El azúcar en América Latina y el Caribe: Cambio tecnológico, trabajo, mercado mundial y economía azucarera: Perspectiva histórica y problemas actuales

Abstract

Since the sixteenth century, one of the most important agricultural commodities produced and exported from Latin America and the Caribbean has been sugar. Historians such as Horacio Crespo (Universidad Autónoma del Estado de Morelos) have dedicated a significant portion of their professional careers to analyzing the impact of sugar on the economic and social history of the region. The inception of El azúcar en América Latina y el Caribe dates to a January 1985 symposium hosted by the Universidad Autónoma del Estado de Morelos in Cuernavaca, Mexico. Scholarly interest in sugar, especially the relationship between the regulation of the international sugar market and state intervention in its production, was reinvigorated in October 2004 at an economic history conference hosted by the Universidad Autónoma de México. Many of the scholars who participated in the 1985 symposium attended the 2004 conference two decades later. With considerable encouragement from academic and governmental sectors, Crespo decided to coordinate the publishing of the papers presented at the two academic encounters. The result is an invaluable collection of 22 essays divided into three geographic units — the Caribbean, South America, and Mexico — that examines both major and minor producers.Unlike many previous studies, which merely detail the development of the sugar industry and its economic and political impact, the authors here devote significant attention to five previously neglected areas of historical inquiry: the effects of technology on the sugar industry; state control and regulation; the sugar industry’s influence on the development of the national economy; workers in the sugar industry; and international factors in the Latin American sugar industries. What emerges is a more complete understanding of the immense importance of sugar to Latin America. Significantly, the authors dispel the notion championed by dependency theorists that Latin Americans were the helpless victims of international capitalism.The impact of technology on the development of Latin American sugar industries at the end of the nineteenth century is viewed in case studies of Peru, a major producer, and Argentina, a minor one. Michael J. Gonzales (University of Northern Illinois) reveals that technological change in the Peruvian sugar industry resulted in “the concentration of export production in a dozen large plantations” (p. 285). Donna J. Guy (Ohio State University) explains that the effects of technological change were limited in Argentina and that the sugar industry virtually disappeared during the 1930s. Oscar Zanetti Lecuona (Instituto de Historia de Cuba) investigates state control and regulation of the Cuban sugar industry, specifically during the 1920s and the subsequent Great Depression. Crespo’s examination of Mexican sugar production during the Porfiriato reveals that sugar production, although greatly expanded, was not a significant component of the external market. Compared to other Mexican exports, such as minerals, during that period, sugar exports were “extremely modest” (p. 488). Nevertheless, the sugar industry was an example of viable national economic development during the Porfiriato.Often, the workers are the most neglected component of economic history. Many of the authors in this collection, however, attempt to reddress the situation. For example, Sabine Manigat Chancy (Université Quisqueya) examines labor migration and the formation of a sugar worker proletariat in the Caribbean in the aftermath of the abolishment of slavery. International factors such as European beet production, consumer demand, foreign quotas, and foreign investment in Latin American sugar industries are addressed by many of the authors. Andrés A. Ramos Mattei (Universidad de Puerto Rico) examines the expansion of the Puerto Rican sugar industry in the aftermath of U.S. acquisition of Puerto Rico following the Spanish-American War. The book concludes with an essay by José Antonio Cerro (Universidad Iberoamericana), who elaborates on recent trends in the international sugar industry. Cerro points out that the international sugar market was drastically changed during the 1970s by increased production and the advent of artificial sweeteners.El azúcar en América Latina y el Caribe is a well-crafted collection of essays supported by a plethora of charts and data that should be the model for future studies of commodity history in Latin America. For those interested in the impact of commodities on history, this book provides clear insights into the role of sugar in Latin America and the Caribbean.