The Idea of Race in Cuba and Brazil from the 1880s to the 1940s

Résumé du document

The beginning of the twentieth century marked a time of modernization for the Latin American continent; however, only a minority of the population in Latin America benefited from social and economic aspects of this evolution. In Cuba and Brazil, the Creole mostly constituted this elite group. Europe largely shaped cultural models of Creole as they depicted the German, French, British or Spanish ideas. Aline Helg insists on the fact that, as social Darwinism, positivism and racial theories were quite widespread among the European elites, they also strongly attracted Hispanic American scholars. The Latin American population comprised different ethnic groups which included the whites, blacks, mulattos, Indians and the Mestizos.

Extraits

[...] Even though many of them were literate, it was almost impossible for a member of the black community to study at the Havana National University at the beginning of the 1920s. In Brazil, paradoxically, there was at the same time a general discourse glorifying the racial mixing of the country and the constant idea of the need to the country. Intellectuals like Gilberto Freyre contributed to develop the myth of a Brazilian “racial paradise”. In his book Casa grande e senzala, Freyre asserted that racial mixing and miscegenation was a great asset for Brazil. [...]

[...] In Cuba and Brazil, the Creole mostly constituted this elite group. Europe still largely shaped Creole cultural models and they imported many ideas from the German, French, British or Spanish debates of this period. Aline Helg insists on the fact that, as social Darwinism, positivism and racial theories were quite widespread among the European elites, they also strongly attracted Hispanic American scholars.[1] The population of Latin America was actually composed by many different ethnic groups: whites, blacks, mulattos, Indians or Mestizos. [...]

[...] Both societies were racially mixed at the end of the nineteenth century. According to a 1872 census in Brazil, white people represented 38% of the population, while black people constituted 20% and remainder were classified as mulatto.”[2] In Cuba, on the other hand, Afro-Cubans also represented a large part of the population by the end of the nineteenth century and they had played a very important role in liberating the country from Spaniards. According to the 1899 census, Afro-Cubans represented more than 33% percent of the population. [...]

[...] Nevertheless, both countries did not deal with the same social situation and did not follow a completely similar path towards national cohesion from the 1880s to the 1940s. The history of Cuba is quite different from the Brazilian one, which explains the strong differences existing between the two societies. It also accounts for the existence of debates concerning the issue of race in terms that were not similar for every nation. Whereas Brazil had managed to remove its bonds from the Portuguese Empire at the beginning of the nineteenth century, Cuba only achieved independence from Spain in 1898. [...]

[...] In Cuba, the Law of Immigration and Colonization passed in 1906, epitomizes the elite's will to promote European rather than African immigration. The Cuban black community tried to resist Creole attempts to subordinate them. The Partido Independiente de Color gathered more than 60000 members in 1910 but the authorities and the elites paradoxically accused this political force of being racist. They forbade it and bloodily repressed the subsequent popular uprising. The media contributed to the development of racism against blacks in the country. [...]