In A Cultural History of Cuba During the U.S. Occupation, 1898-1902, Utset seeks to analyze the Cuban experience “between empires”, from a different perspective. Rather than approaching the study by concentrating on the political leaders and elites, she disrupts this trend and focuses on the agency of Cuba’s people en masse—the voices of ordinary Cubans. By examining Cuba below and beyond the elite, Iglesias offers a perspective rarely visited and illuminates the complexities of the developing events that transpired between the end of Spanish colonial rule, 1898, and the beginning of U.S. occupation in 1902. In doing so, she identifies three distinct views Cubans held regarding nationalism: proponents of a staunch unwavering break from the past to a solidified distinct Cuban identity; advocates for embracing progress and modernity by accepting the Americanization of Cuba; and supporters of protecting and maintaining a Spanish heritage. She accomplishes this by utilizing a wide array of resources. While she emphasizes that at the turn of the century, Cuban society was largely illiterate and rustic, her investigation encompasses the use of the …show more content…
occupation that are wide-ranging and deeply intimate. More broadly, the book is a reflection on how personal identities, public and private memories, business, and political events are often interconnected and linked. This reviewer is delighted to know that Louis A. Pérez is not the only authoritative voice on Cuban historiography, (specifically the war of 1898). Utset’s monograph is inspiring and illuminating for many transatlantic historians looking to explore perspectives outside and underneath familiar frameworks of region and nation and toward more expansive views of the transatlantic
Therefore, a question arises: how can creation and destruction find reconciliation in the Mexican Revolution? Mariano Azuela’s The Underdogs is often labelled a classic for multiple reasons. The first resides in the quality of Azuela’s writing. Demetrio Macías’ story is epic, in both class
This text scratches the surface of the real issues in Latin American history but does not help the reader take the next step in understanding it. The UNC scholar falls flat in organizing the mess that is Latin American history but does an admirable job in setting up readers for more advance text
Probably the most notable element of Lander’s work is the biographical narratives, which both honor the key individuals of the time period, but also portray the processes by which Atlantic Creoles made decisions and formed strategic alliances. Landers portrays how these individuals gathered their information and in turn reformulated European and American revolutionary thought for their own fights for independence. Through her extensive research in Spain, America, and Haiti, she is able to make a compelling case as to how these people of interest “shaped the course of international events, as well as local responses to them,” (5). The monumental amount of evidence she gathers from her immense research all over the world makes her arguments not only very credible, but also vastly more interesting. Her use of evidence pulled from physical documents preserved from that time period produces connections between the people she’s discussing that are not only believable, but historically accurate.
America’s entrance in the Spanish-American War was primarily due to the random explosion of the USS Maine on February 15, 1898, which killed 267 service men aboard. This attack leads to Congress’s vote to go to war against Spain. The United States’ desire to expand military overseas also played a part in the American entrance to this war. Economically speaking, the U.S. wanted Cuban crops to come to America, and not only Spain. “The war enabled the United States to establish its predominance in the Caribbean region and to pursue its strategic and economic interests in Asia” (“Spanish-American War”).
The text The Surrender Tree part 2 “The Ten Years’ War” was written to give a perspective of Cuban people fighting for their
Even though, during war the United States rather argued it’s nobleness in world matters, protecting Cubans and Filipinos from Spaniards. An exemplar of this is America issuing the Teller Amendment; which declared that Americans had no interest in taking political control in Cuba. But, later the Teller Amendment was proved wrong by the Platt Amendment, which stated that; Cuba would never sign a treaty with foreign power, impairing it’s independence, let America maintain independence and order in the country, and the United States maintain Guantanamo Bay a permanent base. Therefore, the U.S. controlling Cuba’s policies. The Filipinos as well are another exemplar of it, during the Spanish-American war they were offered independence but, later on were taken as United States territory until, the Filipino Revolution led to independence.
The imperialistic mentality of the American government after the Civil War, led to some degree to the Spanish-American war that would render a great acquisition of land for the United States. However, imperialism would not be the sole factor that led to the war against Spain, but also the sympathy felt by the American government towards Cuba’s efforts in fighting for their independence; additionally, the United States would seek to protect its commercial interests (sugar) in the island. Therefore, after invoking the Spanish to secede from their brutal practices towards Cuban rebels and attain a peaceful end to the situation, the United States arbitrarily sent a navy ship, “The USS Maine” to monitor the area.
In 1492, Christopher Columbus landed in Cuba. At this time, people in Cuba lived by farming various crops, including cassava and tobacco. Nineteen years later, Diego Velasquez conquered Cuba for Spain. The people in Cuba mostly exported sugar farmed by slaves in the 1700s. In the early 1800s, however, the people of Cuba sought independence.
Growing up in Cuba, boys and girls were freely allowed to play with one another. Many girls would climb big trees to get fresh savory mangos. They would fall and scrape their knees while playing hide and seek and even play sports which were considered “manly”. Many girls preferred to work outside the house, they would perform jobs such as; repairing a broken fence or painting the house. Boys were never told not to play with the girls, in fact, they would also help out around the house and clean dishes after a meal.
Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz was born on August 13, 1926. Near Biran which is located in Cuba’s eastern Oriente Province. Castro’s father, Angel, was a wealthy plantation owner that had business connections in America. Fidel’s mother, Linda Ruz Gonzalez was a maid for his father’s wife, Maria Luisa Argota. By the time Fidel was 15 years old his father demolished his relationship with Luisa and married Maria.
Being a Cuban immigrant has provided me with a unique bicultural perspective that has become my support system in the United States. For the first eleven years of my life, my culture was composed of music and dancing. In every street corner of my hometown, there was a group of seniors playing domino and close by, their grandchildren dancing to the Salsa music being played on the radio to pass the time. The hardships created by the communist regime are overshadowed by memories of my mother teaching me how to sew and by my paternal grandmother teaching me how to enjoy a strong Cuban coffee. Those precious memories of home became a source of pain when I migrated to the United States.
Race relations within the revolutionary Caribbean complicated the Twentieth Century, leaving questions of freedom and nationalism open to interpretation. In A Nation for All, Alejandro De La Fuente examines various meanings of race within post-Spanish Cuba, Batista’s Cuba, and socialist Cuba, and how racial tensions aligned with revolutionary ideas. Rather than simply adopting a chronological organization of events, Alejandro De La Fuente gains the reader’s attention by utilizing a thematic scheme. The idea of an inequality, masked by revolutionary, egalitarian rhetoric, remains central to each thematic division. De La Fuente’s work serves to undermine the elitist pretense of equality in Twentieth Century Cuba and expose the long-term effects
Opponents argue that the embargo is only harming the people of Cuba rather than benefiting them and it does not affect the government as it intends. The Cuban people are simply isolated they lack the access to technology, medicine, affordable food and other goods. A report by the American Association for World Health found that doctors in Cuba have access to less than 50% of the drugs on the world market, and that food shortages led to a 33% drop in caloric intake between 1989 and 1993. The report stated, "It is our expert medical opinion that the US embargo has caused a significant rise in suffering-and even deaths-in Cuba." Proponents responded that the US is capable of only targeting the Cuban government and not to harm the people in
Because popular media and especially photojournalism functioned as the main resource people had to find about what really happened. This event not only shafted Americans perspective, but also displayed the visual representation of a shifting ideals from Cuba’s freedom to the United States imperialist conquest. Chapters three through five specifically cover the enemy’s during the The War of 1898. Miller emphasizes throughout these chapters the
The 1960s and 1970s were decades of political turmoil in Latin American countries , in a political and diplomatic climate strongly influenced by the dynamics of the Cold War. This formed the background for the work of the writers of the Latin American Boom, and defined the context in which their sometimes radical ideas had to operate The Latin American Boom was a literary movement that not only impacted literature but impacted politics throughout Latin America gateway to modern Latin American Literature that created an international profile and left be-hind a worldwide reputation with these talented and rebellious novelists freely expressing their political views within their writings it was only a matter of time before change began. Although