Rebel Lands of Cuba: The Campesino Struggles of Oriente and Escambray, 1934-1974 (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9781498506595)

The book is a comparative history of twentieth-century Cuban campesinos in two regions in Cuba marked by extreme differences in race, gender, and land tenure: Oriente and Escambray. It explores the ways these differences articulated with state formation from the pre-revolutionary period of 1934-1959 and then 1959-1974 and seeks to explain why campesinos in Escambray, having been active in the insurrection against Batista, later turned to stage a massive counter-revolution against the government headed by Fidel Castro. Although campesinos in both regions had been equally ignored by pre-1959 governments for different reasons, they developed two distinct understandings of what the role of the state should be in response to political neglect. Rich archival sources--many of which have not been accessed previously--document the unique shape of land struggles in each region in the 1930s through the 1950s. The author argues that because of the way race and gender and a collectivist land tenure tradition in Oriente mapped nicely onto the goals of the 1959 Revolution, Oriente became a kind of revolutionary showcase. In Escambray, on the other hand, a construct of white masculinity, tied to private property ownership, directly contravened the goals of the Revolution, which fueled the counter-revolution and also led to brutal state repression in the area.

Author: Joanna Swanger
ISBN-10: 1498506593
ISBN-13: 9781498506595
Publisher: Lexington Books
Language: English
Published: 05/06/2015
Pages: 324
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 1.30lbs
Size: 9.10h x 5.90w x 1.00d