During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, a quilt of ethnic territories started to develop in urban areas due to the influx of immigrants into the United States. At the time, there was a constant cultural interaction between foreign immigrants and Native Americans. Some of the foreign population faced discrimination and prejudice on a daily basis, whereas other immigrants had no trouble being assimilated into the American system of life. The experience of the immigrants differed significantly from each other depending on the country of origin. However, an investigation into traditional studies of ethnic communities and the construction of an identity of an immigrant shows that they often ignore their old-world soul. In regards to Cuba’s immigrants almost to the end of 19th century, it is imperative not to ignore their country's political, racial, economic and social situations as compared to the United States. The examination of race, nationalism, and Afro-Cuban identity in Florida during the period that led to the Spanish-American war disapproves these studies. An exploration nationalism, as well as slavery, race, and revolution in the 19th century gives a vivid picture on how Cuban ethnic and patriots united shortly overshadowing the racial divisiveness in the Floridian ethnic region.
The analysis of the Afro-Cuban immigrant story during the violence period of Jim Crow, reveals the emergence of a sophisticated and exciting group of characters who presented themselves as the black Cuban immigrants in Florida. After the war between Spanish and the US, the relationship between white Cuban community who were in exile after escaping the Spanish persecutions since they were the masterminds of the war and Afro-Cuban became weak. 1 The Spanish war does not elaborately account for the full story because the voice of the Cubans especially the blacks has been left out, which is strange since the war was theirs. Most of the immigrants left Cuba leaving their properties and settled in Florida, where most of them used their resources in pressurizing the American government to demolish the Castro rule and to help in establishing an anti-communist government. However, their wish has never been granted, and thus they have continued to prosper among Cuban Americans.
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During the anticipation of the separation war of Cuba from Spain, it was evident to the Cubans that for them to win the war racial unity was to be a factor for consideration. The integration was deemed to be the basis through which rebel ideology and targeted empire together with racial myths will be exploited at every opportunity presented. The independence struggle by the Cubans had to not only overcome the Spanish racist propaganda but its own internal racism which was a crucial factor during this period of stalemate in ending the ten-year war. At the time, Zanjon provided Cuban with a list of promises which he failed to honor including ending the slave trade immediately. Zanjon’s terms were that those slaves who fought in the war, on both sides were to be set free while those who never participated in the battle had to continue suffering another decade of slavery.
The slavery finally ended in 1886, giving birth to another form of cultural and racial subjugation. 2 This new way of cultural and ethnic subjugation was mainly based on the exaggeration of racial myths that were dominant in Cuban society at the time. Cuban culture required one to show politeness to others; therefore, they sought the same result as the one practiced in Northern America without considering reconstruction. The black Cubans seemed not to encounter similar misfortune as their Northern American counterparts. Opportunities both in schools and business were opened up as legal victories and continuous rhetoric, both from the whites and black Cubans, was a common theme between them. People like Juan Gualberto, Antonio Maceo, and Jose Marti among others brought a framework through which the Cuban ideology for racial equality was to be the foundation through which the society was to thrive on.
The independence of war of 1895 to 1898 reiterated the potential of racial equality. The battle of separating from Spain meant that Cuba would be for both whites and blacks in equal proportion. However, the result was not what the Cubans had perceived to had fought for. The United States intervened in 1898, where the fate of Cuba was passed from one ruler to the other. With the US withdrawing its troops in Cuba in 1902, a pseudo-colony was left behind under the Platt Amendment. 3 The government in charge at that time was not what the Cubans had thought of in their earlier decades of Cuban Revolutionary Party of Marti's. The American investors in Cuban were given much protection as they could amass many properties. Nevertheless, the American investors had a preference market in the United States for all the produce they could produce in Cuban territory. The influence of America was never favorable to people with dark skin nor improvement of race relations in Cuba.
In 1912 racial unity was overturned in a war which was referred to a race war 4 . But this fight turned into a brutal slaughter of blacks by the Cuban army under the directive of President Jose Miguel Gomez, who never wanted another United States army inversion. The difference in views concerning race and the devotion to ideology in a society that has been blinded by race has been an issue to target all the rulers in the entire history of Cuba. The casualty in attitude directed towards race is the primary difference between the empires that ruled Cuba.
The Afro-Cubans who settled in Florida at the time of Jim Crow war enjoyed varied relations with the existing dominant group- the white Cubans, the whites, and black Americans. During this period there was a high cultural and political harmony existing among all the Cubans at the on-set of their settlement which was brought about by national and language perspective. However, socially they had separate lives. After the war of 1898, the cohesion existing between the blacks and white Cuban decreased tremendously, as most of the immigrants decided to settle permanently 5 . The initial oppression from the Anglo gave them a sense of cohesion and a collective identity. During the earlier period of settlement, the Anglo refereed to them as "niggers," and this was one of the factors that led to their disintegration since the white Cuban never wanted to be part of the "niggerization."
In conclusion, racial discrimination was the motivating factor that made Afro-Cubans to forge a permanent unity with the black Americans. Despite the initial thought that the Afro-Cubans were not segregated, but in reality, they were treated the same way as the blacks. The struggles faced by the Cubans in preserving their culture, ethnicity and racial identity in all the period starting from the era of Jim Crow proved to be a victory for them. The Cuban society still exists to present with a continual passage of their ethnic practices and traditions. It can be noted that the white Cubans who differentiated themselves from their fellow Black Country people proved to have played a critical role in the establishment of the black Cuban society in Florida.
Bibliography
de la Fuente, Alejandro. "RACE, IDEOLOGY, AND CULTURE IN CUBA: Recent Scholarship." Latin American Research Review 35 , no. 3 (2000): 199-210.
Gates Documentary. (2013). Black in Latin America (Episode 2) Cuba the Next Revolution. [Video File]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ygms7GCXIKY.
Horne, Gerald. Race to Revolution: The U.S. and Cuba during Slavery and Jim Crow . New York: Monthly Review Press, 2014.
1 Alejandro de la Fuente, "Race, Ideology, and Culture in Cuba: Recent Scholarship," Latin American Research Review 35 , no. 3 (2000): 199-200.
2 Gates Documentary, (2013), Black in Latin America (Episode 2) Cuba the Next Revolution. [Video File], Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ygms7GCXIKY.
3 Gerald Horne, Race to Revolution: The U.S. and Cuba during Slavery and Jim Crow , [New York: Monthly Review Press, 2014], 102.
4 Ibid, 191
5 Gerald Horne, Race to Revolution, 179.
