State of Ambiguity: Civic Life and Culture in Cuba's First Republic

Cuba's first republican era (1902-1959) is principally understood in terms of its failures and discontinuities, typically depicted as an illegitimate period in the nation's history, its first three decades and the overthrow of Machado at best a prologue to the "real" revolution of 1959. State of Ambiguity brings together scholars from North America, Cuba, and Spain to challenge this narrative, presenting republican Cuba instead as a time of meaningful engagement-socially, politically, and symbolically. Addressing a wide range of topics-civic clubs and folkloric societies, science, public health and agrarian policies, popular culture, national memory, and the intersection of race and labor-the contributors explore how a broad spectrum of Cubans embraced a political and civic culture of national self-realization. Together, the essays in State of Ambiguity recast the first republic as a time of deep continuity in processes of liberal state- and nation-building that were periodically disrupted-but also reinvigorated-by foreign intervention and profound uncertainty. Contributors. Imilcy Balboa Navarro, Alejandra Bronfman, Maikel Farinas Borrego, Reinaldo Funes Monzote, Marial Iglesias Utset, Steven Palmer, Jose Antonio Piqueras Arenas, Ricardo Quiza Moreno, Amparo Sanchez Cobos, Rebecca J. Scott, Robert Whitney

Table of Contents:
Introduction: Revisiting Cuba's First Republic / Steven Palmer, JosÉ Antonio Piqueras, and Amparo SÁnchez Cobos 1 1. A Sunken Ship, a Bronze Eagle, and the Politics of Memory: The "Social Life" of the USS Maine in Cuba (1898–1961) / Marial Iglesias Utset 22 2. Shifting Sands of Cuban Science, 1875–1933 / Steven Palmer 54 3. Race, Labor, and Citizenship in Cuba: A View from the Sugar District of Cienfuegos, 1886–1909 / Rebecca J. Scott 4. Slaughterhouses and Milk Consumption in the "Sick Republic": Socio-Environmental Change and Sanitary Technology in Havana, 1890–1925 / Reinaldo Funes Monzote 121 5. Attributes for the Capital of an Austere Republic / JosÉ Antonio Piqueras 148 6. Transcending Borders: ¡Tierra! and the Expansion of Anarchism in Cuba after Independence / Amparo SÁnchez Cobos 181 7. Steeds, Cocks, and Guayaberas: The Social Impact of Agrarian Reorganization in the Republic / Imilcy Balboa Navarro 208 8. Disctrict 25: Rotary Clubs and Regional Civic Power in Cuba, 1916–1940 / Maikel FariÑas Borrego 231 9. El naciente pÚblico oyente: Towards a Genealogy of the Audience in Early Republican Cuba / Alejandra Bronfman 251 10. New Knowledge for New Times: The Sociedad del Folklore Cubano during the "Critical Decade" (1923–1930) / Ricardo Quiza Moreno 269 11. Nation, State, and the Making of Cuban Working Class, 1920–1940 / Robert Whitney 292 Bibliography 323 Contributors 349 Index 353

About the Author :
Steven Palmer is Canada Research Chair in History of International Health and Associate Professor at the University of Windsor in Ontario, Canada. He is the author of From Popular Medicine to Medical Populism: Doctors, Healers, and Public Power in Costa Rica, 1800–1940 and coeditor (with IvÁn Molina) of The Costa Rica Reader: History, Culture, Politics, both also published by Duke University Press. JosÉ Antonio Piqueras is Chair of Contemporary History at Universitat Jaume I in CastellÓn, Spain. He is the author of several books on Cuban and Caribbean history, including Trabajo libre y coactivo en sociedades de plantaciÓn. Amparo SÁnchez Cobos is Assistant Professor of History at Universitat Jaume I in CastellÓn, Spain, and the author of Sembrando ideales. Anarquistas espaÑoles en Cuba.

Review :
"State of Ambiguity challenges dominant visions of Cuban history in the first three decades after independence. Much of the U.S. and the post-1959 Cuban historiography has been dominated by concerns with the imperial ties between Cuba and its northern neighbor. The distinguished contributors to this collection break with that obsession, providing refreshing perspectives and exploring dimensions of Cuban history that have been largely neglected to date." - Barry Carr, Institute for Latin American Studies, La Trobe University