A Cultural History of Cuba during the U.S. Occupation, 1898-1902

Acknowledgments

Acknowledgments A great many people, some of whom came to my aid with their time, books, knowledge, and experience, and others simply with their unconditional caring and devotion, have been key to the completion of this book. In the first instance, I would like to thank my scholarly adviser, María del Carmen Barcia, for her intellectual generosity and her many valuable suggestions . I am also grateful to Oscar Zanetti, Oscar Loyola, Berta Álvarez, and Olga Portuondo, each of whom read and offered insightful observations on the initial results of my research. The critical comments made by Jorge Ibarra, Alejandro García, and Gloria García helped me to clarify and sharpen the central themes and topics of this book. Moreover, it was through reading Jorge Ibarra’s book that I became particularly interested in studying the interweaving of nationalism and popular culture. A great many of the ideas which I expound in this work grew out of the exchanges that took place—over a period of years—among the members of a workshop of young historians. The group was organized and overseen by Professor Carmen Almodóvar of the University of Havana, and I am deeply grateful for her enthusiasm and belief in the future and for the confidence that she placed in me. Likewise, Imilcy Balboa, Manuel Barcia, Joel Cordoví, Mercedes García, Latvia Gaspe, Blancamar León, Adrián López, Rolando Misa, and—in particular—Yolanda Díaz, Leida Fernández, Reinaldo Funes, Julio González, Oilda Hevia, Ricardo Quiza, and Pablo Riaño—friends, colleagues, and fellow workshop members—listened with the utmost patience as I addressed the same themes time and time again, offering me not only their intelligent comments , bibliographic suggestions, and references to archival source material, but also the warmth and reassurance of their friendship. Francisco Pérez Guzmán and Enrique López generously shared with me information and ideas accumulated during many years of historical research. I am grateful for their regard and collaboration, as I am for that of Orlando Garc ía, director of the Archivo Histórico Provincial of Cienfuegos, and Fernando Martínez. I also owe a considerable intellectual debt to a group of historians in the U.S. academic community whose work I have closely followed in recent years. x acknowledgments In large measure, it was the publications of Louis A. Pérez Jr. which led me to concentrate on the complex and fascinating period that I have chosen. His personal efforts and the financial assistance granted me by the American Council of Learned Societies/Social Science Research Council afforded me the opportunity to examine a part of the extensive documentary resources on Cuba held in both the U.S. National Archives and the collections of the Library of Congress . I have learned a great deal from the work done by Rebecca J. Scott, work that is meticulous, painstaking, and yet highly imaginative; I am grateful to her and to Michael Zeuske, professor and research historian at the University of Cologne, Germany, for the support they have given me as well as for the fruitful intellectual exchanges which they arranged, among a “transnational” community of researchers, during the course of meetings and workshops held in Cienfuegos, Havana, Santiago de Cuba, and Cologne. I owe a special debt of gratitude to Franklin D. Knight, who took time out of a packed schedule to translate an abbreviated version of my work into English . The research conducted by Aline Helg and Ada Ferrer helped shape the approaches I have taken in this study toward the subjects of race and nationalism , and I thank Ada Ferrer, as well as David Sartorius, José Amador, Reinaldo Román, Alejandra Bronfman, and Marikay McCabe not only for sharing texts and ideas but for the concern and affection they have shown me throughout this project, a bond strong enough to overcome any tendency on my part to become isolated or blocked in my work. It was my reading a little more than seven years ago of the writings of Arcadio Díaz Quiñones on Puerto Rico and Cuba which prompted me to take up the study of the complexities underlying the transition to postcolonial society and to reflect on the symbolic dimension of the changes which occurred as a result of this process. The present work is the direct descendant of that early interest and inquiry. At the same time, the work of Díaz Quiñones’s colleague, distinguished Puerto Rican sociologist...