Reply 2 4.4 Black in Latin America (DISCUSSION) ETHN 114 AO

I chose to write about the The Next Revolution episode on Cuba. One thing that stood out to me was how the Haitian Revolution shaped Cuba’s history. When Haiti overthrew slavery and its sugar industry collapsed, Cuba quickly took its place, which led to Cuba becoming the largest sugar producer in the world in the 1840s. To do this, Cuban farmers used over hundreds of thousands of slaves to plant and harvest sugar.

I also learned that slavery lasted much longer in Cuba than in the United States, ending only around 140 years ago in 1886. This was over twenty years after the Civil War ended in the U.S. The documentary also showed how important Afro-Cubans were in the fight for independence. Carlos Manuel de Céspedes freed his own slaves in 1868 to join the cause, and Black leaders like Antonio Maceo played key roles in the fight.

The episode also explained how Fidel Castro and the Revolution promised equality, but didn’t act on it. Castro said that socialism would end racism by giving everyone the same rights to education, work, and health care. In the film, people said that in Cuba “everybody has the same right to study” and “the same right to work.” But even with promises that gave new and ‘equal’ opportunities, racism didn’t disappear. By declaring the problem “solved,” the government actually made it harder for Afro-Cubans to talk about the prejudice they still faced.

Comparing Cuba’s slavery to the U.S.'s, there were both similarities and differences. Both places used forced labor and violence to build their economies. But Cuba brought far more Africans than the U.S. and kept slavery longer. In the U.S. slavery was abolished through the Civil War, while in Cuba it was tied to independence from Spain. After slavery ended, both societies promised equality, America with Reconstruction and Cuba with socialism, but racism continued in both places. This helped me see that even though both countries said that freedom was in place, neither country’s government fought to keep it true.

• Reply to post from Kory RombauxReply

I felt a lot after watching the episode on Black in Latine America 2, “Cuba-The Next Revolution”. I have learned that everything has been and is still moving towards political and economic benefits. Countries that were, or are now called developed countries, have in fact seen that they have been strengthened through much exploitation and economic gains. It was impressed Cuba's slave numbers were over 2 times that of the United States in the early 1800s for Sugar plantations. The life of African slaves in the Artemisa province shown in the interview, who was thoroughly monitored and used in isolation, is heartbreaking. White plantation owners may have already known through the Haitian Revolution that their exploitation was short-lived. Cuba took substantial economic gains from its enormous sugar production but was divided too favorably. Cuba stopped officially participating in the slave trade in 1867 but slavery ended in 1886. however, African Cubans have suffered from Spain, the United States, and the Soviet Union from poverty, starvation, and neglect without access to education and health care.

The first forced Africans to Cuba migrated as slaves, but their descendants become Latine Americans today. Until this week’s class, I had not thought about why in Cuba like America, Blacks and Whites are not clearly distinguished by color, and most of them have Brown skin. Of course, there have been many lives lost without many names, but I believe that the political influence of Antonio Maceo, Carlos Manuel, Fidel Castro, and commander Victor Drake was the stepping stone to making the Cuban people we are today. It was so touched that Afro-Cuban people have kept invisible and fiercely the political and cultural repression of “All about Black is ugly, immoral, and bad” that the United States did to Cuba. They have preserved their culture and roots by enduring oppression for hundreds of years.

I was impressed in many ways, but first, Fidel Castro declared racism to be over. He declared everybody is equal, has free healthcare, and has universal access to education. Dec 22. In 1961 Cuba declared illiteracy-free territory. During an interview with professor Graciela, She said “people like me who had left home and have to study”. He knew that education had to be supported to end racism. If it has massive government support, the education effect will be huge. The famous writer in Cuba Miguel Barnett also said “silence surrounding racist attitudes against Black is through education”, “Black in this country the Africans in this country their legacy is not only cultural or philosophical or artistic, but Also they like contributed very strongly to the economy of this country”. These histories are telling to me how ethnical education plays an important role, and only the right education is the way to freedom from deeply historically entrenched racism. In the ending part of the video, Professor Gates says “What didn’t end was a racism of the heart of the mind the racism”. I totally agreed with his words. It seems that the task of our generation is how to get rid of racism in our minds through what kind of education.

Slaves in the U.S. were very much tied to the farming economy, especially in the South, where they had to work long hours in horrible conditions and didn't have many legal rights. Black people were kept at the bottom of society by the state, and families were often split up. Slavery was also very harsh in Cuba, and it was mostly used to make sugar. A lot of Africans were brought to Cuba as slaves to meet the high demand for work. Some were able to buy their freedom, which made a small group of Black people who were no longer slaves. Mexico had fewer slaves and ended slavery much earlier, during its push for independence. This meant that people with African roots could fit in better with society. These differences show how different slavery was in the Americas.