Castro’s Negra/osFootnote^*

* Naming is always an act of power. What to call Cubans from African descent is complex. I debated which label would faithfully express the Cuban experience. Do I impose the English term “Black” or use the Spanish word “negro”? Aware of the similarity to the English word “Negro,” and the preference of U.S. Blacks for “African-Americans,” or simply “Blacks”; I, nonetheless, chose the term normatively employed by both Black and White Cubans: negros (which I italicized to distinguish my usage of Spanish). Writing with a Cuban voice, I rejected “African-American” because the word America, which supposedly encompasses all countries in the Amerícas (including Cuba), had been hijacked by one country for self-reference. I thought of using the term “Afro-Cuban” for those with West African ancestry but decided not because the term is uttered in the language of the colonizer. And while afrocubano was a possibility, I rejected its usage because there exists no term like eurocubano to distinguish Whites, thus making all cubanos White unless otherwise noted. Nonetheless, leaning toward using “negro” fails to eliminate other concerns, specifically the word’s masculine gender and its reinforcement of a neat male/female dichotomy. Although I thought of using the word negrx (as in Latinx) making room for gender fluidity; my concern is that few scholarly sources – especially among Cuban Blacks – employ negrxs. It was not my place to begin imposing this term. Hence, in spite of its limitations, I decided to use negro/as.

Bibliography

• Aguilera, Yris Perez, Testimony at the UN, United Nations Human Rights Council, 24th Session. Adoption of Cuba’s UPR Report, September 20, 2013. http://secure.unwatch.org/site/apps/nlnet/content2.aspx?c=bdKKISNqEmG&b=1313923&ct=13328733#spanish.
   Google Scholar
• Casal, Lourdes. “Race Relations in Contemporary Cuba.” In The Cuban Reader: The Making of a Revolutionary Society, ed. Philip Brenner, William M. LeoGrande, Donna Rich, and Daniel Siegel, 471–86. New York: Grove Press, 1989.
   Google Scholar
• Castro, Fidel. “We Will Never Return to the Slave Barracks.” In How Far We Slaves Have Come!: South Africa and Cuba in Today’s World, ed. Nelson Mandela and Fidel Castro, 33–76. New York: Pathfinder, 1991.
   Google Scholar
• Clayton, Lawrence A. Bartolomé de las Casas: A Biography. New York: Cambridge Press, 2012.
   Google Scholar
• Corbitt, Duvon Clough. A Study of the Chinese in Cuba, 1847–1947. Wilmore, KY: Asbury College, 1971.
   Google Scholar
• de la Fuente, Alejandro. “Recreating Racism: Race and Discrimination in Cuba’s Special Period.” In A Contemporary Cuba Reader: Reinventing the Revolution, ed. Philip Brenner, Marguerite Rose-Jiménez, John M. Kirk, and William M. LeoGrande, 314–23. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2008.
   Google Scholar
• De La Torre, Miguel A. “Ochún: [N]either the [M]Other of All Cubans, [N]or the Bleached Virgin.” Journal of the American Academy of Religion 69, no. 4 (December 2001): 837–61. doi: 10.1093/jaarel/69.4.837
   Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Ferrer, Ada. Insurgent Cuba: Race, Nation, and Revolution, 1868–1898. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 1999.
   Google Scholar
• Foner, Philip S. The Spanish-Cuban-American War and the Birth of American Imperialism, 1898–1902, vol. 2. New York: Monthly Review Press, 1972.
   Google Scholar
• Gott, Richard. Cuba: A New History. New Haven: Yale University, 2004.
   Google Scholar
• Helg, Aline. Our Rightful Share: The Afro-Cuban Struggle for Equality, 1886–1912. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 1995.
   Google Scholar
• Knight, Franklin W. The Caribbean: The Genesis of a Fragmented Nationalism, 2nd ed. New York: Oxford University Press, 1990.
   Google Scholar
• Martí, José. Obra Completas. La Habana: Editorial de Ciencias Sociales, 1991.
   Google Scholar
• Martinez-Alier, Verena. Marriage, Class and Color in Nineteenth Century Cuba: A Study of Racial Attitudes and Sexual Values in a Slave Society. London: Cambridge University Press, 1974.
   Google Scholar
• McGarrity, Gayle and Osvaldo Cárdenas. “Cuba.” In No Longer Invisible: Afro-Latin Americans Today, ed. Minority Rights Group, 77–107. London: Minority Rights, 1995.
   Google Scholar
• Montejo, Esteban. The Autobiography of a Runaway Slave, ed. Miguel Barnet and trans. Jocasta Innes. New York: Pantheon Books, 1968.
   Google Scholar
• Moore, Carlos. Castro, the Blacks, and Africa. Los Angeles: Center for Afro-American Studies, University of California, 1988.
   Google Scholar
• Mörner, Magnus. Race Mixture in the History of Latin America. Boston: Little, Brown, 1967.
   Google Scholar
• Paquette, Robert L. Sugar Is Made with Blood: The Conspiracy of La Escalera and the Conflict Between Empires over Slavery in Cuba. Middletown, CN: Wesleyan University Press, 1988.
   Google Scholar
• Pérez, Louis A., Jr. Cuba: Between Reform and Revolution. New York: Oxford University Press, 1988.
   Google Scholar
• Sawyer, Mark Q. “Cuban Revolution and the African Diaspora.” In Encyclopedia of the African Diaspora: Orgins, Experience, and Culture, ed. Carole Boyce Davies, 348–50. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC CLIO, 2008.
   Google Scholar
• Scott, Rebecca J. Slave Emancipation in Cuba: The Transition to Free Labor, 1860–1899. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1985.
   Google Scholar
• Segal, Ronald. Black Diaspora: Five Centuries of the Black Experience Outside Africa. New York: Farrar, Staus, and Giroux, 1999.
   Google Scholar
• Suárez, Bernardo Ruiz. The Color Question in the Two Americas. New York: The Hunt, 1922.
   Google Scholar
• Thomas, Hugh. Cuba: The Pursuit of Freedom. New York: Harper & Row, 1971.
   Google Scholar