IDENTIDADES 1 ENGLISH IDENTIDADES 2 ENGLISH | Page 77

Origen and splendor of these societies: the
dream of social integration
All slave societies preserved strong traces of their
past, yet in Cuba the indelible mark of skin color
backed the stigma and shame associated with the
poor, which was mostly black. It worked against
their rightful social, political and economic participation.
Despite the 1901 Constitution, blacks continued
being the most disdained members of the workforce and public or private leisure spaces.
The later establishment of the Atenas Occidental
and Hijos de Maceo clubs experienced the permanence of the exclusion there was in Pinar del Río,
where there were two, white meeting places: the
Spanish Colonia’s Lyceum and the Spanish Colonia.2
In Havana, this translated into the creation of the
Club Atenas, an elite black organization whose
prestige represented a model for other island associations,3 particularly in Pinar del Río.
The 1930s brought with it significant changes in
the black population’s perception in Cuba.
Their organizations, always seeking the acceptance of their membership from within Cuban
society, fomented a certain disparity, whereby
they continued to acculturate by identifying with
white, hegemonic culture. These ambiguities are
obvious in the two, a f