Some problems in enumerating the ‘peasantry’ in Cuba¹

Not all of the primary or secondary statistical sources referred to in this paper are now accessible to the author. References have, in these cases, been based on notes, tables, etc. elaborated in other times and places. Some references have been left deliberately incomplete as preferable to errors that might arise from imprecisions of memory.

Abstract

This article examines some major censuses or surveys purporting to quantify the number and productive or social circumstances of the agrarian population in pre‐Revolutionary Cuba. Although, by comparison with the majority of countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America, Cuba was well‐endowed with such statistics, it is shown that flaws in methodology, presentation, reproduction and interpretation ensure that they generally obscure as much as they reveal. Secondary sources are shown generally to compound confusions present in primary ones. While of some value as a cautionary tale for students of the ‘peasantry’ in general, the author views the article as an essentially negative exercise and is preparing a more positive reconstruction of data for publication at a later date.

Notes

Institute of Latin American Studies, University of Glasgow

Not all of the primary or secondary statistical sources referred to in this paper are now accessible to the author. References have, in these cases, been based on notes, tables, etc. elaborated in other times and places. Some references have been left deliberately incomplete as preferable to errors that might arise from imprecisions of memory.