Bread, or bullets! : urban labor and Spanish colonialism in Cuba, 1850-1898

192 Pages·1998·20.358 MB·English

by  Joan Casanovas

URBAN LA
PANISH
IN
oan- asanovas
'
'
Published by the University of Pittsburgh Press, Pittsburgh, Pa. 15261
Copyright © 1998, University of Pittsburgh Press
All rights reserved
Manufactured in the United States of America
Printed on acid-free paper
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
To Magdalena
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Casanovas, Joan.
Bread, or bullets! : urban labor and Spanish colonialism in
Cuba, 1850-1898 / Joan Casanovas.
p. cm. (Pitt Latin American series)
Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index.
ISBN 0-8229-4070-1 (acid-free paper)
ISBN 0-8229-5675-6 (pbk.: acid-free paper)
1. Labor movement-Cuba-History-19th century.
2. Slavery-Cuba-History-19th century. 3. Social
classes-Cuba-History-19th century. 4. Spain
Colonies-America-Administration. 5. Working
class-Cuba-History-19th century. 6. Anarchism
Cuba-History-19th century. I. Title. IL Series.
HD8206 .c33 1998
331.8'097291--ddc:21 98-25323
GIP
A CIP catalog record for this book is available from the British Library.
Maps, Figures, and Tables
Contents
Maps
1. Cuba, Showing Provincial Boundaries of 1878 16
ix
Maps, Figures, and Tables
2. Main Urban Centers in Western Cuba in the Nineteenth Century 25
xi
Acknowledgments
3. Havana in the 1880s 26
1
Introduction Figures
15
1 Urban Space and Labor 1. Evolution of the Main Political and Social Forces in
2 The Heyday of Colonialism and the First Artisans' Associations 43 Nineteenth-Century Cuba 4
2. Monthly Cigar Exports from Havana, 1879-1880 29
3 The Labor Movement of the 1860s and Spain's Search
71 3. Havana's Ethnic Composition, 1859 40
for a New Colonial Policy
4. Spanish Immigration to Cuba, 1854-1899 52
97
4 The Ten Years' War
5 The Rebuilding of the Cuban Labor Movement 127 Tables
6 From Reformism to Anarchism 146 1. Population of Cuba, 1862-1899 21
7 Postemancipation Party Politics 178 2. Population of Havana and Suburbs, 1827-1899 24
3. Legal Exports of Cuban Tobacco, 1840-1861 27
8 The Turning Point of the Labor Movement 203
4. Legal Exports of Tobacco Leaf and Cigars, 1871-1899 30
9 Conclusion and Epilogue 222
5. Cigar and Cigarette Makers and Factories in Cuba, 1859 32
6. Cigar and Cigarette Makers in Cuba, 1899 34
237
Notes
7. Distribution of Workers in Major Occupations in Havana,
277
Glossary by Color, 1861 35
281
References
313
Index
8. Workers in Selected Skilled and Semiskilled Trades in Cuba,
by Race and Sex, 1899 39 Acknowledgments
9. Population of Cuba, by National Origin and Race, 1846-1899 45
10. Rate of Emancipation of Slaves in Havana, 1846-1862 51
11. Regular Troops Stationed in Cuba, 1825-1898 57
I am indebted to many people and institutions for the support they have given
me in writing this book, which is based on my Ph.D. dissertation on urban
labor in Cuba in the second half of the nineteenth century. My interest in the
history of urban labor began during my undergraduate studies at the University
of Barcelona. Since then I have continued to count on the teachings of Mary
Nash and Pelai Pages. During my studies for the M.A. and Ph.D. degrees at
the State University of New York (SUNY) at Stony Brook, I benefited from the
knowledge and intellectual generosity of many professors. I would like to stress
my great appreciation for the teachings of Barbara Weinstein, who carefully di
rected my dissertation and debated with me the ideas developed in it. Likewise,
I am indebted to Brooke Larson and Temma Kaplan for their valuable advice
and criticism. My most sincere thanks to Laird W. Bergad, Magdalena Chocano,
Ian Roxborough, and Christopher Schmidt-Nowara for their insightful questions
and suggestions. In reviewing my dissertation and writing this book, I have
greatly benefited from the useful criticism of Clara E. Lida, Nicolas Sanchez
Albornoz, Rebecca J. Scott, Harold D. Sims, and Enric Ucelay da Cal for their
encouraging and helpful comments on my work.
I am particularly grateful to Luis Alonso, Walther L. Bernecker, Josep Ma
Fradera, Marcel van der Linden, Consuelo Naranjo, Jesus Raul Navarro, Josef
Opatrny, and Oscar Zanetti for giving me the possibility to present previews of
my work at several congresses and conferences, as well as for their comments.
As a result, parts of this book appeared first as articles: "Slavery,· the Labour
Movement and Spanish Colonialism in Cuba (1850-1890 );' International Review
of Social History 40 (1995): 367-82; "The Cuban Labor Movement of the 1860s
and Spain's Search for a New Colonial Policy;' Cuban Studies 25 (1995): 83-99;
and "El movimiento obrero y la lucha anticolonial en la Cuba de despues de la
abolici6n;' Boletin Americanista 45 (1995): 23-41. Parts of this study appeared as
contributions to books: "El asociacionismo burgues y obrero en Cuba de 1868
a inicios de los afios 1880;' in Cuba: algunos problemas de su historia, ed. Josef
Opatrny (Prague, 1995); and "El movimiento obrero y la politica colonial es
pafiola en la Cuba de finales del XIX;' in La Nacion sofzada: Cuba, Puerto Rico y
xi
Filipinas ante el 98, ed. Consuelo Naranjo et al. (Madrid-Aranjuez, 1996), 363-75. Last but not least, I owe thanks to the staff of all the libraries and archives in
For their insight and encouragement, my thanks are due to all the participants which I have worked. They include: in Havana, the staff of the Archivo Nacional
of the Twelfth Annual Latin American Labor History Conference at Duke Uni de Cuba ( especially Daniel and Julio), the Biblioteca Nacional Jose Marti ( espe
cially Nancy Machado), the library of the Instituto de Historia ( especially Mar
versity, April 1995, where I presented chapter 6 of this book. I am particularly
indebted to Diego Armu s, John D. French, Daniel James, Gary Long, Tom Klub itza Dorta and Amparo Hernandez), and the Instituto de Literatura y
bock, and Louis A. Perez. Linguistica; in Mexico City, the librarians of the Hemeroteca Nacional de Mex
The number of scholars who have provided comments on parts of my work ico; in Seville, the staff of the Archivo General de Indias and the Escuela de Es
and/or have helped me to locate historical sources are too many to enumerate, tudios Hispano Americanos; in Barcelona, the librarians of the lnstitut
but I would like to mention Ramon de Armas, Ascencion Cambron, Barry Carr, Universitari d'Historia Jaume Vicens Vives ( especially Dolors Pons and Josep
Enrique Collazo, Astrid Cubano, Josep Fontana, Luis M. Garcia Mora, Doria Paya), and the Biblioteca Arus; in Tarragona, the interlibrary loan service of the
Gonzalez, Paul Gootemberg, Fe Iglesias, 'Jorge Ibarra, Carlos Illades, Sally Facultat de Lletres of the Universitat Rovira i Virgili; in Madrid, the staff of the
Kuisel, Radel Martinez Andreu, Aleida Plasencia, Alfonso Quiroz, Ines Roldan, Biblioteca Nacional, the Archivo Hist6rico Nacional (especially Maria Jose Ar
Carlos Serrano, and Cesar Yanez. My heartfelt gratitude goes to Paul Avrich, ranz), the Hemeroteca Municipal, and the Real Academia de la Historia; in Am
Maria Cecilia Cangiano, Alejandro Caneque, Arcadio Diaz Quinones, Angel sterdam, the lnternationaal Institut voor Sociale Geschiedenis ( especially Justo
Duarte, Ferran Estrada, Leida Fernandez, Reinaldo Funes, Gene Lebovics, Mendoza); in New York, the Center for Cuban Studies (especially Sara Levin
Delfin Perez, and Pedro Rodriguez for their guidance, support, and friendship. son), the Hispanic Society of America, and the New York Public Library ( espe
I also wish to express my most sincere thanks to the staff of the University of cially Andrew Lee); in Washington, D.C., the Library of Congress and the
Pittsburgh Press for their keen interest in publishing this study and for their National Archives; and at Stony Brook, the Melville Library ( especially the ref
professional help, especially to Niels Aaboe, Jane Flanders, Eileen Kiley, Kathy erence librarians and the staff in the Interlibrary Loan Service).
Meyer, Cynthia Miller, Colleen Salcius, and Ann Walston.
The History Department of SUNY at Stony Brook made this research pro
ject on Cuban history possible by granting me a teaching assistantship for three
years. Without this aid I could not have obtained my M.A. degree or begun
the Ph.D. program. Later, a grant from the Spanish Ministry of Education and
Science, in collaboration with the Fulbright Commission, allowed me to concen
trate on this research project for four years. In addition, a postdoctoral fellowship
from the Fundacion Ortega y Gasset and the Fundaci6 "la Caixa" allowed me to
conduct research in archives and libraries in Madrid. The administrators of
these grants displayed professionalism, kindness, and generosity when dealing
with all the requests I made during this time. Once I had left Stony Brook and
had become part of the research team "The Spanish Insular Empire" (financed
by the Spanish Ministry of Education and Science, DGICYT PB 93-0858) be
tween October 1994 and July 1997, Josep Ma Delgado and Josep Ma Fradera gave
me every facility to research and write this book. Last, SUNY at Stony Brook, the
CSIC, the Spanish Ministry of Culture, the CIRIT of the Generalitat of Catalonia,
Duke University, and the Universitat Erlangen-Nilrnberg supplied the funds to
present previews of my work in Washington D.C., Aranjuez, Havana, Prague,
Durham, and Erlangen, respectively.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS xiii
XII ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Introduction
THE ENORMOUS QUANTITY of books about Cuba published in the last few
decades shows the great interest that this country has aroused. The 1959
Revolution compelled intellectuals all over the world to focus their attention on
Cuban history, society, and culture. However, many fundamental aspects of
Cuban history have not yet been thoroughly studied. This book deals with a
subject that has been little researched, despite its importance: the evolution of
the urban popular classes in Cuba during the last five decades of Spanish rule of
the island. It seeks to uncover how working-class Cubans sought to change their
lives in the context of the transition from slave to free labor and of the fluctua
tions of Spanish colonial rule.
Nineteenth-century colonial society and the slave system sharply divided
Cuba's inhabitants by race and by origin (primarily, a division between Spaniards
and creoles). In Cuba these two sources of division were so intense that, until
the last decades of the century, they outweighed class or gender. This social con
text deeply affected the development of the labor movement, which began to
emerge in the late 1850s. Racial and ethnic divisions placed members of the var-
1
ious popular classes in such different ranks that workers with common interests lares, it had the support of several wealthy creoles with tight social and economic
found it difficult to mobilize themselves and organize unions. Despite these links with the peninsular sector and the Spanish administration. In the 1830s,
barriers, working-class city dwellers gradually developed their own forms of or Spain suppressed colonial representation in the Madrid assembly and expelled
ganization and social participation in the second half of the nineteenth century. creoles from the most important positions in the civilian and military adminis
Although by the 1880s and 1890s only a modest number of urban workers be tration of Cuba. From then on, only a few creoles continued to occupy official
longed to labor associations, through the mobilization of all urban popular positions. Colonialism, therefore, subdivided the socioeconomic elite into the
classes these organizations became a major force for social and political change. creole elite on the one hand, and the Spanish and foreign-born elite on the
First I should clarify two terms used to refer to the lower and upper strata of other. (See figure 1.)
society. Following E. P. Thompson, I understand a social class as an entity re Nineteenth-century Cuban society shared many features with other Latin
sulting from its relationship with other social classes, not an abstract historical American societies. Almost all independent states in Latin America had abol
category that follows a determined evolution until it becomes self-conscious. ished slavery by the mid-nineteenth century, but employers continued to use
These class relationships produce changes and conflicts, and by experiencing juridically unfree labor such as compulsory Indian labor, indentured labor,
them a group of people sharing particular interests, social experiences, tradi or debt-peonage, and in Brazil employers continued to use slave labor until
tions, and values begins to recognize itself as a class. I emancipation came in 1888. The use of unfree labor throughout the continent
The terms popular classes or subaltern strata are appropriate for this study reinforced divisions among the popular classes based on race and origin. Au
because they allow us to include social groups that have received little attention thoritarian rule was commonplace in Latin America as well. However, slavery
from traditional histories of the labor movement such as women, children, and Spanish colonialism (a combination that was at once a mode of produc
slaves (o r only partially free workers), and nonwhites. Furthermore, these terms tion, a set of social values, and a political system) marked every aspect of social
are useful because they respect the terminology used by contemporary ob and political life in Cuba. There, relations among social classes developed cer
servers of urban life in nineteenth-century Cuba.
tain features that were different from those in other Latin American countries.
Divisions within the socioeconomic elite make it difficult to identify this Even Puerto Rico, Spain's only other colony besides Cuba in the Americas
group by a single term. Although in Cuba the bourgeois order replaced the Old throughout the nineteenth century, and with a society more like Cuba's than
Regime even faster than in Spain, resulting in the rise of a class with a distinctly any other, followed a different evolution. Puerto Rico never had a slave popula
bourgeois identity, it was a class with substantial internal differences. One ele tion as large as that of Cuba, and abolition took place in 1873, thirteen years
ment of differentiation arose from the kind of production members of the before Cuba. On the other hand, Puerto Rico never developed a separatist move
Cuban elite gained their wealth from. Disagreements among sugar producers, ment of comparable proportions to that in Cuba. The separatist uprising in the
tobacco factory owners, and merchants divided this elite into component parts Puerto Rican town of Lares was defeated in a few days. During Cuba's three
focusing on agriculture, commerce, and industry.
wars of independence, the Ten Years' War (1868-1878), the Guerra Chiquita
A stronger element of differentiation was ethnicity. Creoles, Spaniards (known (1879-1880 ), and the War of Independence (1895-1898), Puerto Rico remained
as peninsulares), and a few foreigners constituted the socioeconomic elite in peaceful. It seems that colonial reforms in Puerto Rico succeeded in reducing
Cuba. Sugar producers were largely creoles, while almost all bankers, merchants, tensions between the creole elite and the metropolitan administration.
and large tobacco manufacturers (marquistas) were born in Spain. Although Examining urban labor in Cuba during the second half of the nineteenth
this was an all-white class, it was not ethnically homogeneous, and colonial pol century helps us to understand how popular classes develop collective action,
icy produced significant divisions within this group. The Spanish and even mem participate in politics, and transform the state. In the Cuban case, popular pres
bers of the foreign bourgeoisie suffered many fewer restrictions than the creole sure, both in rural areas and in cities and towns, was one of the main forces that
bourgeoisie vis-a-vis the colonial administration. This privileged group, who tore down the repressive structure required to sustain slavery, both physically
directly benefited from the colonial condition of Cuba, named themselves the and ideologically. The mobilization of the urban popular classes in the 1880s
Spanish party. Although the Spanish party was mainly composed of peninsu- helped to change society and forced Spain to modify its policy toward the island.
BREAD, OR BULLETS!
INTRODUCTION 3
-
-
Colonial Highly repressive
1845 Policy Repressive with some reforms Cuban party Spanish party
CJ Reformist
1847
1848
Founding of
1850 "El Pilar"
cultural Annexation isl
center conspiracies
(1847-1855)
(Havana 1848)
I
I
1855 II
I
I Volunteers militia
~I ( 1855-1898)
1857
Founding of the
1859 first mutual-aid
1860 associations
Reformist
movement
(1 859--1868)
1865
Reformist
labor movement -
1868 (1865-1868) ---- ------ -
---
1869
1870 Separatist Havana's
Spanish Circle
movement main power in
inside Cuba Cuba
1873 and in exile (1869-1873)
1875
1878
--- PUC
1880 -- (1878-1898)
Democratic Party :::-0-..: .--....,-- -----
(1878-1879 & 1881) - --
-
1884
1885
Anarchist
labor movement
(1882-)
1890
1892
Cuban
Revolutionary Reformist
1895 Party Party
(1893-1896)
(1892-1898)
1898
Figure 1. Evolution of the main political and social forces in nineteenth-century Cuba.
Source: Author.
When an economic crisis and reactionary colonial practices swept the island in
the 1890s, the popular classes helped to dismantle Spanish rule.
Geographically, this study focuses on western Cuba (Occidente), the most
developed and populated region of the island, Las Villas, and Puerto Principe
(today known as Camaguey). In eastern Cuba (Oriente), there were no towns
and cities as large as those in western Cuba. In 1861 Santiago de Cuba, the only
eastern town with more than 6,000 inhabitants, had a population of 36,000,
and because most of the Ten Years' War and the Guerra Chiquita were fought in
the east, artisans there could not organize formally until the latter 1880s. The
first ~trike in Santiago's tobacco factories did not take place until June 1887,
while in Havana there were strikes from 1865 on. Besides, the emergence of or
ganized labor in eastern Cuba was closely linked to the separatist movement,
and until the twentieth century it maintained very weak ties with labor organi
zations elsewhere in Cuba. 2
The first historiographic question to be answered concerns the relationship be
tween juridically free workers and slaves in Cuban urban centers and the conse
quences of this relationship for the labor movement. As in oilier slave societies
in the Americas, in Cuba both free laborers and slaves worked in all branches of
the urban economy, often doing the same tasks. As Herbert S. Klein points out,
sugar production never absorbed the majority of the slave labor force. Urban
slaves always made up a significant proportion of the entire slave population:
one-third in 1825 and one-fifth in 1855.3
Even so, we still do not have precise knowledge of urban slavery in the His
panic Caribbean in the nineteenth century and why it decreased faster than
rural slavery. There is only some research on urban slavery in San Juan, Puerto
Rico, in the period.4 Although some books touch on urban slavery in nine
teenth-century Cuba,5 the subject has not been fully explored. By contrast, a
significant quantity of research has been done on slavery in several Latin Amer
ican cities such as Rio de Janeiro, Salvador de Bahia, Buenos Aires, and Lima. 6
Historical studies on the transition to free labor in the Caribbean have fo
cused on emancipation in rural areas, and in the case of Cuba, on sugar slavery. 7
The end of rural slavery in Cuba has been studied in depth and has aroused an
interesting debate about the causes of its extinction. Until the 1980s, most his
torians contended tliat the technical modernization of sugar mills and the need
for more skilled labor were incompatible with the use of slave labor. The devel
opment of production techniques, it was argued, provoked the elimination of
slavery.8 More recent studies dispute this idea. They contend that planters tried
INTRODUCTION 5
to use slave labor as long as they could, despite changes in production tech evolved, and has sought to discover at what point workers acquire class con
niques and the increasing price of slaves. It was the slaves' struggle for freedom sciousness, a concept defined as a fixed category. This approach assumes that
that brought an end to slavery.9 the working class has no internal or autonomous stimulus, that only external
The analysis presented in chapter 1 on labor conditions in tobacco growing social and material influences can make workers conscious of their own exis
and urban trades reinforces this thesis. Both activities required a skilled labor tence and common interests. 10 New historiographic currents, however, success
force, and yet slaves were used massively in them, indicating that free and unfree fully explain the history of popular classes in several Latin American countries
labor coexisted in all productive sectors. Therefore, it is impossible to completely by investigating how they themselves reshaped social conditions and political
explain the world of labor in Cuba without considering all the urban popular circumstances.11
classes, both free and unfree, as interconnected and in constant evolution. Most scholars studying the history of the nineteenth-century Cuban labor
Chapter 2 explores the impact of slavery on labor conditions in urban work movement have subscribed to the view of the traditional historiography of
shops. Although workers occupied very different ranks, slave society and colonial Latin American labor. The driving force in their research has been the need to
law paradoxically also drove workers to build class ties that spanned divisions of explore the origins of the 1959 Cuban Revolution. Most of the work produced
origin (peninsular or creole), race, and degree of freedom. Slavery and colonial for this purpose is teleological: imposing a pattern on the history of Cuban
ism not only were used to extract the slaves' labor, but also helped the socioeco labor that inevitably converges upon the present. In this view, the labor move
nomic elite to harden labor relations for free or partially free urban workers. ment evolved as a cumulative process in which Cuban workers have been the
Slavery was the labor model of the elite in Cuba. When slaves could not be used, passive objects of external influences. Step by step, the labor movement ad
the elite sought to exploit the closest kind oflabor to slavery, such as indentured vanced. By eliminating inconvenient developments in the history of organized
workers (including apprentices), semifree shop assistants, soldiers, prisoners, labor that contradict the thesis, such studies show the popular classes moving
children from the House of Charity (Casa de Beneficencia), among others. Even inexorably toward a necessary end, the 1959 Revolution. These scholars gener
in trades where most workers were free, such as the cigar makers (the largest ally agree that an incipient labor movement in Cuba emerged in the mid-186os,
contingent of urban workers), they were severely restricted through legal mech with a Spanish immigrant as its leader and with a reformist orientation. While
anisms such as the libreta del tabaquero (journeyman cigar maker's booklet). acknowledging that reformists founded the first labor organizations on the is
Free workers in Cuba faced the constant threat of being replaced by forced land, they criticize reformism for seeking harmony between labor and capital
labor. This interdependence explains why in the 1860s the labor movement and accepting Spanish rule in Cuba, thus preventing workers from developing
began to express opposition to the use of unfree labor in factories and work a true class consciousness and forging a Cuban national identity.12 The under
shops, and why in 1873 the labor movement began to express its abolitionism lying reasoning of this historiography is similar to the reasoning of the Whig his
publicly. (This is discussed in chapters 3-5). toriography of modern England that Herbert Butterfield analyzes in The Whig
Interpretation of History.
A second historiographic question this book addresses is: what historical cir Scholars exploring the origins of the 1959 Revolution acknowledge that an
cumstances led urban popular classes to adopt particular ideologies and tactics archism, by displacing reformism in the 1880s, made an essential contribution
to change social and political conditions? This study begins by asserting that the by fostering class consciousness. These scholars, however, believe that anar
concrete needs and goals of working-class people in nineteenth-century Cuba chism, by discouraging political participation, doomed the labor movement to
led the labor movement to embrace different radical ideologies on the basis of failure and blocked the spread of separatism among workers. Furthermore, they
their concrete moral values and tactics of class struggle. The evolution of the argue that in the twentieth century the labor movement could not effectively
Cuban labor movement in the second half of the nineteenth century illustrates oppose repressive governments on the one hand, and U.S. expansionism on the
this process. other, until communism provided a way out by showing the labor movement
The traditional historiography of Latin American labor has focused on struc that workers must participate in politics. Finally, these scholars explain the
tural economic and social analysis to explain how the working class emerged and spread of anarchism in Cuba as being exclusively the product of the Spanish an-
6 BREAD, OR BULLETS! INTRODUCTION 7