Since the 19th century, assertions of a common, racially-mixed Cuban identity based on acceptance of African descent have challenged the view of Cubans as racially white. For the past two centuries, these competing views of Cuban racial identity have remained in continuous tension, while Cuban women and men make their own racially oriented choices in family formation. Cuba's Racial Crucible explores the historical dynamics of Cuban race relations by highlighting the racially selective reproductive practices and genealogical memories associated with family formation. Karen Y. Morrison reads archival, oral-history, and literary sources to demonstrate the ideological centrality and inseparability of "race," "nation," and "family," in definitions of Cuban identity. Morrison analyzes the conditions that supported the social advance and decline of notions of white racial superiority, nationalist projections of racial hybridity, and pride in African descent.

Winner, NECLAS Marissa Navarro Best Book Prize

About the Author

Karen Y. Morrison is Assistant Professor in the W. E. B. Du Bois Department of Afro-American Studies at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and a social historian of the African diaspora.

Reviews

Morrison's book opens up several new avenues for research on sexuality and family formation in Cuba, and she does so with a masterful grasp on colonial sources and raises critical questions for the twentieth century. While most scholars accept the primacy of race and sexuality in Cuban history, Morrison succeeds at excavating these questions on a micro-level, providing new insights into the choices and family formations forged by both enslaved and free Cubans over time.

* Cuban Studies *

This thought-provoking book will appeal to specialists and should be quite useful in graduate seminars dealing with race, nation, and Latin American history.

* Studies in Ethnicity and Nationalism *

What is most striking about Cuba's Racial Crucible is the manner in which it records why enslaved individuals labored to document paternity, maternity, and racial ascendency for social mobility, love, and individual stability. Those social actors are the highlight of Morrison's research.

* American Quarterly *

This rigorous yet accessible monograph covers an extensive period of Cuban history from a unique and innovative intersectional perspective. For these reasons, it would make an excellent addition to undergraduate collections in African and African American studies, Latin American studies, women's and gender studies, and history. . . . Highly recommended.

* Choice *



Book Information
ISBN 9780253016546
Author Karen Y. Morrison
Format Paperback
Page Count 372
Imprint Indiana University Press
Publisher Indiana University Press
Weight(grams) 576g