Black British Migrants in Cuba: Race, Labor, and Empire in the Twentieth-Century Caribbean, 1898–1948 by Jorge L. Giovannetti-Torres

Abstract

Reviewed by: Black British Migrants in Cuba: Race, Labor, and Empire in the Twentieth-Century Caribbean, 1898–1948 by Jorge L. Giovannetti-Torres Marc McLeod (bio) Jorge L. Giovannetti-Torres. 2018. Black British Migrants in Cuba: Race, Labor, and Empire in the Twentieth-Century Caribbean, 1898–1948. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 305 pp. ISBN: 9781108437585. During the first half of the twentieth century, more than 140,000 British Caribbean workers migrated to Cuba. The history of their experiences, once largely neglected by scholars, has received increasing attention in the last couple of decades, including recent books by Robert Whitney and Graciela Chailloux Laffita, and Phillip Howard. Black British Migrants in Cuba, based on a dissertation completed by Jorge L. Giovannetti-Torres at the University of North London in 2001, is a most welcome addition to the topic. Written in clear, cogent prose, characterized by thoughtful analysis, and informed by extensive research in archives and libraries in numerous locations, it is the most comprehensive study of the subject yet. Following an introduction which adroitly situates the work within multiple scholarly frameworks, the book is organized into ten chapters along general chronological lines, with each chapter developing one or more main themes. Chapter One reaches back into the nineteenth century to examine the roots of racial fear in Cuba and histories of intra-Caribbean migration in the century after slave emancipation in the British Caribbean. Chapter Two details the patterns of labor recruitment and migration to Cuba in the early twentieth century, paying particular attention to the practices of the Cuban American Sugar Company and the United Fruit Company on their plantations in eastern Cuba. Chapter Three explores how increased migration during the 1910s contributed to rising levels of racial anxiety among Cuban elites and government authorities, culminating in the massacre of at least fourteen British Caribbean migrants by Cuban troops in the sugar mill town of Jobabo during political unrest in 1917. Chapters Four and Five consider diplomatic relations between the British and Cuban governments during the eight years after the Jobabo massacre. They illustrate the agency of British Caribbean migrants, who persistently penned letters to government officials and newspapers to demand protection of their rights, but also the reluctance of British officials to represent black workers and the overall limitations of diplomatic representation. The second half of the book surveys the three decades after World [End Page 173] War I, during which recurring crises in the island’s sugar economy posed ever greater challenges to migrants who remained in Cuba, including those hoping to return to their home islands. Chapter Six demonstrates how rising unemployment, anti-migrant nationalism, and anti-black discrimination coalesced with the onset of the Great Depression between 1925 and 1931. Giovannetti-Torres uses the experiences of eastern Caribbean migrants on the Chaparra and Delicias plantations to highlight the power and control over migrant labor wielded by large corporations like the Cuban American Sugar Company. Chapter Seven examines changes in British colonial consular policy from 1925 to 1933 while emphasizing the different experiences between Leeward and Windward Islanders versus Jamaicans, who were represented by a Secretary for Immigration based in Santiago de Cuba that administered a repatriation program to Jamaica during this time. Chapter Eight assesses the impact of Cuban labor nationalization efforts during the 1930s (particularly a 1933 law requiring that fifty percent of employees in most places of work be Cuban nationals) on British Caribbean migrants, which led many to return to their home islands. Chapter Nine looks at the experiences of migrants who remained in Cuba after the 1930s, when British officials feared that further repatriation would exacerbate unemployment and fuel additional labor unrest in British colonies, and thus encouraged migrants to assimilate and remain in Cuba. Chapter Ten reconsiders the main themes of the first chapter while stressing that British Caribbean migrants—in their multiple interactions with Cuban and British (not to mention U.S.) officials and employers—confronted a common ideology of white supremacy. The research that undergirds Black British Migrants in Cuba is impressive. Giovannetti-Torres has mined archives across the Atlantic world, including national, provincial, and municipal archives throughout Cuba as well as collections in Dominica, Jamaica, St. Lucia...