Toward a more inclusive history of the Cuban revolution of 1959

Eloise Linger

doi:10.13169/intejcubastud.12.2.0300

Abstract

The article claims that most historiography of the Cuban revolution of 1959 has omitted women, people of colour, and to some extent student youth and labourers. The shorter first part of the paper presents reasons of historical context and dominant Euro-male mindset that help explain why histories of Cuba's and other revolutions omitted women and people of colour until recent scholarship. Then, excerpts from oral testimonials of three activists in revolutionary movements of the 1950s give a livelier picture of how Afro-Cubans, women and youth provided the backbone and vast networks that kept alive and pushed forward the more highly celebrated guerrilla forces that came to power, led by Fidel Castro. Twentieth-century Cuban revolutionary context and continuity is evident in the quotes from Aida Pelayo, a leader of the civic coalition Mujeres Martianas in the 1950s, about her student days in the 1930s.

Highlights

The article claims that most historiography of the Cuban revolution of 1959 has omitted women, people of colour, and to some extent student youth and labourers
This article offers, first, some historical background that helps explain why the histories of Cuba’s and other revolutions have omitted women and people of colour until more recent scholarship. It presents excerpts from oral histories of three activists in revolutionary movements of the 1950s to give us a livelier picture of how Afro-Cubans, women and youth provided the backbone that kept alive and pushed forward the more highly celebrated guerrilla forces led by Fidel Castro
Historians over the last two decades have begun to dig deeper into personal archives, oral history transcripts, diaries, family, state and religious archives to better explain the question of WHO made the revolution of 1959 and HOW they did it

Summary

INTRODUCTION

“Distinctions between the past and present were drawn without difficulty, with almost celebratory unanimity” (Pérez 1988: 315), when six million Cubans ushered in a victorious revolution in January 1959. This article offers, first, some historical background that helps explain why the histories of Cuba’s and other revolutions have omitted women and people of colour until more recent scholarship. It presents excerpts from oral histories (testimonies) of three activists in revolutionary movements of the 1950s to give us a livelier picture of how Afro-Cubans, women and youth provided the backbone that kept alive and pushed forward the more highly celebrated guerrilla forces led by Fidel Castro. In Britain’s largest colonies in North America, new ideas were emerging Those ideas were developing alongside the radicalisation that led to the French Revolution of the late eighteenth century. Women were important for the political advancement of all, but only as mothers and

See Kerber 1997

Methods

Conclusion