majority of
population in newly formed republics because they were irrational beings unable to
36
appreciate or grasp liberal ideas. Immediately following independence, Simon Bolivar

lamented that Latin American countries would never be able to achieve democracy with
all of the barbarians running around. Later Creole intellectuals like Faustino Sarmiento in
Argentina called for the extermination of indigenous people because they did not fit his
concept of nation. In order for Argentina to become a modern nation, Sarmiento argued
that it was necessary to reject the colonial past as created by Spaniards and Indians.
Moreover, he suggested national education, and the creation of a landowning peasantry
comprised of European immigrants (preferably Northern Europeans).
Saco like his Latin American counterparts was a product of his time. The habit
of regarding European culture as the supreme standard had been deeply impressed on the
Latin American intellectual from colonial times. In those days, the source of light was
Europe, whence came new books, new intellectual fashions. After independence on the
mainland, the attitude changed, but only superficially. Certainly, there was a decisive
reaction in Spanish America against all things Spanish. But this rejection came about, not
because Spanish culture did not fit American reality, but because it was traditional, oldfashioned and not in tune with the modern world with which the new generation of
Spanish American intellectuals identified themselves.26 Unlike his counterparts, Saco
did not reject everything Spanish.
In Cuba, many of the intellectuals looked to northern Europe and the United
States for intellectual stimuli and Spain and/or the United States for protection from the
millions of enslaved Africans they continued to bring into the island in the name of
progress. At the same time, Saco, like Bolivar, thought the large number of black people
26 Jean Franco, The Modern Culture o f Latin America: Society and the Artist, Middlesex, England: Penguin
Books, Ltd., 1967, p. 15.
37
would avert progress. He also agreed with Sarmiento on expansion of public education;
the need to rid the land of savages, and the creation of peasant farmers with European
immigrants. Sacos writings point to his conflicted thinking concerning the socio-political
structure that should apply his idealized Cuban society. While he embraced HispanoCuban culture shaped by Spanish traditions, he also romanticized northern European and
the United States political systems as a possible solution for Cuba. He believed they were
succeeding in their projects of modernization while Spain had failed. Interestingly,
Cubas reality at the time was shaped by sugar and slavery and therefore, Saco though the
best thing for Cuba was to remain under Spanish control.
The question of slavery vexed societies throughout the Americas. It was at the
center of the fight to shape new republics and is the reason Cuba remained a colony of
Spain until 1898. The successes of the Haitian Revolution caused Europeans and their
descendents throughout the Americas to tremble with terror. At the same time, Cuban
planters saw it as an opportunity to take control of the world sugar market and by the
middle of the nineteenth century, they came to dominate it. Cuba Creole planterslike
their European counterparts earlier onbelieved that the kidnapping and enslavement of
Africans was the only way sugar could be produced in sizeable quantities. According to
Cuban ethnographer, Jesus Guanche, there were 1.3 million enslaved Africans brought
forcefully to Cuba in the first sixty years of the nineteenth century. While this number
seems high, it caused many Cubans to wonder if their fate would be like that of Haiti.
The debate concerning the slave tradeor the increasing number of Black people
created consternation among some white Cubans; tempered bliss for planters; and stirred
divisions among many of them including annexationists and autonomists. Greed won out,
38
and did not allow a decrease in the number of enslaved Africans until the conspiracy of
La Escalera, in the middle of the nineteenth century.
By this time most Cuban Creoleswhether they favored slavery, abolition of
slavery, abolition of the slave trade, or annexationwere content to remain a colony of
Spain. Although the rumblings of discontent with Spanish colonial policy continuously
intensified, Cuban Creoles believed their hands were tied. At the crux of Creoles
complacency to become an independent nation, like those on mainland Latin America,
was their belief that if they were to gain independence they would be massacred by the
large number of enslaved and free Africans and their descendants, and Cuba would
become another Black Republic like Haiti. Another possibility was the annexation of
Cuba by the United States.
For historian Thomas Holt, early nineteenth century ideologies of national
formation were seamlessly tied to classical liberal theory to its notions of civil society
and the public sphere, to values of individual consent and choice.. .economic as well as
political.. .a fundamental premise of liberal theory was a society of unmarked, raceless,
97
and even genderless individuals. The reality was that nations must be constructed
based on their realities that are gendered, racialized, and divided by class. Creole
intellectuals wondered aloud about what to do with the savage and primitive races that
populated their countries, and looked to white immigration as a solution to the problem of
race. They believed that by bringing large numbers of supposedly more advanced and
civilized Europeans, their countries would prosper. These white immigrants would settle
on small holdings; the men would mix with black women and through land
27 Thomas Holt, Foreword in, Nancy Appelbaum, et al., Race and Nation in M odem Latin America,
Chapel Hill, NC: The University o f North Carolina Press, 2003, p. 17.
39
appropriations to white immigrants and miscegenation, their countries would become

white.
The Early Years
Jose Antonio Saco was born on May 7, 1797, in the eastern city of Bayamo, Cuba
to a slaveholding family. During his childhood armed revolutions imposed tremendous
changes in the social, economic and political organization of countries in Europe and
created new countries in the Americas. In Cuba, Arango y Pareno and other sugar
planters formed the Sociedad Economica de Amigos del Pais, or the Economic Society of
Friends of the Country, to see how they could benefit from the fall of St. Domingue as
the worlds eminent sugar producer. They decided Cuba would produce sugar for
commercial export. In a report published in 1794, four years before Sacos birth, Pareno
expressed his excitement at the possibilities stating We are on the eve of our greatness.
It was this attitude of greed disregarding the consequences that Saco was to speak out
against for the rest of his life.
At 19, Bayamo became too small for him so he moved west to Havana where he
was to become one of the most important figures among Cuban intellectuals of his time.
Saco attended the San Carlos and Ambrosio Seminary to study Law and Philosophy
under the tutelage of another renowned Cuba intellectual from an earlier generation,
Father Jose Varela. By 1821, Saco was selected from among the other students to follow
in Varelas footsteps and became professor and chair of philosophy at the seminary when
Father Varela was chosen to become one of Cubas representatives to the Spanish cortes.
Saco had a tremendously successful tenure at the San Carlos Seminary. In 1824, in
40
response to the collapse of the constitutional monarchy and the restoration of absolutism
in Spain, Saco left the seminary.
Between 1824 and 1832, Saco spent long periods of time traveling in the United
States. It was during his extended stays in Philadelphia and New York that Saco observed
United States life. On one of his stays he joined Father Varela who had escaped Spanish
absolutism after serving as representative of Cuba to the Cortes. In New York, in their
desire to be heard, Saco and Varela began publication of a weekly periodical entitled
Mensajero Semanal that was freely circulated in Cuba. This weekly launched Sacos
career as a writer and publisher, and is where he introduced the debates concerning the
differences between Spaniards and Cubans. In a letter written to a friend published in the
Mensajero, February 21, 1829, entitled Sundays in the United States, Saco spoke of
how religious intolerance and freedom went hand in hand. There is no religious
tolerance, but absolute freedom that exists in this country.28 According to Saco, all
religions were treated equally. He then explained how the young man who was teaching
him English was Jewish. He did not seem bothered by this fact, but did point out that
Jewish people in the United States and other civilized countries were treated better than
they had previously been treated, but that they continued to be treated differently than
Christians.29 In regard to the treatment of Black people in Philadelphia and New York,
Saco was mute. It is difficult to believe he did not come across Black people. The answer
may lie in this idea that he did not consider Black people worthy of mention.
28
Jose Antonio Saco, Coleccion depapeles cientificos, historicos, politicos y de otros ramos Sobre La Isla
de C ubayapublicados, ya ineditos p o r Jose Antonio Saco, Tomo I, La Habana: Direccion General de
Cultura, Ministerio de Educacion, 1960, p. 58.
29 Although Saco did not specifically say what religion he was talking about, it can be assumed that in
Philadelphia and New York, the majority o f whites (the people he was talking about) were Protestant.
Later on in the letter he spoke about the differences between English (Protestant) and French (Catholic)
Sundays.
41
Nevertheless, he did have some interesting insights into life for whites in the United
States.
Saco continued his letter by addressing how different Sundays in the United
States were from those in Cuba. He pointed out that unlike Cuba, where streets are
bustling with activity, Sundays in the United States were sad because everything was
closed and the majority of the population was believed to be in church. From his liberal
perspective, he praised the virtue of the citizens, but wondered if it was not
counterproductive and posited the following:
I have no intention of saying that a French Sunday only produces vices and that
English Sundays produce virtue. No sir: I am very far from saying this. Here,
in Philadelphia, disorder occurs, and even more so in New York. I have
considered the religious influence on a large majority of the population; but I have
never been able to apply this to each and every member of society. You know
that ignorance produces fanaticism; and that although it is true that enlightenment
is well developed here, still, its rays have not penetrated the entire Union, with the
strength necessary to dissipate the clouds.30
While Saco embraced many aspects of United States life, such as their freedom of
religion, he also criticized the lack of enlightenment. It is important to note that in a
country where unlimited religious freedom occurs, there also exists hypocrisy.
Saco
gave Thomas Paines plight as an example of United States intolerance. He pointed out
that Paine fought in the wars of independence, and did great things for this country, as
soon as he published The Age o f Reason, there was public outcry against him, and the
author of rights of man, lived in a state of misery for the rest of his days.32 Essentially,
Saco argued that while freedom of religion existed in the United States, it was just that:
freedom to practice a Christian religion. Those who put reason before God were
30 Ibid, p.58.
31 Ibid, p.59.
32 Ibid, p.59.
42
condemned and persecuted as heretics. At the same time, Saco did not did not criticize
the North Americans for having tolerated the practice of slavery within their frontiers. In
fact, he did not mention Black people at all. His travels in the United States helped shape
his future positions concerning the Cuban neighbor to the north.
In addition to his observations about life in the United States Saco also took time
to write about his disagreements with Spanish policy in general. One of his more
memorable debates in the Mensajero Semanal put him face to face with Spanish scientist
Ramon de la Sagra, who arrived in Havana to occupy the Chair of the Botany Department
at the University of Havana.
-5-5
In the debate Saco questioned Sagras ability to fill the
chair. While on the surface, the debate was about a seemingly unrelated issue, emigre
poet Jose Maria Heredias poetry, both Cubans and Spaniards understood it to be a
symptom of the political discord that highlighted these two groups differences.34
Sacos conflict with de la Sagra also came to the attention of Cubas Captain-General
who, in response to its political content, banned circulation of the Mensajero on the
island. This conflict with Spanish colonial policy made Saco a celebrity of sorts amongst
Cuban liberals.
Upon his return to the island in 1832, and during his meteoric rise to the top of
Cuban intellectual circles, Saco became the editor of the Revista Bimestre Cubana. Prior
to his tenure, the revista was devoted mainly to literary concerns. It was when Saco took
over that it became politicized. Unlike Varela and the other reformers of his generation,
who saw themselves as overseas Spaniards, Saco was one of the first Cuban Creoles to
33 Jose Antonio Saco and his mentor Padre Varela who had moved to New York published the
Mensajero Semanal for Cuba exiles in the United States and for the island. It was published between 18241825.
34 Jose M. Hernandez, Estudio Preliminar in Jose Antonio Saco, Papeles Politicos sobre Cuba
(Seleccion), Miami, FL: Editorial Cubana, 2001, p. x.
43
see himself as Cuban and separate from peninsulares, or those born in Spain. His notions
of nacionalidad cubana and his political ideology were undoubtedly shaped by his early
travel abroad to places like Philadelphia where he saw the United States political system
in action. Although he appreciated the United States form of government, he clearly
understood that Cuba was different and that if that political system were applied on the
island, it would have to be altered in extremis. Nonetheless, Saco continued to look to the
United States and Europe for ideas about how Cuba could modernize. According to
Cuban historian Eduardo Torres-Cuevas, the middle-classes most notable role is their
production, influenced by the French Revolution and the Latin American independence
movement, of a complex system of ideas that, because they were immersed in the slave
system, did they rarely transcend it, even though they acted as maximum exponents as
conscious critics; and Saco was included among this group.35
For Saco, the most important difference, and his principal concern was the everincreasing number of Black people, both enslaved and free, on the island that for he and
his white cohorts represented an impediment to civilization and modernity. In addition, to
his travels abroad, readings of European and United States authors also helped shape his
ideas concerning subjects as diverse as white vagrancy, slavery and free black people
among others. Although his early writings did not address the black question directly
there is evidence that it did begin to preoccupy him. In 1829, Saco presented a work
entitled Memoria sobre la vagancia en Cuba, to an essay contest sponsored by the
Sociedad Patriotica or Sociedad Economica de Amigos del Pais. The object of the essay
contest was to come up with solutions to the problem of vagrancy among whites in Cuba.
35 Eduardo Torres-Cuevas, L apolem ica de la esclavitud: Jose Antonio Saco, La Habana: Editorial de
Ciencias Sociales, 1984, pp. 31-32.
44
At the time, the judges of the competition believed Sacos essay to be too politically
charged so they rejected it. The following year he resubmitted they same essay to the
contest and won the first place award of 200 pesos and honorary membership in the
Sociedad.
The central tenant of Sacos first published essay, Vagancia, was his disquiet with
the problem of vagrancy among the white lower class that also influenced higher classes.
According to Saco, Cuba suffered from a moral disease, for which the Sociedad
Patriotica de La Habana wanted to find solutions to end the problem. [Therefore], the
goal and purpose of this memoria, or essay, was to explain the causes of vagrancy on the
island and to propose remedies to attack the problem at is point of origin by improving
domestic and public education.. ,.36 Saco believed there was a direct correlation between
vagrancy among white people and juego, or gambling. For Saco, juego, the devouring
cancer, had penetrated every corner of Cuba and vagrancy is one of the lesser evils
resulting from juego, because there are others that are more serious in nature.. ,37 Some
intellectuals from Sacos generation posited that the climate and geography were
important determinants in the productivity of the people. They argued that in warmer
climates (like Cuba); there was a tendency for idleness. Saco rejected the physical
argument related to climate, fertility and richness for vagrancy, and pointed to the moral
climate.
For Saco, Cuba society was corrupt and full of vagrants as a result of gambling.
More importantly, Memoria sobre la Vagancia was the first essay in which Saco boldly
attacked the Spanish colonial system, including its administration and the church. It is
36 Saco, Jose Antonio Saco, I. E l Juego y la vagancia en Cuba, II. Estudio sobre la Esclavitud, Vol. 1,
Habana: Editorial Lex, 1960, p. 14.
37 Ibid, p. 18.
45
not important that this vicious practices want to be covered by the veil of religion, or with
the appearance of a public good. Neither should be supported by such infamous funds,
because any money produced through gambling that enters the sanctuary or the public
treasury, is as profane as the person who delivered it. In addition, it is a moral offense
against laws and customs.38 While implicating the colonial administration and the
church in the malevolence of juego, he also recorded, scrutinized and offered solution to
the dilemma gambling caused the island. At the same time he addressed a multitude of
issues he saw as obstacles to progress. It is in this essay that we also see the first signs of
Sacos contempt for colonial policy, but more importantly, his apprehension about Black
peoples role in Cuban society.
The essay is divided thematically into topics that Saco deems problematic such as
daily lotteries; billiards; the multitude of festive days and the diversions offered to the
populace on those days; lack of roads; lack of poor houses; lack of homes for disabled
children; lack of discipline in prison; foro39; limited number of lucrative careers; public
education; family worries; and artisan work in the hands of people of color. As illustrated
by the themes listed, Saco did not focus solely on vagrancy and gambling. Interestingly,
as revealed by what Saco said in this essay, he was not concerned with providing
improvements for Black people, he only wrote about them as a hindrance to white
progress. In the section about lottery establishments, Saco wondered why they were
opened all day if they were for the workingman who was at work most of the day. He
noted that workers were divided into two groups, artisans and lawyers, and employees of
38 Ibid, p. 22.
39 Foro allowed members o f the military and the clergy to certain rights and privileges not granted other
members o f the population. At the time Saco wrote this piece mainland Latin America had been
independent for a few years, and liberal intellectuals were promoting the annulment o f these rights. Saco
followed suit.
46
businesses. Saco pointed out that Due to a tremendous and lamentable disgrace, almost
all of the artisan positions on our island are held by people of color, and because that race
does not mix with whites, the result is that artisans do not frequent lottery shops where
the others [whites] met.40 In addressing the lottery, Saco briefly mentioned Black people
monopolizing artisan work. It is further along in the writing where he dedicated several
sections to the issue.
In arriving at solutions to modernize Cuba, Saco not only exhibited his racism,
but also manifested his elite class-consciousness. In addition, he obviated his desire for
Cuba to look like Europe or the United States, or at least recognized by them as a modern
country. In the section entitled Billiards, Saco suggested that in order to limit the
number of people frequenting billiard halls, other meeting places be made available. He
went on to point out that in many other countries (i.e., Europe and the United States)
there are Ateneos,41 where people can go and read daily or scientific newspaper, but
after three hundred years of history, there are none in Cuba... a place were foreigners that
visit our beaches, can see a manifestation of our love for letters. He did not stop there,
it is not enough to have an Ateneo [only in Havana], we must establish them in other
cities. He also argued that the Havana public library should be at the level of the great
city of Havana, and that it should also have a museum. When these monuments that are
erected in so many cultured countries, are constructed amongst us. Cuba will offer to the
nations that observe us, proof of our enlightenment.42
40 Jose Antonio Saco, E l juego y la vagancia en Cuba. Estudio sobre la esclavitud, Habana: Editorial Lex,
1960, p. 32.
41 Ateneos are literary clubs where elite Spanish and Latin Americans spent their days reading the latest
newspapers, journals and other literature.
42 Saco, El ju eg o y la vagancia en Cuba, p. 34.
47
In his desire for Havana, and other cities in Cuba, to look like what he imagined
London, Paris or Madrid, he also proposed the modernization of the police force, the
construction of more avenues, lighting, and parks, and suggested that in order to purge
the streets of said monsters, lighting of them would suffice, and taking the necessary
measures required of a good police force, scene that so discredit us in foreign countries
would be prevented.43 As evidenced by the above, Saco was preoccupied with creating
institutions and physical spaces that would catapult Cuba into the realm of modern
countries. These were not Sacos only concerns.
As illustrated by various sections of this essay, Saco also seemed concerned with
the well being of lower class whites, to the detriment of Black people. In the section
entitled Limited Number of Educational Opportunities and Lucrative Occupations, he
addressed the question of education and the lack of artisan positions (for whites). He
argued that education was key to lifting poor people out of their desolate state, and that
those who could not afford it should still be given the opportunity to be educated. He
went on to say that if their children could not make it to school because of the
impassability of the roads during the rainy season, school should be taken to them. He did
not say how it is going to be paid for, or whether Black children should or would be
included in this process, but based on his idea of who should compose Cubas national
identity, we can safely assume that Black children were excluded. He once again looked
to the outside for examples of how Cubas schools should be. In various parts of Europe
and the US, there are schools, and there are thousands of poor children that learn the
43 Saco, E l juego, p. 39.
48
rudiments of a good education in them, they consistently show the unquestionable

benefits offered to this society.44
The following sections of the essay, Family Preoccupation and The Artisan
Work is in the Hands of People of Color, are the first indicator of Sacos desire to rid
Cuba of all Black people, enslaved or free. In the first section, Saco argued that white
people have come divide work into honorable and dishonorable categories and that they
are only willing to work in those deemed honorable.45 Due to a twisted construction of
social ideas, generally it is believed amongst us that the jobs that support the state
[society] are degrading. As a result, our youth flees from them, and if they want to work,
they were only willing to work in honorable work. But because there were so few of
these [the honorable jobs] available, many [youths] had to be excluded. Work such as
shoe repair, tailor, blacksmith, construction workers, and all of those that are greatly
appreciated by more cultured societies on earth; and so pathetic was the development of
this opinion that this deadly mark has been extended to most of our professions.46 Saco
insinuated that the old Spanish-derived mentality was no longer applicable in a society
like Cuba if it was going to be modern, and stressed the idea that in cultured societies
artisan work was honorable.
While many of his later writings pointed to the forced migration of enslaved
Africans as problematic the next section of the work is the first obvious manifestation of
Sacos scorn for black people in general, but for free people of color in particular. In it he
44 Ibid, p. 206.
45 The division o f labor into honorable and dishonorable goes back to the time when the first Spaniards
arrived on the island. Many o f them came to the New World in search o f riches and nobility. Nobles were
exempt from manual labor. This tradition lived on to a time in Latin America, including Cuba, when titles
o f nobility were limited. It is for this reason that many whites refused to do artisan work.
46 Jose Antonio Saco, Papeles Sobre Cuba, Tomo I, La Habana: Direccion General de Cultura, Ministerio
de Educacion, 1960, p. 215.
49
also explained why white Cubans began to see artisan work as dishonorable. Finally, he
implied that Black people had a choice of jobs available to them and by doing so
insinuated that the relationships between blacks and whites were somehow equal:
Among the many evils this ungrateful race has brought to our land, one of them is
to have separated the white population from the arts (artisan work). Destined
solely to mechanical work, he was given all of the work exclusively, as called for
by his condition; and the slaveholder who from the beginning, became
accustomed to treating the slave with disdain, soon, began to see the work in the
same manner.... In such a deplorable situation it was not expected that any white
Cuban would dedicate himself to the arts, because just by the mere fact of
embracing them, it seems that they were denouncing the privileges of his class:
that is the way all of them [artisan work] became the exclusive patrimony of the
people of color, reserving for whites careers in literature and two or three other
honorific positions. As a result of the creation of this barrier [between black and
white], each one of the races forced to move within a smaller circle, that even
whites could not break, because a popular preoccupation did not allow it. Laws
and traditions also prevented Black and mulatto people [from moving into work
reserved for whites].47
After accusing the Black race of taking all of the artisan trades, Saco then tried to
convince the reader that, rational nations did not see artisan work as dishonorable. He
added that if (white) Cubans do not change their minds about artisan work, the island
would be doomed:
The circumstances found in Cuba should be contemplated with very perceptive
eyes. In all countries where there is a homogeneous population, the various
classes into which they are divided, are only isolated by barriers that, with little
effort can be overcome. The individuals that belong to one or the other, easily
pass to the next, because of talent, value and money are the greatest impulse that
move them from one class to the next. Are these considerations applicable to
Cuba? The illustrious patriotic body knows well that they are not. We do not
advance by lamenting this unfortunate situation, if we do not arrive at a remedy:
an urgent remedy, when our white population is increasing rapidly, and if we do
not open knew careers for them, I do not want to think about what the future holds
f
tor us. 48
47 Saco, Papeles, p. 217.

48 Saco, Papeles, p. 217.
50
It is in Vagancia that we see the first outward manifestations of Sacos concern

with Black people. In his early writings like Vagancia he presented them as an obstacle to
white advancement in general, and lower-class whitesmprovement in particular. Saco
believed these whites would and could be working in artisan positions if it were not for
the idea that they saw it as degrading. More importantly, he accused the ungrateful
race, the Black race, of taking control of artisan work as if they some how had control of
the kind of work they wanted to do. In fact, Black people filled the artisan occupations
because whites did not want them. In future writings, Saco became more explicit in his
articulation of the Black problem and the need to rid the island of this unhappy race.
At the same time, in many of his writings he spoke of black exclusion in ambiguous
terms like when he wrote of the need to end the slave trade.
After the publication of Memoria sobre la Vagancia, Saco continued to address
issues about Cuba that concerned him. At the same time, he found ways to offend the
Spanish government by publishing what was essentially a review of Analysis o f a work
about Brazil, entitled Notices o f Brazil in 1828 and 1829 by the Reverend R. Walsh, by an
American missionary who had spent some time in Brazil, and described how he saw the
slavery of black people in that empire. In his review Saco addressed the so-called illegal
slave trade that had continued to Cuba, and the problems he believed this activity caused
the island. For many historians this work is important because until the publication of this
essay nobody had addressed the question in a public forum.49 It is also important because
it is the first time Saco outlines the political agenda he proposed for Cuba. In addition, it
is the first time Saco uses his anti-slave trade platform to promote the end of the slave
49 Jose M. Hernandez, Papeles Politicos, p. xi.
51
trade for political and economic reasons, but, perhaps more importantly, for social
reasons.
Unlike his counterparts in the newly formed republics of mainland Latin America,
as a colonial subject of Spain, Saco called for more political and economic freedom for
Cuba within the limits of the Spanish monarchical system. Interestingly, he posited that
Brazils transformation into the seat of the Portuguese empirewith its millions of
enslaved Africans and their continuation importationcould be a positive example for
Cuba. In his Analysis, Saco wrote that according to the Reverend Walsh, Brazils
prosperity began when the Portuguese Crown established itself in Brazil to form the
empire. Saco added that the former colony of Portugal would have benefited regardless of
whether the King did, or did not travel to Brazil. Nonetheless, he did as exemplified by
the following:
Immediately upon landing on the beaches of the new empire, the king of Portugal
abolished the odious colonial system, opening by a decree dated 28 January 1808,
all ports of Brazil to all friendly nations; and after having performing this great act
of justice and policy, he left Bahia to Rio Janeiro, where he arrived on 7 March,
amidst the applauses of an enthusiastic people. In addition, decree of April 1 of
the same year that allowed all Brazilians, all types of industry, whether big or
small, without exceptions.... The same year, the printing press was established....
On 16 December 1815, there was a decree in which Brazil ceased being a
province, and was elevated to the dignity of a kingdom, forming with those of
Europe, the United Kingdom o f Portugal, the Algarves and Brazil.50
Saco believed that something similar would benefit Cuba and its relationship with
the metropolis. He saw in Brazil the possibility of a monarchy that benefited a former
colony; the advent political freedoms under imperial rule; and the introduction of
technological advancements in the form of the printing press.
50 See this discussion in Jose Antonio Saco, Papeles Sobre Cuba, Tomo II, La Habana: Editora del Consejo
Nacional de Cultura, 1962, pp. 30-34.
52
In addition to technological, economic and political advancements, Saco also saw

the introduction public education in Brazil as something to which Cuba could aspire.
That capital has two ecclesiastical seminaries where Latin, Greek, French, and English,
rhetoric, philosophy and theology.... The most noble feature that characterizes this
academies is that they are not exclusively destined to receive a certain class of
individuals, all whites can enter them, and they receive free schooling necessary.51 Saco
highlights the importance of education and the need to extend it to the masses. By stating
that all whites can enter the schools, he indirectly emphasized the need to exclude
Black people from education. Even in his earlier writings Saco was subtly limiting his
idea of a Cuban nation to Cubans of Spanish ancestry.
Saco, like many liberals throughout Latin America, particularly those with large
African-descended populations, believed that the continued importation of Black people,
regardless if they were enslaved or free, would stunt Cubas move towards modernism
and civilization.52 In praising Portugals advancements in Brazil, he indicated If the
Portuguese were the first in modern times to stain their history with the horrible
commerce of human flesh, the truth must be told, they were also the first to speak out
against it.53 Saco then turned his attention to the slave trade that continued unabated to
Cuba and insisted that it would be the demise of Cuba if it were not ended. More than
anything else, it was his obsession with the numbers of people of African-descent on the
island that caused such consternation for Saco as evidenced by the following:
If the slave trade would have ended when it was prohibited, by now we would
know, maybe not exactly, but approximately, the number introduced in all of the
island; but since it continues clandestinely, with disregard for laws, disdain for
51 Ibid, p. 54.
52 The same occurred for countries were there were large indigenous and mestizo populations.
53 Saco, Papeles, II, pp. 68.
53
humanity, and an imminent risk to the homeland, we lack exact figures to found
our calculations.... Since 1791, whites lost their majority % of the population,
while the black race rose to 51%: and at the rate we are decreasing in recent years,
it is painfully observed that people of color have been gaining over whites; and
gaining to the point that in 1827, [the number] of whites and slaves was almost
equal.. .in a population where there are a little more than 300,000 whites, there are
almost 500,000 people of color.54
In addition to his concern for the increasing number of enslaved Africans being
brought to Cuba, he also explained that many of the surrounding islands in the Caribbean
were full of recently liberated Black people waiting to pounce on Cuba. Although he did
not say it, it can be implied that he lamented that the same thing that happened in Haiti
could happen to Cuba if the slave trade was not halted. Until now we have only
considered the numerical force of the Black population that surrounds us. What would be
the picture we could paint, if we consider this enormous mass submitted to the influence
of political and moral causes, present the world a spectacle unknown in all of history?
We will surely not do it; but we would be captives of a lesser homeland, if we were to
forget the efforts being made to produce a social change in the condition of the African
race.55
While Saco spent much of his time decrying the Spanish colonial system for
allowing the continuation of the slave trade to the Cuba, he also offered solutions to the
labor shortage created by the end of the slave trade. He like Creole intellectuals
throughout Latin America saw European immigration as the answer to their race
problem. In this Analysis, he touched on the idea of white immigration to the island, and
thereby initiated a process that would continue throughout the nineteenth century with
more or less success depending on circumstances.
54 Ibid, p. 77.
55 Ibid, p. 86.
54
In Sacos initial thoughts on white immigration, he suggested there is no obstacle

but interest; and if we could convince our planters that without slaves they would benefit
more or equally, there is no doubt they would voluntarily embrace whatever was
presented.56 He was not only convinced that white immigration was the answer to
Cubas social ills, but he believed that Cubas planters would agree with him. He even
outlined the labor requirements for a successful sugar crop. Without the need to pay
daily wages, could not part of the land of plantations be divided among free people
[whites] who would promise to plant sugar cane? This method is followed in Asia, and is
preferable to wages, because the land is divided into small plots, the cultivation would be
more perfect; if there is a bad year, the planter would save daily wages he would pay if it
were otherwise.57 Saco needed to demonstrate that the conversion from slave labor to
salaried workers on sugar plantations was economically feasible to the planters.
According to Moreno Fraginals the inadequacy of Sacos ideas to reality, have as their
origin the political premise that invalidated all of his economic ideology. His reasoning,
in abstraction, was rigorously logical and therefore ideally correct; but the concrete
application of the data to the Cuban reality presupposed the introduction of new elements
that changed the initial proposition.58
During the early years of his intellectual life, Saco got the attention of colonial
officials and older Cuban intellectuals, who saw themselves as overseas Spaniards,
who did not want to make waves with the Spanish authorities. He also attracted a
growing number of young Cuban elites who identified with him and Cubas struggles.
56 Ibid, p. 88.
57 Ibid, p. 89.
58 Manuel Moreno Fraginals, Jose A. Saco: estudioy bibliografia, Las Villas: Universidad Central Las
Villas, 1960, p. 50.
55
Within the confines of the Real Sociedad Economica de Amigos del Pais, Saco, Luz
Caballero and Domingo del Monte formed the Academia de Literatura. Until the arrival
of this new branch of the Sociedad, it was devoted to the appreciation and dissemination
of European classical art and literature. The success of the academy was resounding, but
only lasted a couple of months until the new Captain-General Miguel Tacon arrived on
the island in 1834. In line with conservative shift of Spains government, Tacon made
dramatic changes relieved the insulares, or the Cuban-born of much of their power. It
was during his tenure that the Academia was banned. In response, Justa defensa de la
Academia (1834) was published. In it, Saco pointed out that:
The circulation of Justa defensa, written by many, surprised the enemies of the
Academy that slept drunk in the shade of their ill-won triumph, hearts hurting,
they fled the plain where they should have fought; and appealed to inquisitionist
tactics, the reach the chief violently, an atrocious injustice that filled all of Cuba
with terror.59
In the following months, as a result of his constant disparaging of the Spanish
colonial government as manifested in his displeasure with vagrancy in Cuba and his
attack on the slave trade, Jose Antonio Saco was accused of being a separatist calling for
Cuba independence. In response, and following the orders of the new conservative
government in Spain, Captain-General Miguel Tacon exiled Saco. First, he was sent
some four hundred kilometers from Havana to Trinidad, where Spanish authorities
believed he could not influence Cuban intellectuals. On 13 September 1834, Saco left the
port of La Habana on his way to Falmouth, England and a new stage in his life began.
According to a letter Saco wrote some twenty years later:
The article to which allude, [Analysis o f a work about Brazil, entitled Notices o f
Brazil in 1828 and 1829 by the Reverend R. Walsh], despite being published with
expressed consent of the first authority of the island, was the fundamental cause
59 Saco, Papeles, III, p. 24
56
for my expatriation in 1834; and if this was not confirmed since 1832, it was as a
result of the respect they had for Francisco Arango, who informed General
Ricafort, captain-general of the island at the time, of the righteousness of my
intentions, shook ill-feelings many Cubans and Europeans had towards me. 0
In response to his exile by Captain General Tacon, Sacos good friend, Jose de la Luz y
Caballero, wrote a letter to the Captain General, that Saco helped draft, explaining their
position with regard to their status as Cubans and subjects of the Spanish crown.
According to historian Ramiro Guerra, this Representacion de Don Jose Antonio
Saco al Excmo. Gobernador y Capitan General Don Miguel Tacon was the most
important political document of the era. Fernando Ortiz added that if was the most
decisive document for defining Sacos, and Luz Caballeros political ideology of the
time.61 In it Saco and Luz identified themselves with the liberal ideologies that were
sweeping Europe and the Americas at the time and added that they understood liberalism
to be synonymous to enlightenment. What they did not point out was that their liberal
ideology founded in enlightenment was tinged with racism. It became evident in there
explanation of the islands political situation:
The wealthy part of the population is composed of wealthy Europeans
who have the government and the armed forces at their beckon call; among the
sons/daughters of the nation (Cubans) an endless number of them are moneyed
and nothing in this world moves them there are others who even though they
seem indifferent, are not interested in moving, the result is a small and disjointed
group that are disinterested. On the other hand, who does not fear when
contemplating the horde of Africans that are coming closer and closer? What
sane man does not despise and lament the miserably aborted attempts at
independence that arose among us? Luckily, it was the disdain of their victims.62
60 Ibid, pg. 161-162, cited from Torres-Cuevas, Polemica, p. 88.

61 Ibid., p. 88.
62 Saco, Colecciones, III, p. 84.
57
Luz y Caballeros appeals to the Spanish colonial authorities did not prevent Sacos exile.
Unbeknownst to both of them, Saco exile, forced or self-imposed, would last the next
thirty years. Nevertheless, he would continue to write about his homeland from abroad.
After landing in England, and traveling throughout Europe, in December of 1834
Saco arrived in Barcelona, Spain, and in January of the following year, traveled to
Madrid. Shortly after his arrival in Spain, he tried to have his first work as an expatriate
Carta de un patriota o sea clamor de los cubanos dirigido por sus procuradores a
Cortes, published anonymously. He did not want the Spanish authorities to believe it was
his, but wanted them to think that it had been sent to the peninsula from the island. In the
introduction of Carta de un Patriota, Saco noted that at the time, the Royal Statute,
allowing representatives from Cuba in the Cortes, was still in effect. Because Cuba had
representatives, he thought signing the Carta would have been presumptuous, and may
have implied that he [Saco] was trying to instruct the representatives on the direction they
should assume.63
In Carta de un patriota Saco, once again, denounced the colonial governments
arbitrary policies relating to Cuba and the social ills that engulfed the island. He reserved
his most heated rancor for the Captain-Generals, especially Tacon, and the despotic
manner in which they governed the island. Saco asked that Cubans be allowed to
participate in the creation of the islands budget in response to the disproportionate
amounts he believed the island was paying Spain. He also insisted that the contribution to
the general expenses of the monarchy in proportion to the islands wealth and population.
He then suggested that some of the money made on the island should be invested in
public education, the increase in [white] colonization, and the construction of public
63 See Saco, Colecciones, III, p. 91.
58
ways. Further on, he proposed that Cuba should be guaranteed civil and political rights
of a proper liberal government to [white] Creoles; separation of powers, the restoration of
municipal autonomy, a limited number of regular armed forces, the reestablishment of
(white) colonial militias and the reorganization of the foro and the fiscal system.64
According to many historians, and Saco himself, his principal concern in the letter
was the slave trade. Apart from the above, he also requested the immediate cessation of
slave contraband, and suggested there be the imposition of severe penalties for violators
of international treaties and legislation outlawing it. Lastly, Saco wanted the placement of
a legislature based in the capital of the colony formed by popular election, limiting the
power of the metropolitan representative and would intervene in the placement of judicial
charges. Taking a page from the British system of colonial government in Canada, Saco
argued that Cuba should have a provincial or colonial council composed of Cubans. The
concerns outlined by Saco in this letter were articulated more clearly and with more detail
than previous efforts, and for the first time, he indicated his autonomous political
leanings. Although Saco only insists on autonomy for the island, the Spanish crown saw
his rumblings as a call to independence and therefore, a direct threat to their dominion
over the island.
In Carta de un patriota, Saco not only addressed Cubas political status and the
problem of the slave trade, it is also here that he began to subtly indicate his ideas about
what it meant to be Cuban and who constituted the Cuban nation. Though he was clear
about his position concerning Cubas political status; Spanish colonial abuses; and the
64 Throughout the colonial period, Cuba had militias o f all colors divided into white, pardo (light-skinned
black people), and moreno (dark-skinned black people). In response to the Conspiracy o f La Escalera, the
Spanish colonial government did away with the pardo and moreno militia. Saco wanted a reintroduction
only o f white militias.
59
slave trade, he was not obvious about the role of black people on the island. One began to
deduce his position from his articulation of concerns for the voting rights for Cubans
within the context of colonial society. By 1837, Sacos position became apparent as
revealed in his extensive publications that year. Many of the essays responded to his and
other Cuban representatives, exclusion from Spains Cortes and addressed Cubas future
relationship with the metropolis in the face of such disregard concerning the island.65
Sacos first essay of the year, published in January, was entitled Claims by the
Representative to Cortes (Governing Body) fo r the province o f Cuba regarding the
approval or disapproval o f his powers; in February, after reviewing a copy of the plans
for a proposal by a special commission of the Cortes, that sought to exclude overseas
representation, he along with other representatives wrote Protest by the representatives
elected on the island o f Cuba to the general Parliament o f the Nation; and in April when
deliberations by the legislative body concluded, he wrote Analytical Examination o f the
Report by the Special Commission named by the [Governing Body], These essays
addressed the structure of the Cortes and the problem of Cuban exclusion. More
importantly, it is in these essays that we see clear evidence of Sacos desire to exclude
Black people from the body politic.
65 Captain General Miguel Tacon tried to exclude all Cubans that did not represent the plantocracy from
participating in the Cuban political process. Nonetheless, Saco was elected to represent the Eastern
province o f Santiago that did not have a large plantocracy. By the time he was to take his seat in the cortes,
it had been dissolved. Several times after that during the year, he was elected and unable to take his seat
again. In previous sessions o f the Cortes, several amendments to the Spanish Constitution were addressed
and it was agreed that Spain only included the peninsula and adjacent islands, while the overseas
territories Cuba, Puerto Rico and the Philipines became colonies. The covert intention was to exclude
representation from these colonies in the Cortes. On April 16, 1837, in a 90 to 65 vote the Cortes agreed to
exclude overseas colonies from membership. See Eduardo Torres-Cuevas, La Polem ica de la esclavitud:
Jose Antonio Saco, La Habana: Editorial de Ciencias Sociales, 1984, pp. 110-112.
60
In the first letter, Claims, even though there were tremendous political changes
between the Spanish Constitution of 1812 and 1837, Saco pointed to it to identify who
should be included among Spanish citizens. In the Constitutional Convention of 1810,
they declared that all Hispanic-American provinces integrated the nation; they gave their
inhabitants; descendents o f Spaniards', the same political rights as those bom in the
Metropolis.66 By emphasizing descendents of Spaniards when writing about who
should get political rights, he stress not only his Cubans separation from Spaniards, but
by not mentioning Black people he excludes them ipso facto. In the second letter, Protest,
Saco continued making use of the Constitution of 1812 arguing in favor of Cuban
representatives inclusion in the governing body. Because the Cortes, according to
article 27 of the Code of Cadiz, includes all representatives of the nation, and because
Cuba is a part, clearly, to exclude her from national representation would violate the law
still in affect.67 Ironically, Saco did not see his exclusion of Black people in the same
light. Finally in his Analytical Exam, written in response to a report by a special
commission formed to consider the exclusion of overseas representatives, Saco expressed
his concern about the census with particular fixation of the free people of color and those
that were enslaved and what their numbers represent:
According to article 28 of the Constitution [1812] the base for national
representation is the same in both hemispheres, and finding it necessary to reduce
this base on the island of Cuba according to article 29 of the same Constitution, to
the complete population o f natives [Creoles] o f which both parents have lineage
originating in the Spanish dominions [whites], it is necessary to point out in
paragraphs 1 and 4 of article 5 that Spanish include all men born free and as
citizens o f the dominions o f Spain [whites] and their children, and those freed
from the time that they receive their freedom in Spain', all of those included in the
third row [of a chart; slaves] are excluded from having the right to represent or be
represented. Therefore, the number is reduced to 311, 051 [only whites] souls, or
66 Saco, Papeles, III, p. 112
67 Ibid, p. 113
61
less than half of the total population, and approximately % of those who, in the
literal sense and as expressed by the Constitution, are truly Spanish.68
Saco went on to argue that simply because there are differences between the
metropolis and the islandin that more than half of the population is blackthose of
Spanish origin should retain the right to vote as in any other modern country:
.. .If we accept an electoral law that is different for Cuba than it is for the
peninsula, on the island itself we must differentiate how Spaniards of different
colors should represent and be represented: this is clear enough that Cortes
prudent provision end what could cause grave danger, and so that the same time
the learn that a law for a homogeneous place dictate what happens in a place with
such a heterogeneous population.69
As evidenced by Sacos preoccupation with who should be included and excluded
from voting rights on the island, as a province of Spain, at that point in his writings, he
began to speak out against black participation in the body politic. Whether enslaved or
free, he did not seem them as equal. In other words, Saco wanted Blacks to be counted
for the electoral census, while denying them the right to vote, so that the number of white
representatives would increase. Free Black people would be represented, but only
whites could represent. Enslaved people were considered property and therefore, had no
rights of representation. Sacos thesis maintained that the full political freedom for one
class (read race) could coexist with the enslavement of another complete freedom for
whites and total subservience for Black people. Saco was not yet finished addressing the
question of Cuban exclusion from the Cortes.
Sacos Speaks out against Spain
In his next work, Parallel between the island o f Cuba and some o f the English
colonies, Saco continues to attack Spains administration of Cuba. He also addressed the
68 Saco, Papeles, III, p. 114.

69 Ibid, p. 115.
62
structure of Cubas political, economic and social hierarchy using England and its
colonial situationthat was nothing like the Spanish colonial system as a model to
which the Spanish colonial government could aspire:
.. .tired of hearing about the advantages enjoyed by Cuba under Spanish rule; tired
of hearing that of all the colonies held by European powers on the other side of
the Atlantic, none is as happy as Cuba; and tired also of suffering the taunts of
mercenary publicists and the pedantry of some of the blustering deputies, I take
up my pen to sketch some parallels between this island, said to be so fortunate,
and some of the English colonies. It is not my intention to portray the
government of the latter as a model of perfection. A colonial system of political
and commercial restrictions which by their very nature sometimes amount to an
intolerable despotism and sometimes merely to a light chain composed of gilded
links which make it more bearable for the peoples who must carry it. Whatever
the case, the conditions of a colony is certainly an unenviable one. But when I
turn my gaze to Cuba and contemplate the miserable state in which it is sunk, I
vow (as befits a Cuban) that I would exchange the fortunes of my country for
those of the possessions of Canada.70
According to Cuban historian Moreno Fraginals, Paralelo is a key document in Cuban
political history. It called for a colonial regime that Spain was absolutely incapable of
establishing; that is to say, it calls for a neocolonial system that could only be imposed by
a metropolis (like England) with a powerful merchant marine, advanced industrialization,
capability of processing colonial raw goods, an ample internal market and an ability to re
export important amounts.71
In comparing Cuba with the English colonies, Saco began to address the labor
question. He was adamant about the need to shift the labor force from Black slave labor
to free white labor, and called for the mass immigration of Europeans and noted that none
of the British colonies were in need of white labor like Cuba. Around the same time,
various organizations were formed to examine the possibility of white immigration such
70 Robert Paquette, Sugar is Made with Blood: The Conspiracy o f ' La Escalera and the conflict between
empires o f slavery in Cuba, Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 1988, p. 45.
71 Manuel Moreno Fraginals, Cuba/Espaha, Espaha/Cuba: Historia Comun, Barcelona: Critica, Grijalbo
Mondadori, 1996, p. 198.
63
as the Junta de la Poblacion Blanca, or Council for White Population. Saco thought they
were moving to slow:
Reports are compiled, new taxes are levied, the government gathers the
information, making other investments; and meanwhile not one white colonist
sets foot on these shores. The fields are inundated with African slaves.... I place
the blame squarely on the shoulders of the government, that can and should put an
end to the infamous African contraband but which instead tolerates it, gives its
consent, and even connives by violating treaties and flouting the law, to the
scandal of public and private morals.72
According to historian Robert Paquette, Saco touched upon the problem that preoccupied
at least a good part of the Creole community. Ever since the slave uprising in SaintDomingue, the Creoles of the neighboring islands regarded the Negroes, both slave and
free, not only with the contempt expressed in the oft-repeated phrase ebony
merchandise, but with genuine fear. This fear grew as the number of slaves increased on
the plantations, and the free Blacks in the towns of the colony grew.73
At the same time, Saco was no different than is counterparts throughout Latin
America. Creole elites, influenced by liberal ideologies from Europe and the United
States, thought that they homelands would never achieve modernity with the large
numbers of black and brown people. Therefore, they looked to European immigration to
address their concerns. While these concerns tended to be couched in terms of labor
needs, their real intention was to whiten their countries for so that they could look as
much like Europe and the United States as possible. More importantly, in places with
such heterogeneous populations, Creole intellectuals realized that they would never
achieve complete whitening therefore many of the settled for enough whitening so that
they could gain, or maintain control of countries. Saco was not necessarily interested in
72 Saco, Papeles, III, p. 163, cited in Paquette, p. 45.
73 Paquette, Sugar is made with Blood, p. 45.
64
ending slavery, but he did want an end to the slave trade. Perhaps more importantly in
this essay, Saco set the stage for Cubas future construction of nation. His ultimate goal
was not only to rid the island of slave labor, but also to rid it of all Black people all
together, both slave and free. In future writings, Saco addressed the need for whitening
and the elimination of Black people from the island in more detail.
This essay is also significant in that it is the first time Saco addresses the
implications of Spains continued stranglehold on Cuba and the islands future
relationship with the United States and the possibility of war:
You can imagine the injustice, the hate, and the disdain with which our country is
treated. Our question is no longer one of essays, but one of swords and bullets.
Can we use them and be victorious? Then would we be happy? Can we not resist?
We have no other recourse than to bow down and be chained. This comes from
one [Saco] who is in Spain, and knows Spain.74
Saco believed there were three options for Cuba: to remain a part of Spain; become an
independent state; or become a part of the United States. For Saco, the first one, to
remain a colony of Spain, was the only real option. Two fundamental concerns prevented
the other two options in Sacos mind: the existence of the black masses not born on the
island; and the loss of what he called nacionalidad cubana. In the first case, even though
Saco indicated that he was solely concerned with whether Black people ridding the island
of those Black people (i.e., ending the slave trade) that were not born in Cuba, his later
writings indicate that his real goal was to purge the island of all Black people. At the
same time, he believed that Cuba would lose its nacionalidad cubana if it were annexed
to the United States.
Although Saco wondered aloud about the use of arms to gain rights, he concluded
that it was not the answer, and without stating it, he, like his contemporaries, believed
74 Figarola-Caneda, p. 29, cited in Torres-Cuevas, La Polemica, p. 112.
65
that it would result in another Haiti in Cuba. Therefore, he lamented that Cuba should
remain yoked to Spain with slavery in place. In a letter dated February 1838 from
Marseille, France, Saco told his boyhood friendCuban planter and financial supporter
of SacoJose Luis Alfonso:
Be certain that none of my fundamental ideas concerning the topic [of slavery]
will be adopted. I would ask for freedom [autonomy not independence], true
freedom for my homeland; but if the Spanish government even give us special
laws, they will be to mask their tyranny....Spains policy towards Cuba is to
extract from it all of the money it can and to give Cubans the least amount of
rights possible.75
The early 1840s in Cuba saw a continued increase in the number of enslaved
Africans being imported into Cuba. According to the 1841 census, it was at that point that
enslaved people of African descent outnumbered whites. White intellectuals had been
preoccupied with the number of enslaved people on the island and the possibility of slave
rebellions since the Haitian Revolution, but the greed of the planters outweighed all other
considerations. Nonetheless, this census struck a chord with all whites on the island.
While Saco had been calling for an end to the slave trade, the planters and their cohorts
looked for other answer to the problem. In 1843, they found it.
In response to the Conspiracy of La Escalera,an alleged island-wide
conspiracy by Black people both enslaved and free to overthrow the powers that be and
create another black republic like Haiticolonial administrators, planters, and a majority
of whites participated in the slaughter of 3,000 to 5,000 free and enslaved Black people.
According to historians who have addressed La Escalera, the majority of those
75 Ibid, p. 118.
66
massacred were free people of color.76 Interestingly enough, Saco, who was living in
France at the time, but was corresponding with Cubans on the island, did not address the
conspiracy. One might argue that because it involved the massacre of Black people, Saco
was not concerned with its outcome, but only in how it affected him and his goals.
After disregarding the plight of Black people in Cuba, and as a testament to his
idea of a white Cuba, Saco once again turned to the promotion of white immigration to
the island. It was not until Domingo del Monte asked him to respond to a report by the
General Superintendent for the Royal Treasury, Vicente Vazquez Queipo, that Saco
wrote another political piece. In Letter from a Cuban to a friend, in which observations
are made concerning the increase in the white population o f the island o f Cuba, etc.,
presented in Havana in December o f 1844 to the General Superintendent fo r the Royal
Treasury, by Mr. Vicente Vazquez Quiepo, Saco pointed out that the report addressed
specific topics; white immigration and the gradual emancipation of slavery. He began by
giving a rather long history of how the Spaniards arrived on the island and the slave trade
to the period when he was writing this letter, and then pointed out that the report
continued to deny the large number of enslaved Africans being transported to the island:
.. .the Superintendent does not want to admit, not even at this time, the slightest
increase, and he assures us that the census of 1842 is obviously exaggerated.... In
arguing against the authors calculations.. .my only intention is to unbalance the
foundation of ideas that are prejudicial to Cuba.... As I see it, he is not interested
in a true increase in the white population of our country. 77
76 The debate surrounding La Escalera is intense. Some historians believe there was an actually islandwide conspiracy, organized by Englishman David Turnbull. Others argue it was an excuse to check the
Black population. See Paquette, Sugar is Made with Blood, for a historiography o f La Escalera. The most
recent and possibly most complete work on La Escalera is forthcoming by Cuban historian Manuel
Barcia.
77 Saco, Cartade un Cubano... in Papeles, III, p. 214.
67
Saco believed that Queipo was opposed to white immigration. Saco then pointed out the
kind of immigration he saw benefiting the island; why people opposed free white labor;
and the reason he believed white labor in the sugar cane fields would work:
I want families as well as laborers to go; I want artisans, merchants, literary types
and wise men to go: in one word, I want all types of people to go so long as the
have white faces, and know how to work honorably. This is what wanting white
immigration means: anything else is to give it to us in name only and not giving
us the thing itself.
In order to prove the impossibility of sugar production by free [white] men,
people address the characteristics of the workday in the English Antilles and
Cuba. I know that the work done by slaves.. .is cheaper than wage labor.... [But
white immigration and therefore wage labor is better because]. 1. [Whites] are
more intelligent and more interested in working, which gives them an advantage
over African slaves. 2. When a plantation is filled with free labor, if anybody
acquires a vice, gets lazy, etc., the plantation can fire the worker, and replace him
or her. But if the workers are slaves, the owner is condemned to suffer the same
costs, without benefiting from the services. 3. Indolence, and the perversity of the
slaves have caused ruin for many plantations. The animal that is loose and
destroys the planting, the horse that has spasms, the sparks that burn the
sugarcane fields, are less frequent when the plantations are not populated by
savage Africans. 4 The fidelity and personal responsibility of white colonos will
stop robbery of sugar and goods and the loss of thousands of pesos... 78
After clearly stating enslaved people were full of vices; less intelligent than
whites; indolent; and equal to animals, Saco went on to debate Queipos next concern;
the illegitimate unions of white laborers with black women. Saco agreed with Queipo that
this union was morally wrong, but went on to speak to the political advantages of
mestizaje. Reminiscent of his counterparts in Cuba and mainland Latin America, Saco
had some innovative, if irrational, ideas about mestizaje. As noted previously, he believed
in the need to rid the island of Black people, apart from ending the slave trade, he also
saw mestizaje as an avenue to this end:
Such fear of mestizos may have had some value in the past; but after the spread of
certain ideas during this century, we have been given examples, and are all
78 Ibid., p. 219.
68
waiting on future results; all people of color whether darker or lighter aspire to the
same thing. If mestizos were born from the relationship between a white woman
and a black man, it would be distressing, because it would decrease our white
population, and weaken it in all aspects; but because the opposite occurs, far from
seeing it as a danger, I see it as a good. The great evil of the island of Cuba
consists in the immobility of the black race that always conserves its color and
primitive origin; they stay separate from the white race by an impenetrable
barrier.. .but the mixing of races will put that barrier down. Not having opposed
this social change in less enlightened centuries, I do not expect the doors will be
70
closed today, imitating the intolerance of the United States of North America.
In his response to the report by a representative of the Spanish authorities, Saco
articulated the benefits of white immigration for Cuba as he saw it. He also pointed out
that Black people were very lazy and therefore, detrimental to Cubas progress. Once
again, he accused Black people of being unwilling to mix with whites, when, in fact, it
was the other way around. Interestingly, he saw mestizaje as a means to whitening.
Using the ideas of the day about race, he concluded that unions between white
immigrants and black women would be beneficial. In contrast, he thought the opposite
relationshipblack man/white womanwould lead to doom. Queipo responded by
saying that Saco was an insurgent. Saco responded in Replica de don Jose Antonio Saco a
la contestacion del Sr. Fiscal de la Real Hacienda de la Habana Don Vicente Vazquez
Queipo thereby ending the debate about the benefits of white immigration.
Saco, Anti-annexationist
It is generally acknowledged among historians of nineteenth-century Cuba that
the next series of essays written by Saco are the centerpiece of his philosophy. In the late
1840s and early 1850s, Cuban planters began to see annexation to the United States as an
alternative to subjugation by the despotic Spanish regime and the continued and
persistent harassing by the British to end the slave trade. They favored annexation
79 Ibid., p. 224.
69
because in the 1850s, Spain was economically and politically weak, and therefore unable
to protect the slave trade. The mounting pressure from England occurred as a result of the
Industrial Revolution: a revolution that did not benefit from slavery in the Caribbean.
The English believed that in order for the Industrial Revolution to be successful, the
world need to turn to free wage labor. In the midst of their golden era, Cuban planters
refused to end the slave trade, and many of them saw annexation to the United States as
their answer.
According to Moreno Fraginals, One afternoon in [Cuban planter] Miguel
Aldamas palace [in Havana], a group of purveyors of the sweet gold met and at the
suggestion of Jose Luis Alfonso [Sacos financial supporter] they formed the Club of
Havana. Their political platform was simple: get the United States to annex Cuba by any
means necessary. They wanted to maintain slavery.
cn
Lines between Spaniards and
Cubans were blurred and then redrawn to separate annexationists from anti
annexationists. For Saco, the annexationists were traitors to a homeland that he was
trying to construct, and existed only in the minds of the small group of intellectuals that
supported Saco. In writing off their patriotism, Saco said the planters have no more
homeland than their sugar plantations; nor other fellow citizens than their slaves.81 As
the question of annexation entered the public arenaBetancourt Cisneros (also known as
El Lugareno), Jose Luis Alfonso, and otherspersonal friends of Saco, followers,
80 Manuel Moreno Fraginals, Cuba/Espana, Espana/Cuba: Historia Comun, Barcelona, Spain: Crltica,
1995, p. 145.
81
Jose Antonio Saco, Replica de D ...Saco a los anexionistas que han impugnado sus Ideas sobre la
incorporacion de cuba en los Estados Unidos. The original phrase that we have placed in the text is the
one that appears in the original version. When he reedited the work in his Coleccion de papeles, Saco
modified it in the following .. .the egotistical ruined that proclaim freedom, are only looking to fulfill their
vile interests; and those that have nothing more than their sugar plantation nor fellow citizens other than
their slaves. T. Ill, p. 376.
70
admirers, or disciples during the last thirty years, wrote him to try to convince him to join
the movement.
Betancourt Cisneros even offered Saco 10,000 pesos to start a newspaper favoring
annexation. Although he was living in Paris broke, Saco refused and took the opposition
side. According to Cuban historian Raul Lorenzo, Saco had four reasons for taking this
position: 1) He believed that annexation would mean Hispanic-Cuban culture would be
absorbed by the Anglo-Saxon culture. 2) He believed it was difficult that the US would
support the move openly, because to do so would imply a costly all out war, in which the
island would be the principal battlefield. 3) He did not believe that there were such grave
threats as those contemplated by the leaders of the annexationist movement. 4) He
believed annexation at such a high cost would not produce a shift in history, but would
cause the re-initiation of the slave trade on a grand scale, accelerating the development of
colonial forces in Cuba.82 In a historic letter dated 19 March 1848 to Betancourt
Cisneros, Saco expressed his anti-annexationist position:
As for myself, despite the fact that I know the tremendous advantages that Cuba
would obtain for a passive annexation, I must confess with all of my soul, I would
continue to have a reservation, a secret sense of the loss of our nationality, of the
nacionalidad cubana. There are a little more than 400,000 whites in Cuba. Our
island can feed several million of them. As a part of the United States,
immigration into Cuba would be abundant, and within a few years, the Yankees
would be more numerous than us, and the end result would be not be a joining
together or an annexation, but an absorption of Cuba by the United States. The
truth is that the island would always exist; but I want a Cuba for Cubans and not
for a foreign race.
Let us never forget that the Anglo-Saxon race is very different than ours in origin,
language, religion, customs and traditions, and once they have the numbers, they
will aspire to direct the political and general life of Cuba; and they would achieve
not only a numerical advantage, but because they would believe that they are our
tutor or protector, far more advanced than we are in questions of government,
82 Raul Lorenzo, Sentido nacionalista delpensam iento de Saco, La Habana: Editorial Tropico, 1942, p.
109.
71
science and the arts. They would achieve it [an advantage] over us without
violence, and using the same rights we are granted. They would present
themselves as candidates, as would we; the North Americans would vote for their
candidates as we would ours; but being in the majority [the North Americans],
Cubans would be excluded according to the same laws, from all or almost all
public offices; this painful situation would cause our children, the true owners of
our land, to be subjugated in their own land by an advantaged race.
I have seen this other places and I know that I would also see it in my
homeland.... I wish that Cuba would not only be rich, enlightened, moral and
powerful, but also that Cuba be Cuban and not Anglo-Saxon. The idea of
immortality is sublime, because it prolongs the existence of individuals beyond
the grave, and nationality is the immortality of a people and the purest origin of
patriotism.
No dear friend by god no. Let us move away from such destructionist thoughts.
Let us not be the disgraceful toy of men that with our sacrifices would take over
our land, not for our happiness, put for their own advantage.... In our critical
situation.. .we must suffer with heroic resignation the whip of Spain; but let us
suffer it, attempting to leave the legacy for our children of a country that if not
free is at least tranquil and with the hope of a future. Let us with all of our powers
try to end the infamous slave trade; let us decrees their number without violence
or injustice; let us do what we can to increase the white population; .. .let us build
roadways; let us do everything that you have done, such a glorious example to our
fellow citizens, and to Cuba, or beloved Cuba, will one day be Cuba.83
While the letter was clearly anti-annexationist, in the opening Saco left room for
doubt about his positionwarranting attacks against him by Spanish colonial officials
when he stated that he understood that passive would have benefited the island. Saco then
went on to argue against annexation by emphasizing the loss of the island to the AngloSaxon race. In the first half of the nineteenth century race was not solely defined by
phenotype and color. Nonetheless, it is important to note that while race, as applied to
phenotype and color, was not clearly defined until the introduction of scientific racism,
during this time, there were on-going debates about the genesis of humankind and
whether Black people and Indians were even human. Regardless of their position,
83 Saco, Ideas sobre la Incorporacion de Cuba en los Estados Unidos, in Papeles, III, pg. 337
72
European and Creole intellectuals saw Black and Indian people as primitive and savage,
irrational and therefore inferior to whites. According to Moreno Fraginals, Sacos
concept of race was a combination of the classic Spanish idea with newly emerging ideas
about race based on phenotype that caused him to use expressions like Spanish race,
Cuban race, Anglo-Saxon race, Black race and White race.84 In this letter Saco
emphasized this difference by highlighting the limited number of whites, and by arguing
that the island could withstand millions more (whites), thereby implying that there were
too many Black people. Finally, he emphasized the need to end the slave trade and to
decrease their number (all black people) so that the island can get on with its
oc
modernization of a white Cuba.
By this time in his career, Sacos racism is obvious. At the same time, the
Spanish administration and Cuban planters labeled him a separatist as well as an
abolitionist. In his Replica de Don Jose Antonio a los anexionistas... in which he
responds to three anonymous retorts to his Implicacion..., Saco argued against both of
these notions. In the first section of the letter Saco replies to somebody calling himself
Amigo, who accused Saco of being overwhelmed by his blind abolitionist fanaticism in
response to Sacos argument opposing annexation by a government that does not give
any importance to my Negrophobia. According to Saco, Amigo misunderstood his
reason for opposing annexation. More importantly, Saco made clear that he was by no
means an abolitionist as evidenced by the following:
Abolitionist societies exist in England and in other countries, and if I embraced
the ideology that has been attributed to me, there were plenty of opportunities for
me to become a member. Isnt it strange that being a fanatic abolitionist that I do
84 Manuel Moreno Fraginals, Jose Antonio Saco: estudio y bibliografia, La Villas, Cuba: Universidad
Central de Las Villas, 1960, p. 27.
85 Ibid, p. 30.
73
not belong, and have never wanted to belong to these societies, despite the ease
with which I could have joined? .... [My] conduct is incompatible, not only with
fanatic abolitionism, but even with the more moderate abolitionism, because it
proves there is a reserved circumspection in my thing[?] that does not lend itself
to the fanaticism I am accused of practicing.86
While he was not an abolitionist, Saco continued to promote the end of the slave trade.
In addition, he began to call for an end to the African race in Cuba. In this letter he
goes on to write about an earlier exchange he had with Sr. Queipo, concerning white
immigration in which he called for the end of the slave trade. I do not deny it; it is true
and very true that I ardently desire, not by violent or revolutionary means, but through
passive and tempered process, the reduction, the extinction, if possible, of the black race',
and I want this, because in the political state of the American archipelago, this [the Black
race] could be the most powerful instrument to consummate the ruin of our island. Saco
sarcastically concluded, And the person who makes these statements is a fanatic
abolitionist! Fanatic abolitionist and I am not a friend of the Blacks! Fanatic abolitionist
and I ardently want the African race to be extinguished from Cuba!
In this same Replica...a los anexionistas, Saco also accentuated his opposition to
armed fight for independence. Disclpulo, another anonymous letter writer who argued
that that all Creoles [white Cubans] are in favor of a annexationist revolution.. .as for the
Blacks, they are not as numerous as is pretended, and in case of revolution they would be
very useful to the Creoles. In yet another example of Sacos fear of what would happen
to Cuba if Black people participated in armed struggle he posited the following:
Disclpulo gives two reasons why slaves would support an annexationist
revolution. The first is the sympathy he claims they have for their masters the
Creoles. The second reason that motivates slaves is their desire for liberty.
86 Saco, Replica de Don Jose Antonio Saco a los anexionistas que han impugnado sus ideas sobre la
incorporacion de Cuba en los Estados Unidos, in Papeles, III, pg. 367.
87 Ibid, pg. 369.
74
I [Saco] will not argue if slaves would be for one side or the other, and I want to
concede to the Disdpulo that they would be on the side of the Cubans; that once
again brings up the question in all of its power. Whether the government or the
annexationist armed the Blacks, and enticing them with the magic screams of
freedom, are they not calling for an abolition of slavery? And if this is the forced
result, why do they say that it is indispensable for the preservation of slavery from
its immediate extinction? If giving slaves their freedom en masse is unfortunate,
even in peace, it would be even more terrible under circumstances of civil war,
because armed Africans, proud of being the necessary supporters of one party,
and finding whites divided, they would not limit their pretensions only to liberty,
but supported and led by free people of their race, who are so knowledgeable and
numerous in Cuba, they would aspire to equality political rights like whites, an
equality that does not allow the state to;; maintain its ideas and customs.... Would
the United States win? If they won, congratulations, but their triumph would be
on the ashes of the patria. They would have the geographical location; but at this
location, more than 600,000 Blacks would bathe in the blood of their masters
giving the southern states of that confederacy a terrible example to follow. I
clearly state that the United States would be triumphant, as would their
domination. But, would this triumph and domination, after such a bloody battle,
saved the lives of Cuban planters, or the interest of slavery that the annexationists
want to conserve? This is what is important to Cubans, and not after being ruined,
a foreign country gives Blacks control of Cuba.. .88
While Saco exhibited his concern for the loss of nacionalidad cubana that would result
from annexation to the United States, as evidenced by the above, he was more concerned
about the impact Black participation would have on annexation. His fear was evidently
shaped, not by an Anglo-Saxon, but an African takeover of the island, and what that
meant for the Cuban (white) race on the island.
In the same year Saco published his Replica a los anexionistas, the Spanish
government named Jose Gutierrez de la Concha governor of Cuba. He implemented
massive reforms that benefited the planter class. In response, many of those who favored
annexation turned to favor their relationship with Spain. These changes occurred at the
same time that sugarcanethat had been losing out to beet sugarregained its place in
Ibid, pg. 383.
75
the world market. According to Cuban historian Torres-Cuevas, by February of 1853,

Sacos political life seemed to be over. In a letter to Jose Luis Alfonso, Saco noted:
There are cases when a more important patriotism consists in the inactivity of the
patriot, and that the patriot eclipses himself, and if possible becomes annulled, in
doing so, he preserves himself uncorrupted for more tranquil times
QQ
Saco dedicated his time to writing about the negative impact the slave trade to
Cuba had on the islands possibilities for advancement. According to Moreno Fraginals,
the works strongest contribution to the study of slavery was the part about the institution
in Ancient Greece. Although Saco began what eventually became a four-volume set, in
the 1840s, it was not published until 1875. Therefore, it had no tangible impact on the
slave trade that by that time, it is generally believed, had already ceased. At the same
time, Saco continued to write pieces that expressed his concern with the political
question. In 1865, he joined Puerto Rican intellectual Eugenio Maria de Hostos as a
contributor to Revista Hispano-Americano and wrote about the problems that Cuba had
with Spain:
To continue to deny Cuba its freedom is to run uncontrollably to the abyss where
all of us could perish. Progress of modern societies, and one in which that island
also participates, has created new needs and new sentiments; and if there was a
time in which Cubans lived happily with the ideas the inherited from the parents,
today they are seen as disgraceful, because they lack all freedom.
Cuba because of its richness, its enlightenment and its political importance, it is
time to insist on liberal institutions. Call for liberty sound, echo and lightened the
heart of her sons.... The Balearic and Canary Islands, even though they are not
worth as much as that island, are free. Even among the provinces of the peninsula
are there many that compare to Cuba? Without trying to offend or be arrogant,
arent there some that are inferior to this island?9
89 Eduardo Torres-Cuevas, Lapolem ica de la esclavitud: Jose Antonio Saco, La Habana: Editorial de
Ciencias Sociales, 1984, p. 99.
90 Jose Antonio Saco, Coleccionpostuma, pp. 195-210. Cited in Torres-Cuevas, p. 172.
76
At the same time, he continued to demonstrate his concern for the social
question in Cuba that in essence, addressed his disdain for the lesser races. In 1865,
three years prior to the outbreak of the first war of independence, Saco, like most white
Cubans, continued to embrace the exclusion of other races (i.e., African and Asian) from
participation in Cuba life as evidenced by an essay he published in Revista HispanoAmericana, on 27 March 1865, entitled Introduction of African colonos and its
inconveniences. In it, Saco manifests his preoccupation with the possible introduction of
40,000 free Africans to labor on the sugar plantations. At the same time, he returned to
the concern he manifested in his first published about the vagrancy of whites, and noted:
If many men of our race had been snatched out of vagrancy and vice at an early
age, our sugar and coffee agriculture would have thousands of white arm s.. .that
would lend itself to public tranquility. This will not happen as long as we
continue to introduce Africans. Having said this, I am not one of the many that
directly or indirectly approves of Asian immigration. I am also an enemy of this
immigration, substituting blacks while at the same time moving whites away from
agriculture. 91
In this writing he manifested his concern not only for the economic implications of
African and Asian free labor immigration to the island, but the social implications their
introduction would have:
If the African race is compromising the happy future of Cuba, the Asiatic race
that is being introduced, complicates the situation, because added to the two
incompatible races that we already had, now a third one, that cannot be
amalgamated with neither of the other two, because of their language difference
and their color, their traditions and customs, their ideas and feelings, and their
religious principles.
Very adventurous politics is the attempt to maintain tranquility in Cuba, with the
introduction of various races.... This balance will not last long, despite all of the
efforts taken to maintain it; the day will come when it will break, all of the races
against the whites.... Never forget that the black slave can be incited to rebel by
the offer of freedom, as can the free black and the Asians with promises of
equality to whites. In our dangerous situation, a slow prosperity is more
91 Ibid, p. 173.
77
reasonable, produced by white arms, than rapid success with black and Chinese,
or men of other races that would cause us to fall into the abyss that is beginning to
be seen now.92
In the end, Saco continued to embrace an exclusionary ideology vis-a-vis people of other
races and their inclusion in Cubas body politic.
Conclusion
Jose Antonio Sacos political and social thought was shaped in the 1820s, forty
years prior to the wars of independence. He formulated his political ideology in the
1830s, based on the teachings of Father Varela. At the time, and responding to the
failures of the independence movements, Saco began his social and political activity to
denounce the discriminatory policies of the Spanish government towards Cuba. Spanish
colonial officials saw Sacos condemnation of their policies as a call to armed struggle
for independence. As outline above, he rejected armed struggle because he believed that
if independence were achieved, it would be independence like the one in Haiti that would
result in a blood bath for Cubans, white Cubans, as defined by Saco and his Cuban
intellectual counterparts.
At the same time, many Cuban planters, along with their Spanish administration
partners saw Saco as an abolitionist. Saco was also very clear on his position regarding
slavery and the slave trade. While he understood that enslaved people were needed to
work the land, or perhaps more reasonably, planters would never agree to end slavery, he
vehemently opposed the slave trade. Unlike English and North American abolitionists,
who claimed to oppose the slave trade for humanitarian reasons after all, the Industrial
Revolution favored wage laborSaco rejected the slave trade, because he thought the
importation of enslaved people would hampered Cubas ability to modernize. Saco
92 Saco, Introduccion de Colonos Africanos en Cubay sus inconvenientes in Postuma, p. 284.
78
clearly stated that in fact, he was not an abolitionist. Moreover, as evidenced by his
writings, his rejection of the slave trade masked his real concern, that all Black people
enslaved and free (and anybody that was not white, i.e., Asians) should be expelled from
the island because they limited progress in Cuba.
Saco was not unique amongst Creole intellectuals throughout Latin America of
his time. Many of them concerned themselves with the structure of their societies
following their independence. They wondered aloud how they would include or exclude
the masses of Black people and Indians they had in their midst. While many liberals
sought to exclude them completely, because they were irrational beings, the caudillos that
ruled immediately following independence included them in their patronage systems. In
Cuba, the colonial government used enslaved people and free Blacks to maintain control
by emphasizing the threat they posed if independence were sought. Nonetheless, by 1868,
the first war of independence in Cuba began. Saco continued to maintain his opposition
to independence. According to Torres-Cuevas, because he did not change his tune over
the years, he could not appreciate the changes that took place by 1868. The wars of
independence served as a catalyst for the integration of our present Cuban nationality.
no
The solution to the problem was the full integration of all ethnic components.
Torres-Cuevas is not alone in his assumption that the wars of independence were
the solution to full integration of all ethnic components of Cuba society. Until recently,
this line of thinking dominated the historiography of nineteenth-century Cuba.
Revisionist historian Aline Helg posited that Creole elites generated a myth of racial
democracy in which they argued that all Cubans were equal regardless of race while
perpetuating the inferiority of Afro-Cubans throughout the period. On the other hand, in
93 Torres-Cuevas, pg. 180.
79
her work Insurgent Cuba, historian Ada Ferrer argues that instead of creating the myth,
Creole elites simply silenced the discussion of race.94
Jose Antonio Saco was the first-known Cuba to introduce the idea of
nacionalidad cubana. His notion of what it meant to be Cuban excluded all Black
people. Throughout his life, Saco opposed the Black inclusion through various means.
His principal means of expressing this view was his opposition to the slave trade. In
another clever ploy to exclude black people, Saco called for white immigration. As noted
previously, Saco was not unique amongst Latin American intellectuals, he like they,
constructed an idea of nationhood shaped by liberal ideas emerging from Europe and the
reality on the ground in Cuba. Sacos writings influenced contemporary elites and
future Creole intellectuals as well as the colonial policy-makers to exclude Affo-Cubans
from participation in Cubas social, economic and political life through various means.
Such measures included state support for (or official endorsement of) European
immigration, the patronato,95 the suppression of Afro-Cuban activities and their
criminalization as a class on racial terms.
94 Aline Helg, Our Rightful Share: The Afro-Cuban Struggle fo r Equality, 1886-1912, Chapel Hill, NC:
The University o f North Carolina Press, 1995; and Ada Ferrer, Insurgent Cuba: Race, Nation, and
Revolution, 1868-1898, Chapel Hill, NC: The University o f North Carolina Press, 1999.
80
Chapter 2. Structure of Society, 1880-1895

Introduction
The Ten Years War and the subsequent changes it brought to the island of Cuba
profoundly impacted Havana during the Turbulent Respite from 1880 to 1895. The Pact
of Zanjon, the peace treaty signed by the warring factions in 1878, stipulated the same
political concessions on the part of the Spanish colonial government to the Cubans as had
been given to the Puerto Ricans in 1873. What was not mentioned in negotiations was
that the concessions granted Puerto Rico had been negated since 1874 as a result of the
change in government in Spain. Nonetheless, the Pact of Zanjon set the stage for the
introduction of political, social and economic reforms within the context of continued
Spanish colonization, reforms shaped to enhance Spains control of the island.
Of the reforms, the most important was the abolition of slavery. The Ten Years
War forced the end of chattel slavery and was the major factor that impacted the islands
economy, politics, and social relationships. Because the majority of the fighting during
the Ten Years War took place in the less productive eastern parts of the island the
devastation was extraordinary. On the other hand, the western area of the island
continued to produce mass quantities of sugar and tobacco that brought about important
divisions between east and west. As noted by Cuban economic historian Fe Iglesias, the
war nonetheless contributed to the end of the slave trade and slavery and forced the
industrialization of the agricultural industry and the closure of all of the small farms that
could not compete.
The free and freed Black people indentured Chinese laborers, Spanish and Canary
Island immigrants, the Creole, the intellectual, and the elite of Havana sought to create
81
space for themselves in the city. They tussled over how Havana society should be
reconfigured in the uneasy aftermath of the Ten Years War within the context of a
colony that increasingly lost its ties to Spain. The elite and intellectual vision of a modern
Cuban society was shaped by ideas emanating from Europe and the ever-changing
structure of Cuban society. At the same time, far from European intellectual influences,
the popular groups formulated and shaped their lives in response to their harsh struggle to
survive.
As tensions between these groups increased, intellectuals used the new sciences of
anthropology, sociology and criminology to formulate ideas about inclusion and
exclusion in Cuban society. Elites looked to the colonial governments institutions of
social control including the police, the judiciary and penal institutions to enforce
appropriate conduct among the popular groups based on the new sciences. As noted by
historian Pablo Piccato for early twentieth century Mexico City, criminal behavior
(whether a genuine transgression of social norms, or simply a violation of the many laws
and regulations generated during the period) acquired a different meaning in the context
of inclusion and exclusion in modern society.96
While criminal activity in Havana deviated from the elites ideas of modern
society, other practices like street vending, begging, and drinking also subverted their
idea of modern society. Moreover, cultural practices and organizations like Africancentered ethnic societies, or cabildos de nation and Abakua, with their public
celebrations on Three Kings Day and during Easter Week, or the simple playing of
drums, were seen as barbaric and uncivilized. At the same time, the Chinese, who had
96 Pablo Piccato, City o f Suspects, Crime in Mexico City, 1900-1930, Durham, NC: Duke University Press,
2001, p. 14.
82
come over to Cuba beginning in the 1840s as indentured servants, also offended the
sensibilities of the elite and intellectuals with their opium dens and gambling. Both
groups were perceived as uncivilized by the intellectuals of the day and therefore unfit for
inclusion in a modern society like Havana. The densely populated working class
neighborhoods bustling with constant activity intimidated the elites and contributed to
their perceptions of crime and criminality in the city throughout the colonial period.
The Physical Space
Nineteenth century Havana, like most Latin American cities, was a place where
contrasts between classes and races were stark. The colonial center of the city, the Plaza
de Armas, included imposing structures like the Captain Generals mansion, the colonial
administrations headquarters on the north side, and the citys cathedral on the west.
Spacious areas shaded by trees with benches could be found in the square where the
upper class and colonial administrators visited each other, listened to the military band,
and shared in the comforts of their slave driven wealth. A contemporary observer noted,
Although it is located on one end of the old city, it is the center of the citys action.97
Commercial establishments on the south side square continued west on Calle Obispo, the
citys most important commercial street, and extended to the Parque Central. The Calle
Obispo ran west to the citys wall and served as protection during the early colonial
period and was the geographical western edge of the city.
The structural changes that swept Havana during the nineteenth century began as
early as 1790 when the Havana elite migrated to the western outskirts of the city to the
less-populated neighborhoods of El Cerro and Vedado by the middle of the nineteenth
97 Jacobo de la Pezuela y Lobo, Diccionario de Cuba, 3 H-Maril, Madrid: Imprenta del Establecimiento de
Mellano, 1863, p. 70.
83
century. There they found wide-open spaces to build their expansive mansions and fresh
healthy air to breathe. All of this was a welcome relief from living in the cramped, dark,
often foul-smelling center of the city near the masses of free and enslaved black people
and poor whites. The colonial government also contributed to the expansion of the city
when in the 1830s, Captain General Miguel Tacon, the Spanish colonial governments
top representative, constructed large, tree-lined avenues designed to highlight the public
spaces. Tacon also sought to modernize the Old City by building enormous theaters, a
modern commercial port and public transportation that connected the Old City with the
new city and beyond to the surrounding towns. In 1832, the Captain General called for
and constructed the islands first prison, the new prison of Havana. It was an imposing
structure at the mouth of Bay of Havana and an indication of the social control the
Spanish colonial government sought to exercise.
As the city expanded westward during the nineteenth century, the wall that served
to deter invasion from the west was demolished in 1863. As result the citys center
shifted and the Parque Central, with its Albizu and Payret theatres, and eating
establishments, the nearby Campo de Marte, and the wide Prado Avenue that ran north
and south from the entrance of the Castillo del Moro to the bay, became the center of the
city. It was in these wide-open spaces and in the entrances of the theaters and eateries that
the intermingling of upper class, middle class, working class, black, white, and Asian
heightened cultural and class conflict.
During the middle of the nineteenth century between the 1830s and the 1870s, Havanas
physical appearance changed dramatically with the introduction of modern amenities and
structures including the Fernando VII aqueduct in 1832, and a reliable transportation
84
system blurred public spaces and created a socially and economically integrated Havana
City and surrounding province. The importance of this new transportation system
affected the sugar boom because it provided a more adequate means to transport the
product from the plantation to the port, and made the Havana-Guines railway line,
constructed in 1837, the first in Latin America. Gas streetlights began to appear on many
of the large and newly paved avenues and streets frequented by the elite by the 1850s.
The 1850s also saw the appearance of ten steamships that linked the port of Havana with
other Cuban ports.98 By the 1860s, the provinces of Havana and neighboring Matanzas
had a very efficient railway system. This decade also saw the creation of Havana
Omnibus Enterprise that included 70 stagecoaches (guaguas), employing 150 men and
800 horses and the introduction offerrocarril urbano, or horse-drawn trams. These,
along with the large number of taxicabs connected Old Havana with the new districts of
El Cerro, Jesus del Monte, Luyano, Vedado, and Marianao to the west. In 1858, a ferry
started transporting people across the Havana Bay to Regia and another to Guanabacoa.
In 1882, electricity was turned on in the Jane and Albizu Theaters and on the most
traveled thoroughfares throughout the city. Communications were made easier with
Europe with the introduction of the telegraph in 1855 and by 1883, 500 of the wealthier
Havana families had a telephone. The first streetcar rolled onto the streets of Havana in
1877. One traveler to Havana, Antonio de las Barras, writing in the 1850s:
was surprised to find such a beautiful city, fifty years more modern than ours
[cities in Spain]. The city is grand and has many modern structures. There were
beautiful avenues, modern theatres that attract international stars, a beautiful port
with docks and warehouses that can service the most modern of ships. The city
also had public transportation that included volantas, or taxis, guaguas, small
mass transit, and trolley cars that moved throughout the city inside and outside of
98 Eduardo L. Moyano Bazzani, La nueva frontera del azucar: el ferrocarril y la economia cubana del siglo
XIX. Madrid: CSIC, 1991, 38-40.
85
the wall. Generally speaking the city was well kept. It would be difficult to find a
city with more means of communication, an important characteristic of a civilized
country. 99
De las Barras provided the voice of romanticism, and of that of the many foreign
visitors who lodged in the hotels surrounding the Plaza de Armas, and traveled the welllit streets of Obispo and Prado, but did not venture into the working class neighborhoods.
Contemporary writers of the nineteenth century illustrate the incongruities of the
citys image in their accounts. Contrasting the positive image of the city given by de las
Barras, who saw only its beauty, many others like Cabrera saw a very different and
decadent Havana. During the last quarter of the nineteenth century, Havanas physical,
social, economic and political landscape changed dramatically in response to the
abolition of slavery, migrations of people from war-torn rural areas, and the dramatic
increase of Spanish immigrants in response to labor demands and more importantly, the
elites desire to whiten the island. Havanas population grew exponentially at the end of
the nineteenth century.
The Underclass and their Living Conditions
Nestled between the modern parts of Havana and on its edges next to the
magnificent churches, palaces, theaters and manicured squares was the dark side of the
city. In the working-class neighborhoods of Guadalupe, Jesus Maria, Montserrate, Salud
and others, the popular groups built houses from anything they could find including the
outlawed guano, or bird droppings. The neighborhoods had no running water, drainage,
pavement, or protection against the elements. In addition, they lacked minimum hygiene
and were exposed to the worst kinds of physical ailments. According to Cuban writer,
99 Antonio de las Barras y Prado, La Habana a mediados del Siglo XIX, Madrid: Imprenta de la Ciudad
Lineal, 1925, p. 72-76.
86
Raimundo Cabrera, writing in the 1880s, the streets are narrow and filthy.. .some of
[them] are paved, dating from 1862.. .but the majority are not.. .there are drains in streets,
but they are poorly built, and they serve only as receptacles for floodwaters and there is
insufficient clean water.... Public works have not been a concern of the colonial
government.100 These conditions illustrated the realities of inequality and despair, and
were reflective of a society with drastically disproportionate wealth. As a result, the elites
and intellectuals saw impediments to the construction of a modern society and the need to
exclude these groups from the body politic.
Concerned with keeping the balance of power in their favor, and alarmed by the
high disease and mortality rates among Spanish soldiers and immigrants, the colonial
government made an effort to improve healthcare for these groups. As a result, cisterns
were built to provide a fresh water supply. However, by the 1880s and 90s, only half of
the living quarters in the city of Havana had running water and despite these efforts, the
filth found in the poor areas of the city, and particularly in the port and the bay, continued
to bring epidemics to the entire city. As a result of the unsanitary living conditions in
these popular neighborhoods, the streets were full of people night and day in search of
relief from the stench and squalor of their living spaces. It is in these conditions that the
line between acceptable public and private activities and behavior were blurred. It is here
were the masses constructed their idea of Havana and Cuba.
Havana after the War
At the end of the Ten Years War, Cuba remained divided between different
factions among the peninsulares and the criollos. On the one hand, there was an
important contingent peninsulares that included colonial bureaucrats, large numbers of
100 Raimundo Cabrera y Cadrana, C u b a y su s jueces, Habana, Impr. "El Retiro," 1887, p. 55.
87
commercial interests, and a continuous influx of immigrants, some who stayed and others
who moved back and forth between Spain and Cuba. All of them benefited from, and as a
result, favored the islands control by Spain. On the other hand, there were the
progressive intellectuals and the multi-cultural masses that preferred independence, while
the social, political and economic situation in Cuba continued to fluctuate wildly, a
situation that caused tremendous problems for the Spanish colonial government. Among
the Cubans, there was a group of conservative intellectuals who opposed outright rule by
Spain, but also rejected full independence holding on to the idea that the island would be
taken over by the masses of uncivilized blacks. Whites in general continued to see
blacks as inferior and as incapable of civilization and therefore, participation in the body
politic.
In addition to the tremendous loss of human life and material destruction that
occurred as a result of the war, Madrid forced Cubans to pay debts brought about by the
war and included new trade duties, tariff increases, sales taxes, and property taxes. The
disruption of sugar production on the island and an increase in production worldwide
lessened Cubas income from their monoculture crop. By the mid-1880s, the island was
rocked by severe economic depression brought about by a devaluation of sugar prices
throughout the world. In 1884, the price of sugar plummeted, dropping from 11 to 8 cents
affecting the entire economy and forcing the closure a large number of commercial
interest including banks, tobacco factories, and retail shops.
Economics
The end of the Ten Years War saw dramatic fluctuations in Cubas economy
causing uncertainty in the job market. In some cases, the same problems that hindered
88
economy prosperity prior to the war remained. In other cases those problems increased.
At the same time, as a result of the growing world capitalist market, Cuba was forced to
adapt in order to compete.
The tight reins maintained by the Spanish colonial government prior to the Ten
Years War only got tighter in its aftermath. The trade imbalance always favored the
metropolis; the Commercial Relations Law, better known as the cabotaje law introduced
during the 1880 definitively tipped the balance of economic power in favor of the
metropolitan merchants and the importation sector (all peninsulares) by decreasing the
tariffs paid on Spanish products arriving in Cuba and increasing export taxes for products
leaving Cuba.
The chokehold that the Spanish colonial government maintained on Cuba
compelled Cuban producers to look elsewhere, particularly the United States, whose
commercial policies while protecting their national products, allowed for the importation
of Cuban raw materials by way of commercial treaties. This forced Spain to enter into
negotiations with the United States on commercial matters. The first such effort was the
Foster-Albacete Treaty which--while not approved by the United States senate and
opposed in the Spanish parliamentcalled for the same rules for United States and
Spanish ships arriving on the island. It also called for the elimination or reduction of
taxes placed on agricultural and industrial products arriving from the United States. In
turn, Cuban sugar and tobacco exported got a 50% tariff break. Increased dependence on
North American markets contributed to the deformation of Cubas economy and
contributed to the move by the island to produce one crop, sugar. In addition, it made
89
Cuban products vulnerable to any tariff imposed by the United States and prevented
Cuban elites from developing the option of independent reforms.101
As Cuban increasingly depended on its monoculture exported to the United
States, the islands public debt continued to increase. This in turn forced the islands
Treasury to contribute the majority of its finances to paying off the debt. At the same
time, the islands capital, of which the majority remained in the hands of peninsulares,
did not circulate on the island causing more strain on the islands treasury. Despite feeble
attempts by the Spanish colonial government to control inflation at the beginning of the
1880s, it was unable to do so and economic problems mounted and lasted throughout the
rest of the colonial period.
The end result was an increase in prices across the board and the inability of a
growing number of Cubans to purchase basic everyday needs. This in turn accentuated
the socio-economic differences between the haves and the have-nots and
disproportionately affected the popular groups who received the lowest wages, and in
many cases did not have steady employment. As businesses folded, unemployment
increased. According to historian Louis A. Perez, during the 1880s, there were 20,000
jobless people in Havana alone. Unemployment created a growing population of urban
indigents and paupers, and an underworld of prostitutes, beggars, vagrants and criminals
that lived in the same urban space as the few who continued to hold on to low-paying
jobs. The increased unemployment and underemployment was exacerbated by large
number of migrants that arrived in Havana from the rural areas of Cuba in search of
work. The crisis also affected the colonial administrations ability to provide minimal
101 Julio Le Reverend, Historia economica de Cuba, Havana: Editorial Revolucionaria, 1971 and Oscar
Zanetti Lecuana, Los cautivos de la Reciprocidad: la burgesla cubanay la dependencia commercial.
Havana: Editorial ENPES, 1989.
90
services like sanitation, and public works that had to be suspended. According to the
Havana newspapers, in 1884, the city owed $400,000 in electric bills.102 The social,
political, and economic conditions contributed to a growing underclass, and an increase
in crime.
Socio-Political Reforms
The establishment of Spains Constitution of 1876 in Cuba introduced a series of
concessions including the Print Law that in theory permitted freedom of the press; the
Law of Associations that legalized the formation of associations; a new Commercial
Code that hypothetically improved trade relations for Cuban commercial interests. In
addition, new Civil and Penal Codes that aligned themselves with modern concepts of
law emerging from Europe were also incorporated into legal system. There was also the
legalization of political parties and the electoral process. On June 9, 1878, the Spanish
colonial government authorized Cuban representation in the Cortes, or parliament and
divided the island into six provinces. But in order for elections to the Cortes, or the
Spanish parliament, to take place, the administration of the island had to be reorganized.
A Royal Decree of 15 June 1878 made Cuba an overseas province. The island was
divided into six provinces each with a governor and local government. Each province had
two representatives and 21 delegates to Spains parliament.
In 1880, three political ideologies contended for control of the islands political
future. There were the loyalists, autonomists, and those in favor of independence. Of the
three ideologies, those in favor of independence were exiled or silenced, and those who
stayed went underground. Out of the other two became Cubas political parties during the
102 Louis A. Perez, Cuba: Between Reform and Revolution, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995,
p. 122.
91
Tregua Fecunda, and the debate between the two centered on those favoring economic
liberalism and those who accepted Spanish sovereignty over the island. The first party to
organize on August 3, 1878, was the Partido Autonomista Liberal, or Liberal Autonomist
Party (PLA), and included Cuban intellectuals such as Rafael Montoro and Antonio
Govin, small businessmen, small landowners, and middle-class professionals. Their
representatives to the parliament included such notables as Jose Ramon de Betancourt,
Rafael Maria de Labra, and Bernardo Portuondo. The party found its support among a
large sector of white Cubans, some liberal peninsulares and even some disgruntled
separatists leaders such as Jose Maria Galvez and Manuel Sanguily. The Autonomist
Partys platform called for non-restricted European immigration, especially families,
along with the exclusion of non-white immigration. They also wanted the gradual
abolition of slavery with compensation for owners, political equality with citizens of the
peninsula, and fair and equal employment opportunities for free people of color necessary
to improve their moral and intellectual education to ensure their participation in Cuba
society.
On the other hand, was the Partido Union Constitucional, whose members were
staunchly in favor of continued control by Spain. This partys supporters included
peninsular large landowners, businessmen, peninsular financers, government officials
and a large base of recently arrived Spanish immigrants who worked in small merchant
shops. In addition to the maintenance of the status-quo this party sought full Spanish
citizenship, and free trade with the United States, the most important consumer of Cuban
goods. While the Constitutional Union was never considered a legitimate party, because
of its platform, it remained in existence in Cuban until independence.
92
The introduction of political parties brought with it several caveats by the Spanish
colonial government that ensured its continued control. The most important of these was
a 25 peso poll tax for those eligible to vote for representatives to the Senate or Congress.
At the same time, this tax was waved for public servants; the majority of whom were
peninsulares. As a result of the poll tax and its amendments, the majority of the Cubanborn population was excluded from voting rolls. This in turn tipped the electoral scales in
favor of the Partido Union Constitucional, Spains staunch supporter. The legalization of
political parties with all of its alterations allowed the Captain-General continued control
of the island using the same mechanisms of government as before the introduction of
reforms. In addition, the colonial government continued to use the Africanization Scare
to intimidate white elite Cubans into acquiescing to continued colonization and the threat
of force to maintain that control. Antonio Canovas de Castillo, Spains political leader at
the time, and author of the 1876 Constitution, did everything in his power to impede
Cubas move towards autonomy by gaining support from his power base, the Partido
Union Constitucional, and those who wanted to remain a colony of Spain.
Abolition of Slavery
Other socio-economic and political changes also occurred during the Ten Years
War and the Tregua Fecunda. Of these, the most important was the introduction and
implementation of the Moret Law of 1870 that called for the gradual abolition of slavery.
It specifically legislated the freedom of all infants born to slave mothers and those slaves
60 and older. As a result, between 1870 and 1878, 90,000 enslaved people of African
descent were freed from bondage during the 1870s. Still many remained tied to the
slaveholder because they were too young or too old to leave. In May of 1880 as a result
93
of the Pacto de Zanjon, the Spanish colonial government introduced the Patronato, or
apprenticeship period that was to last eight years. It also called for immediate freedom for
those slaves that fought in the Ten Years War regardless of the whether they sided with
the Spanish or the Cuban insurgents. The end of slavery impacted the islands social,
economic and political arrangement throughout the island and in Havana.
Three years into the patronato, in October of 1883, the use of the grillete and the
cepo for purposes of punishing enslaved people were outlawed. At the same time, an
edict dated December 1884, from the Civil Governor of Havanas office outlawed black
peoples Three Kings Day Festival and the parading of cabildos de nacion through the
streets of Havana. By ending slavery and outlawing primitive African practices like the
Three Kings Day parades, Cuban elites sought to embrace new ideologies such
individualism and liberalism that were all the rage amongst Latin American elites.
During the 1880s, the problems caused by the failure of the Ten Years War and
the unfulfilled promise of reforms by the Spanish colonial government were compounded
by the continued instability of the world sugar market. A marked increased in general
political dissatisfaction throughout the population was notable. With the abolition of
chattel slavery in 1880, peninsulares and criollos, blacks (enslaved and free) and whites
all competed for a place in Cubas body politic. The Africanization Scare remained on
the minds of the white elite and in the writings of intellectuals throughout the nineteenth
century. Increased immigration from Spain and the Canary Islands during the last three
decades of the century did not seem to reduce the feelings caused by the Africanization
Scare. Indeed, immigration contributed to increased racial tension.
94
Census
Several factors contributed to the cultural tensions that reigned during the inter
war years (1878-1895) in Havana. Perhaps the most important was the large number of
cultural, racial and ethnically variegated groups of people that landed in Havana. Former
slaves arrived from Cubas rural areas, and Spanish soldiers that fought against the Cuban
insurgency stayed following the war. In tune with attempts to whiten the island and
inundate it with loyal subjects, the colonial government promulgated mass immigration
from Spain and the Canary Islands. According to the available census in 1861, the island
had a population of 1,396,530. By 1899 there were 1,572,797 inhabitants that reflected an
increase of 176,627 people. Of these, the municipal district of Havana had a total of
200,448 inhabitants in 1887, and by the end of the war of independence in 1899 there
were 242,055, or a gain of 41,607 males and females. Of the citys forty districts, the
largest were San Lazaro with 20,616 and El Cerro with 10,741. Both were located in the
newer part of the city. The Punta district located at the end of Prado Avenue had 10,537
inhabitants. The smaller districts tended to be located on the western edge of the newer
part of the city as was the case with Arroyo Apolo with 2,166, Arroyo Naranjo with
1,771, and Calvario with a population of 1,041. At the end of the century, the large
majority of Havanas population remained crowded in the older part of the city also
known as entremuros, and in the districts immediately west of the center avenue of
Prado.
According to the census of 1899, there were 235,981 inhabitants in Havana City,
of these, 123,258 were male, and 112,723 were female. There were 115,532 native
whites, or white Cubans; 52,940 were male, and 62,592 were female. That there were
95
10,000 more females could be attributed to the recently ended war. There were 52,901
foreign whites, 41,190 of which were males and only 11,711 were women. The city had
28,750 black people. Of these, there were 11,212 males and 17,538 females; a
considerable difference if one takes into account their ratio compared to their white
counterparts. There were only 6,740 more black females than black males. The
proportion of the islands population of color resident in the province of Havana, for
example did not increase dramatically during the period of emancipation. The city of
Havana itself held an estimated 47,000 residents of color in 1877, 54,400 in 1887, and
64,800 in 1899. The increase between 1887 and 1899 was a substantial 19 percent, but it
was less than the increase in the province of Santiago de Cuba (29 percent). The city
contained 10 percent of the islands population of color in 1877 and again in 1887, 13
percent in 1899.
Free people of Color
Most Afro-Cuban city-dwellers of 1899 are likely to have been descendants of the
pre-abolition urban population of color rather than themselves post-abolition migrants.
The free population of color had already been strongly concentrated in the cities prior to
abolition, and its relatively high rate of growth was regularly commented upon by
observers. According a Havana police officer of the era, the majority of criminals in
Havana were free people of color before the complete end of slavery and descendents of
this group after 1886.103
103 Trujillo y Monagas, Jose, Los criminates de C ub a y d. Jose Trujillo; narracion de los servicios
prestados en el cuerpo d epolicla de la Habana, p o r d. Jose T rujilloy Monagas ... y la historia de los
crim inalespresospor el, en las diferentes epocas de los distintos empleos que que ha desempehado hasta
el 31 de diciembre de 1881, Barcelona, Estab.tip. de F. Giro, 1882, p. 45.
96
As for the Chinese population of Havana, there were 2,794 inhabitants. Of these,
only 57 were female, an indication that the majority of Chinese males arrived alone.
There were almost 105,000 white males, including both Cuban and Spanish, while they
may have had cultural differences they did belong to the same race. On the other hand,
there were only around 13,000 black and Chinese males. Both groups were seen as a
social problem as a result of their perceived incivility and the impossibility of their
acclamation to modern city life.
The census shows that the proportion of the islands population of color residing
in the city of Havana did not increase dramatically during the period after emancipation.
The city of Havana itself held an estimated 47,000 residents of color in 1877; 54,400 in
1887; and 64,800 in 1889. The increase between 1887 and 1899 was a substantial 19
percent. It was not the 19 percent of ex-slaves that migrated to the city that posed a threat
to Afro-Cuban livelihood, it was the quarter of a million Spanish immigrants that arrived
between 1870 and the end of the century, with their loyalty to the Spanish crown, and
their bigotry that created the biggest problem for the Cuban-born population in general
and for Afro-Cubans in particular.
This mass immigration of Spanish citizens limited opportunities for Cubans to
find employment in bodegas and commercial establishments owned by peninsulares who
only hired other peninsulares in what came to be known as sobrinismo.104 In addition, the
peninsulares limited opportunities for Afro-Cubans in particular to work as artisans, a
field that free blacks dominated not twenty years earlier. The dramatic increase of
peninsulares on the island and their control of Havanas service industries increased the
104 See Louis A. Perez, Cuba: Between Reform and Revolution, New York: Oxford University Press, 2006,
3rd ed., p. 102.
97
competition for Cubans searching for regular employment. In addition, the peninsular
shop owners and employees brought with them their cultural and racial prejudices.
Immigration, Competition and Racism
The end of the Ten Years War in 1878 saw an increase in the peninsular
population of the island as a result of Spanish soldiers staying on the island and the mass
migration of peninsulares in search of work. According to historian Consuelo Naranjo
Orovio, the need for salaried laborers became grave both in rural and urban areas where
economic development stimulated the creation of new work, particularly in the service
sectors. 105 In addition to the call for Spanish immigrants to fulfill apparent labor needs
on the island, Spanish immigrants were brought to the island for their loyalty to the
Spanish crown, and to quell possible separatist uprisings. Thirdly, and perhaps most
importantly, the colonial government, at the behest of Cuban elites and intellectuals,
supported the blanqueamiento, or whitening of the island. They, like their counterparts
throughout Latin America, sought an increase of white immigration, in the hope of
eliminating the non-white population of the island.
Numerous organizations were created to lobby in favor of and support Spanish
immigration. They included the Society for Spanish Immigration, the Center for the
Protection of Immigrants in 1882, the Societies for the Protection of Immigrants in 1883,
the Society for the Defense of Spanish Workers in Overseas Colonies in 1889, and the
Colonization Committee in 1890. In addition, the Spanish government supported the
effort with the passage of legislation financing the Society for the Spanish Immigrant and
105 Consuelo Naranjo Orovio and Armando Garcia Gonzalez, Racismo elnm igracion en Cuba en el siglo
XIX, Madrid: Ediciones Doce Calles, 1996, 176.
98
others that had the means to transport immigrants to Cuba.106 In 1890, in order to
centralize the immigration effort, the Spanish government in a decree dated April 8, 1890
designated the General Inspector of Public Charities as the agency charged with
controlling immigration.
In 1882, J. Curbelo wrote Project fo r the easiest solution for
National Immigration for the Island o f Cuba. In it he called for the immigration of
500,000 to 600,000 people over a ten-year period. In order for the plan to succeed, he
needed to detour Spanish immigration from Algiers and South America to Cuba with free
passage. He called for 200 colonizers from each Spanish province. While Spanish
immigration did not reach the numbers desired by Curbelo, it had a tremendous impact
on the islands socio-political and economic life.
According to statistics compiled by Naranjo from 1882 and 1894, between 25,000
and 50,000 Spanish immigrants arrived in Cuba every year. Of these, 36% of the total
came from Galicia, with the rest from provinces throughout Spain. As was common with
European immigration to the Americas (excluding the US and Argentina), between 1880
and 1930, the vast majority were men. Of these, 78% of them were between the ages of
14 and 60. Because Cuba was a predominantly agricultural country during this period, it
is not extraordinary to note that more than half, or 52%, of immigrants that arrived in
Cuba between 1882 and 1894, came as agricultural workers. Of these, 30% were not
classified, and the other 18% were listed as self-employed professionals, merchants,
rentistas, craftsmen, bureaucrats and clergy and even servants. The military was not
included in the census. An increased immigrant population, many of whose talents were
most in demand in the cities, likely sought to adapt to Cuba in Havana. There, strangers
106 See Reales Deeretos, 1883, 1884, 1886, 1889, 1891, in Hernandez, p. 391-394.
107 Antonio Valverde y Mauri, Colonizacion e inmigraciones en Cuba, Havana, 1923, p. 752.
99
not accustomed to the racial accommodations among locals, may have clashed with those
not familiar to them in Europe. A rise in immigrants, especially those who competed well
for good jobs, meant increased racial tensions and a new and discomforting view of
crime. Assaults, thefts, and other petty crimes took on an increasingly racial meaning in
Havana.
Social Control in Havana
Throughout the nineteenth century, the Creole elite and intellectuals, merchants,
and sugar planters looked to shape Havana society according to their interests. They
turned to the colonial government and its institutions of social control to ensure their
safety and to discipline those who threatened that safety and/or did not conform to elites
ideas of the ideal city. The urban poor felt that institutions of social control served and
protected the elite. Therefore, they developed a skeptical view of these institutions,
particularly the police with whom they had daily contact. At the same time, the popular
groups moved through Havana with very different perceptions of public space and
behavior than did the elites, stepping across social boundaries, challenging the authority
of the police, and even subverting the official dictates about behavior.
Cultural conflict was a common characteristic of nineteenth century life in
Havana. During the last quarter of the nineteenth century, African-centered organizations
became the target of campaigns on the part of the colonial government at the behest of
Cuban intellectuals and elites, to rid the island of vestiges of African culture. As noted by
historian Philip Howard, a debate took place within the Council of Administration
regarding the threat that black organizations posed. After much deliberation, the council
agreed that the cabildos de nation would die a natural death and be replaced by new
100
associations of people of color.. .more in accordance with their social advancement and
[will] collectively raise up those same who...originally constitute the cabildos. The
colonial government used the introduction of reforms, including a new Penal Code, in the
1880s, to call for the transformation of cabildos de nation into mutual-aid societies.
1 08
During the first half of the 1880s, the cabildos were forced to purge their African names
and cultural practices in favor of more civilized Spanish names and customs.
Perhaps the harshest campaign took place beginning in 1876 with the outlawing
and persecution of the Abakua secret society. The organization was outlawed because it
was seen as a harbinger of criminal activity and embraced African cultural practices.
More importantly, it was deemed criminal because of its initiation rituals. It was rumored
that one of them in particular called for the killing of a white person to gain membership.
Another Abakua rule called for vengeance for a fellow members injury or death.109
Colonial authorities in an attempt to consolidate their legitimacy and to create a modern
city loyal to the Spanish crown persecuted organizations embracing African cultural
retentions such as cabildos, Abakua vehemently. At the same time, the police also
concerned themselves with the day-to-day perceived and real criminal activity of the
thieves, robbers, drunkards and beggars
108 ANC, Consejo de Administration, leg. 58, no. 6105, carta 2; cited in Howard, Philip A., Changing
History: Afro-Cuban Cabildos and Societies o f Color in the Nineteenth Century, Baton Rouge, Louisiana
State University Press, 1998, p. 56.
109 ANC, Asuntos Politicos, Legajo 76, Signatural o numero 56, Resena de los nanigos de Cuba desde su
creation a la fecha (Habana 24 de Julio de 1 8 8 1 ), at the moment o f initiation, the new members are
obliged to seek vengeance when a brother is injured or killed, which is why the juegos, or chapters,
regardless o f whether they are from the same neighborhood fight each other in the streets, the search for
vengeance is required only for those who are members o f the same juego. If one member draws the blood
o f another member, they are banished from the organization for life. This proves that nanigos why the
various juegos fight and kill each other.
101
The large numbers of slaves, the growing number of Spanish immigrants, and the
steadily growing criollo communities both white and free people of color, contributed to
heterogeneity of the island and set in motion a pattern of cultural conflict that impacted
the entire island, and Havana. In addition, the continued marginalization of the popular
sectors contributed to the possibility of criminal activity. In response to perceived and
real increases in crime, the colonial government attempted to reform the islands
institutions of social control. These efforts could be seen in the reorganization of the
court system, the police, and the prison system
By the 1880s, to provide residents with some semblance of social order in urban
life, the Spanish colonial government increased the size of the judiciary by adding
magistrates, multiplying the number of police stations and commissioners, and
reorganizing the court system. In addition, a great number of bandos de buen gobierno
were published from time to time throughout the nineteenth century. The aim was to
exercise visible control throughout the capital and its suburbs, but particularly outside of
the city wall and in other areas that had high concentrations of the popular classes. This
effort began as early as 1834 during Captain General Miguel Tacons reign, and
continued throughout the nineteenth century.
Another perceived criminal element was the Chinese population that arrived
beginning in the 1840s as indentured laborers. Writers of the era stereotyped them as
contributing to hampa habanera, or Havanas underworld with their opium dens and their
juego chino, or Chinese lottery, that was in direct competition with the colonial
government sponsored lottery. For Cabrera Black people .. .were a motley crowd, and
102
the Chinaman.. .this degraded race that has brought along its vices to Cuba.110 In
addition to targeting those sectors of the population that embraced African-cultural
retentions, and the Chinese accused of bring their own vices, the authorities also had to
content with the day-to-day activities of the large number of lower-class people living in
squalor in the city. These conditions contributed to elite fears, not of inter racial or inter
ethnic criminal conflict, but rather that such conditions would induce race-based criminal
behavior by non-elites against the small elite population.
Conclusion
Throughout the nineteenth century, Havana found itself facing a series of crises
that were social, economic, and political in nature. With the advent of each attempt to
address these issues, once common goal remained consistent throughout - that is the
structuring of a modern society that catered to the powerful elite and intellectuals, while
attempting to exclude those group that did not correspond their conception of a modern
society. The contrast between the rich and the poor became more visible to the elite, and
more obvious as the streets became crowded with immigrants who moved among the
native Havana poor and working class, mostly people of African descent now joined by
Asians, in an ever-widening swath of urban underclass elements.
Every effort made by the ethnic minorities to exert their cultural heritage was met
with opposition and fear. This fear is the prevalent factor in every action taken by
institutions of social control. One important result was the marginalization and
criminalization of the popular groups, particularly those who embraced African and
Chinese cultural practices. To ensure the exclusion of the racially and ethnically
110 Raimundo Cabrera, C u b a y sus jueces, 4th ed., Habana: Impr. El Retiro, 1887, p. 48. This book was
widely published with at least six editions in Spanish, and several more in English.
103
objectionable elements from the body politic, the Spanish colonial government
promulgated immigration laws designed to encourage large numbers of Spanish
immigrants to migrate to Cuba to whiten the island population, fulfill numerous labor
needs, create a mass base of citizens loyal to Spain, and especially for the purpose of
contributing to the modernization of the culture. It is ironic that these modernizing
policies were carried out in order to preserve a way of life that was cruel, unfair, and
unbalanced.
104
Chapter 3. Intellectuals and Their Views

Introduction
This chapter seeks to illustrate the importance intellectual discourse had in
shaping ideas and policies of inclusion, exclusion and social control in Cuba, particularly
during the last quarter of the nineteenth century. It will demonstrate how the findings of
the discipline of anthropology and related professional subdivisions were used to
institutionalize racial and criminal discourse. It will specifically address the
criminalization of the popular groups by the anthropologists and the impact this had on
shaping ideas about Cuba as a modern society. The discussion will center on the
formalization of ideas as expressed by intellectuals in their personal writings and in
publications of their organizations. It will show how Cuban intellectuals bought into
liberalism and positivism emanating from Europe and shaped these concepts to fit Cuban
reality.
As many Cuban intellectuals looked to modernize Cuban society, they used
science to shape ideas about what it meant to be Cuban. Anthropology as a recognized
disciplinethe systematic and purportedly scientific study of human societymade its
appearance on the Cuban stage during the 1870s in the midst of the Ten Years War, the
first prolonged armed struggle for independence. Its development coincided with its
acceptance as a legitimate science in Europe and North America and the introduction of
reforms by the Spanish colonial government on the island. Cuban elites saw anthropology
and its subdivisions as necessary instruments to modernize island society and a set of
guidelines for finding a cure for modern problems such as crime and incivility.
105
The new discipline of anthropology permitted social scientists to examine the

biological attributes of a person or group. Moreover, it enabled them to query the moral,
intellectual, psychological and linguistic characteristics of their subjects in order to gain a
more accurate assessment of the ability of a group or individual to adapt to modern
society. Cuban intellectuals, like their counterparts throughout Europe and the Americas,
used anthropology to prove white supremacy and the new criminology to criminalize
the sectors of society that did not fit into their ideal. Nonetheless, the introduction of
science into Cuban intellectual discourse was haphazard at best. The new anthropology
was purportedly based on a methodology that based its arguments on observation and
accumulation and analysis of data. While the new social scientists argued that science
could unlock the mysteries of human evolution, criminal behavior, and a host of other
sociological phenomena, they never addressed how they would do it. While the use of
science to address questions of racial and social hierarchy began in the last quarter of the
nineteenth century, questions about the shape of Cuban society were posed much earlier.
Nacionalidad Cubana
In the first half of the nineteenth century, Cuba developed an important intellectual class.
Their writings responded to the dramatic social, economic, and political changes that took
place throughout Europe, the Americas, and particularly in Cuba. Among other things,
they expressed concerns about issues including the islands status as a colony; education;
white immigration; vagrancy; and crime. They were also concerned about the islands
possible annexation by the United States. The dramatic increase in racial slavery and its
impact on the island was at the heart of this discourse. Cuban intellectuals like Jose
Antonio Saco articulated trepidation about slave rebellions, the possibility of another
106
Haiti, and what it meant for the future of the island to have such large numbers of black
people in their midst. In the face of increasing demographic changes as a result of the
slave trade and possible annexation by the United States, Saco was the first to address the
question of what it meant to be Cuban.
In the 1840s, Saco coined the term nacionalidad cubana, in response to
annexationists, and defined it as an identity for Cuban society separate from Spain and
the United States. More importantly, this identity excluded black people, both enslaved
and free, who at the time accounted for almost half of the islands population.
Interestingly enough, as he excluded black people from the discourse of nacionalidad
cubana, he also spoke out against the slave trade, but not slavery itself because he feared
that if black slaves were freed, Cuba would become another black republic like Haiti.
Saco, the first person to speak of a Cuban identity separate from Spain, shaped the future
discourse of the island that centered on the formation of a Cuban society, with the
exclusion of black people as one of its more important components.
At the end of the Ten Years War, in an attempt to appease Cubans, the Spanish
colonial government introduced reforms. Among the myriad of these reforms, Cubans
were granted freedom of the press and freedom to form associations. This allowed for the
development of all sorts of societies and the publication of a vast number of newspapers
for an increasingly literate audience. The self-proclaimed men of letters that emerged
in Cuba during the last quarter of the nineteenth century, like their predecessors, wrote
tome upon tome about all aspects of Cuban society. They, like their counterparts
throughout Latin America, bought into the most current social and political doctrines
emanating from Europe (i.e., positivism, liberalism, Social Darwinism, etc.). As liberals,
107
intellectuals wrote about the need for greater access to education, improved social
services, political participation, and individual responsibility. At the same time, they used
the new Eurocentric social sciences of anthropology, criminology, and new legal theory
to address the perils of a heterogeneous society and to limit the participation of large
sectors of the population in the body politic through various means including their
criminalization.
As noted by historian Robert Buffington, the emerging social sciences lacked
order and were based more on conjecture than scientific procedure. The intellectuals
writing styles varied greatly with arguments expressed as scientific and legal treatises,
case histories and public speeches. They used trial records, police reports and journalistic
accounts, as well as personal anecdotes to arrive at their conclusions. The intellectuals
met on a regular basis to discuss these weighty issues and while they did not agree on the
means to the end (i.e., whether Black people descended from monkeys), they generally
came to the same conclusions on all issues based on their belief that they and they alone,
were the harbingers of truth and modernization. Intellectuals agreed with each other as to
their ideas regarding class, gender and most frequently racial prejudices. However, their
conclusions lacked the theoretical grounding of the natural sciences.111
Transformation of Race, Racism and Society
The nineteenth century saw tremendous changes in the social, political and
economic hierarchies in the Atlantic World. This period also saw European and
American intellectuals expand their thought to include concepts like liberalism,
modernity, nation, and racism. These intellectuals viewed their philosophies as
111 Robert Buffington, Criminal and Citizen in Modern M exico^Lincoln, NE: University o f Nebraska Press,
2000, pg. 39.
108
universally applicable and acceptable, while their Latin American counterparts

regurgitated European intellectual thought and shaped it to fit their very different realities
with varying degrees of success.
112
They used a form of racism based on newly
established biological definitions of race that included color and phenotype, and
included cultural traits formally used to determine peoples aptitude to participate in the
polity of emerging nations. The use of racialized constructs to judge a persons ability to
be rational enabled white elites to exclude the indigenous and black populations from the
new republics and from a modern Cuban society.
According to historian David Goldberg, liberalism plays a foundational part in
the process of normalizing racial dynamics and racist exclusion [and is] one of the central
inventions of modernity.
113
During the second half of the nineteenth century in Cuba,
like the rest of Latin America, the introduction of modernity and scientific racism shaped
perceptions among the elite as to who should take part in society. Until recently, Cuban
historians such as Torres-Cuevas rejected this claim and argued the Ten Years War
served as a catalyst for the integration of our present Cuban nationality, the solution to
the problem of full integration of all ethnic components."114
Torres-Cuevas is not alone in his assumption that the wars of independence were
the solution to full integration of all ethnic components of Cuban society. Until recently,
this line of thinking dominated the historiography of nineteenth-century Cuba. Writings
by intellectuals in societal journals that began to appear during the Ten Years War reveal
their concern with the state of Cuban society especially as it related to participation in
112 Richard Graham, The Idea o f Race in Latin America, Austin: University o f Texas Press, 1990, p. 45.
113 David Theo Goldberg, Racist Culture: Philosophy and the Politics o f Meaning, Oxford: Oxford
University Press, 1993, p. 145.
114 Torres-Cuevas, Eduardo y Eusebio Reyes, E sclavitudy Sociedad: N o ta sy D ocum entospara la Historia
de la EsclavitudNegra en Cuba, La Habana: Editorial de Ciencias Sociales, 1986, p. 76.
109
that society. Influenced by the new scientific discourse emanating from Europe, and by
the situation on the island, intellectuals neither created a myth of equality nor silenced the
question of race. The new anthropologists, scientists, and literates like their predecessors,
looked to shape Cuban society in their image, and this image did not include
undesirables.
Scientific Racism
Late nineteenth century Cuban intellectuals used the new science to shape their
ideas about modern society and presented them in journals like Revista de Cuba and the
Revista General de Derecho published by Havanas lawyers guild and in organizations
like Anthropological Society o f Havana, the Sociedad Economica de Amigos del Pals, the
Liceo de Guanabacoa, and the Ateneo de la Habana. The organizations and publications
addressed a myriad of interests including literature, the arts, and the emerging sciences,
while others concentrated on issues specific to their areas of concern like science and
medicine, anthropology, and law. The majority of the intellectuals of the Tregua
Fecunda generation shaped ideas about the necessary steps needed for full integration
into the world of modern societies at the end of the colonial period. They also wondered
aloud about social control in a heterogeneous society, especially at a time when ideas
about racial hierarchies were being introduced from the outside, and slavery was being
abolished on the island. The intellectuals presented their concerns in the various
publications of the day. The first journal of this new era of intellectualism, and perhaps
the most highly respected in Cuba was the Revista de Cuba.
110
Revista de Cuba
While the Ten Years War engulfed the eastern sectors of the island, Cuban
intellectuals in Havana sought to establish themselves in the wider world of intellectual
discourse. They did so through the Revista de Cuba that began publication in January of
1877 and lasted until the triumph of the late twentieth-century revolution in 1959. In the
first volume of the journal, founder and publisher Jose Antonio Cortina noted:
We do not ignore [the fact] that this is not the most opportune time to publish an
[intellectual] journal that does not address the armed conflict, educational
controversies, or political and religious contentions, but aspires to reflect the ideas
of [Cubas] intellectual movement that throughout history have been published in
all types and numerous literary journals and that today is only represented by
political newspapers, strictly limited to their particular mission by one or another
scientific repertory published in the satirical and playful weeklies whose only
merit is to tease the spirit without nurturing it. While useful, whatever merit they
may have, they are incapable of offering genuine expression of an era, the exact
echo of society, or the manifestation of what is important and more elevated in the
mental development of a people.115
The publishers of the Revista wanted to assure the Spanish colonial government that they
did not condone or support the war. Throughout Cortinas introduction and in the various
writings of Cuban intellectuals during the early years of the journal, the editors
emphasize the idea that they are not political and had no political ideology or aspirations.
In fact, they stayed away from overt political discourse. Cortina posited the idea that the
Revista was strictly geared towards intellectual pursuits including the arts and science.
The journal was divided into several sections including Reproductions and
Unpublished articles that according to the Revistas founder, Cortina, provided a space
for Cuban authors whose works had not been published previously. It also served to
highlight material published earlier in the century such as Jose Antonio Sacos History o f
115 Jose Antonio Cortina, Director, Revista de Cuba: Periodico Mensual de Ciencias, Derecho, Literatura y
Bellas Artes, Tomo I, Habana: Imprenta Militar, 1878, p. 5.
I ll
Slavery. The second section of the journal was called Biographies. Although not as
extensive as the first, it included biographies, the majority of which were written by
European intellectuals. The third section of the Revista entitled Jurisprudence was,
according to one of the contributors, Luis del Monte, shallow in scope. He went on to say
that nonetheless, there were some important contributions including articles such as The
Importance of Studying Roman Law, Legal capacity of married women, and The
Relationship between the Economy and Morals and Law by Cuban intellectual Antonio
Govin.116 The Politics section was not part of the first several volumes due to the
bellicose nature of Cuban society at the time.
The introduction of reforms after the Ten Years War saw the Revista embrace the
Autonomist Party and its political ideology. Nonetheless, the journals role was to
promote intellectual discourse. Therefore, even when the Politics section was included,
there were only a handful of articles. Another ample segment of the journal was General
Literature that included extensive translations of works by European authors of the day
in addition to literary works by Cubans. The section called History, Antiquity and
American Studies included articles such as Primitive Cuba. The Revista also
published mortality statistics for Havana by statistician A.G. de Valle that revealed death
rates based on sex and race. While the majority of the Revista sections were relatively
small, its publishers dedicated sizeable sections to literature by European, US, and Cuban
writers and poets that reflected the vast interests of Cubas intellectual class.
The Philosophy and Sciences section of the work was without a doubt, the
most important and therefore carried the weight and the consideration and gratitude of the
116 Cortina, Jose Antonio, ed., Revista de Cuba: Periodico M ensual de Ciencias, Derecho, Literatura y
Bellas Artes, Tomo I, Habana: Imprenta Military, 1878, p. 22-26.
112
studious.117 In it Cuban and European intellectuals addressed and debated the most
recent scientific investigations. It including translations of works by prominent European
scientists such as Herbert Spencers Origin of Man, French anthropologist Paul
Brocas What is anthropology?, writings by British biologist Thomas Huxley,
Darwins Bulldog for defending his theories, and Levy Bruhls, Darwins Moral. All
of them read, studied, and debated in Havanas intellectual circles.
Additionally, in the early years, one of the most prolific contributors was Cuban
anthropologist Enrique Jose Varona who published more than fifty articles in the Revista
between 1877 and 1895 on such disparate subjects as Positivism and The Morale of
Evolution. The goal of Cuban intellectuals, like that of their European counterparts was
to demonstrate that there were scientific answers to questions about society. The
scientific evidence proved that white people were biologically superior to other
races, and in turn Cuban intellectuals used this evidence to shape ideas and policies
about the structure of their society, to include and exclude the parts of society they
deemed undesirable.
Cuban social scientists and intellectuals used what they learned from the
Europeans, expanded on their ideas and applied them to the island. One of the first
examples in the Revista to address the hierarchy of race and place of origin appears in an
article written by A.W. Reyes entitled Cuban-born Blacks v. African-born Blacks. In it
the author compared the intelligence of the two groups. He based his findings on his
observation stating: Compared with the [African-born] blacks, Cuban-born blacks
movements are smoother and harmonious. Their features are finer and their interaction
117 Ricardo del Monte, La Revista de Cuba, su influencia y su vida in Peraza Sarausa, Fermin, Indice de
la Revista de Cuba, Habana: Departamento de Cultura, 1938.
113
more elegant. Their noses and lips have lost their brutish character.. .Morally and
intellectually, they are superior; they are more apt for work and appreciate the fine arts.
In many occupations, such as tailoring, carpentry, and masonry, they rival the ability of
whites. While he praised the capability of Cuban-born blacks vis-a-vis African-born
black people, he pointed out that: as children of the educated and civilized classes we
[white elites] forget that part of the nation that has remained backward. Reyes went on
to say the [Cuban-born] black race, far from bastardizing itself, has improved: as a result
of environment, it has transformed itself into a physically and intellectually superior
being [compared] to the original, but it still appears that it does not possess the social
aptitude of Europeans.
1 1Q
In the end, Reyes found that Cuban-born blacks were more
intelligent than African-born blacks as a result of their exposure to white Cuban culture.
At the same time, he postulated that both groups remained inferior to all whites.
Intellectuals spent a considerable amount of time in the Revista debating the
merits of European literature, the history of the modern world, and the emerging use of
science to categorize the various races. In addition, they were also asked for their
expert opinions by the judicial system in specific cases. In a section entitled Legal
Medicine, doctors opined and testified before the courts as to the ability of individuals to
stand trial based on observations by anthropologists, doctors, and other scientists.
An illustration of the application of new anthropology can be seen in the
following case before the Havana District Court. Prior to pursuing the case, the court sent
it to the Anthropological Society for review. After being presented with the evidence and
making his own observations, Dr. Felipe Rodriguez argued that D.A.E, a 72 year-old
118 Estudio comparative de los Negros Criollos y Africanos, in Revista de Cuba, Vol. V, p. 155-164.
italics in the original.
114
Spanish immigrant, was unable to stand trial because the doctor naturally deduced that
[he] is an imbecile because his intellectual development is lacking and he is incapable of
progress. After naturally observing the patient, Dr. Rodriguez noted the smallness of
his head, its configuration and the darkness of his hair; the silent nature of his
physiognomy... and his rotten teeth, are all characteristics observed in imbeciles.119 In
addition, Rodriguez along with other doctors noted that D.A.E. never spoke, and they
chose to consider this factor as further evidence of his lack of intelligence and
competency.
Dr. Rodriguez went on to say that the perpetrators place of birth also influenced
the intellectual make up of people from there by stating that [D. A. E.] is from a village
in Navarra (a province of Spain).. .where there is an abundance of idiots, cretins, and
imbeciles as well as other degenerate types.120 Therefore the doctor concluded that the
defendant, D.A.E, was unable to stand trial. For Dr. Rodriguez, and other scientists of
the day, the critical factor in D.A.E.s behavior was his defective moral sense that caused
him to react to observation they way he did. Their conclusions were based on physical
traits, observation, and place of birth. D.A.E, in the opinion of the intellectuals,
represented those sectors of white society that they considered to be uncivilized and
therefore undesirable as components of modern Cuban society. They based their claims
on analogies equating physiological and behavioral tendencies like head size and
silence, for examplewhile seemingly scientific, avoided any prolonged debate or
testing of the validity of their conclusions. Scientist reserved particular disdain in their
assessment of the inferior races.
119 Medico-Legal,'Revista de Cuba, Vol. I, Habana, 1887, pg. 156.
120 Cortina, Jose Antonio, Revista de Cuba: Periodico M ensual de Ciencias, Derecho, Literatura y Bellas
Artes, Vol. I, Habana: Imprenta Militar, 1878, p. 146.
115
The intellectuals likewise showed a particular concern for the criminality of the
so-called inferior races (i.e., Blacks and Asians). They used similar arguments and more
stringent judgments when assessing black criminality. The case of Cesareo Garcia y
Pena, a black man from Remedios, Cuba, illustrates this amply. He was accused of
murdering his lover. In an article entitled A Crime Committed under the Impetus of
Passion, like many others included in the Revista, was previously presented by noted
scientist and man of letters, Antonio Mestre before the Royal Academy of Sciences on
February 10, 1884. It involved moreno Cesareo Garcia y Pena who, according to his
friends and neighbors, was an employed artisan and an upstanding member of society.121
Documents substantiated that Cesareo was having an affair with morena Buenviaje Perez
and that on the night before the murder, Buenviaje had insulted Cesareo loudly and in
front of friends. Early the next morning he went to the store and bought an axe. He then
proceeded to his lovers home where he started hitting her with the axe and continued
until he thought she was dead. Following the attack, Cesareo immediately turned himself
in to the authorities stating that he could not keep himself from committing the
crime.122
Mestre went on to say that the court argued that at the time of the murder, Cesareo
was a fanatic of passion who thought it his moral duty to commit the crime... and that
he had an episode of mental derangement.123 In line with Positivist thought of the day,
the court pointed out that in their estimation, the murder could also be attributed to the
121 When identifying people in official documents, the various institutions used the terms pardo and moreno
to identify black people depending on their color, and used no further title o f status. On the other hand for
white people, regardless o f social class, they used the formal Don.
122 Antonio Mestre, A Crime Committed Under the Impetus o f Passion in Revista de Cuba, Tomo VII,
Ene.-Jun. 1888, p. 101.
123 Ibid., p. 103.
116
state of moral degradation in which the black race lives in this country [Cuba].124 In its
closing statements, the court
. .believes that there were extenuating circumstances of
jealousy, and asks that a sentence of 17 years and four months of prison time be declared
for the defendant.125 The court then sent the case to the Royal Academy of Science for
their review of the circumstances in the case and their conclusions.
The Royal Academy concurred with the courts that Cesareo was momentarily
insane and agreed that his sentence was appropriate. In addition, using the light of
anthropology that is critical for the question at hand, the Academy expanded on the
courts assessment of the accused.126 This case exemplified their particular disdain for the
inferior races and served as scientific proof of their criminality based on race. Mestre
argued that in a country like ours, inhabited by very different races, and with a high
percentage of the more backwards races, one cannot ignore the value of ethnology to
resolve a problem as delicate as criminality. He continued by contending that the
inferior [black] race of which the accused is a member, acts impulsively, and in the face
minor incidents goes into a rage like children that are irritated. They get angry at the rock
they trip over and take out all of their fury on it.127
Mestre then pointed out that black people who interacted with the more civilized
European race were more civilized. Nonetheless, in Cesareos case, he had been
confronted by a serious conflict that overwhelmed him, and he saw reversion to savagery
as the only way to resolve it.128 For Mestre, a significant feature of serious criminality
was a faulty sense of morality that became evident in Cesareos momentary inability to
124 Ibid.,
125 Ibid.,
126 Ibid.,
127 Ibid.,
128 Ibid.,
p.
p.
p.
p.
p.
104.
105.
105.
115.
117.
117
control his passion without any previous indication of criminal action.129 As evidenced by
the two cases discussed in the Medical Legal section of the Revista, intellectuals views
of the lower class of whites, and the black race as a whole were negative. While
intellectuals believed that some sectors of the white race were susceptible to atavistic
behavior, they also applied these generalizations to the entire black race. At the same
time, the scientifically validated assumptions allowed elite ideas about the criminality of
lower class whites, and the entire black race, to move from conjecture to legitimate
anthropological discourse.
Both D.A.E. and Cesareo were individuals who represented obstacles to modern
society. The difference between the two was that while D.A.E. represented only the
degenerate sector of white society, Cesareo was an illustration of the entire reprobate
black race. While both defendants were seen as impediments to modernity in Cuba, they
illustrate the fact that whites and blacks, regardless of their social class, were not held to
the same standards by anthropologists or by the courts. Regardless of color, the majority
of defendants the experts examined came from the poorer sectors of Cuban society. At
the same, while the conclusions handed down to the courts revealed a repudiation of the
working class in general, intellectuals tended to be more severe in the examination of
black defendants based on race and culture as revealed in the case against Cesareo.
While the intellectuals concerned themselves with individuals of the inferior
races, they also used the science of anthropology to categorize criminal characteristics of
the inferior races as a whole. In a speech entitled The Anthropological Study of
Assassins, given by Luis Montalvo at the Ateneo de La Habana, and published in the
Revista, the author categorized and defined assassins. Montalvo applied Italian
129 Ibid., p. 117.
118
criminologist Cesare Lombrosos ideas about natural-born criminals to Cuba.130

Montalvo began by emphasizing the importance of anthropology for the study of crime.
The critical character of our era is that all of our questions need to be answered with the
scrutiny of science and without vacillation.131 Montalvo then divided his analysis of
assassins into three parts. In the first section, he addressed the external characteristics of
assassins agreeing with Lombroso. According to Lombroso, because of their particular
physical characteristics, [assassins] can be distinguished from others in society.132
Montalvo went on to summarize Lombrosos observations of assassins
highlighting the assassins spirit of association. For Montalvo assassins assembled in
secret societies and addressed each other with hand signals. In addition we can add the
generalized custom they have of marking themselves with strange figures and symbols in
a painful operation seen among primitives known as tattoos... Montalvo added, the
assassins speak a distinctive language used frequently in jails and prisons.133
Although Montalvo did not mention the Abakua secret society specifically, it can
be deduced that he showed deep concern because the activities of those societies aligned
closely with the same characteristics Lombroso applied to the identification of assassins.
In addition, Montalvo wrote this piece within a year of the outlawing of the Abakua
secret society in Havana in 1876, as a result of their real and perceived criminal activity
130 Cesare Lombroso was the founder o f the Italian School o f Positivist Criminology. He was one o f the
first to argue that criminality was inherent, and that the born criminal could be identified by physical
defects that demonstrate that a criminal is a savage and atavistic. Lombroso popularized the notion o f a
born criminal through biological determinism. According to Lombroso, criminals had particular
physiognomic personality traits from physical features o f the face or the body. Whereas most individuals
evolve, argued Lombroso, the violent criminal had devolved, and therefore was a societal or evolutionary
regression. If criminality was inherited, then the born criminal could be distinguished by physical atavistic
stigmata, such as large jaws, high cheekbones, handle-shaped ears, hawk-like noses, or fleshy lips. See
Gould, Stephan, The Mismeasure o f Man, New York: W.W. Norton, 1996, p. 223.
131 Luis Montalvo, Estudio Antropologico sobre los asesinos, Revista, Vol. VI, p. 165.
132 Gould, The Mismeasure o f Man, p. 223.
133 Ibid., 169.
119
and incivility. The introduction of anthropology in general, and Lombrosos criminology

work in particular, enabled Cuban intellectuals to institutionalize social and racial
hierarchies, and crime and criminality.
Another arena intellectuals used to shape these ideas was the Anthropological
Society of Havana. Many of the intellectuals who wrote articles for the Revista also
belonged to this society. While the Revista addressed literature, the arts, and science, the
society focused its attention on anthropological analysis of society.
Sociedad Antropologica de La Habana
Founded on July 26, 1877, with a charter from the Anthropological Society of
Spain, the Anthropological Society of Havana served as a preeminent place of
scholarship that looked.. .at anthropology.. .134 The societys founding, like that of the
Revista de Cuba, allowed for the institutionalization of the emergent field of
anthropology sweeping Europe and North America at the time. Similar to their
counterparts in Europe and North America, Havanas anthropological society was
established to encourage research all aspects of human society.
The Societys founding membership included a small but important cadre of
twenty-four prominent island intellectuals, and scientists. Within a few short months the
membership grew exponentially and the association included five different sections:
Government, Anatomic and Prehistoric Anthropology, Physiological and Pathological
Anthropology, and Ethnology. In the early years, the societys official publication was
the Medical-Surgical Chronicle o f Havana. In 1879, while the society continued to
134 From a speech given by Aristides Mestre at the inauguration o f the Anthropological Society o f Havana
in Mestre, Aristides E., La politica moderna y la ciencia antropologica in Revista de Cuba, ..., p. 289.
120
publish their principal debates in the Chronicle, they also began to publish the Bulletin of
the Anthropological Society of Havana.
While anthropological societies in Europe discussed the hierarchy of race at a
distance, as a result of the racial composition of Cuba, members of the Anthropological
Society of Havana addressed this question as it applied to them directly. The Societys
minutes, speeches, and publications reveal vivid discussions and debates centered on the
ethnic composition of the island, the diversity of ethnicity, the need for white
immigration, and the idea that some racial groups were more susceptible to criminality
than others. The Anthropological Society of Cuba was considered the pinnacle of
intellectual discourse on the island at the end of the nineteenth century.
From its inception, the Sociedad addressed a wide variety of subjects related to
the study of humans, but it was principally concerned with the racial composition of
Cuban society. The members studied black culture, black illnesses, black forms of
speech, and issues related to miscegenation. One of its founding members, Dr. Luis
Montane, posited that the principal focus of the societys research should be "the two
races that are intimately linked to you [white Cubans], the black African race and its
Creole (Cuban-born) descendants.. .and the so-called mongoloid r a c e . 135 This line of
thinking called for the absorption, or exclusion of the inferior races, and shaped the
latest anthropological thinking that used skin color to rank the races with white being
superior to all others. As a result, the Anthropological Society of Cuba, like other
intellectual organizations and publications, concerned itself with the racial composition
of the island and the impact it had on its development into a modern society.
135 Luis Montane. Discurso leido en la sesion del 19 de mayo de 1894, by: Manuel Rivero de la Calle.
Actas: Sociedad Antropologica de la Isla de Cuba, hereafter SAIC). La Habana. 1966., p. x.
121
The Society also debated the merits of the extinction of the black race as a result
of their incivility. In a presentation by Dr. Montalvo on January 12, 1879, entitled Study
of the Black Race, he argued that one of the principal causes that will prevent the
growth of black population in Cuba is their polygamist character and the tendency for the
women to become prostitutes. He stated:
As a hygienist I have had the opportunity to observe a significant number of black
prostitutes in this capital (Havana), that have absolutely no relationship with the
male population of this (lower) class that needs these women; but for said men, it
is not indispensable for them to visit certain places to satisfy certain needs,
because a large majority of black women are easily attracted to the lifestyle and
the satisfaction of their most ardent desires. If there are few black brothels in
Havana, in the others, the majority of prostitutes are mulatasthe city is plagued
with women of these races that participate in prostitution daily. This must be
understood to be the principal cause for the progressive disappearance of the
black race.136
In the same article, Montalvo also argued that once the black race is out of contact
with the white race [in Cuba]because it is in their naturethey revert to the most
uncivilized cult practiced in Africa, from where this race in Cuba originated. There is a
danger to our future, if one day, through misfortune, those [black] people might be in
charge of running the government of the island.
In addition to fear of black people in
general, Montalvo spoke of the threat that the African-centered secret society, known as
Abakua (nanigos) posed to Cuban society. He described this mysterious group as one
that lives amongst us without anybody knowing their true identity....
1IQ
Montalvo
concluded that blacks posed a threat to the safety and modernization of Cuban society
due to their perceived propensity for secrecy and crime.
136 Comision Nacional Cubana de la UNESCO, ACTAS: Sociedad Antropologica de la Isla de Cuba, La
Habana: UNESCO, 1966, pg. 76.
137 Ibid, p. 76.
138 Ibid., p. 96.
122
Following the same line of thinking, two more members of the Anthropological
Society, Nicolas J. Gutierrez and Jose Torralbas, used medical arguments to encourage
exclusion. According to Gutierrez, congenital deformities, also called monstrosities
were the exclusive domain of the Ethiopian race. At the same time, Torralbas believed
.. .modern theories explain the pathologies that prevented the inferior races from
evolving, and that contributed to the conditions in which they found themselves.139 This
push to exclude undesirable sectors occurred in a society in transition. In his work, The
Land o f Chocolate, Francisco Moreno claimed that immorality and corruption in the
land of chocolate was blamed primarily on the increase in Black culture.140
For many whites, the zenith of Black cultural expression came on Three Kings
Day, when they saw the procession of blacks through the streets of Havana in the way of
their lands as a call for vengeance against whites. According to an article written by Jose
de Armas y Cespedes, in the Havana newspaper, La Avispa, the concession of rights to
blacks could be catastrophic because their brutish demeanor and inferior intellect
would lead to a race war between blacks and whites.141 In order to stem the perceived
tide of crime and to improve Cuban society, intellectuals should look to whiten the
island through immigration.
Intellectuals, elites and politicians saw the immigration of large numbers of
whites as the solution to an increasingly decadent society. The call for white immigration
had been a part of intellectual discourse since the end of the eighteenth century. As noted
by historian Hugh Thomas, since the 1840s, both Cuban planters and the Spanish colonial
139 Ibid., p. 140-141.

140 See Francisco Moreno, E l Pais del chocolate: la inmoralidad en Cuba, Madrid, 1887.
141 de Armas, Jose, La agitacion de los negros, and Negros y Blancos, in Las Avispas as printed in
Black Intellectual Juan Gualberto Gomezs newspaper La Igualdad, Havana, June 13, 1894.
123
government looked to immigration. The colonial government went so far as to offer

prizes to planters who brought white families to their estates. In 1857, the Conde de
Pozos Dulces wrote that the best way to end slavery was to divide sugar production
between cane cultivation and its processing, and white immigrants should be encouraged
to plant cane and sell it to large sugar factories.142 For intellectuals, elites and politicians,
white immigration was the answer to their labor and whitening concerns.
During the 1860s, Jose Antonio Saco was one of the first to write about the need
for immigration not only for labor, but to whiten the island. He concluded: If four or
five million whites came to the island, they would be welcomed with open arms! In other
words regardless of the size of the immigration, we could absorb them, and growing with
the land, they would become Cuban, and Cuba would always be Cuba.143 In line with
this thinking, Rafael Montoro, a member of the Anthropological Society, in the prologue
to Raimundo Cabreras book Cubay sus jueces, also called for white immigration.
Montoro defended the aptitude of the Cuban population to adapt to conditions necessary
for physical labor using arguments similar to the ones espoused by Enrique Jose Varona.
Varona defined the Cuban population as an ethnic variation well-adapted to new physical
conditions that produced excellent results. In 1886 the Spanish government announced its
willingness to pay the passage to Cuba of all workers who went there for a year and the
consequence was a flood of immigrants far greater than any previously known. The
Sociedad Antropologica de Cuba, like the Liceos, the Revista, and other intellectual
142 Thomas, Hugh, Cuba: or The Pursuit o f Freedom, New York: Da Capo Press, 1998, 2nd ed., p. 277.
143 Saco, Ideas, in Levi Marrero, Cuba: Economia y Sociedad; Azucar, Ilustracidny Conciencia, Vol. VII,
Madrid: Editorial Playor, S.A., 1978, p. 166.
124
venues served as a platform to introduce these and other ideas that would shape the future
of the island.
Revista General de Derecho
Another important contributor to the intellectual discourse, taking place in Havana during
the interwar years was the Revista General de Derecho, published for ten years from
1883 to 1893, it was the official publication of the Havanas Lawyers Guild, and was
first introduced in the Fall of 1883 under the tutelage of Antonio Govin y Torres, a
renowned lawyer in Havana. As evidenced by its title and the publishers, this journal
focused on the law and its application in Cuba. At the same time, it included articles,
histories, statistics, and opinion pieces about all aspects of social control including the
need to reform criminal and civil legislation, the social problem, and the reorganization
of the prison system. Like other intellectual journals published during this pivotal era in
Cuba history, the journals contributors embraced legal doctrine emanating from Europe
and North America, and shaped it to fit their society.
Opinion pieces and histories of law and their application on the island and the rest
of the modern world could be found in the Doctrinal Section, and the Bibliography
sections of the journal. They included articles as disparate as Family organization in
Germany prior to its invasions and conquests, and Study of the Application of Spanish
Civil Law and Codes. The majority of the journal listed the transcripts of what the
editors viewed to be the most important civil and criminal cases tried in Havana courts,
and those that went all the way to Spains Supreme Court. They were included in sections
entitled Chronicles of the Court, Civil Jurisprudence, and Criminal Jurisprudence.
Although these sections transcribed the cases, they did not provide analysis. Nonetheless
125
they illustrated the kinds of crimes, both criminal and civil being tried in the island of
Cubas judicial system and those important enough to send to Spains Supreme Court.
The Revista General de Derecho went beyond listing transcripts of court cases to
including editorial pieces about the need for reform in the islands institutions of social
control.
At the beginning of each year, the president of the Havana College of Lawyers
gave a sort of State of the Judiciary speech that was printed in the Revista. In it he
summarized the work from the previous year; gave a critical analysis of the state of the
administration of justice in the territory; and pointed out the obstacles and the more
obvious abuses. Finally, the president pointed out ways to improve the effectiveness of
the courts. 144 In it he spoke about, and listed the number of civil and criminal cases that
had come before the courts in the previous year. He listed those that were tried, and those
that stayed on the docket for the following year and separated them by judicial district
and type of crime committed. In his speech, he pointed out the need to apply
anthropological thinking to analyze the implementation of penal reform in general, and
the court system in particular.
The members of the Lawyers Guild were also interested in prison reform to act in
accordance with modern ideas about incarceration emanating from Europe and North
America, as evidenced by the amount of time and space they spent writing and talking
about it. They, like their counterparts throughout the Americas and Europe, embraced
positivist criminology that looked for individualized treatment of criminals, and the
rejection of classical penology that sought only to punish individuals (in many cases the
144 Govin y Torres, Antonio, Ramon I. Carbonell y Ruiz, Manuel Luis de Cardenas y Rodriguez, Revista
General de Derecho, Vol. I, No. 1, Habana, 15 de Octubre de 1883, p. 15.
126
punishment far exceeded the crime). Cuban intellectuals sought on the contrary to
modernize the penal system by applying principles of enlightened reform to its
administration.
In an article entitled El Presidio de La Habana published in several volumes
over the course of numerous years, the author, Fernando Mesa Dominguez, critiqued
memoirs written by the Havana Prison Warden, Antonio Buitrago, for 1888. The author
began by indicating that Mr. Buitrago was a modem thinker and embraced the need for a
modern penitentiary like those recently constructed in Spain. The author went on to
lament the fact that the prisoners and the prisons are just like the ones from the Middle
Ages. He argued that in order for there to be an improvement and modernization of the
institutions of social control, crime and criminality must be redefined. He continued by
stating the penitentiary is more than a place of detention, it is a place for correction.
Prison stays are not martyrdom, because science does not allow this primitive way of
thinking to persist.145
The author lamented the state of prisons in Cuba and argued that they needed to
be reformed to fit modern ideas. He argued that the prison system was not a penitentiary
system in the modern sense of the word because prisoners were converted into beasts
laboring in public works, on plantations and private industry benefiting the state.
According to the author this contributed to the prisoners increased hatred of the system
and the impossibility of reform.146 Furthermore, he argued that the physical structure
including the galleys, the infirmary, the clinic, and the fact that prisoners were leased
145 Carbonell y Ruiz, Ramon J., El Presidio de la Habana in Revista General de Derecho, Ano VI, Tomo
VI, 3rd epoca, 1889. p. 159.
146 Ibid., p. 162.
127
caused increased death rates and the desertion of those who worked outside of the prison.
Finally, the author attacked the corruption of the employees of the presidio and pointed
out how that also contributed to confusion and lack of modernity.
In addition to analysis of the penal system in El Presidio de la Habana, the
journal also listed a host of statistics related to institutions of social control. Another
important tool in the emerging field of criminal anthropology was the use of statistics to
buttress whatever argument the intellectuals made. For several years, they appeared in the
State of the Judiciary speech given in January by the president of the Guild. They were
also listed in random places throughout the journal and included arrests, cases brought to
court, and prison committals. At the same time, the statistics not only included the
number of individuals, it also included personal information such as race, place of origin,
crime, distinguishing features (scars, tattoos, large forehead, small head, big hands, etc.),
repeat offenders, and the amount of time the person was to serve in prison. Although
sporadic at best, and highly subjective, statistics reinforced the science behind discussion
of crime and institutions of social control in the emerging field of anthropology.
In general, the crime statistics in the journal were followed by a detailed account
of how the use of science benefited the introduction and implementation of reforms in the
penal system throughout the island. Anthropologists and criminologists were very
concerned with bringing the prison system and all other institutions of social control in
line with their modern counterparts. According to the author of the report, anthropologist
Fernando Mesa y Dominguez, The efforts put forth by prison administration as indicated
in these tables point to the necessity for reforms so that these statistics can provide results
128
called for by science.147 While the inclusion of statistics bolstered the analytical
arguments presented by the growing field of social science, the insertion of legislation
introduced on the island helped support the case for a modern Cuba, and gave the Revista
General de Derecho legitimacy in the eyes of the colonial government.
Similar to the other sections of the Revista General such as the Doctrinal
Section, the Court Chronicles, and the Bibliographies, other sections of the journal
included what the editors saw as the most important legislation introduced in the island.
Because of the times, much of it had to do with the end of slavery and included laws
outlawing corporal punishment of patrocinados. 148 In addition to supporting the end of
slavery, island intellectuals in line with other positivist thinkers, saw the need to suppress
activities and organizations they deemed anti-colonial and uncivilized.
These included organizations as disparate as the anarcho-syndicalist movement
and the African-centered Abakua secret society. According to article 198 of the Penal
Code, [the colonial government outlawed] organizations whose objectives and
circumstances are contrary to public morals, and those formed to commit crimes against
said code.149 This article spoke directly to the Federation of Workers. According to legal
experts, the Federation was composed of anarchists who were looking to stimulate a fight
between the workers and the bourgeoisie. In many cases, like that of Abakua, when the
147 Govin y Torres, Antonio, Revista General de Derecho, Tomo 2o de la Segunda epoca, Habana:
Imprenta La Correspondencia de Cuba, 1885, pg. 44.
148 See As per the Ministry o f Overseas Affairs in accordance with the Council o f Ministers, and the
Council o f the State I decree the following: Article 1. All punishment that includes the use o f stocks and the
stocks as established by Article 36 o f the regulation for the application o f the law dated 13 February 1880 is
from hereon outlawed, in Govin y Torres, Antonio, Ramon I. Carbonell y Ruiz, Manuel Luis de Cardenas
y Rodriguez, Revista General de Derecho, Ano I, Num. I, Habana, 15 de Octubre de 1884, p. 23.
149 Jurisprudencia Criminal in Govin y Torres, Antonio, Revista General De Derecho, Tomo 2o de la
Segunda epoca, Habana: Imprenta La Correspondencia de Cuba, 1885, p. 365.
129
authorities were not clear about the activities of an organization, they broadened the
legislation to include associations in which the members participated in activities
contrary to public morality. The goal of the intellectuals was to modernize the island in
part by ridding it of all events and organizations that did not fit their paradigm. Although
much of the legislation introduced in the island during the Turbulent Respite did not
explicitly point at Black people and Black organizations, implicitly, there was an effort to
rid the island of those events and organizations that reminded the elite that much of
Cubas identity was shaped by the very culture they looked to destroy.
Conclusion
Throughout the nineteenth century, Cuban intellectuals wrote extensively about
what it meant to be Cuba. As early as the 1840s, Jose Antonio Saco formulated the idea
of a nacionalidad cubana that argued for a separate identity for Cubans from outside
forces including Spain and the United States. Sacos nacionalidad cubana rejected the
inclusion of Black people in the Cuban identity project and shaped the discourse of what
it meant to be Cuba for the rest of the nineteenth century. According to some historians,
the end of the Ten Years War in the 1880s saw the unification of Cubans across color
lines. The inter-war years also brought the introductions of ideas of modernization,
positivism and liberal with their concurrent racism.
The intellectual discourse emanating from Europe used science to demonstrate
the hierarchy of mankind. This allowed for the formation by social scientists of new
fields of study including sociology, anthropology, and criminology. These new
institutions of inquiry used the new sciences to classify and criminalize individuals and
entire groups of people based on race, gender, place of origin, size of head, shape of eyes,
130
etc. While the findings of the new social scientists were based on questionable
assumptions and faulty data, they satisfied the needs of colonial intellectuals and colonial
policy makers. In effect, their conclusions were legitimized by the self-fulfilling
presumptions of the self-congratulating elites engaged in the discourse of emerging social
sciences in Europe. In Cuba, social scientists published articles and speeches in the
Revista de Cuba, and spoke at the Sociedad Antropologica. The lawyers guild had its
platform for their version of the law and its application in Cuba in the Revista General de
Derecho. Many of the members of one of these colonial organization belonged to the
others and many of the ideas the members espoused about contemporary Cuba and the
islands future coincided with remarkable smoothness. While Cuban intellectuals sat
around, smoked cigars, drank cognac, and discussed how to improve the islands culture
in order for its society to gain acceptance by the modern nations of the world, they had to
maintain a certain degree of care. They could not stretch the limits of modernity to the
edge of colonialism without fear of being accused of treason to Spain. Hence they turned
their thoughts inward and diagnosed the islands cultural weaknesses in terms of the
inadequacies of its culture. Meanwhile, other groups on the island had other ideas about
the future direction of the island.
131
Chapter 4. Crime and the Criminalization of the Black

Introduction
In his book Los Negros Brujos, first published in 1906, Cuban ethnologist,
Fernando Ortiz analyzed the issue of crime in Cuba arguing that several factors unique to
Cuban society contributed to the mala vida, or criminality on the island, and added that
the most salient factor was ethnicity, because all of the races (European, African, and
Asian), contributed their own vices. For Ortiz, the white race brought banditry and the
Asians brought gambling. He saved his most vehement attack on criminality for the black
race positing that in many ways, [the black race] has been able to influence the mala
vida the most, with the introduction of its superstitions, organizations, language, dances,
etc. He went on to say that black people were the legitimate children of brujeria, or
witchcraft.150 He further stated that Abakua, an African-centered secret society, was
dangerous by the very nature if its secrecy and was central to understanding the hampa
Cubana, or Cuban criminal life.151
Los Negros Brujos, Fernando Ortizs first publication was another in a long line
of works written during the late nineteenth and early twentieth century that addressed
crime in Havana and pointed to the Black community as its principal cause and culprit.
The end of the nineteenth century saw an attempt on the part of elites and the Spanish
colonial administration to define modernity on the island. More importantly, elites sought
to maintain their status in the face of exaggerated social, political and economic changes.
150 At the time o f this writing, his first published work, he conflated brujeria with naniguismo, and other
African-centered organizations and cosmologies.
151 Fernando Ortiz, Los Negros Brujos, La Habana: Editorial de Ciencias Sociales, 2001, p. 16. As noted in
the foreword o f this, the most recent edition o f Los Negros Brujos, at the Ortiz wrote, he did not recognized
the difference between nanigismo, brujeria, and other African-derived organizations, and lumped them all
together calling them brujeria.
132
As was the case throughout Latin America, this new vision for the island included the
underclass only within the parameters established by elites, as cheap labor in a growing
market economy, but outside of the body politic. One of the ways they attempted to do
this was to criminalize the underclass.
This criminalization enabled elites to exclude those they deemed unfit from the
body politic. While the underclass included people from all racial and ethnic
backgrounds, black people and black culture were especially targeted for criminalization.
They were deemed the most important threat to a modern Cuba as a result of their status
as slaves and sons and daughters of slaves, and especially their continued practice of
primitive African fetishes, activities that countered the modern island society
envisioned by Cuban colonial elites.
This chapter will address the criminalization of black people as individuals, and
their African-centered organizations as a part of black society. Throughout the nineteenth
century laws were put in place to limit the mobility of black people, both enslaved and
free. The most obvious assault on black people came in the persecution of Africancentered organizations. This chapter will conclude with an analysis of the ways elites and
the colonial administration targeted African-centered organizations including: the
Cabildos de Nation, or ethnically centered organizations that were approved by colonial
authorities to maintain ethnic cohesion in an effort to prevent slave rebellions, and the
secret society of Abakua. The colonial administration closely scrutinized and constantly
changed laws governing the conduct and actions of the cabildos throughout the colonial
period. Officials were far more fearful and distrustful of Abakua. By the 1870s the secret
society was outlawed and persecuted as a criminal organization. In any case, whether as
133
individuals or as members of organizations, black people were the targets of racial bias
and criminal persecution at a time when slavery was ending and their numbers as
members of the proletariat increased.
During the last three decades of the nineteenth century, ideas about who was to be
included in the islands body politic and who was not, were being formulated. An
important body of literature written by retired police officers, newspapermen, and other
contemporary observers, addressed crime and criminality and focused much of its
attention on black people and their organizations, especially Abakua. There was a real
concern with crime in the city of Havana as revealed in newspapers, and the
Africanization Scare loomed large in the mind of those writing about crime in the
1880s and throughout the nineteenth century. This chapter also seeks to analyze the crime
problem in Havana during the last three decades of the nineteenth century to demonstrate
that while the Creole elite and the colonial authorities were concerned with crime in
general, they reserved their severest judgment for Black people.
Social Control in a Slave Society
By their very nature, slave societies were violent and nineteenth century Cuba
was no different. Throughout the long era of slavery in Cuba, questions of social control
focused primarily on the increasing African slave labor force. Responsibility for control
of the slaves tended to be left to the planters themselves with the support of colonial
administrators and the rules and regulations they introduced. In order to maintain the high
rate of production of sugar, planters needed a steady inflow of large numbers of enslaved
Africans, the labor force of choice. The production of sugar required that slaves work as
134
much as 20 hours a day, during the zafra.152 As a result of the long hours and the dangers
of cane cutting, mortality rates for the labor force were high.
According to famed traveler Alexander von Humboldt, the mean mortality of the
newly imported Negroes is still from ten to twelve per cent, it may fall to even six or
i o
eight percent.
These mortality rates prevented natural increase in the work force and
point to the fact that planters viewed enslaved Africans as another tool equal to an ox or a
machete. Yet at the same time, if von Humboldt was correct, the fall in the mortality rate
strongly influenced ideas about the need for the social control of the enslaved.
Slaveholders believed that violent physical discipline such as whippings, and the use of
stocks, shackles, chains, imprisonment, would limit escape and rebellion, and meanwhile
would increase productivity. The slaveholders were within their legal right to use these
instruments of social control.
During the colonial period, the Spanish bureaucracy in Cuba frequently
introduced changes in the legal codes and edicts designed to shape relations between the
enslaved and the slaveholder and to regulate and enforce methods of social control on the
island for enslaved people, free people of color and the general population. The Codigo
Negro Carolino, or the Carolina Black code, introduced in 1785, prohibited Africans
from dancing and playing music during funerals, mandated the teachings of the Catholic
Church to slaves, and forbade all black people from congregating without permission and
supervision of the authorities. These prohibitions were an attempt on the part of colonial
authorities to prevent Africans and the descendents from practicing their religions, in an
attempt to prevent conspiracies and slave rebellions.
152 The zafra is the time during the sugar production cycle when the cane is cut and squeezed.
153 Von Humboldt, Island o f Cuba, p. 228, cited in Howard, Changing History, p. 9.
135
At the same time, there were cases in which the slave codes seem to benefit the
slaves, and therefore, were not introduced, as was the case four years later in 1789.
Nineteenth century Cuba intellectual Jose Antonio Saco said the following about the non
implementation of this decree:
When the royal order of May 31, 1789, was sent out, the vecinos of Havana...on
the 19th of January 1790, begged the governor.. .not to publish the decree, lest the
slaves, interpreting it in a bad light, might revolt. In fact, the Captain-Generals did
not publish it.... In this way, a royal order was nullified, that may have extended
the greatest benefit to the slaves of any nation that had them in their colonies.154
Ten years later, in 1799, another bando was presented by then Captain General Juan
Propicio Bassecourt, governing the conduct of Black people. It ordered Havanas AfroCuban cabildos restricted to outside the walls because of the noise and disruption caused
by their observances.155 In what seems contradictory to the earlier code of 1785 that
prohibited the assembly of black people at all, this one called for the expulsion of
cabildos to the extramuro, or outside of the wall of the city. Could it be that the cabildos
were expelled as a result of the authorities trying to separate themselves and whites in
general from the barbarity of African culture as expressed by the noise and disruption?
What is certain is in the early stages of the sugar boom, Spanish colonial authorities and
their Cuban cohorts did not have an established set of guidelines to respond to the actions
taken by both enslaved and free people of color whether it was dancing and singing,
assembling or revolting.
The tremendous growth of the slave population during the first half of the
nineteenth century, and the presence of an important number of free people of color
154 Jose Antonio Saco, Historia de la esclavitud de la raza Africana en el Nuevo mundo...(A vols.; Havana:
Cultural, 1938, Vol. 3, p. 16-17, cited Knight, Slave Society in Cuba, p. 126.
155 Paquette, Robert L., Sugar is Made with Blood: The Conspiracy o f La Escalera and the Conflict
between Empires over Slavery in Cuba, Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 1988, p. 108.
136
created the Africanization Scare. This was a perception among whites, particularly the
intellectual class that there would be an increase in crime in the form of violence towards
whites and perhaps more importantly, an outright slave rebellion and the overthrow of the
white power structure, as in Haiti, if the number of enslaved Africans continued to
increase. In response to the growing numbers and the Africanization Scare, Cuban
intellectuals like Jose Antonio Saco and Domingo del Monte, called for an end to the
slave trade and the expulsion of all black people from the island.156
In addition to the fear of another Haiti occurring in their midst, Cuban intellectual
Jose Antonio Saco feared the presence of people of African descent would negatively
impact the islands acceptability among the civilized nations of Europe, and the United
i
States because their vices included gambling, unfamiliar customs and festivities.
cn
According to Saco, these were indications of the crisis of the social order on the island. In
his work El juego y la vagancia en Cuba, or Gambling and Vagrancy in Cuba, published
in 1832, he lamented the fact that while slavery negatively impacted black people, it also
made white people lazy. He argued that because of slavery, whites refused to any manual
labor because they believed it was beneath them. He also blamed blacks who worked as
artisans for white laziness. The perceived threat black people posed not only continued,
but grew throughout the nineteenth century.
After a long and contentious stint of fighting insurgencies by blacks and whites,
Francisco Dionisio Vives, the Captain-General of Cuba from 1823 to 1832, returned to
Spain. Upon his arrival he expressed concerns about various issues regarding Cuba, and
was particularly vociferous about the danger free people of color living in a slave society
156 See Chp. 1 Sacos Nacionalidad Cubana"
157 Saco, Jose Antonio, I. E l Juego y la Vagancia en Cuba, II. Estudio Sobre la Esclavitud, Vol. 1, Habana:
Editorial Lex, 1960, p. 65.
137
posed. For Vives, the existence of free blacks and mulattoes in the middle of the slavery
of their comrades is an example that will be very prejudicial some day. If effective
measures are not taken in order to prevent their constant and natural tendency toward
emancipation, in which case they may attempt by themselves or with outside help to
prevail over the white population.158
The Spanish Vives like Cuban intellectual Jose Antonio Sacobelieved free
people of color were a threat and they needed to be expelled from the island. Unlike
Saco, who suggested expelling all black people regardless of whether they had broken the
law or not, Vives suggested that all convicted free black criminals be sent Spains
African prisons so their return to Cuba would be unlikely. While Sacos plan was
impossible to execute, Vives suggestion set the stage for the criminalization of Blacks as
a legal method to banish people of African descent from the island or simply from the
body politic.
Immediately following the ideas set forth by Vives came those of CaptainGeneral Miguel Tacon who, upon his arrival in Havana in 1834, summarized the state of
the island and its capital:
he found ten thousand brothels and fifty gambling houses. The state of immorality
to which the Island of Cuba has descended before June 1934 has been the topic of
debate in various national and foreign newspapers. Under no circumstances do I
consider the number of assassins, robbers, thieves that move about the streets of
this capital, killing, injuring and robbing people both day and night in the most
central and frequented streets an exaggeration. Such an important number of
criminals seem to come from a common place or terrible associations because of
158 Francisco Dionisio Vives, and Juan Manuel Cajigal, Bando de buen gobierno, adicionadopor el
escelentlsimo Senor D. Grancisco Dionisio Vives, Presidente, gobernador y capitan general de esta simpre
fidelisim a ciudad e isla de Cuba, con cuya superior aprobacion se publica. Habana, Imprenta fraternal de
los Diaz de Castro, 1828, p.34.
138
its ramifications with the proposition of imposing itself the laws; they attack
peaceful citizens with impunity and destroy all social mores...159
As a result of the decadence observed by Tacon, he insisted on modifying the citys
civic and moral dilemma by constructing the Havana Jail. Despite the modernization of
the highly traveled (read elite) physical spaces of the city, crime continued to be a
problem throughout the rest of the nineteenth century. As evidenced by the concern
demonstrated by Vives, Saco, and Tacon, much of the blame for crime on the island, and
in Havana, rested with slaves and free people of color.
The Africanization Scare, along with real and continued slave rebellions on the
island forced strict measures to be taken against both enslaved and free people of color.
In addition, as the number of Cubans questioning Spanish colonization increase, the
Spanish colonial authorities used the Africanization Scare to garner support for their
continued presence on the island. While the elites believed that all black people posed a
threat to the status quo, it was the community of free people of color that were seen as the
most important threat because they were not under the yoke of chattel slavery and were
therefore harder to control.
Social Control, 1840s-1860s
As slavery reached its apex in Cuba, and resistance on the part of enslaved and
free people of color to adhere to their place in society increased, mechanisms of social
control expanded and became more stringent. In 1842 and 1844, Captain General
Geronimo Valdes, the highest representative of the Spanish government on the island
introduced the Bando de gobernacion y policia de la isla de Cuba, or government and
police regulations issued. They included regulations administering labor, both slave and
159 Figueras, 1907, p. 296, as cited in Alain Basail Rodriguez, Poder y Disentimiento, unpublished
Masters Thesis, Havana: University o f Havana, 1995.
139
free, social relations and the maintenance of social control. The regulations introduced in
1842 contained 260 articles in the main text divided into such categories as public
religion and morality, public order and health, and slave regulations.
The slave codes governed the relationship between slaveholders and slaves and
included regulations governing every aspect of that relationship. The first article of the
code addressed religion: slaveholders shall instruct his slaves in the principles of the
Holy Roman Catholic Apostolic Religion.. .160 In addition to providing religious
teachings, the second article of the slave code required slaveholders to limit the number
of hours a slave worked on religious days. Slaveholders.. .shall employ the slaves for
two hours to clean the houses and the workshops, but no longer... theoretically so that
the enslaved could participate in religious (Catholic) indoctrination.161 Slaveholders were
also required to provide food and clothing as indicated in articles six and seven, masters
shall necessarily give their slaves in the country two or three meals a day.... [and] shall
give them two suits of clothes a year.. ..162
In addition, the slave codes highlighted the subservient role that enslaved people
should take with all whites and their relationships with each other. Slaveholders will do
everything in their power to make slaves understand that the obedience they must have
for established authorities, their obligation to be reverent to priests, the need to respect
white people, to act right with people of color and to live in harmony with their peers.
Whether these regulations were followed by slaveholders or not, is difficult to know, but
doubtful when one considers the twenty-hour days many of the enslaved were required to
160 Jose Ferrer de Couto, Los negros en sus diversos estadosy condiciones: tales como son, como se supone
que son, y como deben ser, Nueva York: Imprenta de Hallet, 1864, p. 14.
161 Ibid., p. 15.
162 Ibid., p. 16.
163 Ibid., p. 17.
140
work during the zafra. In any case, it is a known fact that conditions for slaves on the
plantations (especially those producing sugar) were hellish throughout slavery.
The slave codes spelled out the punishments that should be meted out to slaves
who did not abide by the rules, thereby using the institution as an important form of
social control for a majority of the black population. Examples of how the institution of
slavery policed itself can be seen throughout the codes. Article 21 of Slave Code of 1842
limited the physical mobility of slaves from the plantation. Any slave that needs to go
more than three leagues distances from the plantation.. .will carry a license from their
master, the overseer or the person who administers the property. The punishment will be
that the slave be treated as a Cimarron, or runway, and be obliged to pay the four pesos
charged the master by the slave catcher.164 In addition to being charged as runaways, the
slave was forced by pay the cost of their capture. Another example of social control on
the plantation was Article 43 of the bando. It stated only owners, administrators, or
overseers shall be able to punish slaves... This was the case unless the enslaved persons
violated a law outside of the plantation, or the slaveholder chose to have the colonial
authorities take action against a slave.165
Throughout the first half of the nineteenth century, the Spanish colonial
administration, in collaboration with Cuba planters, emphasized the need for strict social
control of enslaved people through the slave codes. In addition, parts of the bando spoke
to the specific situation of free people of color emphasizing the need to govern their
movement more stringently. The idea that codes separate from those that governed the
164 Ibid., p. 14.

165 O f the 730 prison records reviewed in my research, the large majority o f those listed as slaves were
committed to prison for committing murder. See Chapter 5.
141
general population were written specifically to govern the actions of free people of color
accentuates the centrality the institution of slavery had in their lives.
According to Cuban intellectual Jose Ferrer de Couto, writing in 1864,
. .everything that happened [La Escalera] justified.. .the changes that occurred relative
to the jurisprudence pertaining to blacks as outlined in the bando de buen gobierno
introduced in Havana on 14 November 1842. In addition to the 48 articles included in
the bando of 1842, the Captain General, issued another one on May 31,1844.. .that made
the life of enslaved, that much more difficult. It was not done without justification. There
were many dangerous elements that took it upon themselves to try to annihilate our
[Spanish administrative] authority.166 Cuotos position concerning the introduction of
the bandos of 1842 and 1844 was reflective of the position most whites took concerning
the perceived threat enslaved people represented. The white elites also saw free people of
color as a threat, fearing they might try to overthrow the island and were therefore
equally in favor of strict control for this group also.
In the years following La Escalera, the white elites and the colonial government,
formed the Junta de Fomento, or the Board of Development, to promote the expansion of
the islands economy. The board favored strict control of free people of color as
illustrated by the following partial list, made public in 1845, concerning their place in
Cuban society:
1. All [recently] freed blacks on the island while be gathered by the
government.. .and giving passage out of this territory...
2. A general survey of all free men of color that live on the island will be taken to
determine whether they are gainfully employed, own property or have a known
means of making a living, in order that those who do not, be tried and charged as
vagrants and prejudicial to society.
166 Ibid., p. 75.
142
3. All free men of color from other countries will be expelled from the island
shortly.
4. All meetings of free blacks without a permit from the local authorities are
prohibited and any indiscretion committed [by them] against whites will be
corrected with utmost severity.
5. No men of color will be permitted to work in pharmacies, not even to prepare the
simplest concoctions.
The ultimate goal of the legislation directed specifically at black people, particularly the
free sectors of the black community, was to expel them from the island. Unable to
achieve this goal, the colonial authorities sought to categorize them as vagrants if they
did not have gainful employment. The rest of the colonial period saw the continued
persecution of the black community.
Social Control, 1870s-1880s
On October 10, 1868, a disgruntled small planter from the eastern sector of the
island named Manuel de Cespedes launched the first war of independence against
Spanish colonization in what came to be known the Grito de Yara. It was the beginning
of the end of slavery and a time of hope for black people both enslaved and free. In
response to the insurgent rebels groups, particularly the large numbers of black people
both slave and free who had joined the fight, the colonial government used a carrot and
stick approach in an attempt to both inhibit and placate the increasing free community of
color.
The most important piece of legislation introduced and one used to assuage black
people was the Moret Law. Among other provisions, it called for the abolition of slavery
for certain groups of slaves including the newly born and those over sixty years of age. It
was a failed attempt on the part of the colonial administration to persuade black people to
143
join the fight against the insurgent, as black people joined the insurgency in droves. On
the other hand, it the colonial authorities reinforced laws governing black mobility. Of
these, the most important were vagrancy laws that sought to fine or jail people who did
not have regular employment.
Vagrancy laws had been part of the legal landscape throughout the colonial
period. During slavery they were used primarily as a form of social control for the free
black community. As the prospect of the abolition of slavery materialized, the idea to
implement vagrancy laws became part of the debate concerning the newly freed slaves.
But as posited by historian Rebecca Scott, vagrancy was an ambiguous term. In some
cases, it was used to define the unemployed, or the underemployed amongst the
underclass. Other times it referred to the laborers who were unwilling to the ridiculously
low wages offered. What was not clear for those debating the question of vagrancy was
the implementation of vagrancy laws. At the same time, it is clear that vagrancy conjured
up racist fears of the black masses running rampant across the island uncontrolled and
committing unspeakable criminal acts. The question of vagrancy and how to combat it
remained up for debate.
Scott went on to note that during the 1870s, legislation permitted government
officials to send vagrants and disreputable people to forced labor on the Isle of Pines. But
by the 1880s, vagrancy became a key concern for planters as well as colonial officials.
They believed that with the gradual emancipation of slavery, former slaves would move
away from slaveholders and refuse to work for them, especially on plantations. At the
same time, to exacerbate the situation, Spain decriminalized vagrancy and made it only
an aggravating circumstance for persons committing other crimes, and extended this law
144
to Cuba. Cuban elites complained loudly enough to persuade the colonial government to
introduce two royal orders, the first on June 5, 1881, and the second on May 3, 1884
asking the governor of Cuba for information on the question of vagrancy on the island.
Five years later in 1889, the report outlining various positions was sent to Madrid. Some
opined that vagrants should have been institutionalized. Others suggested an increase in
services including public works, education, and religion to reduce the number of
vagrants. A comprehensive plan for or against vagrancy laws came to not. Nonetheless,
throughout the 1870s, 80s, and 90s the colonial government used vagrancy selectively to
take legal action against individuals perceived to be vagrants.167
While the discussion regarding vagrancy tended to focus on what would happen
with emancipation of slavery, of the nearly 750 prison records reviewed, only five were
for vagrancy, and all of the were white.
1AR
At the same time, an analysis of police blotters
from newspapers and journals listed limited numbers of arrests for vagrancy throughout
the Turbulent Respite (1880-1895). As noted by historian George Reid Andrews for the
majority of Latin America weak and understaffed police forces made the enforcement of
laws and ordinances impossible.169 While general seen as criminal by elites and the
colonial authorities, crime was not the reserve of the underclass composed primarily of
black people. The corollary between the blacks and vagrancy clamored so much about by
167 Rebecca J. Scott, Slave Emancipation in Cuba: The Transition to Free Labor, 1860-1899, Princeton:
Princeton University Press, 1986, p. 221.
168 It is important to note that those persons serving time in the Havana Prison were generally incarcerated
for more than six months. The majority o f people charged with vagrancy served less than six months,
therefore, they would not appear in prison records. Nonetheless, an analysis o f more than five hundred
crime reports listed in various sources including newspapers and professional journals, listed very few
vagrancy charges. Although cases o f vagrancy were few, the law was on the books, and therefore could be
used by the authorities when deemed necessary. The cases were taken from various newspapers in the
Biblioteca Nacional Jose M arti and the Fondo, Carceles y Presidios, ANC, both in Havana, Cuba.
169 George Reid Andrews, Afro-Latin America, 1800-2000, New York: Oxford University Press, 2004, p.
102 .
145
elites and colonial authorities did not exist. Even so, colonial officials and the Creole elite
continued to fear the black masses.
The instability brought on by the Ten Years War, caused an increase in crime and
a marked increase in the perception that crime on all levels was out of control. For Cuban
intellectual Enrique Jose Varona, it brought with it an increase in banditry, contraband,
and the so-called administrative irregularities of corruption, bribery and other common
crimes. He noted:
...the individual and collective conscience threatened with insensibility is
disturbing because the degree of moral perturbation reached by the citizenry,
where the government, the church, the judiciary, the Foro, and the professions
have become gangrened ...170
Yarona like many of his contemporaries saw the contradictions in Havanas
physical, social and political space. The imposing forts, the modest churches, the
intimacy of residences for the elites, the wide avenues and beautiful gardens contrasted
with the narrow streets, open sewage, dank tenements, poor hygiene, poverty, high
unemployment and the inevitable mala vida, as Fernando Ortiz attributed to the black
sectors of Cuban society. Among the most significant characteristics of the mala vida
and examples of the libertine life and members of the Hampa Afrocubana are the negros
curros who are always involved in criminal activity, spend their time conversing and
drinking in the markets, dancing in the cabildos, and carousing. They are at their most
decadent during Three Kings Day. The negros curros preceded the negros nanigos who
appeared in Havana during the 1830s.171 Echoing the danger of crime found in the
streets of Havana was an article published La Lucha, dated October 13, 1885. In it the
author contended that all of Havana lives in terror produced by the scandalous crimes
170 Ibid., p. 189.
171 Fernando Ortiz, Negros Brujos, Habana: Editorial Ciencias Sociales, 2001, p. 34.
146
that occur daily, as if this society, instead of being a part of the civilized world, belonged
to a savage region of Africa.172
The result of these contradictions and the inherent conflicts in Cuban colonial
society, especially in Havana, is the same rationale used by the Spanish colonial
government to maintain control of the city and the island. During the last three decades
of the nineteenth century, the fear of crime in Havana, regardless of race, was at an all
time high. An article that appeared in a local newspaper, El Amigo del Pueblo, made
reference to this fear:
In the last several years, Havana seemed to be on the path to morality and culture.
It has taken a step back, perhaps fearful of losing its ancient and well-deserved
designation of vicious and corrupt city, as insecure as old Calabria, home to thefts
and ruffians, and an immense den of illegal and out of control gambling that
should be regulated....173
The focus of elites vehement displeasure and fear was the underclass of white
Cubans and Spaniards, and Black people both enslaved and free. The elites seemed
particularly concerned about the criminality not only of black people as individuals, but
of them as a group that seemed born for the bad life. They criminalization of black
people was most loudly manifested in the persecution of black organizations like the
ethnically-centered Cabildos de Nacion, and the secret and mysterious African-centered
Abakua. Both of these were persecuted as a result of their African cultural retention
masked as criminal behavior.
172 La Lucha, Habana, October 13,1885, Sala Cubana, Jose Marti National Library o f Cuba.
173 E l Amigo del Pueblo, ANC, Fondo Asuntos Politicos, Legajo 262, No. 1, cited in Yolanda Diaz
Martinez, La Peligrosa Habana: Violenciay criminalidad a finales del siglo XIX, Havana: Ciencias
Sociales, 2005, p. 70.
147
Cabildos de Nacion
When free people of color were not working as artisans, or participating in the
militia, they along with enslaved people socialized in African ethnic organizations, or
cabildos de nacion. The cabildos de nacion, served as the center of Afro-Cuban life for
many free and enslaved blacks, since both groups were allowed membership in the
organization. At their inception in the last quarter of the sixteenth century these
organizations were established along with cofradlas based on ethnicity (i.e., Lucumi,
Congo, Caraball, etc.), According to historian Phillip Howard, by the beginning of the
nineteenth century, cabildos had become the most popular of the two mutual aid societies
among Afro-Cubans... [Because] unlike cofradlas, the cabildos were not affiliated with
or located in specific Catholic churches.174
The cabildos, because they were ethnic-centered, were also able to promote
cultural retention. Membership fees allowed some cabildos to purchase buildings where
they held their meetings. The buildings were also used as education centers to teach their
members and their families mathematics, reading, and writing. The cabildos also acted as
mutual-aid societies that collected funds to help members in need, whether it was for
buying enslaved members their freedom, funeral services, purchasing real estate, or even
for the posting of bail. According to Cuban historian Pedro Deschamps Chapeaux, the
cabildo gave Black people a place where they could find respite from the oppression of
the island slave society. Deschamps went on to highlight the importance of the cabildo.
The important socio-economic value the institution as a whole represented in the urban
Ibid., p. 26.
148
area cannot be underestimated; because the cabildo is the starting point of the black
communitys presence m Havanas economy.
175
The cabildos de nacion were most well known for their social activities that
included dancing and drumming, particularly on Christian religious days, especially Dia
de Reyes, when they paraded through the streets of Havana and other cities in the styles
of their places of origin in Africa. According to Xavier Marmie, a French traveler
visiting Havana in 1849:
On Three Kings Day, each one of the tribes appears in Havana with its
traditional outfit and musical instruments.. .it is almost impossible to see a more
comical and grotesque scene... there are blacks with feathers and many artificial
flowers in their hair. There are those whose faces and necks are covered with
paint.. .and stripped to the waist.... The women are covered in colorful attire and
run at pace until they stop to dance.
Under the windows of the Governor General, in public squares, on street
corners, the chief calls out... and the musicians appear shortly and the diabolic
orchestra begins. The masses of people begin to shrill behind their masks and this
initiates the dancing.. .the word dance cannot describe what they do. Once they
are finished they stop to receive their tribute.176
As the number of enslaved Africans forced to come to Cuba increased, the
colonial authorities used the cabildos to maintain ethnic cohesiveness in the hope that it
would reduce the possibility of rebellion, particularly in urban areas like Havana. As
early as 1794, the city government of Havana gave the Cabildo Mina Guagui permission
to sponsor dances and other activities as stated in the Libros a Cabildos, as the
government cautiously surveys its activities, performed by the nation.. .when it ostensibly
buys things... [particularly] when it purchases the freedom of its enslaved members.
177
175 Pedro Deschamps Chapeaux, E l Negro en la economia habanera del siglo XIX, Havana: UNEAC, 1970,
?7631'
Xaiver Marmier, Lettres sur I Amerique,
Paris, 1851 cited in Luciano de Acevedo, La Habana en el

Siglo XIX: D escritapor Viajeros Extranjeros, La Habana: Sociedad Editorial Cuba Contemporanea, 1919,
p. 34
177 Ibid, p. 27.
149
Throughout the colonial era, the cabildos maintained a precarious relationship

with the authorities as noted by shifting regulations governing cabildo activities. Five
year after allowing the above mentioned cabildo social activities; in 1799 the CaptainGeneral forced the cabildos de nation outside of the city wall because of the noise and
disruption they caused by their observances. There they remained in 1840, most of them
in the barrios of Penalver and Pueblo Nuevo178 Finally, and perhaps most importantly,
the cabildos de nation acted as meeting points to organize rebellion by free and enslaved
Africans and people of African descent. In spite of their contentious relationship with the
colonial authorities, and Cuban elites, as a result of their constantly shifting views on
whether to criminalize the cabildos or not, the cabildos de nation, remained an integral
part of black life in Cuba throughout the colonial period.
The End of the Cabildos de Nacion
The start of the Ten Years War saw the beginning of the end of cabildos de
nation. In 1868, in an attempt to limit membership, and thereby do away with the
organization as Africans passed away, the government issued circular prohibiting criollos
from becoming members of cabildos de nacion. Eleven years later in 1879 following ten
years of bloody conflict, more restrictions against African cultural retention, in the form
of cabildos, were put in place, and the insistence of criollo exclusion was reemphasized.
On January 5, 1879 the Governor General of Habana, Jose Arderius y Garcia
reminded the public the festivity of Three Kings Day was near, the day that black people
of the nations (Africans) celebrated by parading through the streets singing and dancing
according to the traditions of their tribes.179 The Governor General went on to point out
178 Paquette., p. 107.

179 De Oficio, Diario de la Marina, Havana, Cuba, January 5, 1879, p. 1
150
that according to article 88 of the Bando de Gobernacion y Policia, and Municipal

Ordinance 66, in order to that this diversion can occur without affecting the
neighborhoods and public order he prohibited the use of all flags or insignia that did not
incorporate national (Spains) colors. In an attempt to reduce the number of participants
in the cabildos, he also insisted that only Africans could participate in the parades as
members of cabildos de nacion, prohibiting the criollo groups.
In an attempt to limit the supposed violence associated with black organizations,
and the possible fights between the various cabildos, the Civil Governor also prohibited
the use of canes, sticks, any other arms, masks or anything else that could cover
somebodys face by all people of color whether criollo or African, under penalty of the
laws in place.180 In addition to limiting the cabildos activities on Three Kings Day, the
authorities also sought to limit the amount of time they could convene as cabildos. The
cabildos are not allowed to circulate in the streets after five oclock in the evening, at
which time all black groups will disperse.181 The list of prohibitions also made specific
reference to the dreaded nanigos. All nanigos uniforms or symbols are also prohibited,
when the organization is not legal according to the law.182 The Civil Governor ended his
pronouncement by stating that the police and Cuerpo de Orden Publico would enforce
these laws.
Throughout the 1870s and 80s, the Spanish colonial authorities, at the behest of
colonial elites continued to force change in the cabildos de nacion and Abakua in an
attempt modernized the island with the prohibition of all this primitive and African. In
another attempt to shrink the cabildos, on 24 April, 1882, a Real Decree ordered cabildos
180 Ibid., p. 1
181 Ibid., p. 1.
182 Ibid., p. 1.
151
to renew their licenses yearly and once again, in another attempt to reduce membership,
reemphasized the notion that Creoles were no longer allowed to become members of
cabildos.
In December 19, 1884, a week before Christmas Eve, the Civil Governor of
Havana, Juan Ales y Escobar introduced yet another bando prohibiting meetings and
parades on Christmas Eve and Three Kings Day of the cabildos of color.183 In other
words, he sought to outlaw cabildos de nacion all together. The Civil Governor, in line
with other representatives of his government, and the Creole elites, sought to rid the
island of its primitive vestiges like cabildos de nacion. To substantiate his reason for
eliminating the cabildos, Civil Governor Ales, argued that they only existed to conceal
crimes and criminals:
There are surely few things as worthy of respect as the traditional costumes of a
people, as long as when they are exercised the do not break laws or offend
morality; but from the moment the reason for their being disappear, and they
become places used to conceal censurable abuses, the community should not
persist in their continuation, and the authorities should not consent to their
existence.184
The Civil Governor further contended that besides serving as places to conceal
abuses, there remain but few Africans, and as a result of the abolition of slavery they all
[black people] enjoy relative freedoms. Besides, said custom [the existence of cabildos]
no longer maintains its original and respectable reason for being and its practices are
incompatible with the social condition of its members.185 Ales continues his argument
for prohibiting cabildos de la raza de color from meeting and parading in the streets on
Christmas Eve and Three Kings Day by praising the civility of the black community. As
183 Cabildos, 1884, in Archivo Nacional de Cuba, Donativos y Remisiones, Legajo, Fuera, 117-18.
184 Ibid.
185 Ibid.
152
a result of the advances and culture attained by the black race in general, not only has the
existence of said custom (the continuation of the cabildos) has become retrograde to the
majority of the race. He concluded by reiterating the notion that for a while, the cabildos
serves as a pretext for the commission of punitive acts that are no longer tolerable.186
Nonetheless, many of the cabildos that transformed themselves into associations
continued to practice the cultural traditions, including the drumming and dancing, learned
from their African-born members. White elites and government officials were not alone
in condemning the continuation of African cultural retentions in Havana and throughout
the island.
While the cabildos de nacion tended to focus on African-cultural retention, black
elites emphasized the need for education in the ways of the Europeans. They argued that
if blacks were ever to be accepted by white society, they needed to assimilate white
culture. As a result, beginning as early as the 1850s, the black middle class began to
create mutual aid associations and guilds with Catholic names and Eurocentric practices
they deemed more attuned to, and accepted by Creole elite and the Spanish colonial
authorities. By the 1880s, with the introduction of reforms by the Spanish colonial
government, cabildos de nacion were required by law to abolish any links to Africa in
their names and in their activities and change their names Catholic Spanish names. The
government, influenced by colonial elites, looked to modernize Cuban society, and one of
the ways they felt they could do this was to rid the island of its African vestiges. The
cabildos de nacion reorganized as mutual aid societies with Spanish names. While some
of the new Afro-Cuban societies rejected their African roots and embraced European
Ibid.
153
ideas of what it was to be civilized, other Black organizations continued to embrace

their African roots straddling the line between legal and illegal.
Who and what is Abakua?
Another African-centered organization that caused constant fear and loathing
among colonial authorities and white elites was the secret society called Abakua.
According to Cuban ethnologist, Lydia Cabrera, Abakua derived it name from Echoic, an
ethnic group found in the Calabar region of present-day Nigeria, and was modeled on the
1 07
secret leopard societies found throughout Africa.
It is generally accepted that this
society, also known as Nanigos, first juego or lodge named Erik Buton (or Unique Buton,
Cabazon, and Casaubon), was founded across the bay from Havana in the town of Regia,
with the help and protection of the cabildo de nacion Carabali Bream Papaya Fey. that
had its address their with the necessary license from the government after payment of the
necessary fee in 1836.188
Like the cabildos de nacion, Abakua served as a mutual aid society and through
contributions from its members, they paid for fellow members freedom and funeral
expenses. During the next fifty years, Abakua extended its membership to the Cuban port
cities of Matanzas and Cardenas and the growth of the organization ebbed and flowed
based on socio-political climate of the island. According to Havana police detective
187 In his work Flash o f the Spirit: African and Afro-American A rt and Philosophy, New York: Random
House, 1983, p. 228, Robert Ferris Thompson argued that the name Abakua is derived from Abakpa, a term
used to identify the Ejagham o f Calabar.
188 See Rodriguez, Alejandro, Resena de los nanigos de Cuba desde su creation a la fecha, Habana 24 de
Julio de 1881, Legajo 76, No. 56, Archivo Nacional de Cuba, p. 1. For discussion o f Abakua, see Lydia
Cabrera, La SociedadSecreta Abakua: N arradapor Viejos Adeptos, Havana: Ediciones C.R., 1957; and
Enrique Sosa Rodriguez, Los Nanigos, Havana: Ediciones Casa de las Americas, 1982.
According to historian David H. Brown in his work Light Inside: Abakua society arts and Cuban cultural
history, Washington, DC: Smithsonian Books, 2003, ... the cabildos de nacion system organized and
divided the Lucumi (Yoruba), Congo (Kongo-Angola), Arara (Dahomey), Carabali (Cross and Niger Delta
regions, and Old Calabar) and their subgroups. p. 9.
154
Rafael Roche Monteagudo, as a result of the persecutions... on the part of the

government, of the perpetrators of the real, or alleged and so-called conspiracy o f the
people of color, in 1844, there was a relatively long recess [by nanigos] that made it
seem that they had disappeared...
1 QQ
Although their cosmology traces its roots to West
Africa, it is generally believed that Cuba is the only place they exist. At its inception, the
society restricted its membership to African-born slaves.190 Soon thereafter, there were
black criollo, mulatto, white criollo and peninsulares, and Chinese Abakua on the island.
In the first known analysis of Abakua, Resena de los nanigos de Cuba desde su
creacion a la fecha, or Study of the nanigos of Cuba from the time of their creation to
the present written in 1881 by journalist Alejandro Rodriguez, he posited that the first
juego founded in Regia known as Acabaton had nombria, or were well-respected,
because the principal members were the slaves of Dona Josefa Aguiar y Diaz,191 a
person of high standing in Cuba. As a result of this link, the newly formed nanigos were
able to get away with their fechorias, or fetishes, resting on the notion that their owners
would get them out [of jail or other trouble] for the good of all.192
In addition to acknowledging their ties to the slaveholder, nanigos also attached
importance to the area of town where they resided and called themselves Belenistas. At
the same time, and in a seemingly contradictory stance, they performed their initiations
away from the white people [men], whom they hated because they were slaves.
Even
though Black people were able to create spaces for themselves, they understood that they
189 Roche Monteagudo, Rafael, La Policia de la Habana, Havana: Imprenta La Prueba, 1908, p. 39.
190 Cabrera, Lydia, La SociedadSecreta Abakua: N arradapor viejos adeptos. Havana: Ediciones C.R.,
1958, p. 154.
191 According to Lydia Cabrera in Abakua, Objects o f police persecutions, arrested nanigos could not
resist the threats, the punishments and the bribes, and in 1882, for the first time, the press wrote about some
generalities o f the nature and organization o f the group. p. 9. Rodriguez, Resena. . p. 1.
192Rodriguez, R esena..., p. 5.
193 Ibid., p. 4.
155
operated in a slave society that limited their movements. As a result, they performed
within these times and spaces like Catholic holy days.
Another important indication of the duality of Abakua was their celebration of
Three Kings Day when Nanigos like members of Cabildo de Nacion used this day to
express their African-cultural retention. These black Carabalies would parade in the
streets on Three Kings Day asking for alms like everybody else [cabildos], the only
difference was that their costumes were made of skins, just like in their countries, and
while black criollos wore bells around their mid-section, they [Africans] wore theirs
around their legs, and always with their faces covered.194 In an interesting reversal of
roles and in an attempt to emphasize their barbarism and incivility and the notion that
they did not believe in deities, Rodriguez pointed out that the early nanigos did not use
the crucifix or candles because of their extreme superstitions they [nanigos] believed
them to be witchcraft.195
The first Abakua seem to understand their place in Cuba society both as slaves
and as members of a secret society and accepted the duality of their existence. On one
hand, they embraced their African roots by insisting on keeping the organization pure and
free of mulattoes and whites. On the other, nanigos understood the importance of
association with their white slave-holders and bragged about their status as slaves of
powerful white planters and felt superior because of the neighborhood they lived in (i.e.,
we are Belenistas). As a result, they looked to insulate themselves by prohibiting
membership in the society to criollos in general and mulattoes in particular. Nonetheless,
Ibid., p. 1.
Ibid.
156
things soon changed and membership in the secret societies to expanded to include black
criollos.
According to Rodriguez an increasing number of Black criollos wanted to join
Abakua, but these fanatics [African slaves] were opposed because they thought their
secrets would be revealed.196 Upon much insistence, and after the payment of one
hundred pesos, twenty-five criollos slaves of rich families were initiated in the manner
of the African coast and formed the first juego in the walled city of Havana.197 In spite
of allowing criollos to join (it must be assumed that they were pardo and morenos, or
black and brown-skinned) the first juego, Acabaton, carrying the hate they always had
towards whites, insisted that mulattos (mixed-race) be prohibited because they would
cause harm to the organization because they were not of pure blood like blacks: and
because the new nanigos respected their godfathers [those initiated before them], the
Carabali, they continued the practice [of prohibiting mulattos from joining].198 Abakua
was able to maintain its blackness for more than twenty years.199
White Abakua
Despite attempts to keep the secret of Abakua from white people, by 1860s, it was
out. It is generally accepted that a mulatto named Andres Facundo Domingo de los
Dolores Petit, an Ysue, or chief, of the Bacoco juego sold the secret to whites.200 The
196 Ibid., R esena..., p. 1.

197 Ibid., R esena..., p. 3.
198 Ibid., R esena..., p. 3.
199 According to Stephen Palmie in Some notes on space, time and units o f analysis in the historiography
o f Ekepe/Abakua, paper presented at the Centre for African Studies and Latin American Studies Centre,
University o f London, 7 October 1994, the identity o f Efik Butons members remains unclear. In his
work Light Inside, Brown posits that the state criterion o f pure blood was undoubtedly based on
phenotype, as well as, perhaps, individual professions o f genealogy. In the colonial period, pure blood
translated into the official terms o f Cuban social and legal classification, based on color: Moreno (African
descent), pardo mixed descent, and bianco (white) p. 19.
200 Roche Monteagudo, Rafael, La P o licia y sus Misterios en Cuba, Havana: La Moderna Poesia, 1908,
p. 37. According to Cabrera, Petit, perhaps as a result o f his place in-between black and white, was
157
purchase of the secret cost the whites 30 ounces of gold that was given to the principal
chief of Bococo and was used to purchase the freedom of several slaves.201 As a result of
the sale of the secret, the black juego that sponsored the first white group was suspended
and punished for having sold the secret that was expressly prohibited not only to whites,
but also to mulattoes for having mixed blood.202 On Christmas Eve of 1863.. .25 white
men were initiated into Abakua. Nonetheless, Black nanigos of the Efi branch of Abakua
prohibited white membership and participation in their groups and meetings. This
rejection of whites caused serious conflict throughout the rest of the colonial period and
into republic.
In a telling incident described by Roche, he noted that various whites attempted
to participate in a meeting of Efi Echemoro [a black juego] taking place in a house on
Industria Street. The Efi membership resisted their entrance and a pitch battle ensued in
which the whites were defeated because they were fewer. Upon their retreat, they were
chased by the black nanigos, and one ended dead and four others injured.
After the
fight, the four principal leaders of the black nanigos met in a summit held in the town of
Marianao adjacent to Havana where they invited the four chiefs of the white juegos. 204
There they formulate an unbreakable agreement so that from that point for no reason
could blacks mingle in the functions or procedures of white nanigos, and vice-versa. But
respected in both communities. In the black community, Petit was a babalao (high priest o f Santeria),an
Y su e, or leader o f an Abakua juego. At the same time, he moved among the Creole elites.
201 Ibid., Rodriguez, Resena, p. 9. Also see Cabrera, Lydia, SociedadSecreta de Abakua, 1958, Enrique
Sosa, Los Nanigos, Havana: Casa de las Americas, 1982, and Carmen Montejo Arreche, Sociedades
Negras en Cuba, 1878-1960, Havana: Centro de Investigation y Desarrollo de la Cultura Cubana Juan
Marinello, 2004, p. 37, for discussion o f the selling o f the serets o f Abakua to whites.
202 Ibid., Rodriguez, Resena, p. 10.
203 Ibid., Roche, p. 38.
204 Ibid., Rodrigeuz, Resena, p. 10.
158
in the public sphere, they would respectful and greet each other.205 The two groups
remained segregated as a result of the decision made at the summit. The black nanigos
agreed to acknowledge the existence of white nanigos, concluded friendship is one
thing, and nanigismo is separate.206
According to Roche, beginning in the early 1860s after the Black Abakua'"
summit, and until 1874, there was relative peace amongst the nanigos. Could it have been
because as Roche noted, no new white nanigo juegos were formed until 1874?207 While
no white juegos may have been formed until 1874, Rodriguez in his Resena, claimed
that by 1881, there were 83 juegos in Havana and the adjoining districts of Guanabacoa
and Marianao. Of these, at least 5 were white juegos. By the end of the colonial period,
Abakua included black, mulatto, Chinese, and white members. The pitch battles central to
the description of nanigismo by outside observers were not only between Black and
White. According, to Roche, Segura y Cabrera, and others who wrote about the dangers
of Abakua, there was constant fighting between all, based on race, neighborhood,
disrespect, and control of labor, especially on the city wharves.
Membership in Abakua
Membership in Abakua included a cross-section of men all races. The first juegos
included only Moreno (dark-skinned) slaves of the richest Havana families. Within the
first ten years of its founding, the organization extended its membership to include highly
respected mulattoes like Andres Petit, among others. According to Cuban historian
Enrique Sosa, Abakua came to include firefighters, tobacco workers, construction
205 Ibid., p.38.

206 Ibid., p. 38.
207 Ibid., p. 38. In his Resena, Rodriguez says that it was 1878.
159
workers, cooks, tailors, bakers, shoemakers, and stevedores.208 By the 1870s, even upperclass white males became nanigos. Roche notes that during a police raid on an Abakua
initiation, among the participates they encountered several young men of high-class that
tend to wear white gloves and attend aristocratic salons who showed no scruples or
shame as members of such a devious association. One of the ones arrested was the son of
a Castilian noble, and another, the son of a doctor.209
Writing in the 1940s, Cuban ethnologist Fernando Ortiz coined the term
transculturation when he talked about the cultural exchange of black, white and Chinese
(to a lesser extent) on the island of Cuba. He used the term to counter the notion of
acculturation to describe the process by which different cultures (i.e., African, European,
and Chinese in the Cuban case) incorporated various aspects of other cultures into their
own. Transculturation occurred when Africans and Europeans began to imitate each
other. In some cases blacks became Europeanized while in white households, as a result
of daily contact with slaves, incorporated aspects of African cultures. For Ortiz, there
were no other human factors more transcendental for cubanidad that the radical,
contrasting, and continues geographic, economic, and social transmigrations.210 In later
writings, he added the blend of races and cultures overshadowed every other historical
911
phenomenon.
Abakua, as a result of its racially and culturally varied membership was, perhaps,
the first expression of Ortizs transculturation in the sense that white men of all classes
joined the organization thereby embracing the mysteries of African fetishism.
208 Sosa, Enrique, Los Nanigos, Havana: Casa de las Americas, 1984, p. 10.
209 Ibid., p. 38.
210 Ortiz, Fernando, Cuban Counterpoint: Tobacco and Sugar, Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1995,
p. 89.
211 Ibid., p. 99.
160
Interestingly, it was after whites began to found juegos that Abakua became the primary
enemy of Creole elites and the Spanish colonial authorities. In the eyes of the Creole elite
and the Spanish colonial authorities, Abakua, because of its primitiveness and its secrecy,
was a serious threat the modernity and Havanas institutions of social control.
Abakua as Crime
The intensified persecution and criminalization of Abakua began in the 1870s with
the dramatic changes that took place in Havana and throughout the island, including
efforts on the part of Creole elites to create a modern society in their image. The general
consensus among elites, particularly those that addressed the question of nanigismo, was
that it was a major source of instability in Havana. In his book La Policia y sus Misterios,
former Police Inspector Rafael Roche Monteagudo, posited that nanigismo was one of
the principal causes of the elevated crime rates during the 1880s. But for Roche, this was
not always the case. In the beginning, nanigos did not have the antagonism they have
now because of the kind of people that joined them including: escaped prisoners,
bandits, ex-convicts, robbers and the worst kind of criminals. Before it was like a mutual
aid society.212 He noted that as a result of persecution of the black communitys socalled Conspiracy of La Escalera, in 1844, Abakua recessed for a long period of
time.213
The organization did not stay quiet long. For Roche, Indications of their existence
appeared again in the 1850s.. .when the streets of Jesus Maria (a neighborhood in
Havana) became a battleground for competing juegos on December 24, 1853. 214 This
particular brawl was noteworthy to Roche, a former police inspector himself, because a
212 Roche, La Policia, p. 38.
213 Ibid., p. 38.
214 Ibid., p. 38.
161
fellow Police Inspector D. Jose Esquivel, was assassinated.215 Rodriguez, the journalist,
concurred with Roche regarding the increased violence by nanigos and noted there were
notable assassinations during Carnival in 1865 through September of 1866 published in
the newspapers. Under the governance of Captain General D. Francisco Lersundi, many
[men] were deported to Fernando Po (a Spanish colony off the coast of present-day
Equatorial Guinea) for their bad conduct. In most cases they were nanigos.216 The
violence associated with Abakua may have been tied to obligations nanigos had to other
members of their juego. According to Rodriguez, at the moment of initiation, the new
member was required to swear vengeance for any brother that is injured or murdered by
other juegos, by killing or injuring a member of the juego involved in the attack on his
brother.217 He continued by emphasizing the random nature of the attacks. In many
cases, somebody could be peacefully walking along to work and receive a knife wound
that is generally deadly, at the hands of one he did even notice, for simply being a
member of the juego that caused the first injury.218 Roche and Rodriguezs assessment
of criminality in Havana tied Abakua directly to violence in the city.
By the 1870s, as war raged in the eastern sector of the island, the violence associated
with Abakua in the port cities of Havana, Matanzas, and Cienfuegos was legendary. In
response to the increased criminal activity by nanigos, on March 12, 1875, by superior
disposition (from the Civil Governors office), the nanigo juegos were declared illicit
associations and as a consequence all meetings were from the on prohibited.219 Another
writ stated that of the reports issued by the Civil Governor of the Province states the
215 Ibid., p. 38.
216 Ibid., p. 38.
217 Rodriguez, p. 13.
218 Ibid., p. 13.
219 Ibid., p. 38.
162
associations of nanigos are outlawed by a decree of the Governor General on August 27,
1876. Roche noted that a few days later, ignoring the order, a group of nanigos had to be
dispersed at 3 Fundacion St. A few weeks later on the 27, [another group] on the corner
990
Paula and Picota streets [also had to be dispersed].
Three years later in 1879, fourteen
members of the organization were condemned to four years of prison, charged with
killing a sereno, or policeman.. .with two shots from a revolver and a stab wound in the
back by [a] black [nanigo]. The law outlawing Abakua was reintroduced on October 10,
1880. This did not stem the membership in Abakua, and the violence attributed to the
organization. In his Resena about Abakua, Rodriguez noted that there were 81 juegos in
Havana and across the bay in Regia and Guanabacoa in 1882.
221
Nanigos were implicated
in the violent crime throughout the 1880s and 90s.

In the 1880s when the persecution of nanigos was in full affect, a journalist named
Alejandro Rodriguez wrote the most extensive analysis of nanigismo to date. In it he
went into details about the organizations composition, its hierarchy, and its initiation
rituals among other things. His analysis of the difference between black and white
memberships in the organization is useful in that it points to the racism he and his
contemporaries reserved for black people even within the context of an organization in
which all of its members were deemed criminal.
In his discussion of white nanigos, he spent the majority of his time telling of the
process by which they became Abakua. At the same time, and in line with the thinking
among Creole elites of the day, his discussion of Black customs in the organization was
a scathing indictment of their supposedly violent nature. Everyday there are arguments
220 Ibid., p. 39
221 Rodriguez, Resena, p. 19.
163
and fights between blacks from one neighborhood and those of others in which they have
to carry out whatever act they swore to, because of the loyalty the brothers of each juego
have for each other.222 Rodriguez went on to say that the black nanigos are always
armed and ready to fight, in case they come across each other on the street.223 He also
pointed to the indifference the black nanigos feel towards institutions of social control. In
one case, the police came upon a fight between two juegos in which they found all sorts
of arms, and when they tried to arrest, or at least disperse them [nanigos], they confronted
the police with machetes and firearms, which resulted in the arrest of various
[nanigos].,,22li Despite white membership in the organization, it was black members that
received the preponderance of negative press.
At the end of the 1880s, for many elites and the Spanish colonial authorities, Abakua
remained a threat to the social order in the city of Havana. On January 2, 1889, the Chief
of Police of Havana wrote a letter to the Governor General to explain that nanigos were
responsible for the constant murders occurring in public spaces of the city, and that all
efforts to stop the murders and the continued Abakua threat were in vain.
The Chief of
Police believed the only way to stop the murders was to meet with some of the more
influential members of the organization who by their own accord would turn in the most
dangerous nanigos, in order to end the murders.226 The police freed several white
nanigos from jail to inform their colleagues, members of Macaro, Ecoria Efo, 1, 2, and
3, and Ebion to desist in their activities. By the night of the 3, all of them [the white
222 Ibid., Rodriguez, Resena, p. 2.

223 Ibid., p. 3.
224 Ibid., p. 3.
226, Ibid., p. 38.
164
juegos] had done so.
Roche noted that the Civil Governor, D. Carlos Rodriguez
Batista, had achieved his objectives with regards to white nanigos,228 Like the language
used by Rodriguezs in his assessment o f Abakua, that emphasized black violence within
the criminal organization, Roche assessment of attempts on the part of the police to
control crime in Havana also highlighted white authorities contempt for black
membership by underscoring the fact that the police only looked to white nanigos to
refrain from violence.
The response by white nanigos to their meeting with the police is perhaps the most
telling example of the rejection and criminalization of black nanigos. In a letter written to
the director of the newspaper, La Lucha, dated January 3, 1889, the white ox-nanigos
wrote a letter explaining their sudden rejection of Abakua. We are eternally grateful to
the Chief of Police Manuel Asencio for his paternal counseling and for opening our eyes
to reason he wanted to help us do away with nanigismo.'''229 The author continued by
talking about the meeting with the various police groups, and said it took them a lot of
work to urge white nanigos to renounce the organization, because while most of them
agreed to not be nanigos anymore some of the more ignorant members did it with
tears.230 The author concluded by stating I can tell you that today in La Habana, there
are no white nanigos A211 Roche posited that the refutation of nanigismo extended across
Havana Bay to Regia where white participation ended on January 11, 1889. He went on
to say that some groups of color also ended and that the island was doing away with
nanigismo until the Civil Governor, Sr. Rodriguez Batista, was called back to the
227 Ibid., p. 43.
228 Ibid., p. 43.
229 La Lucha, January 3, 1889, p. 3.
230 Ibid., p. 3.
231 Ibid., p. 3.
165
metropolis. Shortly thereafter, the nanigos appeared again.232 Despite efforts on the part
of colonial authorities to end Abakua, the organization flourished, to include membership
of all races and ethnicities in Cuba. Based on analysis of contemporary accounts of
Abakua, the persecution of nanigismo was essentially an attempt on the part of the
colonial authorities at the behest of Creole elites to criminalize black culture.
Conclusion
The criminalization of black people and culture as individuals and as
organizations occurred throughout the colonial period. It was during the last three
decades of the nineteenth century, beginning in the 1870s that the criminalization of
black people increased. Several factors contributed to this phenomenon including the
abolition of slavery that gave rise to the belief that the masses of freed slaves would rise
up against their former enslavers. In addition, the introduction of the new sciences,
including anthropology, sociology, and criminology into Cuba enabled intellectuals to
begin to categorize individuals based on race and gave the justification to exclude those
they deemed unfit from the body politic. One of the ways elites achieved this exclusion
was through the criminalization the underclass that included large sectors of the islands
black community.
Throughout the nineteenth century, the colonial authorities, at the behest of
Creole elites sought to limit black mobility. While enslaved people were theoretically
easier to control based on their station in life, the real concern amongst the colonial
administration and Creole elites were free people of color that comprised an important
166
percentage of the islands population throughout slavery.233 Free people were viewed as a
threat to the islands security because they were free and not governed by the same rules
and regulations applied to slaves. Regardless of whether they participated in slave
rebellions or general unrest on the island, they were accused of such activity and vilified
for it as evidenced by the response on the by the colonial authorities and white Cubans to
'y \A
the Conspiracy of La Escalera.
Nonetheless, the colonial government spent a lot of
time and energy passing legislation to control and limit the free community of colors
movement.
While laws were passed governing individual movement of black people in
general and free people in particular, it was legislation governing African-centered
organizations such as the cabildos de nacion and Abakua where social control of black
sectors of society were most obvious. Although laws were passed limiting cabildos de
nacions activities throughout the colonial period, it was not until the 1880s immediately
following the Ten Years War with the introduction of reforms by the colonial
administration that cabildos de nacion were outlawed. In the previous decade, as the
eastern sectors of the island, and Italian criminologist Ceasare Lombroso published his
opus Criminal Man in which he posited that criminals could be identified by physical
features, the secret society o f Abakua was outlawed. For the Creole elite, the primitive
African fetishes could not be part of the modern society they envisioned for the island.
In this chapter, I have sought to demonstrate that while crime was an increasingly
vexing problem for the Spanish colonial authorities and the Creole elite, it was black
233 Franklin W. Knight,. Slave Society in Cuba during the Nineteenth Century, Madison, WI: University o f
Wisconsin Press, 1970. According to Knight, by the first half o f nineteenth century, the majority o f free
people o f color were born in the community, and did not arrive at this condition as a result o f manumission.
234 See Robert Paquette, Sugar is Made with Blood: The Conspiracy o f La Escalera and the Conflict
between Empires over Slavery in Cuba. Middleton, CT, 1988.
167
people that were the target of these attacks. This is evident in the incessant and copious
number of laws that addressed black people specifically throughout the nineteenth
century. The criminalization of Black people became more preponderant as a result of
both internal and external factors. First, the introduction from Europe of ideas about the
structure of a modem society helped shape the debate amongst elites about inclusion and
exclusion, including the criminalization of certain sectors of society. Closer to home was
the abolition of slavery that conjured up the long held Africanization Scare, and
rampant criminality by freed black people. Spanish colonial officials used these fear to
promote the notion that without Spains support, the island would turn into another
Haiti. In the end, another Haiti never materialized, and the criminalization of black
sectors of society continued.
168
Chapter 5. Crime and Race in Havana

Introduction
In the dark alleyways, narrow side streets, and on the bustling docks of Havana
not far from the manicured gardens and wide open avenues where the rich mingled
lived and labored the ever-growing urban masses of free people of color, recently freed
slaves, Cuban-born whites, and poor Spanish immigrants. They, like the elite, sought to
create a space for themselves where they could live, play, and pray as they saw fit and
seemed not to be interested in modernity nor the political process. The underclass
worldview directly contradicted ideas espoused by the elite. For the elite and colonial
officials, these groups of underemployed and unemployed were parasites that formed the
lawless underclass and posed a threat not only to their ideas of modern society, but to
their safety and security. As a result, the underclass became the target of institutions of
social control including the police that arrested them, the courts that tried them, and the
penal institutions that housed them in the name of modernity, safety, and security.
As noted by historian Carlos Aguirre for nineteenth century Lima, the social and
cultural scenario.. .was continuously shaped by a central ingredient that survived the
modernization process: the authoritarian and hierarchical nature of social relations. A
system of values underscoring the existence of so-called natural racial, social,
generational, and gendered hierarchies, [defined] appropriate ways of interaction between
superiors and subordinates, and legitimate forms of achieving conformity and
obedience.235 In Havana, these relationships were further exacerbated by the growing
235 Carlos Aguirre, The Criminals o f Lima and their Worlds: The Prison Experience, 1850-1895, Durham:
Duke University Press, 2005, p. 9.
169
schism between Creole elites and the Spanish administration, the mass migration of
Spanish immigrants to the island, and most importantly, the gradual abolition of slavery.
As a result, while Creole elites and intellectuals embraced modern ideas of social control
emanating from Europe and North America, the reality on the ground in Cuba limited the
possibilities of their implementation. On paper, the Spanish colonial government
introduced a host of reforms directed at centralizing and modernizing the island
institution, but their execution required investments of time and money the colonial
administration was neither willing nor able to provide. Consequently, reforms were
implemented erratically and with little institutional ability to enforce them due to lack of
resources, corruption, and simple negligence.
The patterns in crime statistics must be viewed against the backdrop of economic
trends. During the 1880s and 90s, as was typical in a plantation society, Cubas economy
experienced periods of boom and bust. The economy was strongly impacted by the Ten
Years War and Spanish colonial economic reform that sought to extract every peseta
available from Cubas economy to pay for the war and support Spains faltering
economy. The entire island felt the brunt of these reforms, and the underclass was most
impacted. The end of the Ten Years War brought with it changes such as the application
in 1879, of Spains Constitution of 1870, with its accompanying amendments for
overseas colonies, and the Penal Code. In theory, the reforms restructured the islands
administration to make it an overseas province of Spain with the same rights, privileges,
and responsibilities as those on the peninsula. The goal was to modernize the
administrative infrastructure including the Cuban police, judiciary, and penal system in
order to maintain control of the island. The implementation of reforms especially within
170
the institutions of social control, were hindered by the realities of life in Cuba. In the first
place, reforms introduced by the Spanish Crown were makeshift solutions designed to
appease Creole elites. Secondly, input by the elites concerning the badly needed
reformation of the islands institutions generally fell on deaf hears. In fact, while the
Penal Code had amendments for its overseas colonies (none created specifically for
Cuba), they were designed for the peninsula. As a result, the application of the penal code
in Cuba was inefficient and arbitrary in nature.
Attempts on the part of Spain to introduce reforms may have been sincere, but the
colonial administration did not have the capital to invest in modernizing the islands
institutions of social control. The fluctuating world sugar market, poor working
conditions, low wages, and simple greed in some cases, contributed to widespread fraud
and corruption by administration officials from the Captain-General to the prison guards
and throughout the colonial government. During the colonial period in Latin America, the
implementation of legislation, decrees, edicts, etc., embraced an obedezco pero no
cumplo, or an I obey but do not comply, attitude. This concept was in full effect
during the last years of Spanish colonialism in Cuba. As a result, there existed division
between Creole elites who sought to influence the Crowns reforms, and the Crown that
introduced legislation to maintain control of the island. Most importantly, while colonial
officials sought to implement reform, indifference existed on the part of the employees of
the various institutions of social control who preferred to maintain the status quo. The
police, the judiciary, and the employees of the various penal institutions were more
influenced by their surroundingsa society emerging from black slavery, an expanding
171
underclass of free people of color, and recently-arrived Spanish immigrantsthan by the

intellectual discussions concerning crime emanating from Europe and North America.
The implementation of reforms to modernize institutions of social control in a
slave society called for the transformation of the prevailing thought that equated black
people with slavery and the underclass in general with criminality. Representatives of the
colonial government including policemen, judges, prosecutors, and prison wardens had to
change their perception of crime and criminals, and the underclass in general. In the
decade following the Ten Years War, attempts at modernization and the introduction of
reforms did not change social relations, and rights for most inhabitants of the island were
denied. The result was a society shaped by exclusionary practices along social, cultural,
class, gender, and racial lines shaped by a Penal Code that was written for Spain, and
continued to articulate a lack of interest on the part of Spain to address conditions unique
to its overseas colonies including Cuba.
The Penal Code
Along with the Constitution of 1876, the Spanish colonial government introduced
a new Penal Code in accordance with a Royal Decree published May 23, 1879, being a
revision of the Penal Code of June 17, 1870.236 The Penal Code was the legal document
that established penalties and sentencing guidelines for both civil and criminal offenses
committed on the island. The code was divided into three parts: the first comprised
general dispositions regarding misdemeanors and felonies, those responsible, and the
punishments; the second and third sections of the code. The code as it was written applied
to mainland Spain, but in order to address circumstances specific to Cuba and the other
236 The Penal Code o f the Islands o f Cuba and Porto Rico translated into English with explanatory notes
and a glossary o f Spanish terms, Havana: La Propaganda, 1898, p. 3.
172
overseas colonies, the Spanish colonial government added legislation that addressed
prisoners, the accusers, witnesses, and the procedures to follow.
In spite of the appendix, the Penal Code was not designed to apply to Spains
overseas possessions especially in the case of Cuba where slavery continued to shape
every aspect of island life. A commission was established to examine and bring forth
ideas about how to modify the Penal Code to address questions particular to the island,
especially slavery.
Discrimination against the Black in the Legislation
In spite of the Spanish colonial governments proclamation that the Penal Code of
1879 was a document that encompassed all of the most recent innovation of modern law,
it continued to distinguish among Spanish citizens based on race and allowed for the
continued mistreatment of black people because of the color of their skin. According to
an article written in the Havana newspaper, El Comercial, and reprinted in the black
newspaper La Fraternidad, Article 10 of the new Penal Code was problematic when it
addressed the aggravating circumstances of some crimes.
After the Ten Years War, with the introduction of reforms, the Spanish crown
sought to restructure the colonial administration to better preserve its dominion over the
island. Included in the reorganization were institutions of social control like the police,
the judiciary, and the penal system. Unfortunately, the budget for these reforms, as was
the case for all reforms, fell far short of what was needed to modernize the institutions. At
the same time, throughout the nineteenth century, the colonial administration introduced
numerous legislation, decrees, edicts, etc. to make their institutions of social control more
efficient. By late 1870s at the end of the Ten Years War, the number proclamations, laws,
173
and declarations increased dramatically. In many cases the new rules for the police, the
judiciary, and penal institutions, taken directly from those in force in Spain, did not fit the
unique circumstances of the island. More often than not, the new rules were not enforced
for lack of want, and for lack of resources. The police force was underpaid and
undermanned, the judiciary also lacked the budget to be efficient, and the prison system
was in decay as overcrowding, disrepair, and inefficient management took hold.
The conditions for competent and effective institutions of social control, from the
police, the judiciary, and to the prison system were lacking. In addition, and in line with
the attitudes of the day, race and class discrimination on the part of members of these
institutions fueled the criminalization of the underclass. Persistent racism contributed to
disproportionate numbers of people of color arrested, and imprisoned. Newspapers
complained about the rise in crime and the inability of the colonial administration to stop
it. Public employees of the institutions of social control complained they lacked resources
to contend with the large number of crimes committed in Havana. Those individuals
caught up in the system faced the possibility of languishing in the unhealthy, decrepit
prisons on the island for years without trial as a result of this inefficiency, and race and
class prejudice. What crimes were committed in Havana during the Turbulent Respite,
and how were they treated?
In the aftermath of the Ten Years War, as Spains power began to wane,
institutions of social control were in complete disarray. As evidenced by the translation of
the Compilation o f the Organic Provisions o f the Administration o f Justice in Force in
the Spanish Colonial Provinces, and Appendices Relating Thereto, published by the
Spanish colonial government in 1891, and translated by the United States government
174
during their occupation in 1899, the translators concluded that the legislation relating to
the personnel of the administration of justice in the colonies and to the organization of the
courts is so extensive, so varying, and so contradictory.237 The disorganization and
contradictions are evidenced in this document that summaries a series of decrees, rules,
and laws introduced in the island during the nineteen century.
Of crucial importance for understanding the function and application of the
institutions of social control in this important time in the islands history is to understand
that it remained a colony of Spain. In response to the constantly changing political
situation in Spain and the introduction of modern concepts of law, a Royal Decree
introduced on April 12, 1875, called for the reorganization of the colonial courts and
tribunals. Four years later, immediately following the Ten Years War, a Royal Decree
introduced on March 23, 1879, fixed the number and categories of audiencias, and
[added] provisions for filling offices in the judiciary in the department of public
prosecution. By the middle of the 1880s in response to the continued and increasing
dysfunction of the colonial institutions of social control, yet another decree was
introduced on January 15, 1884. It called for reorganizing the municipal courts in
Cuba..., and prescribing regulations for their operation.
These decrees, introduced during the Ten Years War and the Turbulent
Respite, demonstrated an attempt on the part of the colonial administration to preserve
some semblance of control. In spite of all of the decrees, institutions of social control
including the police, the judiciary, and the penal system continued to become
237 U. S. War Department, Division o f Customs and Insular Affairs, Compilation o f the Organic Provisions
o f he Administration o f Justice in Fore in the Spanish Colonial Provinces, and Appendices Relating
Thereto, Washington: Government Printing Office, 1899, p. 3.
238 Ibid, p. 7.
175
increasingly disorganized and ineffective. As far back as 1834, when Captain General
Miguel Tacon took over, the Spanish colonial administration decided to tighten the reins
of its rule in its remaining overseas possessions. As a result, there was a concerted effort
to put all public offices in the hands ofpeninsulares. By the 1880s, all public employees
including those employed as police, in the judiciary, and in the prison system were
Spanish. These employees spent their time lamenting their limited resources and talking
about the great job they were doing despite the lack of resources. The state of the
judiciary was a microcosm of the larger problem of a colonial administration in decline.
They had supporters in the form of the Colegio de Abogados de La Habana that
published a monthly periodical that included articles to this effect and crime statistics
including arrests and prison committals.
Crime in Havana, 1870-1895
Many elites believed crime increased because the uncivilized underclass did not
follow the script they laid out for them. The elites prime concern was to legally demand
the continued labor of former slaves, and the continued subjugation of a people who were
slaves, or the descendants of slaves. As such, they proposed the underclass of former
slaves should willing work for their former slaveholders, under similar conditions as
during slavery, in the stop and go sugar economy that left the majority of sugar workers
without employment for months on end, and forced them to work for wages that were not
livable. The free black community, who dominated the craftsmen positions throughout
the first three quarters of the nineteenth century, was increasingly squeezed out of most
urban employment by the ever increasing numbers of Spanish immigrants who came to
dominate the artisan positions, cigar factories, and employment in peninsular-owned
176
shops. The underclass sought to work in suitable conditions, and receive livable wages on
their terms and when they refused to work under unfavorable conditions, they were seen
as criminals. While most of the underclass tried to eke out a living, the reality was that
some did turn to crime to subsidize their small or non-existing incomes, or simply to
improve their material wealth in a society that equated wealth with success. It was this
minority that contributed to elites labeling the entire underclass as criminal.
Institutions of social control created and operated by the colonial authorities at the
behest of the Spanish crown and Creole elite classes, were the instruments used to
check the masses of poor and disenfranchised. At the same time, the tension between
Creole elites and the Spanish colonial administration, and the lack of resources limited
the institutions ability to implement reform and contributed to mistrust and large-scale
corruption. More importantly, Cuba remained a colony of Spain which meant the Creole
elite could only act as advisors to the Spanish colonial government who in the end had
the last say as to what laws would or would not be introduced. This made the
implementation of laws nearly impossible and led to widespread corruption throughout
institutions of social control. In addition to the corruption and lack of organization,
racism played a central role in the criminalization of certain sectors of society, their
arrest, and their incarceration.
Despite disagreements between the Creole elite and the Spanish colonial
administration, their commitment to an ideology of skin color and race was the overriding
factor in their formulation of ideas about crime and criminality. For the elite, white
criminals fell into a state of primitiveness while black people in general were innately
criminal. As a result, when elites bemoaned the level of crime that gripped the city during
177
the Tregua Fecunda or Turbulent Respite, they placed the blame squarely on the
underclass of free blacks, and recently freed blacks, who were considered criminal by
nature, poor Cuban whites, and poverty-stricken Spanish immigrants who had fallen into
a state of primitiveness. Throughout the nineteenth century, Creole elites lived with the
idea that black people, both enslaved and free, would overrun the island and kill or expel
all whites if the opportunity presented itself. This belief, that came to be known as the
Africanization Scare was fueled by the Spanish colonial administration that used it to
promote the need for their presence. The reality was far different. The increasing
community of free people of color did not rampage through the streets of Havana or the
rest of the island massacring white people.
In concert with elite thinking in Europe and the rest of the Americas, Creole elites
believed that crime was the dominion of the underclass. Evidence of this can be seen in
newspaper and journal articles that complain about their criminality, cases and prison
records that were overwhelmingly the underclass. In an article entitled La
Criminalidad, published in June of 1885 in the legal journal, Bole tin Juridico, the author
argued that in Europe greed, gambling, furious speculation, ignorance, and lust of the
large underclass, are the permanently opened wounds brought on by the masses but
added that in the case of Cuba, the situation was aggravated, and intensified, by the
special conditions of our existence. For the author those special conditions were the
heterogeneous nature of the underclass, vice is propagated, but is degraded more [than
in Europe] by the inebriated, ignorant and loathsome class of vagabonds, that is not
homogenous and not susceptible to easy improvement; it is composed of a rotting pot of
Chinese, Blacks, Mulattoes, and whites, and hahigismo is the measure of the deplorable
178
state this heterogeneity has brought us.239 The heterogeneous underclass was in the
crosshairs of institutions of social control and accounted for the majority of crimes
reported in newspapers, and all of the 730 prison records analyzed.
The upper-class was also included in the discussion of crime, but for the most
part, as victims. Crimes committed by the upper-class were reported in newspapers only
when they were sensational (and could sell more newspapers), and journalist treated both
victims and perpetrators with compassion and understanding, thereby minimizing these
crimes and their affects as they were seen as an aberration because it was whites not
associated with violence that were implicated. Unlike the incessant attack on underclass
criminality, the wording in articles about upper-class crimes was of surprise and shock
that such a crime could be committed by upstanding members of society. An article
entitled Lamentable, published in La Lucha on July 4, 1885, about a white upper-class
child who killed another member of the upper-class exemplifies the point:
The bloody incident that occurred.. .is doubly sensitive, because of the result it
had on the victim and because it was carried out by an honorable youth of
impeccable character and member of a most dignified family, under the influence
of a powerful moral obsession. A crazy act inspired by a raging fury of vengeance
and resentment resulted in a homicidal shot fired by Gonzalez and devastation for
his unhappy mother and the sweet sister, while the at the same time, the unhappy
home of the victim with the incapacitated widow and the tender children
condemned to live fatherless cry in despair for their husband and father tragically
taken from their bosom.240
Nonetheless, elites continued to fear a wave of criminal activity leveled at them
by the masses of free and enslaved black people. Newspapers fueled the fear of increased
criminal activity and blamed the institutions of social control for not responding
forcefully and adequately:
239 La Criminalidad in Boletin Juridico, Havana 22 June, 1885.

240 Lamentable, La Libertad, Havana, July 4, 1885, Sala Cubana, Biblioteca Nacional Jose Marti
179
While Mr. Madan (the Chief of Police for Havana) entertains himself reading
reports about the Chinese lottery and fights between prostitutes, all of Havana
lives in a state of terror produced by the scandalous crimes that occur daily, as if
this society, instead of being a civilized territory, was part of a region of Africa
and savage.241
The principal goal of the media was to sell newspapers, and in order to do so they
sensationalized events, especially crimes committed in the city. At the same time, within
the larger context of a society at the end of the period of black slavery, in the eyes of the
editors, journalist, and their readers, it was the black man that posed the most important
threat to white safety and security.
While newspapers embellished the extent of criminal activity in the city, Spanish
colonial officials attributed increased crime in Havana during the Turbulent Respite, to
other factors such as the population explosion. In a speech given by Mr. Jose Maria
Valverde, President of the Audiencia, during the yearly opening of the courts on January
15, 1884, he made it clear. The progressive increase in crime is not alarming in the least
because it is not exaggerated and the growth in the population in this territory must also
be considered.242 The very differing opinions expressed about crime in the city, by the
print media and the colonial administration, were indicative of the conflict between
peninsulares and Creoles about violence in Cuban society.
During the 1880s and 90s, as Havana expanded, the underclass neighborhoods
became more overcrowded, and living conditions grew increasingly intolerable, non
violent and violent crime increased. The majority of crimes reported were perpetrated by
people of the underclass against others of the same class. In talking about colonization in
241 Seguridad Publica, in LaLucha, October 13, 1885, in Sala Cubana, BNJM.
242 Discurso pronunciado por el Ilmo. Sr. D. Jose Maria Valverde, Presidente de la Excma. Audiencia, en
el acto de apertura de los Tribunales, el 2 del presente mes (January) in Revista General de Derecho,
Havana, December 15, 1883, No. 5, p. 32.
180
Algeria in his work The Wretched o f the Earth, Frantz Fanon explained the colonized
man will first manifest [his] aggressiveness which has been deposited in his bones against
is own people, while the colonizers or policemen have the right to assault the natives with
impunity, a scene typical of racially oppressed colonial societies.243 Like twentieth
century colonized Algeria, crime in nineteenth century Havana was also fratricidal. In
many cases, crimes were committed by individuals against people of their own race or
other people from the underclass. In a society in which race and class took on such a
paramount role, the underclass understood its place, and knew that if they committed
crimes against the middle and upper classes, the penalties would be much more severe.
An analysis of several sources including police blotters in newspapers, crime
statistics from professional journals, and from a compilation of prison records, provides a
view of crime in the city of Havana during the last three decades of the nineteenth
century. As noted by criminologist Luis Salas, the danger of relying on criminal
statistics is evident. Arrests rates may merely represent shifts in the level of enforcement
rather than increased criminality. Official figures on deviance are useful if one takes them
for what they are: statistics regarding the control of socially undesirable persons.244 In
general, statistics provided by the colonial administration to the various newspapers
emphasized the positive role their institutions of social control played in reducing crime.
Conversely, those organizations that opposed the status quo in Cuba during the Turbulent
Respite used the same statistics to deride the governments efforts against crime. As such,
while statistics are useful to understanding the role crime and criminality played in Cuban
society at the end of the colonial period, they must be taken with a grain of salt.
243 Frantz Fanon, The Wretched o f the Earth, p. 45. Of the 230 arrest records examined, the majority were
crimes committed by, and against people from the same socio-economic class.
244 Luis Salas, Social Control and Deviance in Cuba, New York: Praeger Publishers, 1979, p. 16.
181
The most common crimes included petty theft, robbery, homicide, assassination,
falsification, and fraud. Concomitantly, there were arrests and prison committals for
crimes including parricide, infanticide, pedophilia, public disturbance, arson, kidnapping,
extortion, among others, to a lesser extent. An article entitled Crimes in 1882 published
in the Havana newspaper La Lucha on January 7, 1883, was a transcript of the speech
given by Juan N. Undaveytia, President of the Audiencia, or City Council, of Havana. In
it he gave statistics of the most common crimes tried in Havanas courts in the previous
two years. According to Undaveytia, the Courts of First Instance tried 12,740 cases,
leaving 3,091 cases pending at the end of 1881. There were 12,671 cases tried in the year
that just ended [1882] with 3,610 pending for this year. He went on to list the numbers
of the more numerous crimes for July 1881 and 1882 to show how the numbers in all
cases increased:
Table 1. Crime Statistics, Havana 1881-1882_____________________
1882
Change
Crimes
1881
+143
Homicide
112
255
680
+15
Robbery
665
+232
Hurto (Theft)
1547
1779
371
402
+31
Estafa (Fraud)
62
82
+20
Falsificaciones
(Falsifying)
3,203
+446
Totals
2,757
Los Delitos en 1882, from La Lucha, Habana, Enero 7 de 1883, num. 5.
The author wondered what caused the dramatic increase in crime from 1881 to
1882, and attributed the possible causes to several of the phenomenon that vexed Creole
intellectuals at the time. Could the increase in crime perhaps signify the aggravation of
the pathological state of the society, possibly exacerbated by the declining economic
resources of the island, or a more zealous persecution of crime by the police and the
182
courts, or a combination of both of these things at the same time?245 While it was not
clear what caused an increase in criminality, the statistics for 1882 and 1883 show that
crimes against property outnumbered all other crimes combined. Throughout the 1870s,
80s, and 90s, the dramatic fluctuation in the economy caused tremendous instability in
the labor market that particularly impacted the poorer sectors of society, of which AffoCuban composed an important number. This in turn may have contributed to an increase
in crime in general, and property crime in particular. But what white elites feared most,
the Africanization Scare, never materialized. Nonetheless, elites and colonial officials
used any means available to subjugate the underclass and force them to work under
conditions akin to slavery. One of the ways they did this was to accuse the masses of
vagrancy.
Vagrancy
Prior to 1880, vagrancies laws were used in Spain and Cuba to coerce idle
members of society to work. By the 1880s, the crown decriminalized vagrancy in Spain
and applied the same legislation to Cuba. The introduction of this legislation was counter
to the desires of the planters. They believed vagrancy laws would be useful especially at a
time when slavery was gradually being abolished, and former slaves moved away from
plantations. In addition, they felt it would reduce the number of vagrants milling about
the public spaces in Havana. Despite the decriminalization of vagrancy, colonial elites
continued to call for vagrancy laws. Although not enforced, they stayed on the books for
the rest of the colonial period. In the Address of Comprehensive Statistics for the
245 Los Deliltos en 1882 in La Lucha, Habana, January 7, 1883, p. 1.
183
Presidios of the Island for 1879 and 1880, there were only five people incarcerated for
vagrancy, and the rates stayed the same throughout the rest of the colonial period.246
Elites and colonial officials continuously lamented the lack of motivation to labor
of the underclass and argued that vagrancy was endemic, widespread, and the principal
cause of economic and social problems on the island. In 1889, almost a decade after
vagrancy had been decriminalized in Spain; Manuel Salamanca the Captain General
introduced a circular on May 12 in response to supposed increased vagrancy on the island
in general and in Havana in particular. [While] crime statistics in the province (Havana)
and in the metropolitan in particular have decreased considerable, there continues to be a
')A.n
troubling pulsation originating in vagrancy.
As a result, the authorities arbitrarily
classified day laborers, tobacco workers, carpenters, bakers, plantation workers, nanigos,
and the rest of the underclass who may not have been working at the time as people of
ill repute. This in turn led to innumerable arrests and judicial procedures. While there
were plenty of violent crimes committed, the majority were non-violent property crimes
committed by the underclass, against the underclass.
Property Crimes
In his work Crime in Trinidad historian David Trotman posited that when elites
spoke of increasing criminality, as they did throughout the nineteenth century, They
referred in particular to crimes against property and persons. In a slave society the
concern for human life coincided with the concern for property, since slaves were
246 Estadistica Penal de la Isla de Cuba, in Revista General de Derecho, Vol. 2, Habana: Imprenta La
Correspondencia de Cuba, 1885, p. 39. The imprisonment o f vagrants for more than six months was
probably as a result o f repeated offenses.
247 Gaceta de la Habana, 51, No. 112, Vol. 1, p. 889 in ANC, Gobierno General, 584/exp. 28863.
184
considered chattel and therefore had to be protected as an investment.248 As the

complete abolition of slavery approached, and the labor force was no longer an
investment, more emphasis was placed on real property and guarding it against those who
would steal it. In Cuba, while much of the conversation among the elites focused on the
sensational crimes like murder, and the daily melees involving Abakua, the majority of
crimes recorded in newspapers, police blotters, and professional journals were crimes
against property. The most common of these crimes was hurto, or petty theft, the act of
taking something against the will of its owner with the intention of selling it.249 Crimes
against property posed a real threat in a society shaped by the emphasis on material
goods, because it was material goods that gave status, respectability, and most
importantly, access to the body politic.
Hurto (Petty Theft) and Robberies
While most thefts occurred between people of the same class (poor from poor),
the elites were concerned with the underclass stealing from them as evidence by the
definition of domestic theft in the Diccionario Racional de Policia, or Rational
Dictionary of the Police, published in 1889. Domestic theft is commonly done by
servants and on many occasions by family members residing in the home, and defined
robbery as the act of taking something through the use of intimidation or violence.
Robbers are those who take possession of items that are not theirs through violence or
intimidation of people, or by the use of force.250
In describing domestic theft the author of the dictionary attributed the majority of
petty property crimes to people who had access to items in residences including slaves,
248 Trotman, p. 103.
249 Diccionario Razonado de Legislation de Policia, Havana: Establecimiento Tipografico, p. 386.
250 Ibid, p.738, The definition is based on Article 520 o f the Penal Code o f 1879.
185
servants, and family members. In the hurto cases reviewed, that occurred in the
residences of those who had domestic servants (or slaves); there were no cases in which a
family member was charged. It could be that in a society in which status was important,
the middle- and upper-class families did not want to bring negative attention upon
themselves and handled thefts by family members internally.
In a slave society such as Cuba, prior to its end in 1886, the elite planters and
colonial officials were chiefly concerned with increasing their wealth, and saw slaves as
their means to that end. As such, concern for the life of a slave was emphasized only to
the extent that he/she needed to be protected as one would protect their other property.
Despite the large number of free blacks and freed blacks, and the gradual abolition of
slavery, ideas about racial hierarchy and continued perceptions of blacks as inferior did
not change. Throughout slavery, the throngs of property-less, particularly free people of
color were a continuous threat to property owners who thought they might steal their
property. The fear only increased as the abolition of slavery became a reality.
The importance placed on property was intensified because of the nature of Cuban
society, particularly in the last three decades of the nineteenth century in the face of
striking economic shifts where material wealth was directly associated with social
acceptance. It was a society where the majority of the population owned little or nothing.
At the same time, the country had just come out of the Ten Years War that devastated
the economy and for which the colonial government forced the island to pay. In addition,
as the islands economic prevue shifted to its North American neighbor, the United
States, the Spanish colonial government imposed severe tariffs on exports. Finally, as a
result of its dependence on sugar, and the worlds continuously fluctuating sugar market,
186
the plantation economy was subject to recurring economic crises that impacted all sectors
of society, but had the most devastating affect on the property-less that owned nothing,
and therefore, were considered nothing.
The dramatic changes in the islands economy, and the structural deficiencies of
its dependence on one crop, shaped some elites ideas about crime on the island and in
Havana. They believed that in periods of economic crisis when work was scarce, and
legal means of obtaining food and shelter were nil, people would turn to illegal activities
to feed their families. At the same time, they understood that in the face of an economic
boom when employment was available under conditions not much different from slavery,
small sectors of the underclass, especially former slaves, would refuse to work and also
turned to illegal means to survive.
The majority of the large underclass that included, freed slaves, free blacks, and
poor whites, were willing to work for fair and equal wages, but were determined to do so
on their terms. For historian George Reid Andrews, they constructed a plebian culture
that in many ways was the reversal of slavery. This culture rejected the ideas of rigid
workplace discipline and insisted on a workers right to refuse to work, particularly in a
sugar monoculture emerging from slavery. After almost four hundred years of slavery,
plebeian culture valued parties, festivities, and collective celebration.251 The elite and
colonial officials saw the rejection on the part of the underclass of the status quo as
tantamount to criminality. As a result, the underclass in general was viewed as criminal.
While the majority of the underclass struggled to survive within the confines of what was
legal, others turned to crime as a means of survival.
251 Andrews, Afro-Latin America, p. 103.
187
Many of the crimes against property were generally committed by people who
knew each other. In many cases the thieves lived or worked in the same location as those
from whom they stole. Neighbors would steal from each other, domestic servants would
steal from their employers, and family members would also steal from one another. The
majority of hurtos and thefts were for items that had little value including small amounts
of cash, clothing, and inexpensive jewelry, and could easily be carried away and sold.
Based on the kind of items that were taken, it can be assumed that in most cases, the
thieves spent little time planning the theft and stole them out of convenience. In addition,
in cases of hurto, including thefts from residences, the perpetrator was known by those
from whom he stole. At the same time, in the majority of cases involving non-violent
property crimes, the accused served little or no time. In many instances, race played an
important part in whether the accused paid a fine or served jail and the amount of time
the person served.
A particularly telling case occurred on June 12, 1877 when moreno Pedro Diaz
Cardenas informed a police officer that some people of his same class (race), Juan aka
Culito and Calito, stole his silver-plated watch. When asked by the police about the
circumstances surrounding the theft, the victim said he pawned the watch.. .for ten pesos
and later recovered it with the intention of going to visit his wife. In order to return to his
house sooner, he got in a carriage (taxi). His friends the morenos (the black men)
asked him if he wanted them to ride with him and got in the carriage. He took the watch
out to look at the time when the second person named Aguedo took it from him and they
both jumped from the carriage and began running.252
252 Archivo Nacional de Cuba (ANC), Expediente de Miscelanea, Tomo 11, Legajo 1600, A. In the records
reviewed for the period between 1870 and 1895, all Blacks and Asians had their color or nationality listed
188
A while later the perpetrators were arrested, taken to the police station, and
interrogated, and the first question asked by police was whether the accused knew the
victim. The accused responded they had been friends since their youth. In addition, they
all worked together at their neighborhood fire department. When questioned about the
theft that night, the accused argued that they had all been drinking and that the victim let
the other accused person hold the watch. When the other accused person went to return it,
he could not find the victim. In the end, the accused spent eight nights in jail, not for their
alleged crime, but because that is how long it took the authorities to process their
paperwork. The case is revealing in that it points to the fact that in property crimes, very
often the people involved tended to know each other. In this case they were friends and
worked together. In addition, they were all from the same class (read race), and spent
the evening drinking together.253 Though in many cases crimes against property were
committed by and against familiars, the sporadic police presence in the city promoted a
situation in which strangers also stole from each other.
The high incidence of crime against property was indicative of the level of
misfortune and inequality felt by the underclass in a society with such disproportionate
wealth. In addition, the disparities served to reinforce perceived inequalities. Perpetrators
stole from their neighbors, their acquaintances, and others from their same class because
of their proximity both geographically and socio-economically, and because they
understood the likelihood of them getting caught was in areas of the city with little or no
police surveillance or protection. In cases in which they stole from their neighbors and
got caught, they served little or no jail time as revealed above. On the other hand, when
before their name. As such, moreno before Pedro in this quote is a reference to his skin color, and not his
name.
253 Ibid.
189
they robbed their employers or and other upstanding citizens, or people from the
middle- and upper-class, the penalties tended to be more severe as illustrated in the
following case.
On March 18, 1878, police private D. Ramon Puga y Arango; stationed in the
highly-traveled Plaza Tacon arrested an individual of color. The nineteen year old single
black man from Havana, and a tobacco worker by trade, was detained by three white
employees of the (Tacon) market who said he stole a pair of pantuflas de morro
(slippers). The victim of the alleged theft was a white man. The police private also found
a prohibited barbers blade in the black mans pants. The Juez de Primera Instancia of
Guadalupe (a judicial district in Havana) had the accused black slave placed in solitary
confinement and accused him of theft, a rather severe measure considering the item
allegedly stolen.
While the document does not reveal how a slave was able to acquire the services
of a defense lawyer, he did. In the accused slaves defense, his lawyer argued the item
stolen was valued at two paper pesos, but that this valuation was exaggerated because
the true value of the item is twelve reales fuertes that is equal to three silver pesetas, far
less than the prosecutions valuation.254 In other words, the value of item was
tremendously overstated, perhaps in an attempt on the part of the prosecution to obtain
more jail time for the defendant. The defense lawyer then stated that the prosecution
sought three months of arrest for the defense, or one month per peseta, that could not be
more expensive, or unjust.
The defense lawyer continued to point out the discrepancies between the
application of law in Cuba and Spain. The hurto of items valued at less than two pesetas
254 ANC, Expediente de Miscelanea, Tomo 13, Legajo 2130.
190
are reduced to faltas, that may result in a fine, but do not include jail time. In Cuba, a
part of Spain, it is not reasonable to ask for arresto mayor (more than a month of jail
time) for a crime that in Spain is only arresto menor (a fine with less than a month of jail
time). As such, it is only logical that the prosecutor should only ask for one fourth of the
arresto menor that judges impose in Spain: seven days of prison. In the end, the judge
considered that according to Article 347 of the Penal Code, and eyewitness accounts of
the crime, the black slave Jose Rosario Solano was accused of stealing house slippers,
and condemned to three months in prison and the payment of court costs.
Although condemned to three months in prison on March 18, 1877, a letter from
the Havana Jail dated August 8, 1877, stated that in accordance with the superior order
of this date, the black slave Jose Rosario Solano was turned over to the policeman
representing the neighborhood of the prisoners owners after serving his time for hurto.
Jose Rosario Solano was forced to stay in jail two months longer than his sentence. This
could be attributed to the racist attitudes of the representatives of institutions of social, or
the ineptness of the same organization, or both. What is interesting about this case is that
as a slave, the accused was somebodys property, but his owner never came to get him.
What is telling is that a slave, a means of production, was made useless to his
owners as a result of his incarceration. While slaves may have been accused, arrested,
and convicted of property crimes, because of their value as property, they generally
served little or no time unless they committed a capital offense. A review of 730 prison
records for the Havana Jail from 1870 to 1895 listed only five incarcerated slaves, two for
property crimes and three for homicide. As noted by Cuban historian Yolanda Martinez
prisoners serving time in the Havana Jail had minimum sentences of six months.
191
According to Article 536 of the Penal Code introduced in Cuba in 1879, whether the
accused served jail time or was simply given a fine was determined by the value of the
item(s) stolen. In the case of the three slaves held in the Havana Jail, the value of the
items they stole surpassed the amount of 6,250 pesetas, and as a result, the slaves were
imprisoned.
9 SS
Slaves were too valuable a commodity to have them incarcerated without
working. Interestingly enough, of the five slaves incarcerated three of them were sent to
work on sugar plantations. So if slaves did serve time, it was general in circumstances
similar to those they found in slavery on the plantation.
A particularly disturbing phenomenon took place during the end of the colonial
that revealed the extent of racism prevalent in a society facing the abolition of slavery
and the continued subjugation of black people. There were several instances in which
black children, both enslaved and free, were tried, and in some cases sent to jail! In one
case, the public prosecutor stated that morenos Norberto (Licheta) and Juan (Martinez),
both blacks under 18 years of age, stand accused of stealing a pair of shoes and a carpet
[from Mr. Florentino Quevedo]. The public defender for the first child, moreno
Norberto argued he should be except from responsibility... because he is under 18 years
old.. .and the law states that minors are except from criminal responsibility. Moreover,
this case should never been brought to trial because the shoes are valued at less than one
peso... Despite pleas on the part of the public defender, the court charged Norberto
Lincheta with the theft of shoes, and condemned] him to 31 days in jail and the
payment of half of the court fees, and dropped the charge for the theft of the carpet
against both of the accused. Despite being sentenced to 31 days in jail on 4 March 1887,
255 Eugenio Capriles y Osuna, Diccionario Razonado de Legislacion de Policia, Habana: Establecimiento
Tipografico, 1889, p. 386.
192
a note at the end of his file revealed Norberto was released from three months later on 30
July.256 This case reveals not only the racism of a system that would send a twelve yearold boy to prison for stealing a pair of shoes that cost one peso, it also points to the
ineptness of the Spanish colonial administration for keeping the boy in jail two months
more than he sentence.
Property crimes remained a problem throughout the rest of the colonial period. In
the statistics on crime in Havana during the Tregua Fecunda, and before, collected
from newspapers and intellectual journals, the number of hurtos far exceeded any other
crimes. In a society that continued to exhibit large gaps in income distribution, petty
thefts remained a part of the urban landscape. Ironically while there were cases in which
the underclass stole from the middle- and upper-class, they generally stole from their
neighbors who lived in the same suppressed conditions. There were those people who
took theft a step further and used their wits and tools available to them to steal property
or money. Fraud, embezzlement, and forgery did not involve violence either and ranked
second throughout the Turbulent Respite, of crimes committed in Havana.
Fraud
The crimes of fraud, embezzlement, and forgery tended to be the domain of
literate people in society. In Havana where the large majority of the underclass could not
read and write those that were literate could use these abilities to defraud others, and the
government. While literacy was instrumental to commit these white collar crimes, so
was access. Whites in general, and Spaniards in particular were able to present
themselves as professionals and government employees, because they were the ones who
had access those forms of employment, unlike blacks and Asians who were excluded. At
256 Fondo de Expediente de Miscelanea, Legajo 2130, Box A, ANC
193
the same time, there was a racial/culture element that made it normal for whites to
present themselves as professionals and employees of the state, not available to blacks
and Asians, that allowed them to position themselves to commit white collar crimes.
Of the 730 prison records reviewed, only thirty were incarcerated for fraud, and of
these, five were also jailed for falsification of documents. Of the thirty, sixteen were from
Spain, eleven were white Cubans, and only three of them were black, due to the high
incidence of illiteracy among the black underclass, and their inaccessibility to the means
to commit these crimes. Interestingly, most of those imprisoned for these white collar
crimes noted they worked as craftsman in various occupations including carpentry,
masonry, shoemaking, tobacco, store clerks, and laborers, and several of them worked for
the Spanish colonial government as policemen and soldiers. While the prison records
give personal prisoner information, newspapers, although at times sensational in their
approach, gave details of the arrest that are useful for understanding the people who
committed the various crimes. Interestingly enough, of the 400 police reports reviewed,
fraud is listed only six times and involved cases in which the amount of money defrauded
did not exceed ten pesos.257 At the same time, the court records provide us with cases in
which the amount embezzled, or defrauded did exceed ten pesos.
The case of Francisco Mestre is a good example of this, and the need for access to
defraud people of more than ten pesos, access only whites could obtain. He was a 48 year
old white man, married with children, who was a photographer by profession, but at the
time was unemployed. He was charged with defrauding a client of 500 pesos, who he was
257 Statistics compiled by me from several contemporary newspapers including La Discusion for a six
month period from July to December o f 1893, and from La Lucha, La Reforma, and La Libertad, for 1885.
Most o f the statistics come from the Ocurrencias (Occurences), or Policia (Police) section o f the
newspapers. These reports were given to the various newspapers by the police.
194
hired by to take pictures. While Mestre denied the charges, the owners of establishment
where he cashed the exchange letter, recognized him, and as a result of the crime, he
was sentenced to three and a half years in jail.
'J C Q
This case, like so many other crimes that
occurred in Havana during the Turbulent Respite, is indicative of a society where

drastic economic fluctuations left people unemployed and perhaps, forced to fed their
families. Moreover, the fact that he was white gave him access to the photography trade,
and the ability to use it to swindle people out of their money.
In another case, an asiatico, or Asian man, claimed two white males came to his
door claiming they represented the gas company and were there to fix the meter. After
letting them in, he left with some friends, and while he was out the accused stole a lamp
from his living room.
0 SO
This case highlights the idea of access, and how the two white
males were able to trick the Asian into believing they were from the gas company. They
were able to do so because as white males, it is reasonable for the Asian man to believe
they worked for the gas company, employment to which neither Asians nor Blacks had
access. In the end, the court found one of the accused, Trinidad Gonzalez, guilty of
defrauding Asian Francisco Radillo an amount that exceeded 6,250 pesos and
condemned to six months in jail, while Jose Rodriguez Gil, Gonzalezs accomplice,
was released immediately because he was simply accompanying Gonzalez in search of
employment.260 In both cases, the accused were sentence in accordance with the statutes
of the day. While there is no indication as to whether they were forced to serve their
entire sentences, the cases reveal a society in which whites were the only ones in a
258 Fondo de Miscelanea de Expedientes, Box 2392, File V, National Archive o f Cuba (ANC) cited in
Yolanda Diaz Martinez, La Peligrosa Habana: Violenciay criminalidad a finales del siglo XIX, Havana:
Ciencias Sociales, 2005, p. 74.
259 Fondo de Miscelanea de Expedientes, Box 2128, File J, ANC
260 Ibid.
195
position to commit fraud involving more than a few pesos, and pretending to be gas
company employees.
At the same time, according to their prison records, the three black people
imprisoned for fraud, stole less than ten pesos from their victims, but nonetheless served
at least six months (the minimum amount of time served in the Havana prison), a
sentence that seems excessive considering fraud is punished with arresto mayor in its
minimum degree if the amount defrauded does not exceed 250 pesetas.261 The
disproportionate prison time served by blacks for the crime of fraud, and the limited
number of people charged with these white collar crimes seems indicative of a system
of social control that was more interested excessive punishment for blacks than
persecuting a crime that must have been rampant among the more affluent sectors of
Cuban society.
Violence and Social Disorder
While the Africanization Scare, never turned Cuban into another Haiti, in the
late nineteenth century, Cuba in general, and Havana in particular, was a violent place.
There were large numbers of crimes against persons and other forms of violence in the
society. Crimes against people included slight injuries, severe injuries, rape, mayhem,
attempted murder, murder, assassinations by people with armas blancas, or knives, clubs,
and other non-firing weapons, or guns to inflict harm or death. Creole elites and the
colonial administration pointed to the underclass and blacks in particular, as principal
perpetrators of said violence, and reserved their most vehement accusations for members
of the Abakua secret society.
261 Article 23, o f the 1879 Penal C od e,, cited in Martinez, Peligrosa Habana., p. 74.
196
The 1870s and 80s in Havana was a time of elevated tension and violence and as a
result, there were a large number of fights, generally in the underclass neighborhoods
between acquaintances. For the elite these fights commonly occurred between the various
juegos of nahigos vying for power and revenge. In his work La Policia de la Habana,
published in 1894, Eduardo Varela Zequeira, argued that the associations of nahigos,
has contributed the most numerous contingent of criminals to the jails and prisons of this
island, and added it was a society whose protection is rancorous.262 Similar to most
descriptions of the organization at the end of the nineteenth century, his also noted the
presumed vengeful nature of its members, who were supposedly required to kill those
that committed acts of violence or disrespect towards their fellow members. He then
explained the death of a hahigo is the beginning of a series of crimes in which human
blood is always spilled; because members of the juego of which the murdered is a
member, declare war on the juego of the murderer.263 An article published in the
Heraldo de Cuba forty years later concurred:
Between 1880 and 1895, Cuba was a den of witches and nahigos, especial this
second group. The primitiveness of the society made it fertile ground for the
growth of these barbarous and frightening organizations; to the point that many
whites were made nahigos. During that time, in this sad and insecure Havana, the
nahigos carried out their activities almost daily, rich and poor pedestrians, or even
those who inspired hate and criminal animosity with the nahigos fell to their
deaths stabbed by the sharp points of knives.264
Despite accusations by newspapers that nahigos were the principal source of
fights and injuries, and as such, on many occasions, when there was a fight in the public
space that involved more than two individuals, it was blamed on nahigos even at times
262 Varela Zequeira, La Policia de la Habana, Habana: Imprenta y Papeleria La Universal, de Ruiz y
Hno. 1894, p. 36.
263 Ibid, 37.
264 Heraldo de Cuba, Havana, 12 March 1920, cited Alain Basail Rodriguez, Poder y Disentimiento: La
criminalidad en La Habana, 1880-1894 unpublished Master Thesis, University o f Havana, 1995.
197
when the authorities were unsure of their involvement. An article published on 19 August
1885, in the daily newspaper La Libertad, reported that Don Casimiro Vazquez Acosta
was injured.. .in a fight, by various individuals who may have belonged to different
hahigo chapters. The article was quick to note he had a considerable criminal
record.
The fact that a white man with a criminal record was injured in a fight by
several black males gave authorities reason to believe they were nahigos even though
nothing in the reports indicated that to be the case.
It is important to note that the authorities were as critical of white nahigos as they
were of black nahigos. While the Cuban elite, the intellectuals, and the authorities were
racist and hostile towards black people in general, they were also critical of whites who
would embrace such a vile, barbarous, and criminal practice. An article published in
the Havana daily, La Lucha, bears this out. It reported that the police captured Don Jose
Diaz y Salas, nicknamed The Retired. He was chief of the Macaro chapter of nahigos,
and was reputed to have an extensive criminal record, had been to jail on several
occasions for armed robbery and complicity in various crimes. He was arrested for being
the suspect in the murder of Don Adolfo Chicureta. At 3:30 this morning he was killed by
a police officer while trying to escape When it came to nahigos, the authorities did not
discriminate between black and white.
Interestingly, while nahigos were blamed for much of the violence in Havana, and
writings about the organization could be found in newspapers, medical, legal, and
intellectual journals, and despite arguments that the filled the islands jails, the 730 prison
records reviewed show not a single prisoner incarcerated for membership, or any kind of
involvement with Abak.ua whatsoever. There are several possible theories as to why this
265 La Libertad, Havana 19 August 1885., Sala Cubana, Biblioteca Nacional Jose Marti, Havana, Cuba.
198
was the case. First, there links to important people in the white community may have
contributed to their protection.266 Secondly, and most likely, the Law for the repression
of bandits and kidnappings was introduced 27 June 1888, along with others, called for
the persecution and deportation of nahigos involved in criminal activity. As a result,
many of the nahigos that were arrested and sentenced were exiled to the various penal
institutions on the Isle of Pines (off of the southern coast of Cuba), Ceuta and Melilla, the
Spanish colonies on the northern tip of Africa, or Fernando Poo, their island colony off of
the coast of present-day Equatorial Guinea. As far back as May 1825, a Royal Decree
gave Captain Generals the authority to deport all individuals who inspired fear in the
public. Other decrees were introduced later (September 1888) prohibited illicit
association. Both of these, and a host of other laws, were in direct response to the threat
perceived threat nahigos posed. This might explain why nahigos did not appear in the
prison records reviewed.
Although much of the violence in Flavana during the Turbulent Respite was
attributed to Abak.ua, many times it was simple drunkenness, resentments, and perhaps
jealousy that led to fights and the resulting injuries. At the same time, Flavana was a
physically unsafe city so despite laws that, for example, prohibited the placement of
flower pots and the like on window sills, these kinds of indiscretions caused many of the
injuries. There were also incidents of trolley cars running over people, falling out
windows, drowning, etc., reported in the police blotters in newspapers.
266 As noted in the discussion about the origin o f Abakua in Chapter 3, many black and white nanigos had
relationships with powerful people.
199
Institutions of Social Control
It is difficult to chart the evolution of the police during the nineteenth century.
There were numerous reforms, reorganizations, changes in political regimes. Yet the
discrepancy between what was introduced and what was implemented when it came to
social control in Havana was consistently large. Most importantly, there is a lack of
primary sources outlining this evolution. What is evident is the development of the force
from one that was loosely organized and semi-professional to one that, in theory, became
centralized, professional, and more repressive.
It can be said with relative certainty that the police force was established in 1844
as a result of instructions from Spain. Ironically, its creation occurred in 1844, the year of
the Conspiracy of La Escalera, and perhaps in response to it. Prior to the establishment
of the police, serenos, or watchmen, were charged with seeing to the serenity of the
neighborhood where they were employed. An abundance of edicts, decrees, and
legislation point to the forces reorganized throughout the rest of the colonial period,
particularly with the introduction of the new Penal Code in 1879.267
The Municipal Police Force was reorganized according to a decree published on
May 10, 1883, and stipulated the Governor General was also the Chief of Police and all
provincial dependencies were subordinate to him. The Governor was the only person
authorized to name, and replace the various chiefs.268 At the same time, and in an
attempt to provide what they felt would be enough control of the city, the colonial
government established two police forces, the vigilance and security branch, and the
267 Prior to the establishment o f a police force, the servicio de serenos, or the watchman service, was
established in 1818.
268 For more discusion o f the police see La Union Constitucional, April 18, 1893, Flavana, ANC, Asuntos
Politicos, Box 272, File 4, cited in Yolanda Diaz, p. 65.
200
municipal branch. The vigilance and security branch and was under the auspices of the
island government. In line with recently introduced crime theories that posited that
criminals had specific characteristics, this branch was charged with knowing who all of
the bad elements in the population were in order to prevent possible crimes.269 In
addition, the role of this branch of the police was to protect people, living spaces,
citizens material possessions, and the maintenance of order in public meetings, on the
970
avenues, and in the theaters and other public spaces.
From Arrest to Incarceration

The first interaction between the public and institutions of social control in
Havana was when a crime or an alleged crime was committed and the perpetrator was
arrested by the police. The victim would go to the nearest authority, generally it was the
celador, or the watchman, pareja de orden publico, police officers, whether in the street
or at the station, to report the crime. The celador would take testimony from the victim
and any witnesses present. In many cases, the witness served to influence the authorities.
In some cases, the accused would be arrest on the spot, or several days, or weeks later. In
other cases, the defendant was caught in the act. Depending on whether the alleged
perpetrator was caught or not, the case would be dropped for lack of a defendant or it
would be taken to the next stage.
In cases when an arrest was made, the accused was first taken to the police station
by the pareja del Orden Publico, where they would be interviewed by the celador, who
asked some standard but very pointed questions. In line with the thinking of the day, the
authorities sought to scrutinize the possible pathological nature of the accused instead of
269 Carriles y Osuna, Eugenio, Diccionario Razonado de Legislation de Politia, Havana: Establecimiento
Tipografico, O Reilly, 1889, p. 638.
270 Ibid.
201
simply questioning the individual about the crime itself. The celador asked the accused a
host of questions, including who the godparents were, whether he/she was baptized,
where he/she worked for the last six months, who could speak about the persons
character, and how many times s/he had been arrested previously, before they got to
questions about the crime of which they were accused. Based on the evidence, and the
interview, the celador made a decision as to whether to dismiss the case, or send it up to
the Court of First Instance. The recently introduced legislation governing the arrest and
imprisonment of individuals dictated that the accused would only be held in the Vivac
971
for 48 hours and then either had to be released or sent up to the next stage. In an
interesting aside, of all of the cases reviewed, the only women the police interacted with
in the public sphere were prostitutes. Theoretically, the police force there were clearly
defined rules and regulations governing the institutions of social control, the reality was
very different.
The disarray found in Havanas police force at the end of the Ten Years War was
evidenced in an expediente dated September 12, 1878, promulgated to establish the
personnel in the City of Havana Police Department. In it, there was a request the police
officers names, rank, and date of entrance into their respective police departments. The
personnel registry of the police department had no way of knowing whether the people
serving were actually assigned to their posts.... As a result, [the person requesting the
names of those serving] requested a list of the most recent induction [police officers], so
that we can proceed with accuracy.272 According to the expediente, or file, there was no
accurate register of the number of police in Havana or how they were organized. The
271 See pg. 200.
272 Expediente promovido para saber cual es el personal de Policia de la Ciudad de La Habana, 1878, Box
286, File 13965, Gobierno General, Archivo Nacional de Cuba.
202
department lacked a formal structure, leading the media to question their ability to be an
effective deterrent of crime in the city.
Seven years later in 1885, the press, intellectual circles, and the public in general
continued to accuse the police force of ineptness and lack of organization. In an article
published on October 14 in La Lucha, an autonomist newspaper critical of Spains iron
grip on the governance of the island, the author was troubled by the spike in crime and
noted the number of assassinations and homicides perpetrated during the last 48 hours
left a deep impression on the residents of Havana, and caused them to wonder if we really
live in a cultured and organized society, or on the contrary, in a savage country, where
criminality is the maximum expression of political and civil disorder.273 While the
author wrote that the crime rate increased daily, terrorizing honorable people and
scandalizes moral progress, he was more concerned with what he deemed the urgent
need for discipline.. .of the service our numerous and well-remunerated police force
should provide.. .security for residents, and the immediate and efficient capture of
delinquents.274 The author suggested that in light of the spike in crime, now was the time
for [Police Chief] General Fajardo to show his ability to satisfy and calm the city
(Havana) whose right it is [to feel safe].275 Nonetheless, the author was not hopeful that
safety for honorable residences would improve, and he wondered if it was possible
that personal security, the life of residents, the future of families, remained at the mercy
of hoodlums and assassins? Is it possible that a people, choked by the weight of huge and
absurd taxes, that contribute to the maintenance of the numerous and costly police, after
fulfilling those demands, do not have the right to personal security?
273 Cuestion Palpitante in La Lucha, Havana, 14 October 1885.
274 Ibid.
275 Ibid.
203
An article published the same year in Boletin Juridico, a legal journal, that
discussed the rise in crime in Madrid, echoed the same concern about Havana. When we
contemplate what is happening amongst us; when we see that a day does not go by in
Havana without a homicide; when we see that those crimes go unsolved, and criminals
suffer no consequences, the lack of an organized police force, makes the persecution of
delinquents, in the majority of cases ineffective. We believe our (Havanas) situation is
worse than that of our brothers on the Peninsula.276 The overall disarray in the police
force, due no doubt to some extent, to a lack of financial resources in the colony, and a
general disinterest on the part of the colonial government in local personal security,
continued throughout the colonial period, contributing to corruption and abuse on the part
of those that were the frontline representatives of colonial authority. In addition to the
disarray, the racism evident throughout Cuba society also manifested itself in the police
force.
The Police and the Underclass
For the elite, the police represented the first line of defense against the hordes of
restless masses in Havana. As noted by Franz Fanon for Colonial Africa:
In the colonies it is the policeman and the soldier who are the official instituted
go-betweens, the spokesman of the settler and his rule of oppression... By their
immediate presence and their frequent and direct action, they maintain contact
with the native and advise him by means of rifle-butts and napalm not to budge. It
is obvious here that the agents of government speak the language of pure force.
The intermediary does not lighten the oppression, nor seek to hide the
domination; he shows them up and puts them into practice with the clear
conscience of an upholder of the peace, yet he is the bringer of violence into the
home and into the mind of the native.277
276 La criminalidad en la Peninsula in Boletin Juridico, Havana, 8 June 1885.

277 Fanon, p. 31.
204
While this analogy does not necessarily fit the policemans relationship with
white Cubans, it is safe to say that it fits his relationship with the black community in
Havana. An article that complained about police abuses and was published La
Fraternidad, a black daily, illustrated the point:
The city of Havana has recently witnessed an event that should be remembered
for a long time, and makes dignified men of conscience indignant. We are talking
about the indescribable abuses carried out in the last few days by guardians of
order, who have been beating people of color indiscriminately. Despite complains
representatives of black organizations to the mayor, the abuse continues. On 11
February, the representatives [of black organizations] took their complaints to the
Captain General who argued that the complaints were exaggerated, and the real
perpetrators of the abuses should be discovered.278
As noted by Fanon, the police, a representative of the colonial establishment,
enforced laws at their behest, and in many cases, particularly with regard to the black
community, used force to do so. Even when black organizations complained to about the
problem, the abuses continued. To add insult to injury, the black organizations last
resort, a complaint to the Captain General of the island resulted in its dismissal. Still, the
newspapers publishers, members of the black middle class, believed in the system were
fair and equitable and argued that did not want to assume Captain General Marin would
ignore their complaint.279 The fact that complaints about police abuses were ignored
points to a more insidious problem, a general disrespect for the black community as a
whole.
Where corruption, incompetence, and prejudice reigned in the legal system, and
where honest, competent, and unbiased men were rarities, racism was still at the center of
many cases that made it to the court. On December 5, 1890, one of Havanas black
278 Justicia, in La Fraternidad, Havana 20 February 1888.

279 Ibid.
205
newspapers, La Fraternidad, republished an article about a case in the trial of a 13 year

old black girl charged with attempted murder. Before printing the article, the editors of
La Fraternidad question the state of the judiciary in Cuba and asked if everybody knew
that good administration of justice is the basis for the morality and progress of a
people.
9X0
The editor continued by agreeing with the author of the article in the
following: with good reason, the little girl is unconscious of her deed while innocent.281
Although the girl may not have been innocent of the crime, the author argued that
because of her age, she should not be held responsible for the attempted murder.
The little girl, Socorro Ruiz y Valdes, a servant of Mr. Sebastian Medel y Medina
and Mrs. Emilia Ochotorena, having given no reason for her to act in this manner, on
June 1 of this year (1890), .. .put some white powder in a glass of milk that caused Mrs.
Ochotorena to feel slightly ill with no more consequences or need to see a doctor.
Socorro thought it was antacid. The substance was taken to the Bacteriological
Laboratory in Havana, where it was determined that it was mercury that, when it was
ingested with other substances, turned into bicloruro [a poisonous, mercury-based
9X9
mixture]...
As a result of the findings, instead of dismissing the case the Public
Ministry thought it advisable to begin a trial and argued that the occurrence constituted
attempted homicide.. .asking that the little black girl, Socorro, be sentence to four years
in the presidio.283
The fact that the Public Ministry would even bring a thirteen year old girl to trial
for attempted murder, points to several issues that haunted the islands judiciary
280 Un Juicio Oral in La Fraternidad, December 5, 1890.

281 Ibid.
282 Ibid
283 Ibid
206
throughout the colonial period. It should not be surprising that in a society where slavery
recently had been abolished, and people of color continued to be seen by colonial
authorities and elites as unequal and not deserving of the same considerations as whites,
the case would be pursued by the colonial authorities. What makes it notable is that in
contradiction of the Penal Code, the colonial authorities, with the consent of the Cuban
elite prosecuted a minor. Without doubt, this case demonstrates that the authorities
overlooked not only the Penal Code but also the fact that slavery had been abolished, and
that the relationship between an upper-class employer and her decidedly popular sector
employee had been rendered more equal under the law.
Of course, the case also illustrates the possibility, given how little information
about it is available, that colonial authorities were sensitive to the racial implications of
even the most insignificant case of racial conflict. Hence the prejudice to presume guilt
on the childs rather than to proceed more fairly and judiciously. On the other hand, the
authorities finally found the child innocent. One could speculate about this rather
surprising conclusion, but it may be enough to conclude that the authorities saw some
unwanted risks in pursuing it, or that the Ochorotenas did not have the connections
necessary to warrant further attention from officials. In the end, the editor of Lq
Fraternidad stated the little girl was absolved by the judge of the First Criminal
Court.284 While the case ended in the little girls freedom, the fact that she was taken to
trial highlights the deeply entrenched racism on the island and the continued
criminalization of black people regardless of gender or age. The racism and disorder were
also evident in the judiciary.
284 Absuelta in La Fraternidad, December 10, 1890.
207
The Judiciary
The judiciary like, the rest of the colonial administration was controlled and
dominated by peninsulares, and at the behest of the administration and the elite. After an
arrest, rules governing judicial procedure granted the judge the authority to either free or
incarcerate the detainee, and if incarcerated, the accused persons case should be
addressed within the first 72 hours of the arrest. In the majority of cases, this did not go
according to plan because of disorganization. Throughout the period in question, as they
did throughout governmental institutions, the Spanish colonial authorities sought to make
the judiciary efficient without investing further in the necessary finances. Their tactics
included reorganizing, increasing, reducing, and restructuring the courts. The end result
was chaos. An example of this can be seen in attempts on the part of the colonial
administration to restructure the six Cortes de Primera Instancia in Havana in the 1885.
The Corte de Primera Instancia of El Prado (a district in Havana) created in 82,
because the six in place were not enough. It opened with more than one hundred cases
pending and as a result was already the most overburdened court because of the number
of cases it had to adjudicate and the kinds of crimes committed in the district, adding to
the difficulty [of trying cases in a timely manner] as the lack of resources available to the
public defenders were restricted.285 According to the judge who wrote about the addition
of the Prado District Court, it operated under unusual circumstances because the jail, the
presidio, faros, parks, dancehalls, brothels, large numbers of restaurants and cafes
285 Juzgado de Monserrate, Supresion (Habana) Expediente sobre suppresion de los Juzgados de
Monserrate - Prado, y sobre nueva division territorial La Habana, 1888, Box 881, File 3374, Asuntos
Politicos, ANC.
208
which also stayed open latQjuegos de bolos, and the majority of the citys theaters, were
located in the district.286
Three years later in another attempt to cut spending, on June 30, 1888, the
General Government of the island called for restructuring of the judiciary. Its budget
called for the suppression of the judicial districts of Monserrate and Prado, and the
creation of two others [on the outskirts of the city] in Marianao and Guani in order to
restructure the judiciary.287 In addition, by order of the government, judges from the
District of Cerro, and the Dean of the Havana courts convened the rest of the senior
judges of the city to proceed with the division of the Havana municipal area into six
judicial districts.288 In order to quell any doubts about the restructuring, the author noted
that the judges of this capitol did not pretend a cure-all to fulfill all services when they
9 80
introduced the divisions.
Because the growing population of Havana did not lend itself [to a smooth
restructuring] and it is not easy to make the divisions to avoid the possibility that some
districts get more cases than others with the ones on the periphery receiving less cases
than those in the center because besides the fact that those in the center or more
instructed, many people ascend upon the districts in the center for business. As a result,
the possibility of criminal activity is more frequent.290 After complaining about the high
number of crimes for a new court, he pointed out that Guadalupe had more cases. The
press also chimed in, and argued that the courts needed to be an independent branch of
government not influenced by the others.
286 Ibid
287 Ibid
288 Ibid.
289 Ibid.
290 Ibid.
209
In an article entitled La Independencia Judicial, or judicial independence, in the

March 20, 1890, edition of La Lucha, the author argued it has always been argued that
the independence of the judiciary is absolutely necessary. During Victor Balaguers
tenure as Overseas Minister, the only judges that were able to remain in their posts in
Havana were those that bowed to the wishes of Captain General Marin. Those who
countered his wishes were deemed bad judges, and enemies of the government, and
released of their duties. Those [judges] that acted with impartiality were dismissed.291
As a result of the disorganization in the judiciary, judges constantly complained about
being overwhelmed by work. At the end of the Ten Years War along with political,
economical, and social reform came judicial reform. The Tregua Fecunda saw an
overabundance of royal decrees, expedientes, and ordinances introduced to restructure the
judicial system. While some called for a restructuring of the judicial system, others
blamed the disarray on the masses.
As noted in Chapter Three Intellectuals and their Views, the Revista General de
Derecho, was a scholarly journal published by the lawyers guild of Havana, and like most
journals published during this era, it claimed not to take a political stance, but seemed
rather supportive of the Spanish Administration in general, and the judiciary in particular
on the island. In an article entitled The Overseas Judicial Organism, the anonymous
author argued that an indelible responsibility of all governments is to regulate, by means
of obliged dispositions, the uniform functionality of the distinct organisms included in
public administration. But because the presentation of cases in the legal system is not
291 La Independencia Judicial in La Lucha, March 20, 1890.
210
prepared by legislators, but by the necessities of daily life, it is necessary to resolve all
cases presented before the courts.292
The author praised the judiciary and explained that it had a more difficult task
than the other branches of government precisely because it had engage the masses who
brought cases before it. He noted it is a known fact that the diversity of races that exist
on the island, and especially the Asian and the black race, are for the most part devoid of
principles, and all notion of the responsibility of citizens. It is not their fault, they were
forgotten and abandoned left to work in the fields with no moral or intellectual
education... this fact we highlight is one of the most powerful indicators of the high rate
of crime on the island.
For the author, it was not the masses fault they were ignorant of legal procedure,
but used it and the fact the brought innumerable frivolous cases to the court to justify its
inefficiency. He continued with his diatribe against the masses. Regardless of whether
they were black or Asian, or the case they brought before the court, the truth is this trend
repeats itself over and over again to the point in which there such an overwhelming
number of cases, the majority of such little importance, that the Courts are overwhelmed
with work, which in turn slows the verdicts, and prevents the courts from being
effective.294 The Revista General de Derecho defended the administration, and blamed
its inefficiency on the masses of ignorant Asians and blacks who brought an endless
number of cases before the courts.
While we know from the literature that the judicial system was in disarray during
the Turbulent Respite, and that influential sectors of the elite blamed the masses, it is
292 The Overseas Judicial Organism in Revista General de Derecho, Year IX, Vol. X, 1891, p. 310.
293 Ibid., p. 312.
294 Ibid., p. 313.
211
difficult measure the number of crimes committed by the various racial groups because
while prison records listed the race of the prisoner, the statistics compiled in to tables by
the various media outlets, only listed the type, and number of crimes committed. At the
same time, the cases discussed throughout this dissertation offer a glimpse into the role
racism played in shaping perceptions in a judicial system, in a society emerging from
racial slavery. If the accused was sentenced to serve time, he was either deported, or
shipped to one of the penal institutions on the island.
Penal Institutions
There were several penal institutions in Havana. They include the Havana jail, the
Presidio, and the Vivac. Of the three, the largest and oldest was the Havana jail that
housed up to 1,400 prisoners. The Presidio, served to house prisoners already tried and
sentenced for crimes. The Vivac was the first stop on the way to prison following the
intervention on the part of the district celadores and orden publico. Those arrested are
sent here until their final destination is determined. The Vivacs were located in the
police station of the provincial capitals, including Havana. They were the point of
departure for all actions taken by the police. The Vivac served as a provisional detention
center for all defendants, whatever their case, until freed or transferred to prison.
According to Article 21 of the Organic Regulation of the Police introduced with the Penal
Code in 1879, the transfer of the prisoner should happen within twenty four hours.
The next step for many of those charged was a trip to the Presidio that held up to
1,250 prisoners. An article in the Boletin Juridico, a legal journal, described it in the
following terms:
The building that houses the Presidio lacks the most elemental conditions
recommended by contemporary administrative sciences and standards of hygiene
212
for that type of establishment. If it were not for the fact that of the 1,250 prisoners
housed in the facility on average, 700 to 800, work in agriculture, the place would
be too small. Despite this, it does not offer enough space. The prisoners are
separated by race in poorly ventilated, small dark galleries that must be extremely
hot during the summer. 295
As was the case with interactions between other institutions of social control and the
citizenry, one writer noted the jail was reserved for the white underclass, and blacks, as
a result of the abuse offor os available to all relatively comfortable people. In other
words, even if they did not have access to the foros, because of their status, the middleand upper-classes were immune from prosecution and prison time as a result of
connections to those who did have foros.
') Q f .
Critics also argued that the disorganization in
the prison system led not only to imprisonment without trial, and extended stays for
prisoners who completed their sentences. As a result, veteran criminals, not only
continued to commit crimes in the dark galleries, but formed secret societies to exploit
new detainees.297 For many critics the penal institutions served, not to reform, but to
education prisoners in the ways of vice.
Prisoners
In a society emerging from slavery where most black people were seen as slaves,
the administration of justice reflected the racism of the larger society. As such there were
a disproportionate number of people of color in the islands prisons throughout the
Turbulent Respite. According to philosopher Angela Davis:
Along with the army and the police, prisons are the most essential instruments of
state power. The prospect of long prison terms is meant to preserve order; it is
supposed to serve as a threat to anyone who dares disturb existing social relations,
298
whether by failing to observe the sacred rules of property.
295 Una visita al Presidio, Boletin Juridico, Havana, 7 September 1885.
296 Foros were priviliges granted to military personnel, governement officials, and the clergy that excepted
them from being tried by the regular court.
297 Un Grito de Alarma in Boletin Juridico, Havana, 6 March 1886.
298 AngelaDavis, The Soledad Brothers, The BlackScholar, II, April-May 1971), 2-3.
213
For Angela Davis, while the system incarcerated a disproportionate number of

black people, it also served as a symbol to those not caught up in the judicial system yet,
to be aware that a racist society would condemn a black or Asian person (in the case of
nineteenth century Cuba) more quickly than they would a white person. In nineteenth
century Cuba as in twentieth century United States, the number of black and Asian
people in prison outnumbers whites in proportion to their numbers in the general
population.
As was the case with arrests, the number of males incarcerated for property
crimes surpassed all others by a considerable amount. Of the 730 prison records
reviewed, 361 inmates were charged with property crimes including petty theft, or
robbery. As noted previously, the majority of property crimes consisted in the theft of
inexpensive things like clothing, small sums of money, shoes, etc., as a result most of the
people arrested served less than six months in the jail and not in the prison, and as such
were not included in the prison record.299 In addition to the 361 prisoners incarcerated for
property crimes, there were also 29 in for fraud (that also included falsification), 159 for
homicide, and 19 for premeditated murder. Of this random sample, 182 were white
including 84 born in Cuba and 98 in Spain. There was a total of 174 black prisoners, of
these 152 were Cuban, and 22 were African. Because these numbers are a random sample
taken from prison records, the number of prisoners divided by race may not be very
useful. On the other hand, the crimes for which they are imprisoned are similar to other
299 Bernal y Bernal, Dr. D. Guillermo, Ley Provisional para la Aplicacion de las Disposiciones del Codigo
Penal vigente en C u b a y Puerto Rico, mandada observar p o r Real Decreto de 23 de M ayo de 1879 y
comentada p o r el Dr. D. Guillermo Bernal y Bernal, Juez de la Instancia de Guanabacoa, Habana:
Imprenta del Avisador Comercial, 1881, p. 356. Also see Yolanda Diaz Martinez, Peligrosa Habana, p. 23.
214
numbers collected in that property crimes represent the majority of crimes committed in
Cuba during the Turbulent Respite. More useful statistics for the purposes of identify the
number of people incarcerated in the various penal institutions by race would be those
gleaned from the Revista General de Derecho, and several of the contemporary
newspapers.
An article from in the Revista entitled Statistics Represent the Situation, did a
comparison of prison statistics for 1879, 1880, and 1885, and concluded there was a
tremendous increase in crime of the course of the five years from 1880 to 1885. The
statistics also revealed that in 1879 there were a total of 1,620 prisoners. Of these 822,
were white, 312 were free people of color, and 166 were black slaves, 181 were Asian
indentured servants, and 139 were free Asians. The chart goes on to show their marital
status, 1,229 were single, 32 married, and 49 were widowers. As for their profession, 80
worked in commerce, 607 were construction workers, 819 craftsmen, 72 were day
laborers, 1 was a science professor, and 41 had no known employment. More
importantly, the statistics show the proportion of inmates to the general population by
race. According to the official census of 1877 [the island had] 1,434,747 inhabitants,
[816,319 males], that included 173,436 white Spaniards, 2,467 foreigners, 4,949 free
Chinese indentured workers, 5,801 Chinese indenture workers, 30,113 free people of
color, 1,134 freed people of color, and 20,599 slaves for total of 237,806 [males].300
These numbers indicate that of the 1,620 prisoners, 822, or about 50% were white, 478,
or 30% were free blacks, freed blacks, or slaves, and 320 or 20% were Asian indentured,
or former indentured workers. So if the statistics compiled here were correct, Black males
who made up 30% of the prison population were only 7% of the total population. The
300 Statistics Represent the Situation, in Diario de la Marina, December 18, 1891.
215
Asians comprised only 1.2% of the population but 20% of the prisoners. While it is
general accepted that the 1877 census for Cuba was very faulty, and that black males
made up more than 7% of the population, and perhaps closer to 30%, does not take away
from the fact that black males made up 30% of the prison population, and Asians another
20%, numbers that are very telling in a society that wanted to keep the underclass in
general in check, and these groups in particular.
Five years later in 1884, another Penal Statistics for the Island of Cuba was
published. Like the previous compilation of numbers, this one listed prisoners by race,
noted the number that entered, and were released, listed their nationalities, ages, marital
status, etc. It showed that there was a considerable reduction of prisoners from 2,030 to
1,415. It also indicated at of the 1,415 prisoners, 799 were white, 108 Asian, and 508
black, without distinguishing their status. The number of white prisoners increased by
nearly 6% from 50%, while the number of Asian prisoners decreased from around 20% to
near 8%, a decrease of almost 12%. The percentage of Blacks incarcerated also decrease
by almost 10% from 30% to 20%. In addition to emphasizing the numbers, the author
also noted that the excessive contingency brought by the Chinese to our penal
institutions, shows that Chinese colonization is a calamity, for various reasons, for all
civilized nations.
1A1
In statistics published in the Diario de la Marina on December 18, 1891, its

director, Antonio Calbeto informed the readership about the prison population in the
Havana Jail. For every thousand inhabitants of the city, 6.1 were in jail in 1891. Of
T09
these, 48.3% were white, 43.3% were of color, and 8.4% were mestizo.
In contrast to
301 Una visita al Presidio, in Boletin Juridico, Havana, 7 September 1885.

302 Diario de la Marina, December 18, 1891
216
the census of 1877, the percentage of white prisoners was very low compared to their
numbers in Havanas population (72.6%), while Blacks and Asians were overrepresented
in the penal system. According to the author, there is a superior level of criminality of
the black race as compared to the white race. In fact, the number is more than half and
blacks account for almost the same number of crimes as whites. It is true that the black
race is less intelligent and less educated. While the statistics are not a definite indication
that black were incarcerated more than whites during the Turbulent Respite, they along
with the added commentary by the various authors show that their continued to be a
strong prejudice toward both the black and Asian sectors of Cuban society.
Conclusion
Life in Havana during the Turbulent Respite was not easy for anybody, and much
less for the masses of the underclass that packed into the filth and vice infested
neighborhoods throughout the city. In an economy that was in a constant state of flux,
many of the underclass could barely make ends meet. As a result a few turned to crime to
fulfill their needs and desires. In a world where the elite and colonial officials moved in
circles far removed from the underclass, decisions by the Captain General and is
administration, nonetheless, impacted them. Colonial officials introduced reforms in an
attempt to maintain control of the island, but in many cases, they were the same old rules
wrapped in new phraseology. The clearest example of this was the introduction of the
Penal Code in 1879. It was a rehash of Spains Penal Code of 1870 with so-called
amendments for the overseas colonies that in many cases did not it the realities on the
ground. Evidence of this was the inclusion of laws that governed social relations based on
race. In addition to continued racism in legislation, the colonial government introduced
217
these reforms with no financial backing to support their unconditional implementation.

As a result, reforms were introduced and applied to the colony in fits and starts.
Parallel to the implementation of reforms with their continued racism and the
colonial administrations inability to apply them, increased crime continued to vex
Havana society. As was the case throughout the civilized world, the elite saw the
masses of unemployed, underemployed, and generally lazy underclass as the culprit of
these unlawful deeds. While former slaves, free people of color, and recently-arrived
Spanish immigrants sought to labor in conditions they deemed fair and equitable, the
propertied looked to force the underclass, and particularly the black sectors, to labor in
conditions similar to those found during slavery. When the two sides did agree on labor
and remuneration, the underclass was labeled lazy and criminal.
The institutions tasked with policing the actions of the underclass had little
resources to be an effective force. At the same time, as peninsulares, their ideas about the
underclass were shaped by the white-black dichotomy that was a society emerging from
slavery. The police who barely made a livable wage as agents of social control, like many
in the Spanish colonial administration, turned to illegal activity and corruption to make
ends meet. This coupled with their racism made for a very contentious relationship with
the citizenry they were charged with protecting and serving. For the Creole elite, colonial
officials, and their charges, the underclass was an unruly mass that needed to be dealt
with forcefully.
In a society in which importance was placed on material possessions, it was only
logical that property crimes dominated police reports, arrest records, and newspaper
articles. It was a society that measured status by wealth, and this was measured by the
218
amount of things one could accumulate. Petty theft and robberies represented the most
crimes reported during the period. Interestingly, most of the thefts or robberies were
between people who knew each other, or were, in many cases from the same class. In
other words, the underclass was stealing from each other because it was easier. They
lived near people of their same class, and perhaps more importantly, understood the
consequences of stealing from the rich. So while the rich continuously lamented the
invasion and stealing of their property by the underclass, they were generally not the
victims.
In addition to placing an inordinate amount of importance on material things, they
was this underlying fear throughout the colonial period and even into the 1880s and 90s
that Cuba would see a repeat of Haiti, so the Africanization Scare in all of its
manifestations was always on their minds. Violence and social disorder was part and
parcel of Havana life. Injures and deaths as a result of fights were numerous throughout
the period, and while they certainly were involved, nahigos got most of the blame for the
violence in Havana, and plenty of bad press even though they did not appear as nahigos
once in the 730 prison records reviewed.
As was the case throughout the colonial administration, the lack of resources
cause major problems for institutions of social control, and forced many employees to
look to illegal means to make ends meet. This in addition to the racism prevalent
throughout Cuba society blurred the lines between efficiency and racism as the driving
force in the relationship between institutions of social control and the masses of blacks,
Asians, and Spanish immigrants they were paid to control. In this chapter, I showed the
kinds of crimes that were committed and why, the introduction of reforms with no
219
resources to implement them, and the racial dichotomy that existed. Because racism was
an integral part of Cuba society, and the institutions of social control was a microcosm of
that society, it is only obvious that it would shape their interaction. For Cubas elite and
the Spanish colonial administration, it was the recently freed blacks, the free black
community that lived in Havana for generations, and the recently-arrived Asian
indentured servants that were the criminals.
220
Chapter 6. Conclusion
At the end of the nineteenth century, between the Ten Years War and the final
war of independence, Cuba was in a state of turmoil and transition. Cuban elites sought
to shape society in their image, and were strongly influenced by European ideas of what
constituted a modern society. As elites attempted to implement European ideas of
modernity into Cuban society, the suppression of black people increased. One of the
ways this was accomplished was to criminalize blacks and their culture. While debates
about who was to be included or excluded from the Cuban body politic reached their
apex during the Turbulent Respite, it was Cuban intellectual Jose Antonio Saco who
initiated the discussion regarding Cuban national identity.
Saco, one of the foremost Cuban intellectuals during the early part of the
nineteenth century, coined the phrase nacionalidad cubana to distinguish Cuban identity
from Spanish cultural identity embraced by previous intellectuals. His idea of what it
meant to be Cuban excluded all black people, who at the time made up almost half of the
islands population. Sacos ideology about who was to be included and excluded from the
body politic, like that of his contemporaries throughout Latin America was shaped by
liberal ideas that emerged from Europe, as opposed to the reality of the racially
heterogeneous society in Cuba. Sacos writings influenced contemporary elites and future
Creole intellectuals, as well as the colonial policy-makers who sought to exclude AfroCubans from participation in Cubas social, economic, and political life through various
means.
Saco argued that in order for Cuba to be included among the modern nations of
the world, it was necessary to remove all black people from the island. As such, he
221
argued for the abolition of the slave tradethat earned him the disdain and enmity of a
planter class whose affluent livelihood depended on the free labor provided by enslaved
black people on the islands sugar plantations. His radical ideas resulted in his exile to
Paris. However, this did not stop him from writing about how to modernize Cuba. In
addition to a call for the abolition of the slave trade, Saco also advocated massive
European immigration in order to whiten the island, the implementation of the
patronato303, the suppression of Afro-Cuban activities, and their criminalization as a class
on racial terms. While many of his ideas were not implemented, Sacos writings
influenced the manner in which elites attempted to bring about social reform
Throughout the nineteenth century, Havana found itself facing a series of crises
that were social, economic, and political in nature. With the advent of each attempt to
address these issues, once common goal remained consistent throughout - that is the
structuring of a modern society that catered to the powerful elite and intellectuals, while
attempting to exclude those groups that did not correspond to their conception of a
modern society. The contrast between the rich and the poor continued to expand in an
ever-widening gap. Every effort made by the ethnic minorities to exert their cultural
heritage was met with opposition and fear. This fear was the prevalent factor in most
action taken by institutions of social control against groups that embraced foreign
practices.
To further ensure the exclusion of non-whites from the body politic, the Spanish
Colonial government promulgated immigration laws designed to encourage large
222
numbers of Spanish people to migrate to Cuba in an effort to whiten the island, fulfill
labor needs, and to create a substantial base of citizens loyal to Spain.
According to some historians the end of the Ten Years War in the 1880s solidified
the unification of Cubans across color lines. The inter-war years also brought the
introduction of ideas on modernization, positivism, and liberalism with their inherent
racism. The intellectual discourse emanating from Europe used science to show the
Darwinian hierarchy of man. This allowed for the formation by social scientists of new
fields of study including sociology, anthropology, and criminology. These new
institutions of inquiry used the new sciences to classify and criminalize individuals and
entire groups of people based on race, gender, place of origin, size of head, shape of eyes,
etc. While the findings made by the new social scientists were not based on fact, their
conclusions corroborated their pre-existing prejudicial ideas. In Cuba, social scientists
published articles and speeches in a series of intellectual journals including the Revista de
Cuba, the Revista General de Derecho, and spoke in gatherings at Ateneo s and the
Sociedad Antropologica. Many intellectuals belonged to several different organizations
and the ideas emanating from these organization about contemporary and future Cuba
coincided. While Cuban intellectuals sat around, smoked cigars, drank cognac, and
discussed how to improve the islands culture in order to be accepted by the modern
nations of the world.
The criminalization of black people and culture as individuals and as
organizations occurred throughout the colonial period. It was during the last three
decades of the nineteenth century, beginning in the 1870s that the criminalization of
black people increased. Several factors contributed to this phenomenon including the
223
abolition of slavery that gave rise to the belief that the masses of freed slaves would rise
up against their former enslavers.
Throughout the nineteenth century, the colonial authorities, at the behest of
Creole elites, sought to limit black mobility. While enslaved people were theoretically
easier to control based on their station in life, the real concern among the colonial
administration and Creole elites were free people of color that comprised an important
percentage of the islands population throughout slavery.304 Free people were viewed as a
threat to the islands security because they were not governed by the same rules and
regulations applied to slaves. Regardless of whether they participated in slave rebellions
or general unrest on the island, they were accused of such activity and vilified for it.
Nonetheless, the colonial government spent a lot of time and energy passing legislation to
control and limit the movement of free black people.
While laws were passed governing individual movement of black people in
general, and free people in particular, it was legislation governing African-centered
organizations such as the cabildos de nation and Abakua where social control of black
sectors of society were most obvious. Although laws were passed limiting cabildos de
nations activities throughout the colonial period, it was not until the 1880s immediately
following the Ten Years War with the introduction of reforms by the colonial
administration that cabildos de nation were outlawed. In the previous decade, as the
eastern sectors of the island, and Italian criminologist Ceasare Lombroso published his
opus Criminal Man in which he posited that criminals could be identified by physical
304 Knight, Franklin, W. Slave Society in Cuba during the Nineteenth Century, Madison, WI: University o f
Wisconsin Press, 1970. According to Knight, by the first half o f nineteenth century, the majority o f free
people o f color were born in the community, and did not arrive at this condition as a result o f manumission.
224
features, the secret society of Abakua was outlawed. For the Creole elite, the primitive
African fetishes could not be part of the modern society they envisioned for the island.
While crime was an increasingly vexing problem for the Spanish colonial
authorities and the Creole elite, it was black people that were the target of these attacks.
This is evident in the incessant and copious number of laws that addressed black people
specifically throughout the nineteenth century. The criminalization of black people
became more predominate as a result of both internal and external factors. First, the
introduction from Europe of ideas about the structure of a modern society helped shape
the debate among elites regarding inclusion and exclusion, including the criminalization
of certain sectors of society. Closer to home was the abolition of slavery that conjured up
the long held Africanization Scare, and rampant categorization of free black people as
criminals. Spanish colonial officials used this fear to promote the notion that without
Spains support, the island would turn into another Haiti. In the end, another Haiti
never materialized, and the criminalization of black sectors of society continued.
225
Bibliography
Guides
Alpizar, Luis, La clasificacion y catalogacion en el Archivo Nacional, Revista de la
Biblioteca Jose Marti, 72[23]: 1 3 epoca enero/abril 1981, p. 35-44
Batista Villareal, Teresita, Josefma Garcia Carranza and Miguelina Ponte, Catalogo de
publicacionesperiddicas cubanas de los siglox xviiiy xix, La Habana: Departamento
Coleccion Cubana, Biblioteca Jose Marti, 1965.
Boletln del Archivo Nacional, La Habana: Editorial Academia, 1986-present.
Catalogo de los fondos de la Comision militar ejecutivay permanente de la isla de Cuba,
La Habana: Imprenta del Archivo Nacional, 1945.
Gula del Archivo Nacional, Habana: Academia de Ciencias de Cuba, 1967.
Garcia, Gloria, et al., Fuentes Estadlsticaspara la Historia Econdnica y Social de Cuba,
1760-1899,1. Poblacion, La Habana: Editorial Academia, 1989.
Inventario general del archivo de la delegacion del Partido Revolucionario Cubano en
Nueva York (1892-1898), Habana: Imprenta del Archivo Nacional, 1955.
Peranza Sarausa, Fermin, Indice de la Revista de Cuba, La Habana: Publicaciones de la
Biblioteca Municipal de La Habana, 1938.
Perez, Louis A., Historiography in the Revolution: a Bibliography o f Cuban Scholarship,
1959-1979. New York: Garland Publishing, 1982.
____________ , A Guide to Cuban Collections in the United States, New York:
Greenwood Press, 1991.
____________ , Essays on Cuban History: Historiography and Research, Gainesville,
FL: University Press of Florida, 1995.
____________ and Rebecca J. Scott, The Archives o f Cuba/Los Archivos de Cuba,
Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2003.
Perez Cabrera Jose Manuel, Documentos para servir a la historia de la Guerra Chiquita
(Archivo Leandro Rodriguez), Habana: Imprenta El Siglo XX, A. Munoz y hno., 1936.
_____________________ , Fundamentos de una historia de la historiografla cubana,
Habana: Academia de la Historia de Cuba, 1959.
226
_______________________, Historiografia de Cuba, Mexico: Instituto Panamericano de

Geografia e Historia, 1962
Trelles, Carlos M. Bibliografia Cubana del Siglo XIX, Tomo 4 (1856-68), Tomo 5 (186978), Tomo 6 (1879-85), Tomo 7 (1886-93), Tomo 8 (1894-1899), Matanzas: Imprenta de
Quiros y Estrada, Indepedencia 59, 1915.
Vidal Morales y Morales, Catalogo de los fondos del Consejo de Administracion de la
Isla de Cuba. Habana, Habana: Imprenta del Archivo Nacional, 1948-1950.
Zapata Casanova, Felipe, Catalogo sumario de los fondos existentes en el Archivo
Nacional, La Habana: Imprenta del Archivo Nacional, 1958.
Contemporary Studies
Acosta, Antonio Gordon, Higiene colonial en Cuba. La Habana, 1895.
Aguilera, Ernesto, ed., Anuariopoliclacoy judicial cubano, La Habana, 1888.
Arenal de Garcia Carrasco, Concepcion, Cartas a los delincuentes, Madrid: V. Suarez,
1924.
Arango Garcia, Juan, El sumario (2nd ed.) Prontuario de calificacion y competencia; util
a los jueces de instruccion, correccionales y municipales; a los individuos del ejercitoy
policla municipal. . ., Habana: Imprenta de Rambla, Bouza y Ca., 1917.
Aruca Alonso, Lohania J., Transformaciones urbanas y reformismo burgues en La
Habana del siglo XIX, Instituto de Historia, 1928.
Azoy, Antonio Andres, Coleccion de causas criminales, Matanzas, Impresora El FerroCarril, 1868.
Bachiller y Morales, Antonio, Historia de las medidas adoptadas por la Administracion
municipal de para el entretenimiento y conservacion de las calles de La Habana,
Habana : Impr. La Antilla, 1860.
Bas y Cortes, Vicente, Procedimientos criminales ajustados a la legislacion especial de
la Isla de Cuba. Habana: Impresora Militar de la viuda de Soler, 1872.
Benito y Curto, Alejandro, Elementos de derecho penal. Contestaciones a la parte de
legislacion espanola del programa oficial de dicha asignatura en la Facultad de Derecho
de la Universidad Central, Madrid: V. Suarez, 1901.
Boletin de la Sociedad Antropologica de la Isla de Cuba, Tomo I, Habana: Imprenta
Militar de la Viuda de Soler y Compania, 1879.
227
Capriles y Osuna, Eugenio, Diccionario razonado de legislacion de policla; obra de

mucha utilidadpara todas las closes sociales de absoluta necesidadpara los alcaldes de
barrio, y muy especialmente para los funcionarios de policla tanto gubernativa como
municipal y judicial, comprende un considerable numero de disposiciones vigentes en
materia de gobernacion, orden publico y policia, explicadas en la practica. Habana:
Establecimiento Tipografico, 1889.
Cabrera, Raimundo, Cubay sus jueces, 4th ed., Habana: Impr. El Retiro, 1887.
Capriles y Osuna, Eugenio, Diccionario Razonado de Legislacion de Policla, Habana:
Carbonell y Ruiz, Ramon I., Revista General de Derecho, La Habana : Tipografia de la
Gaceta Oficial, 1883-1893.
Castellanos, Israel, Medicina legal y criminologia afro-cubana, La Habana: Molina y
cia., impresoras, 1937.
______________ , Brujeria y el hahiguismo en cuba desde el punto de vista medico-legal,
Habana: Imp. Del Lloredo y Ca., 1916.
_______________ , El apodo de los delincuentes en Cuba, Habana: Imprenta y Papeleria
Universal, 1926.
______________ , Delicuencia femenina en Cuba, Habana: Imprenta Ojeda, 1929.
______________ , Identification. Problems, criminal and civil, Brooklyn, N.Y., c l 939.
______________ , El laboratorio de antropologia penitenciaria, Habana: Impr. Y
papeleria de Rambla, Bouza y Ca., 1926.
______________ , Medicina legal y criminologia, afro-cubanas, La Habana: Molina y
cia, impresores, 1937.
_______________ , El Burd de Homicidios, La Habana, Imp. P. Fernandez, 1954.
Cespedes, Jose Maria, Elementos de Derecho Natural. Habana. Estab. Tipogr. Teniente
Rey, 12, 1894.
Cespedes, Benjamin de, Laprostitucion en la ciudad de la Habana, Habana,
Establecimiento Tipografico, OReilly, no. 9, 1888.
Cruz, Manuel de la, La revolucion cubana y la raza de color (por un cubano sin odios),
Key West, Florida: Impr. La Propaganda, 1895.
228
Cuadrado, Gaston Alonso, Hebert Spencer contra Weismann, La ley de seleccion natural
en la luchapor la existenciapor Gaston Alonso Cuadrado. Habana: Tip. La constancia.
1894.
Cuba. Ministerio de gobernacion, Report on the carceles and the national penitentiary o f
the Republic o f Cuba, Havana, Suarez, Solana & co., 1908.
De la Torre, Jose M., Lo que fuim osy lo que somos o La Habana antigua y moderna,
Habana: Libreria Cervantes, 1857.
Du Boys, Albert, Historia del derecho penal de Espana, por Mr. Alberto Du B oys. . .
para servir de continuacion a la Historia del derecho penal de los pueblos modernos, del
mismo autor, Version al castellano, anotada y adicionada con apendices, por d. Jose
Vicente y Caravantas. Madrid: Imprenta de J.M. Perez, 1872.
Garcia y Romero de Tejada, Jose, El libro del jurado, Jerez: Impr. De El Guadalete,
1894.
G.G.Y F., Los criminales de Cubay el inspector Trujillo, Habana: La Propaganda
Literaria, 1881.
Giralt y Alemany, Pedro, El amor y la prostitucion, Habana: Ruiz y hermano, 1889.
Gomez, Juan Gualberto, La cuestion de Cuba en 1884, Habana: Edicion Universal, 1894.
Gomez de la Serna, Pedro, Elementos del derecho civil y penal de Espana, precedidos de
una resena historica de la legislacion espanola, 9 ed., Madrid: Sanchez, 1870-71.
Guerrero, Teodoro, La Habana por fuera: cuadros de la vida cubana, Habana: Impr. Y
Libreria El Iris , 1866.
Labra, Rafael M. de, La perdida de las Americas por Rafael M. de Labra, Madrid: Impr.
a cargo de F. Roig, 1869.
________________ , La cuestion de Ultramar, discurso pronunciado en el Congreso de
los diputados, por don Rafael de Labra...Tornado del Diario de sesiones del 10 de julio
de 1871, Madrid: Impr. de J. Noruega, 1871.
________________ , La cuestion social en las Antillas Espaholas: discurso pronunciado
en la conferencia del 26 de febrero de 1872, Madrid: Secretaria de la sociedad
abolicionista Espanola, 1872.
________________ , La autonomla colonial: artlculo publicado por el periodico La
Tribuna de Madrid el 8 de Febrero de 1883, Madrid: Impr. de A.J. Alaria, 1883.
________________ , Lapolltica antiliana en la metropoli espanola, Madrid: Impr. y
Estereotipia de El Liberal, 1891.
229
________________ , El problema colonial contemporaneo, por los senores d. Rafael M.

de Labra, d. Eliseo Giberga, d. Tiburcio Cataneda, d. Eduardo Dolz, d. Rafael Montoro,
d. Emilio Terry y d. Jose A. del Cueto. Con resumen de excmo. Sr. Segismundo Moret,
Madrid: V. Suarez, 1896.
________________ , La republica y las libertades de Ultramar, por Rafael M. de Labra,
Madrid: Tip. De A. Alonso, 1897.
________________ , La crisis colonial de Espana (1868 a 1898); estudios de polltica
palpitante y discursosparlamentarios, por Rafael M. de Labra, Madrid: Tip. De A.
Alonso, 1901.
________________ , La brutalidad de los negros, Habana: Impr. de la Universidad de la
Habana, 1961.
________________ , Por Cuba libre. Homenaje de la Ciudad de la Habana al gran
cubano en el centenario de su nacimiento, 1854-12 de julio-1954.
________________ , Los Errores Judiciales. Discurso pronunciado en la session
celebrada en el Congreso de los Diputados el 15 de Abril de 1895. Madrid: Tipografia de
A. Alonso, 1896.
Lastres, Francisco, Estudios sobre sistemas penitenciarios, Madrid: Lib. De A. Duran,
1875.
Leyes Vigentes, Habana, 1901-06.
Mestre, Aristides, La Antropologia en Cubay el conocimiento de nuestros indios (18941925), Discurso leido en la sesion solemne de 19 de Mayo de 1925 y publicado en los
A nales de la Academia, Habana : Imprenta El Siglo XX, 1925.
Montoro, Rafael, Discursos politicos y parlamentarios, informes y disertaciones,
Filadelfia: La Compania Levytype, 1894.
Morua Delgado, Martin, Integration cubana, La Habana: Edicion de la Comision
Nacional del Centerario de Martin Morua Delgado, 1957.
Oraa, Pedro de, Papeles del Teniente Coronel Lino D ou, Havana : UNEAC, 1983.
Refutacion al papel anonimo titulado: Estado actual de la isla de Cuba, y medios que ban
de adoptarse para fomentar su prosperidad con utilidad de la madre patria.
Madrid, L. Amarita, 1838
Saco, Jose Antonio, Ideas sobre la incorporacion de Cuba en los Estados Unidos, New
York: S. Hueston, 1850.
230
________________ , Coleccion postuma de papeles cientlficos, historicos, politicos y

otros ramos sobre la isla de Cuba, Habana: Miguel de Villa, 1881.
________________ , El juego y la vagancia en Cuba. Estudio sobre la esclavitud,
Habana: Editorial Lex, 1960.
________________ , Historia de la esclavitud de la raza africana en el nuevo mundo y en
especial en lospaises americo-hispanos, por Dr. Jose Antonio Saco... [Tomo I],
Barcelona: Impr. de J. Jepus, 1879.
________________ , Ideario reformista. Publicaciones de la Secretaria de educacion,
Direccion de cultura, La Habana: Talleres de cultura, s.a., 1935.
________________ , Memoria sobre la vagancia en la Isla de Cuba, 6th ed., Santiago de
Cuba: Instituto Cubano del Libro, 1974.
________________ , Folletos escritos por Don Jose Antonio Saco, Nueva York: R.
Lockwood e hijo, 1856.
________________ , La situacion politico de Cubay su remedio, Paris: Impr. de E.
Thonot y ca., 1851.
________________ , La supresion del trafico de esclavos africanos en la isla de Cuba,
examinada con relacion a su agriculturay a su seguridad, Paris: Impr. de Panckoucke,
1845.
________________ , Medio siglo de historia colonial de Cuba, cartas de Jose Antonio
Saco, ordenadasy comentadas (de 1823 a 1879). Habana: R. Veloso, 1923.
Risquet, Juan F., La cuestion politico-social en la isla de Cuba, Habana: Tipografia
America, 1900.
Roche Monteagudo, Rafael, La Policia y sus misterios en Cuba. Habana: La Moderna
Poesia, 1925.
Segura y Cabrera, Andres, 1864- La policia judicial ante los delitos publicos: obra de
texto oficial notablemente corregida: tratado completo de sus atribuciones y deberes con
formularios, 5th ed., La Habana: Impresa La Universal, 1926.
Spain. Ministerio de Ultramar. Espana y Cuba, estado politico y administrativo de la
Grande Antilla bajo la dominacion espanola, Madrid : Imprenta de los hijos de J.A.
Garcia, 1896.
231
El Triunfo, La Reforma Politica, Coleccion de Articulos publicados en El Triunfo,

organo oficial del partido liberal de la isla de Cuba, Habana: Imprenta de G. Montiel y
Co., 1879.
Trujillo y Monagas, Jose, Los criminales de Cubay d. Jose Trujillo; narracion de los
servicios prestados en el cuerpo de policla de la Habana, por d. Jose Trujillo y Monagas
... y la historia de los criminalespresospor el, en las diferentes epocas de los distintos
empleos que que ha desempehado hasta el 31 de diciembre de 1881, Barcelona, Estab.tip.
deF. Giro, 1882.
_____________________, Refutacion alpapel anonimo titulado: Estado actual de la isla
de Cuba, y medios que han de adoptarse para fomentar su prosperidad con utilidad de la
madre patria, Madrid, L. Amarita, 1838.
Varela Zequeira, La Policia de la Habana, Habana: Imprenta y Papeleria La Universal,
de Ruiz y Hno. 1894.
Varona, Enrique Jose, Conferencias Filosoficas (Tercera Serie): Moral, Habana:
Laws and Legal Collections
Acevedo, Luciano de, La Habana en el Siglo XIX: Descrita por Viajeros Extranjeros, La
Habana: Sociedad Editorial Cuba Contemporanea, 1919.
Anton, Jose, Los antecedentes del nuevo codigopenal, Madrid: Editorial Reus, s.a.,1929.
Bando de gobernacion y policia de la isla de Cuba, espedido por Geronimo Valdes,
Presidente, Gobernador y Capitan General, 2 ed. Habana: Imprenta del Gobierno por
S.M., 1843.
Bando de gobernacion y policia de la isla de CubaApendice; comprensivo de diversos
reglamentos, aranceles y disposiciones. Habana: Imprenta del Gobierno y Capitania
General por S.M., 1855.
Bando de gobernacion y policia de la isla de Cuba, expedido por el excmo. Sr. d.
Genronimo Valdes, presidente, gobernador y capitan general. Habana: Imprenta del
Gobierno por S.M., 1864.
Bernal y Bernal, Dr. D. Guillermo, Ley Provisional para la Aplicacion de las
Disposiciones del Codigo Penal vigente en Cuba y Puerto Rico, mandada observar por
Real Decreto de 23 de Mayo de 1879 y comentadapor el Dr. D. Guillermo Bernaly
Bernal, Juez de la Instancia de Guanabacoa, Habana: Imprenta del Avisador Comercial,
1881.
Boletin Oficial del Ministerio de Ultramar, Madrid: Imprenta Nacional, 1875-79.
232
Codigo penal para las provincias de Cuba y Puerto Rico y Ley provisional de
enjuiciamiento criminal mandados observar por Real decreto de 23 de Mayo de 1879.
Edicion Oficial. Madrid: Imprenta Nacional, 1879.
Codigo penal vigente en las islas de Cuba y Puerto Rico, mandado observar por Real
decreto de 23 de Mayo de 1879, anotado con la jurisprudencia del Tribunal Supremo y
complementado con la ley y reglamento de abolicion de la esclavitud, decreto
suprimiendo el ceopy el grillete, articulo adicional de la Ley de presupuestos de 1886
mandando cese elpatronato, y demas disposiciones de caracter penal especial. Madrid:
Est. tip. De P. Nunez, 1886.
Codigo penal para las islas de Cuba y Puerto Rico, anotado con las jurisprudencia del
Tribunal supremo, 2 ed., Madrid: Gongora, 1894.
Comision de Higiene Especial. La prostitucion en Cuba y especialmente en La Habana.
Memoria elevada al Secretario de Gobernacion cumpliendo un precepto reglamentario.
La Habana: P. Fernandez & Cia., 1902.
Comision de Higiene Especial, La prostitucion en Cuba, y especialmente en La Habana,
Havana: P. Fernandez y Cia, 1903.
Cortina, Jose Antonio, Revista de Cuba: Periodico Mensual de Ciencias, Derecho,
Literatura y Bellas Artes, Tomo I, Habana: Imprenta Militar, 1878
Dato e Iradler, Eduardo, Repertorio doctrinal y legal por orden alfabetico de la
jurisprudencia civil espanola establecida por el Tribunal supremo en sus sentencias
dicatadas en recursos de causacion y decisiones de competencia deste lo de enero de
1883 al 1909 y del las resoluciones que en materia civil y en el mismo plazo han dictado
la Direccion de los registros y la de gracia y justicia del Ministerio de Ultramar. Madrid:
Imprenta de la Revista de legislacion [etc.] 1907-12.
Enfantes y Perez, Leopoldo Lopez, Guia de la policia judicial ante los delitos publicos en
las islas de Cuba y Puerto Rico, Matanzas, 1896.
Ferrer de Couto, Jose, Los negros en sus diversos estados y condiciones: tales como son,
como se supone que son, y como deben ser, Nueva York: Imprenta de Hallet, 1864.
Gonzalez Lorrente, Pedro, The Penal code o f the islands o f Cuba and Porto Rico,
translated into English, with explanatory notes and glossary o f Spanish terms, Havana:
La Propaganda literaria, 1898.
Government Printing Office, Correspondence between The Department o f State and the
United States Minister at Madrid, and the Consular Representatives o f the United States
in the Island o f Cuba, and Other Papers Relating to Cuban Affairs, transmitted to The
House o f Representatives in Obedience to a Resolution, Washington, D.C.: Government
Printing Office, 1870.
233
Guardia, Cristobal de la, Profilaxis del crimen y de la locura; conferencia pronunciada

en los salones de la colonial espanola en l[c]amaguey en la noche del 23 de abril de
1905, La Habana: Imprensa de Rambla y Bouza, 1905.
Juzgado Criminal. Jurisprudencia criminal, Madrid, Editorial Reus, 1870.
Manual del Guardia Rural: Compedio Util a la Policia Judicial arreglado expresamente
para el Cuerpo de La Guardia Rural de la Isla de Cuba por Hernandez Guzman, Jose,
Sargento de la Policia Municipal de la Ciudad de la Habana, Havana: Imprenta y
Libreria La Moderna Poesia, Obispo 133 y 135, 1903.
Ministerio de la Guerra. Manual de instruccion militar y reglamento comentado para el
instituto de voluntarios de la isla de Cuba. Habana: Imprenta del Diario del ejercito,
1892.
Ministerio de Ultramar, Espana y Cuba, estado politico y administrativo de la Grande
Antilla bajo la dominacion espanola. Madrid: Imprenta de los hijos de J.A. Garcia, 1896.
Ministerio de Ultramar. Disposiciones vigentes relativas al servicio del ramo de montes
en la isla de Cuba. 1899.
Ministerio de Ultramar. Ley de enjuiciamiento civil reformada para las islas de Cuba y
Puerto Rico. Edicion Oficial. Madrid: Imprenta nacional, 1885.
Ministerio de Ultramar, Ley de enjuiciamiento criminal para las islas de Cuba y Puerto
Rico, con referencias de las leyes anteriores a que pertenecen sus artlculos; sentencias
del Tribunal Supremo especificadas por artlculos a que corresponden; memoriaexposicion que dirigio al Gobierno de Su Majestad el Fiscal del Supremo en quince de
septiembre del mil ochocientos ochenta y tres, y formularios para todas las actuaciones
criminales en los juzgados municipales y de instruccion y audiencias de lo criminal y
territoriales, por A. Barroeta Scheidnagel. Habana'. Imprenta de J. Fernandez, 1888.
Ministerio de Ultramar. Ley de enjuiciamento criminal para las islas de Cuba y Puerto
Rico. Edicion Oficial. Madrid: Imprenta de R. Moreno y R. Rojas. 1888.
Ministerio de Ultramar. Presupuesto de gastos e ingresos de la Isla de Cuba, Madrid: El
Ministerio, 1890.
Ministerio de Ultramar. Presupuesto de gastos de la Isla de Cuba de 1892-93, Madrid: El
Ministerio, 1892.
Ministerio de Ultramar. Presupuesto de gastos de la Isla de Cuba de 1892-93, Madrid: El
Ministerio, 1893.
Moreno, Francisco El Pais del chocolate: la inmoralidad en Cuba, Madrid, 1887.
234
Ordenanzas municipales de policia urbanay rural del termino municipal de la Habana.,

La Habana: La Propaganda Literatura, 1881.
Pachero, Joaquin Francisco, El Codigo Penal, 4 ed, Madrid, Impr, de M. Tello, 1870.
Policia de la Habana. Ordenanzas municipales de policia urbana y rural del termino
municipal de La Habana. La Habana: Obispo, Imprenta P. Fernandez [190 ]
Policia de la Habana. Ordenanza para la conservacion y policla de los caminos
ordinarios de la isla de Cuba. Habana: Imprenta de Rambla y Bouza, 1904.
Policia de la Habana. Ordenanzas de policia urbanay rural.. . Nuevitas, Cuba, [n.p.]
1882.
Policia de La Habana. Ordenanzas municipales de policia urbana y rural del termino
municipal de la Habana. Habana: La Propaganda Literaria, 1881.
Rodriguez Fleites, Jose, Manual de procedimientos en materia criminal para los
funcionarios y agentes de policla, guardia civil, juecesy fiscales municipales juzgados de
instruccion, con apendices de distintas leyesy disposiciones vigentes, 1. Ed. Puerto Rico:
Imprenta del Boletin Mercantil [sic], 1896.
Sanchez Martinez, Luis, Guia del policia Cubana: contiene cuantas leyes, reglamentos,
ordenanzas y demas disposiciones son necesarias a los Cuerpos de Policia y Guardia
Rural, en el ejercicio de sus funciones y de sus relaciones con los Tribunales de Justicia
y otras dependencias oficiales, e igualmente multiples datos, formularios y notas de
practica utilidad, 2nd ed., La Habana: Comas y Lopez, 1914.
Seccion de la Higiene Especial. Reglamento para el regimen de la prostitucion en la
ciudad de La Habana, 1899. Habana: M. Pulido, 1899.
Servicio de higiene especial, Reglamento general para la isla de Cuba y particular de la
ciudad de la Habana, Habana: Impr, de J. Ruiz y ca., 1908.
Vives, Francisco Dionisio and Juan Manuel Cajigal, Bando de buen gobierno, adicionado
por el escelentlsimo Senor D. Grancisco Dionisio Vives, Presidente, gobernador y
capitan general de esta simpre fidelisima ciudad e isla de Cuba, con cuya superior
aprobacion se publica. Habana, Imprenta fraternal de los Diaz de Castro, 1828.
Translation o f the Penal code in force in Cuba and Porto Rico Royal Decree o f May 23,
1879, Washington, D.C., Division of Customs and Insular Affairs, War Department,
Government Printing Office, 1900,
235
Secondary Sources
Aguirre, Carlos A. and Robert Buffington, eds., Reconstructing Criminality in Latin
America, Jaguar Books on Latin America, No. 19, Wilmington, DE: Scholarly Resources,
Inc., 2000.
Aguirre, Carlos, The Criminals o f Lima and their Worlds: The Prison Experience, 18501895, Durham: Duke University Press, 2005.
Alvarez, Estevez, Rolando, La reeducacion de la mujer cubana en la colonia, Havana:
Editorial de Ciencias Sociales, 1976.
Allendesalazar, Jose Manuel, Apuntes Sobre la Relacion Diplomatica HispanoNorteamericana, 1763-1895, Madrid: Biblioteca Diplomatica Espanola, 1996.
Amores Carredano, Cuba y espana, 1868-1898: el final de un sueno, Pamplona, Spain:
EdicionesUniversidad de Navarra, c l 998.
Andrews, George Reid, Afro-Latin America, 1800-2000, New York: Oxford University
Press, 2004.
de Arce, Luis A., Jose Antonio Cortina: Epoca y caracter, 1853-1884, La Habana:
Editorial Selecta, 1955.
Bailey, Frankie Y., Law Never Here: A Social History o f African-American Response to
Issues o f Crime and Justice, Westport, CT: Praeger, 1999.
Barcia, Maria del Carmen, Gloria Garcia y Eduardo Torres-Cuevas, Las Luchas por la
independencia nacional y las transformaciones estructurales, 1868-1898, La Habana:
Editora Politica, 1996.
______________________, Elites y grupos de presion: Cuba, 1868-1898, La Habana:
, Sociedad en crisis: La Habana finales del Siglo XIX.
Editorial Ciencias Sociales, La Habana, 2000.
Brown, David H. Light Inside: Abakua society arts and Cuban cultural history,
Washington, DC: Smithsonian Books, 2003.
Bueno, Salvador, ed., Enrique Jose Varona, periodista, La Habana: Pablo de la Torriente,
1999.
Buffington, Robert M., Criminal and Citizen in Modern Mexico, Lincoln, NE: University
of Nebraska Press, 2000.
236
Cabrera, Lydia, La sociedad secreta Abak.ua: Narradapor viejos adeptos, La Habana:

Ediciones C.R., 1958
Carreras, Julio Angel, Historia del estado y el derecho en Cuba, Ciudad de La Habana:
Editorial Pueblo y Educacion, 1985.
Casanovas Codina, Joan, Bread or Bullets!: Urban Labor and Spanish Colonialism,
1850-1898. Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh Press, cl 998.
Castellanos, Jorge, Cultural afrocubana, Miami, FL: Ediciones Universal, 1988.
Cayuela Fernandez, Jose G., Espana en Cuba: final de siglo, Zaragoza: Institution
Fernando el Catolico, 2000.
Chambliss, William J., Whose Law? What Order? A Conflict Approach to Criminology.
New York: Wiley, 1976.
Cooper, Frederick, Thomas C. Holt, & Rebecca J. Scott, eds., Beyond Slavery:
Explorations o f Race, Labor, and Citizenship in Post-emancipation Societies, Chapel
Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 2000.
Cope, Douglas R., The Limits o f Racial Domination, Madison, WI: University of
Wisconsin Press, 1994.
Costa, Octavio R., Imageny Trayectoria del Cubano en la Historia, Vol. 1, (1492-1902),
Miami: Ediciones Universal, 1994.
de la Fuente, Alejandro, A Nation fo r All: race, inequality, and politics in twentiethcentury Cuba, Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, c2001.
de La Torre, Mildred, El autonomismo en Cuba 1878-1898, La Habana. 1997.
de Paz Sanchez Manuel y Jose Fernandez Fernandez, y Nelson Lopez Novegil, El
Bandolerismo en Cuba (1800-1933): Presencia canariay protesta rural, Canary Islands,
Spain: Centro de la Cultura Popular Canaria, 1993-1994.
Deschamps Chapeaux, Pedro, El negro en la economia habanera del siglo XIX, La
Habana: Union de Escritores y Artistas de Cuba, 1971.
Deschamps Chapeaux, Pedro and Juan Perez de la Rivera, Contribucion a la historia de
gente sin historia, La Habana: Editorial de Ciencias Sociales, 1974.
Deschamps Chapeaux, Pedro El Negro en la economia habanera del siglo XIX, Havana:
UNEAC, 1970.
_______________________, Los batallones de pardos y morenos libres, La Habana:
Editorial Arte y Literatura, Instituto Cubano del Libro, 1976.
237
______________________, Los cimarrones urbanos, Ciudad de La Habana: Editorial de

Ciencias Sociales, 1983.
Diaz Martinez, Yolanda, La Peligrosa Habana: Violenciay criminalidad a finales del
siglo XIX, Havana : Ciencias Sociales, 2005.
Frantz Fanon, The Wretched of the Earth, translated from the French by Richard Philcox;
introductions by Jean-Paul Sartre and Homi K. Bhabha, New York: Grove Press, 2004.
Fornet Gil, Pablo Jose, Crecimiento poblacional y estrutura intena en el area
metropolitana de la Habana: Un analisis historico, not published.
Franco, Jose Luciano, Surgimiento del caserlo de Jesus del Monte y sus estancias,
unpublished.
Fredrickson, George M., The Comparative Imagination: On the History o f Racism,
Nationalism, and Social Movements, Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1997.
Garcia Avila, Sergio, Desorden social y criminalidad en Michoacan, 1825-1850,
Morelia, Michoacan, Mexico: Supremo Tribunal de Justicia del Estado de Michoacan de
Ocampo, 1994.
Garcia Gonzalez, Armando y Raquel Alvarez Pelaez, En Busca de la Raza Perfecta:
Eugenesia e Higiene en Cuba, 1898-1958, Madrid: CSIC, 1999.
_______________________, El estigma de color: Antropologla y racismo en Cuba en el
siglo XIX, La Habana: Academia de Ciencias de Cuba, 2004.
Giddings, Paula J., ed., Burning All Illusions: Writings from The Nation on Race, 18662002, New York: Thunders Mouth Press/ Nation Books, 2002.
Graham, Richard, ed., The Idea o f Race in Latin America: 1870-1940, Austin: University
of Texas Press, 1990.
Greenbaum, Susan D., More than Black: Afro-Cubans in Tampa, Tallahassee: University
of Florida Press, 2002.
Guanche, Jesus, Componentes Etnicos de la Nacion Cubana, La Habana: Ediciones
Union, 1966.
_____________ , Procesos Entoculturales en Cuba, La Habana: Editorial Letras Cubanas,
1983.
Guerra, Ramiro, Manual de historia de Cuba: economia, socialy politico, 2nd ed., La
Habana: Editorial Nacional de Cuba, Editora del Consejo Nacional de Universidades,
1964.
238
, Historia de Cuba, La Habana: Libreria Cervantes de R. Veloso, 1922.

Guy, Donna, Sex and Danger in Buenos Aires: Prostitution, Family and Nation in
Argentina, Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press, 1991.
Haslip-Viera, Gabriel, Crime and Punishment in Late Colonial Mexico City, 1692-1810,
Albuquerque, NM: University of New Mexico Press, 1999.
Helg, Aline, Our Rightful Share: The Afro-Cuban Struggle for Equality, 1886-1912,
Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 1995.
Horrego Estuch, Leopoldo, Martin Morua Delgado: vida y mensaje, Habana: Editorial
Sanchez, 1957.
Howard, Philip A., Changing History: Afro-Cuban Cabildos and Societies o f Color in the
Nineteenth Century, Baton Rouge, LA: Louisiana State University Press, 1998.
Huggins, Martha K., From Slavery to Vagrancy in Brazil: Crime and Social Control in
the Third World, New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, cl985
Ibarra, Jorge Ideologica Mambise, 2a ed., La Habana: Instituto Cubano del Libro, 1972.
Johnson, Lyman L., The Problem o f Order in Changing Societies: Essays on Crime and
Policing in Argentina and Uruguay, 1750-1940, Albuquerque, NM: University of New
Mexico Press, 1990
Kiple, Kenneth, Blacks in Colonial Cuba, 1774-1899, Gainesville, FL: University Presses
of Florida, 1976.
Knight, Franklin W., Slave Society in Cuba during the Nineteenth-Century, Madison: The
University of Wisconsin Press, 1970.
Le Riverend, Julio, La Habana. Vida y Espacio. Editorial MAFRE, Madrid, 1992.
Lewis, Gordon K., ed., Main Currents in Caribbean Thought: the historical evolution o f
Caribbean society in its ideological aspects, 1492-1900, Baltimore: Johns Hopkins
University Press, c l 983.
Lugo-Ortiz, Agnes I., Identidades imaginadas: biografiay nacionalidad en el horizonte
de la guerra, Cuba 1860-1898, San Juan, P.R.: Editorial de la Universidad de Puerto
Rico, 1999.
Maluquer de Motes, Jordi, Nacion e inmigracion: los espaholes en Cuba, siglos X IX y
XX, Oviedo-Barcelona: Ediciones Jucar, 1992.
239
Marrero, Levi, Cuba: Economia y Sociedad; Azucar, Ilustraciony Conciencia, Madrid:

Editorial Playor, S.A., 1978.
Mendez, Juan, Guillermo ODonnell, and Paulo Sergio Pinheiro, eds., The (Un)rule o f
Law and the Underprivileged in Latin America, Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre
Dame Press, 1999.
Mendieta Costa, Rafael, Cultura: lucha de clases y conflicto racial, 1878-1895, La
Habana: Editorial Pueblo y Educacion, 1898.
Mesa, Roberto, El colonialismo en la crisis del X IX espahol: esclavitudy trabajo litre en
Cuba, Madrid: Instituto de Cooperacion Iberoamericana, Ediciones de Cultura Hispanica,
1990.
Monal, Isabel, Filosofia e ideologia de Cuba, siglo XIX, Mexico: Universidad Nacional
Autonoma de Mexico, Coordination de Humanidades, Centro Coordinador y Difusor de
Estudios Latinoamericanos, 1994.
Moreno Fraginals, Manuel, El Ingenio: el complejo economico social cubano del azucar,
La Habana: Comision Nacional Cubana de la UNESCO, 1964.
______________________, ed., Between slavery and free labor: the Spanish-speaking
Caribbean in the Nineteenth century, Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, c l 985.
Monal, Isabel y Olivia Miranda, Filosofia e Ideologia de Cuba Siglo XIX, Mexico, D.F.:
Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico, 1994.
Morales y Morales, Vidal, Iniciadores y primeros martires de la revolucion cubana,
Vols. I & II, La Habana: Consejo Nacional de Cultura, 1963.
Naranjo Orovio, Consuelo y Armando Garcia Gonzalez, Racismo e Inmigracion en Cuba
en el siglo XIX, Madrid: Ediciones Doce Calles, 1996.
, Medicina y racismo en Cuba: la ciencia ante la inmigracion
canaria en el siglo XX, Las Palmas: Centro de la Cultura Popular Canaria, 1996.
, La Nacion Sohada: Cuba, Puerto Rico y Filipinas ante el 98,
Madrid: Doce Calles, 1996.
, Im agenes e im aginarios nacionales en e l Ultramar espahol,
Madrid: Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas, Centro de Humanidades,

Instituto de Historia, Departamento de America, Casa de Veleazquez, 1999.
Nieman, Donald G. and Christopher Waldrep, eds., Local Matters: Race, Crime and
Justice in 19th century South, Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press, c2001.
240
Ortiz, Fernando, La filosofia penal de los espiritistas: estudio de filosofia juridica,

Madrid: Editorial Reus, 1924.
____________ , Hampa afro-cubana: los negros brujos: apuntes para un estudio de
etnologia criminal, Madrid: Editorial-America, 1917.
, Los Negros Brujos: Apuntes para un estudio de etnologia criminal,
Miami, FL: Ediciones Universales, 1973.
, Historia de una pelea cubana contra los demonios, La Habana: Editorial
de Ciencias Sociales, 1975.
_____________ , Ensayos etnograficos, La Habana: Editorial de Ciencias Sociales, 1974.
_____________ , El engano de las razas, La Habana : Editorial Ciencias Sociales, 1975.
_____________ , Estudios etnosociologicos, La Habana: Editorial de Ciencias Sociales,
1991.
_____________ , Los cabildos y la fiesta afrocubana del Dia de Reyes, La Habana:
Palmie, Stephan, Wizards & Scientists: Explorations in Afro-Cuban Modernity &
Tradition, Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2002.
Perez, Louis A., Cuba between Empires, 1878-1902, Pittsburgh, PA: University of
Pittsburgh Press, 1983.
_____________ , Cuba Under the Platt Amendment, 1902-1934, Pittsburgh, PA:
University of Pittsburgh Press, 1986.
_____________ , Cuba: Between Reform and Revolution, New York: Oxford University
Press, 1988.
_____________ , Lords o f the Mountain: Social Banditry and Peasant Protest in Cuba,
1878-1918, Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh Press, cl989.
____________ , Slaves, Sugar & Colonial Society: Travel Accounts o f Cuba, 1801-1899,
Wilmington, DE: Scholarly Resources, 1992.
, ed., Impressions o f Cuba in the Nineteenth-Century: The Travel Diary o f
Joseph J. Dimock, Wilmington, DE: Scholarly Resources, 1998.
Perez Landa, Rufino, Vida publica de Martin Morua Delgado, Habana: Academia de la
Historia, 1957.
241
Perez Murillo, Marla Dolores, Cartas de Emigrantes Escritas desde Cuba: Estudio de las
mentalidades y valores en el siglo XIX, Cadiz: Aconcagua de Libros, 1999.
Perez Sarduy, Pedro and Jean Stubbs, ed., AfroCuba: an anthology o f Cuban writing on
race, politics, and culture, Melbourne: Ocean Press, 1993.
Peset, Jose Luis, Ciencia y marginacidn. Sobre negros, locos y criminales, Barcelona:
Editorial Crltica, Grupo Grijalbo, 1983.
Piqueras Arenas, Josep Antoni and Enric Sebastia Domingo, Agiotistas, Negreros, y
partisans: dialectica social en visperas de la Revolucion Gloriosa, Valencia, Spain:
Edicions Alfons el Magnanim: Institucio Valenciana dEstudis I Investigao, 1991.
Portuondo, Aleyda T., Vigencia Politica y Literaria de Martin Morua Delgado: un
ensayo sobre el gran negro cubano, Miami, FL: Ediciones Universales, 1978.
Pruna, Pedro M. y Armando Garcia Gonzalez, Darwinismo y Sociedad en Cuba: Siglo
XIX, Madrid: Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas, 1989.
Radzinowicz, L., Ideology and Crime: A Study o f Crime in Its Social and Historical
Content, London: Heinemann, 1966.
Robaina, Tomas Fernandez, Historias de mujerespublicas, La Habana, Cuba: Editorial
Letras Cubanas, c l 998.
______________________, Recuerdos secretos de dos mujeres publicas, Ciudad de La
Habana: Editorial Letras Cubanas, 1983, c l 984.
________________
,
Bibliografia de la mujer cubana, Ciudad de La Habana:
Ministerio de Cultura, Biblioteca Nacional Jose Marti, 1985.
Roig de Leuchsenring, Emilio, La Habana: Apuntes Historicos, Habana : Municipio de la
Habana, 1939.
Roldan de Montaud, Ines, La Restauracidn en Cuba: El fracaso de un proceso
reformista, Madrid : CSIC, 2000.
Rubio, Javier, La Cuestion de Cuba y las Relaciones con los Estados Unidos durante el
Reinado de Alfonso XII: Los orgines del desastre de 1898, Madrid: Biblioteca
Diplomatica Espanola, 1995.
Salas, Luis, Social Control and Deviance in Cuba, New York: Praeger Publishers, 1979.
Salvatore, Ricardo, The Birth o f the Penitentiary in Latin America: Essays on
criminology, prison reform, and social control, 1830-1940, Austin: University of Texas
Press, 1996.
242
Schofield, Philip, ed., Colonies, Commerce, and Constitutional Law: Rid yourselves o f
Ultramar and other writings on Spain and Spanish America, Oxford: Clarendon Press,
1995.
Scott, Rebecca, Slave Emancipation in Cuba: the Transition to Free Labor, 1860-1899,
Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1985.
Schwartz, Rosalie, Lawless Liberators: Political Banditry and Cuban Independence,
Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1989.
Schmidt-Nowara, Christopher, Empire and Anti-Slavery: Spain, Cuba, and Puerto Rico,
1833-1874. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1999.
Silvestrini, Blanca, ed., Politics, society, and culture in the Caribbean: selected papers o f
the XIV Conference o f Caribbean Historians, San Juan: Universidad de Puerto Rico,
1983.
Solano, Francisco de, ed. Esclavitud y derechos humanos: la lucha por la libertad del
negro en el siglo XIX/ Actas del Coloquio Internacional sobre Abolicion de la Esclavitud,
Madrid, 2-4 diciembre, 1986, Madrid: Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas,
Centro de Estudios Historicos, Departamento de Historia de America, 1990.
Sorehegui, Arturo, La expansion de la Habana en el Siglo X V III: el caso de extramuros
y sus implicaciones para una caracterizacion-tipificacion de la ciudad, Habana: Instituto
de Historia, unpublished.
Taylor, Ian Paul, Walton, and Jack Young, The New Criminology: For a Social Theory o f
Deviance, London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1973.
Toledo, Josefina, Sotero Figueroa, Apuntes para una biografla, La Habana: Editorial
Letras Cubanas, 1985.
Thomas, Hugh, Cuba: The Pursuit o f Freedom, 2nd ed., New York: Da Capo Press,
1998.
Thompson, Robert Ferris, Flash o f the Spirit: African and Afro-American Art and
Philosophy, New York: Random House, 1983
Torres-Cuevas, Eduardo y Eusebio Reyes, Esclavitud y Sociedad: Notas y Documentos
para la Historia de la Esclavitud Negra en Cuba, La Habana: Editorial de Ciencias
Sociales, 1986.
__________________ , Jose Antonio Saco, Acerca de la esclavitudy su historia, La
Habana: Editorial de Ciencias Sociales, 1982.
243
__________________ , El alma visible de Cuba: Jose Marti y el Partido Revolucionario

de Cuba, La Habana: Editorial de Ciencias Sociales, 1984.
__________________ , La Polemica de la esclavitud. Jose Antonio Saco, La Habana:
__________________ , Esclavitudy sociedad: notas y documentos para la historia de la
esclavitud negra en Cuba, La Habana: Editorial Ciencias Sociales, 1986.
Trigo, Benigno ed., Foucault and Latin America: Appropriations and Deployments o f
Discourse Analysis, New York: Routledge, 2002.
Trotman, David Vincent, Crime in Trinidad: Conflict and Control in a Plantation
Society, 1880-1895, Knoxville, TN: University of Tennessee Press, cl986.
Van den Berghes Race and Racism: A Comparative Perspective, New York: Wiley &
Sons, 1967.
Venegas Fornias, Carlos, La Habana entre 1762 y 1868: Un siglo de crecimiento urbano
continuo, Habana: Instituto de Historia, unpublished.
Wiener, Martin J. Reconstructing the Criminal: Culture, Law and Policy in England,
1830-1914, Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 1990.
Articles
Bosco Amores Carredano, Juan, Historiografia espanola sobre Cuba colonial (19401989) in Revista de Indias, Madrid, Spain: Consejo Superior de Investigaciones
Cientificas. Vol. L, Enero-Abril 1990, No. 188, 1997
Brown, Mark, Race, science and the construction of native criminality in colonial India
in Theoretical Criminology, Aug 2001, vol. 5, no. 3, pp. 345-368.
Beck, Earl R., The Martinez Campos Government of 1879: Spains Last Chance in
Cuba in Hispanic American Historical Review, Vol. 56, May 1976, p. 269.
Boehringer, Frank and James Giles, Criminology and Neocolonialism: The Case of
Papau, New Guinea in Crime and Social Justice, San Francisco, CA: Institute for the
Study of Labor and Economic Crisis, Vol. 8 (Fall) 1977.
Bronfman, Alejandra, En Plena Libertad y Democracia: Negros Brujos and the Social
Question, 1904-1919 in Hispanic American Historical Review, 82:3, 2002.
Byrne, William A., Slave Crime in Savannah, Georgia in Journal o f Negro History,
vol. 79, Issue 4 (Autumn, 1994), 352-362.
244
Chvaicer, Maya Thalmon, The Criminalization of Capoeira in Nineteenth-Century

Brazil in Hispanic American Historical Review, Aug 2002, Vol. 82, Issue 3, p. 525.
Chrisman, Robert, ed., Roundtable on the History of Racial Prejudice in Cuba in Black
Scholar, 16(1), 1985.
de la Fuente, Alejandro, Race, Ideology, and Culture in Cuba: Recent Scholarship, Latin
American Research Review, Vol. 35, Issue 3, p. 199, 2000.
Del Monte, Ricardo, La Revista de Cuba, su influencia y su vida in Peraza Sarausa,
Fermin, Indice de la Revista de Cuba, Habana: Departamento de Cultura, 1938.
Dennis, Rutledge M., Social Darwinism, Scientific Racism, and the Metaphysics of
Race, in Journal of Negro Education, Vol. 64, Issue 3, Myths and Realities: African
Americans and the Measurement o f Human Abilities (Summer, 1995), 243-252.
Ferrer, Ada, Social Aspects of Cuban Nationalism: Race, Slavery, and the Guerra
Chiquita, 1879-1880, in Cuban Studies, 21 (1991): 37-56.
Garcia Gonzalez, Armando y Consuelo Naranjo Orovio, Antropologia, racismo e
inmigracion en la Sociedad Economica de Amigos del Pais de la Habana in Asclepio,
vol. XLIII, fasc. 2, Madrid, CSIC, 1991, pp. 139-163.
Gilfoyle, Timothy J., Prostitutes in History: From Parables of Pornography to Metaphors
of Modernity in The American Historical Review, Vol. 104, Issue 1 (Feb. 1999), 117141.
__________________ , Two Dangers one Solution: Immigration, Race and Labor in
Cuba, 1900-1930, International Labor and Working-Class History, 51 (1997).
Hernandez Sandoica, Elena, La Historia de Cuba Vista Desde Espana: Estudios Sobre
Politica, Raza, y Sociedad in Revista de Indias, Madrid, Spain: Consejo Superior de
Investigaciones Cientificas.,Vol. LVIII, No. 212, 1998.
Howard, Philip A., The Spanish Colonial Governments Responses to the PanNationalist Agenda of the Afro-Cuban Mutual Aid Societies, 1868-1895 in Revista
Interamericana, Spring 1992.
King, Peter, Locating Histories of Crime in British Journal o f Criminology, Vol. 39,
No. 1, Special Issue, 1999, p. 161
Knight, Franklin W., Cuban Rural Society in the Nineteenth Century: The Social and
Economic History of Monoculture in Matanzas in Hispanic American Historical
Review,, Vol. 71, No. 4, 1991.
245
, Cuba in Neither Slave, nor Free: The Freedman o f African

Descent in the Slave Societies o f the New World, David W. Cohen and Jack P. Greene,
ed., Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1972.
, Ethnicity and social structure in contemporary Cuba in Ethnicity
in the Caribbean: Essays in Honor o f Harry Hoetink, Gert Oostindie, ed., London:
Macmillan Education, Ltd., 1996.
Morrison, Karen Y., Civilization and Citizenship through the Eyes of Afro-Cuban
Intellectuals during the First Constitutional Era, 1902-1940 in Cuban Studies, 30, 1999
pp. 76-99.
Naranjo Orovio, Consuelo and Miguel Angel Puig-Samper Mulero, El legado hispano y
la conciencia nacional en Cuba, Revista de Indias 50, no. 190 (September-December
1990): 790, 798.
OBrien, Patricia, Crime and Punishment as Historical Problems, in Journal o f Social
History, 11 (Summer 1978): 508-20.
Perez, Jr., Louis A., Politics, Peasants, and People of Color: The 1912 Race War in
Cuba Reconsidered: in Hispanic American Historical Review, Vol. 76, No., 3, 1996.
Poyo, Gerald E., Evolution of Cuban Separatist Thought in the Emigre Communities of
the United States, 1848-1895 in Hispanic American Historical Review, Vol. 66, No. 3,
1986.
____________ , "With All and for the Good of All": The Emergence o f Popular
Nationalism in the Cuban Communities o f the United States, 1848-1898, Durham, NC:
Duke University Press, 1989, esp. 70-97.
Quiroz, Alfonso W., Loyalist Overkill: The socioeconomic costs of repressing the
separatist insurrection in Cuba in Hispanic American Historical Review, May 98, Vol.
78, Issue 2, p. 261, 45p, 3 charts.
Scott, Rebecca, Race, Labor, and Citizenship in Cuba: A View from the Sugar Districts
of Cienfuegos, 1886-1909, Hispanic American Historical Review, No. 78 (November
1998): 687-728.
Urban, C. Stanley, The Africanization of Cuba Scare, 1853-1855 in Hispanic American
Historical Review, Feb 57, Vol. 37, Issue 1, p. 27-45.
Wolf, Donna M., The Cuban People of Color and the Independence Movement: 18791895 in Revista/Review Interamericana, Vol. 5, No. 3 (Autumn 1975), p. 403-21.
Zimmerman, E.A., Racial ideas and social reform: Argentina, 1890-1916 in Hispanic
American Historical Review, Feb 92, Vol. 72, Issue 1, p. 23, 24p
246
Cuban Periodicals
Diario de la Habana, 1810-1848
Diario de la Marina, 1844-1964
Gaceta de la Habana. Periodico Oficial del Gobierno, 1848-1902.
Havana Post, 1900-1960
The Cuban Messenger, 1848-1902
LaLucha, 1880-1902
La Fratemidad, 1880-1886
Unpublished Works
Basail Rodriguez, Alain, Poder y Disentimiento, 1995, unpublished Masters Thesis.
Bronfman, Alejandra Marina, Reforming Race in Cuba, 1902-1940, PhD, Princeton
University, 2000.
Guerra, Lillian, Crucibles of Liberation in Cuba: Jose Marti, conflicting nationalisms
and the search for social unity, 1895-1933, Ph.D., The University of Wisconsin, 2000.
De la Fuente, Alejandro, With all and for all: Race, Inequality and Politics in Cuba,
1900-1930, Ph.D., University of Pittsburgh, 1996.
Ferrer, Ada, To Make a Free Nation: Race and the Struggle for Indepedence in Cuba,
1868-1898, Ph.D., The University of Michigan, 1995.
Piccato Rodriguez, Pablo Atilio, Criminals in Mexico City, 1900-1931: A Cultural
History, Ph.D, The University of Texas at Austin, 1997.
Rushing, Fannie Theresa, Cabildos de nacion, sociedades de la raza de color: AfroCuban participation in slave emancipation and Cuban independence, 1865-1895 Ph.D,
University of Chicago, 1992.

Merrit - Race, Crime - Tesis

Transféré par

Informations du document

Titre original

Copyright

Formats disponibles

Partager ce document

Partager ou intégrer le document

Options de partage

Avez-vous trouvé ce document utile ?

Ce contenu est-il inapproprié ?

Droits d'auteur :

Formats disponibles

Merrit - Race, Crime - Tesis

Transféré par

Droits d'auteur :

Formats disponibles

Howard University

Race, Crime, and the Construction of a Cultural Identity,

Submitted in partial fulfillment of the PhD in History

UMI Number: 3283271

ProQuest Information and Learning Company

Vincent C. Peloso, Ph.D.

There I learned an incredible amount what it meant to bring an interdisciplinary

Social Control in Havana................................................................................................... 100

Chapter 3. Intellectuals and Their Views........................................................................105

Chapter 2. Jose Antonio Sacos exclusionary Nacionalidad Cubana

At the same time, Liberalism plays a foundational part in the process

of normalizing and naturalizing racial dynamics and racist exclusion.18

. .the idealized political sentiments

appreciate or grasp liberal ideas. Immediately following independence, Simon Bolivar

appropriations to white immigrants and miscegenation, their countries would become

In the debate Saco questioned Sagras ability to fill the

43 Saco, E l juego, p. 39.

rudiments of a good education in them, they consistently show the unquestionable

47 Saco, Papeles, p. 217.

It is in Vagancia that we see the first outward manifestations of Sacos concern

49 Jose M. Hernandez, Papeles Politicos, p. xi.

In addition to technological, economic and political advancements, Saco also saw

In Sacos initial thoughts on white immigration, he suggested there is no obstacle

60 Ibid, pg. 161-162, cited from Torres-Cuevas, Polemica, p. 88.

68 Saco, Papeles, III, p. 114.

means necessary. They wanted to maintain slavery.

Lines between Spaniards and

modernization of a white Cuba.

Ibid, pg. 383.

the world market. According to Cuban historian Torres-Cuevas, by February of 1853,

Chapter 2. Structure of Society, 1880-1895

In 1882, J. Curbelo wrote Project fo r the easiest solution for

Chapter 3. Intellectuals and Their Views

The new discipline of anthropology permitted social scientists to examine the

universally applicable and acceptable, while their Latin American counterparts

They used a form of racism based on newly

During the second half of the nineteenth century in Cuba,

In the end, Reyes found that Cuban-born blacks were more

. .believes that there were extenuating circumstances of

criminologist Cesare Lombrosos ideas about natural-born criminals to Cuba.130

and incivility. The introduction of anthropology in general, and Lombrosos criminology

In addition to fear of black people in

139 Ibid., p. 140-141.

government looked to immigration. The colonial government went so far as to offer

Chapter 4. Crime and the Criminalization of the Black

164 Ibid., p. 14.

At the same time, an analysis of police blotters

Paris, 1851 cited in Luciano de Acevedo, La Habana en el

Throughout the colonial era, the cabildos maintained a precarious relationship

178 Paquette., p. 107.

that according to article 88 of the Bando de Gobernacion y Policia, and Municipal

ideas of what it was to be civilized, other Black organizations continued to embrace

secret leopard societies found throughout Africa.

It is generally accepted that this

Rafael Roche Monteagudo, as a result of the persecutions... on the part of the

Although their cosmology traces its roots to West

196 Ibid., R esena..., p. 1.

205 Ibid., p.38.

Paula and Picota streets [also had to be dispersed].

Three years later in 1879, fourteen

Nanigos were implicated

in the violent crime throughout the 1880s and 90s.

222 Ibid., Rodriguez, Resena, p. 2.