Centering Animals in Latin American History: Writing Animals into Latin American History

7. Animal Labor and Protection in Cuba: Changes in Relationships with Animals in the Nineteenth Century

7 Animal Labor and Protection in Cuba Changes in Relationships with Animals in the Nineteenth Century REINALDO FUNES MONZOTE Translated by Alex Hidalgo and Zeb Tortorici During the 1990s, Cuba faced an acute economic crisis as a result of the collapse of the Eastern European socialist bloc and the disintegration of the Soviet Union, the nation’s principal trade and political partners, which absorbed over 80 percent of the commercial relations of the only socialist country in the Americas. Among the most visible changes was significant growth in the use of animals for agricultural work and for the transportation of people and merchandise. Many Cubans were unaccustomed to this image , and the use of animals was interpreted by some as a sign of regression during the so-called ‘‘special period in times of peace.’’ This critique was preceded by profound transformations in previous decades, such as the notable increase in agricultural mechanization. For example, the number of tractors in Cuba increased from 9,000 in 1960 to 85,000 in 1990. In contrast, during the same period, the number of oxen on the island decreased from 500,000 to 163,000, and the number of horses fell from 800,000 to 235,000. The rapid decline in imports such as fossil fuels, automotive vehicles, replacement parts, agrochemicals, and other external raw materials had a strong social and economic impact. However, this decline served as an impetus for many to seek alternatives to a highly industrialized agriculture, and consequently the use of animal labor was also reconsidered in the final decade of the twentieth century. In this economic context, the number of 210 • REINALDO FUNES MONZOTE oxen increased radically from the aforementioned 163,000 in 1990 to nearly 400,000 as the year 2000 neared.∞ At the same time, a rapid expansion of alternative modes of transportation —the rising use of bicycles and the return of wagons and animal-drawn carriages—could also be observed.≤ With this resurgence of animal labor and transport, an old preoccupation that had seemingly been forgotten, at least since draft animals had largely ceased to be the routine companions of humans in urban spaces, reappeared. For example, in the ‘‘Open Letters’’ section of the journal Granma, from 24 September 1996, one reader asked which institutions were responsible for monitoring and enforcing current legislation dealing with individuals who had committed acts of cruelty against animals, if indeed such laws existed. Frequent and commonplace scenes of the abuse of horses, often to the point of heart failure and death, motivated that particular inquiry and others like it. The journal’s response to the reader showed that even after the Unión Nacional de Juristas de Cuba (National Union of Jurists of Cuba) had been consulted, it remained unclear whether or not there were specific laws that prohibited such acts. But, noted the journal, regulations limiting the number of passengers and the hours an animal could be made to work could be elaborated, alongside local rules and regulations to monitor this activity.≥ The issues regarding the use of animals in agriculture and transportation here must be framed within a historical context that encompassed the gradual replacement of animals as the main driving force of the industrial era, with its new methods of transportation and the growing use of fossil fuels. At the same time, in various European nations and other parts of the world, legislative measures were enacted to reduce, regulate, or prohibit certain practices in relation to both domesticated and wild animals. In a similar vein, and partly as a result of the founding of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals in England in 1824, the global development of societies dedicated to the protection of animals multiplied and spread, which significantly influenced changes in social perceptions and attitudes toward animals, as well as corresponding public policies. In this chapter I focus on two interrelated themes that, though distant in time, remain highly relevant to Cuban history. First, in order to contextualize historically the relationships between animals, slavery, and technology, I examine the changing use of oxen in Cuban sugar plantations, from when steam engines and railroad transport first emerged to the beginning of the sugar centralization process in the late nineteenth century. During the nineteenth century, Cubans experienced major shifts regarding the use and ANIMAL LABOR AND PROTECTION IN CUBA • 211 conception of working animals that coincided in signi...