IDENTIDADES 1 ENGLISH IDENTIDADES 2 ENGLISH | Page 30

ples of this nineteenth-century, ideological trend include works by criollo patricians such as philosopher
José Agustín Caballero, attorney Francisco Arango y
Parreño and journalist José Antonio Saco. All these
writers limited their rhetoric about the Cuban nation
to the white population and excluded the ‘colored’
one. Some of them, like Saco, proposed “whitening”
the Cuban population through miscegenation and the
promotion of white immigration, primarily from
Spain.
Later on, the definition of the nation gradually broadened and began to include blacks and mulattoes. The
best example of this more inclusive rhetoric is, perhaps, the work of poet and patriot José Martí, who in
1893 coined the famous adage that a “Cuban was more
than white, more than mulatto, more than black.”1 Despite this idea’s doubtless appeal, Martí’s assertion
has been criticized because it minimized racial differences in order to promote a common, nation-building
project. Even General Antonio Maceo, of the liberating army, said: “Beyond my interest in race, no matter
which, my interest is in Humanity, in short, it is the
good I wish for my beloved country.”2 The myth of
racial democracy that is so popular in Cuba and other
Latin American countries assumes a harmonious coexistence among whites, blacks and mulattoes. The
primary problem with this myth is that it hides the persistence of racial inequality and the need to organize
and mobilize the po pulation around the issue of making claims and demands concerning race.
The republican era
During the twentieth century, the most enlightened
Cuban thinkers made sure to include African descendants (and other ethnic groups, like the Chinese) in a
broader and inclusive narrative of the nation. Yet, the
notion of white supremacy continued to appear in the
work of prominent intellectuals like historian Ramiro
Guerra y Sánchez, who still privileged rural, white,
property owners as the “spinal column of the nation.”3
In the realm of the visual arts, the guajiro (Cuban
peasant) emerged as the principal symbol of Cuban

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nationality at the end of the nineteenth and beginning
of the twentieth centuries.
In the 1920s and 1930s, the Afro-Cuban movement in
literature, music and visual arts highlighted the black
part of Cubanness. It was anthropologist Fernando
Ortiz who offered a more comprehensive view of Cuban culture when he highlighted African contributions
to the ajiaco criollo (homegrown, Cuban stew). In
1945, Ortiz categorically stated: “without blacks,
Cuba would not be Cuba.”4 Pioneering anthropological works by Rómulo Lachateñeré and Lydia Cabrera
contributed to incorporating blacks into Cuba’s nationalist canon.
A number of black intellectuals from the republican
period also promoted racial equality from different
perspectives, among them architect Gustavo Urrutia
and attorney Juan René Betancourt. There is no doubt
that the dominant rhetoric of national identity during
the republican era was less exclusionary than that of
the colonial period. It included the lower-class population, particularly people of African origin. Notwithstanding, Cuban society continued denying blacks and
mulattoes the best employment and educational opportunities.
The post-revolutionary phase
The triumph of the Cuban Revolution in 1959 began a
new phase of race relations on the island. The new
government prohibited institutionalized, racist practices such as the segregation of beaches, parks, clubs,
hotels, restaurants, schools and residences. Furthermore, the cultural authorities promoted the recovery
and appreciation of African roots, especially music,
dance, religion and folklore. Yet, the government did
not design specific policies for combating racial inequality.
The Second Declaration of Havana, in 1962, (prematurely) proclaimed that the Revolution had solved the
problem of racial discrimination. In 1975, the war in
Angola began, and Fidel Castro declared that Cubans
were a “Latin-African” people. Yet, neither the elimi-