Rebel Lands of Cuba: The Campesino Struggles of Oriente and Escambray, 1934–1974, written by Joanna Swanger
Year: 2017
Type: article
Abstract: The mountains of Oriente and Escambray served as important sites of rebellion during the Cuban wars for independence at the end of the nineteenth century and again during the revolutionary insurrection of the 1950s.After 1959, however, the two regions diverged sharply: whereas Oriente was seen as the cradle of the Cuban Revolution, Escambray served as the main locus of armed counterrevolutionary activity on the island in the 1960s.In Rebel Lands of Cuba, Joanna Swanger develops a compelling explanation for the differing responses to revolution of the residents of these two rural areas by examining the changing relationship between campesinos and the State in terms of race, gender, and class relations and land tenure arrangements.She argues that agrarian structures, relative racial diversity, and an established history of collective organizing in Oriente meshed well with-and, in fact, served as inspiration forthe projects of rural transformation undertaken by the Revolution.Dominant traditions of individual land ownership framed through notions of white masculinity in Escambray, on the other hand, led to counterrevolution and state repression.Rebel Lands of Cuba stands out on a number of levels.While scholars have been paying greater attention to the regional particulars of Cuban history, this book is distinct in its comparative regional approach, and thus nicely complements the recent work by Gillian McGillivray on state formation in comparative regional perspective (see Blazing Cane: Sugar Communities, Class, and State Formation in Cuba, 1868-1959, 2009).Its focus on Escambray-which, as Swanger points out, has essentially been expunged from historical memory since the 1960s-is particularly welcome.Spanning the decades before and after the onset of revolution rather than seeing 1959 as a starting or ending point, the book capably considers how relations between campesinos and the State changed over time.By focusing on rural communities dedicated primarily to coffee production in Escambray and Oriente (specifically, the areas near the Sierra Maestra and Sierra del Cristal), it also provides a welcome counterpoint to the dominant historiographical focus on the Cuban sugar industry.The first four chapters of the book cover the prerevolutionary period.Chapter 1 presents a composite sketch of a typical coffee-producing peasant household before delineating the different racial, gender, and land tenure characteristics of the peasantries in Oriente and Escambray.Compared to their counterparts in the western mountains, campesinos in Oriente-who were more likely to be Afro-Cuban and less likely to live in male-headed nuclear families-
Author: Marc McLeod
Institution: Seattle University
Language: English
Topic: Cuban History and Society
Subfield: Sociology and Political Science
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W2612209283