Cuba and the United States: Ties of Singular Intimacy

7. Stirrings of Nationality

Stirrings of Nationality By the 19208, the contradictions of U.S.hegemony in Cuba had overtaken the republic. For more than two decades the United States had endeavored to create conditions in Cuba in which North American interests—political, economic, strategic—could flourish and prevail, not only against the interests of other foreigners but against Cuban ones as well. Increasingly, Cubans were reduced to marginal participation in the conduct of the affairs of their own state, operating at the edge in pursuit of their interests, in ways common to all marginalized cultures—through wile, cunning, and opportunism . They exasperated their North Americanpatrons, outwitted them on occasion, and effectively if irregularly thwarted the expansion of North American influence over the island. They neither directly challenged the North Americanpresence in Cuba nor refuted the assumptions upon which U.S. hegemonyrested, but through resourcefulness and subterfuge they achieved no small amount of success. Cubans understood well North Americanpower, its limits, and the character of its use, and through this knowledge achieved over time a measure of autonomy. The United States demanded unobstructed scope of action. As Cuban autonomy and local initiative diminished, so did the prestige of national leaders. The Crowder mission was the culmination of this trend. As the scope of North American intervention widened and its authority penetrated deeper into Cubaninternalaffairs, the very exercise of that control served to sharpen the contradictions of Cuban political economy. The United States could not preemptCubangovernment on the scale it had during the late 19105 and early 19205 without inflicting irreparable damage on the ability of Cuban officeholders to rule internally . What was not perhaps entirely evident to North Americans in the early 19205 was that these were the rulers to whom the United States looked for the defense of its interests, and to deny Cubans the 170 7 171 Stirrings of Nationality authority to rule was effectively to undermine their capacity to govern . Bypreempting Cuban rule so blatantly, in plain sight of a national audience, the United States exposed Cuban sovereignty as a fiction, revealing Cuban rulers as little more than instruments ofNorth American interests, incapable of defending national interests and unable to preserve national sovereignty—and thereby serving to set in motion demands for another kind of patria and stirring the embers of Cuban nationalism. Economic and social circumstances of the client state changed in the 19205. The prosperity of the war years stimulated economic development and released new social forces that changed the character of Cuban society, revealing a more complicated social system, more clearly defined class structures, and more distinctly articulated social conflict. New social groups emerged as aggressive political contenders , seeking change and reform. Butthey rejected more than the old politics; they also challenged the premises of North American hegemony and denounced U.S. influence over the political system and the national economy. One sign of the changing times was the emergence of a new Cuban entrepreneurial bourgeoisie, shaped by conditions created during World War I and the development of an import-substitution industry at the consumer-goods level. Local manufacture and light industry expanded during the war years, providing new opportunities forlocal capital. Land speculation and a building boom in Havana boosted Cuban construction-related enterprise. Bythe mid-igzos, Cuban capital dominated some thousand factories and businesses across the island. The emergence of this Cubanentrepreneurialbourgeoisie gave form to a new political constituency, representing capital largely local, advocating goals entirely national, but most of all demanding state support of interests wholly Cuban. These were the groups most susceptible to the appeals of economic nationalism and for whom North American intervention on behalf of foreign capital was becoming increasingly noxious and unacceptable. Their most prominent demands included state protection from foreign competition, reduction of the 172 CUBA AND THE UNITED STATES role of foreign capital in the national economy, state-supported development projects, technical assistance, and subsidized loans andlowinterest credit. They called for probity and honesty in public office and demanded increased state intervention in education, medical care, and housing. Developments in the 19205 galvanized the new entrepreneurial bourgeoisie into political action. These were years during which Cuban property owners became alive to the necessity for greater political involvement in public affairs in defense of local economic interests. In the early 19205, key sectors of the localbourgeoisie organized into associational pressure groups to defend their interests. The emergence of interest groups created new political pressure for policies in behalf...