Subjects or Citizens

Cuba is widely recognized as a major hub of the transatlantic Hispanic and African diasporas throughout the colonial period. Less well known is that during the first half of the twentieth century it was also the center of circum-Caribbean diasporas with over 200,000 immigrants arriving mainly from Jamaica and Haiti. The migration of British West Indians was a critical part of the economic and historical development of the island during the twentieth century as many of them went to work on sugar plantations. Using never-before-consulted oral histories and correspondence, Robert Whitney and Graciela Chailloux Laffita examine this British Caribbean diaspora and chronicle how the immigrants came to Cuba, the living and working conditions they experienced, and how they both contributed to and remained separate from Cuban culture, forging a unique identity that was not just proudly Cuban but also proudly Caribbean.
Robert Whitney, associate professor of history at the University of New Brunswick, is the author of State and Revolution in Cuba. Graciela Chailloux Laffita is professor of history at the University of Havana.