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Myths of Racial Democracy: Cuba, 1900-1912

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 October 2022

Alejandro de la Fuente
Alejandro de la Fuente*
Affiliation:
University of South Florida
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Abstract

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This article reviews the recent literature on the so-called myths of racial democracy in Latin America and challenges current critical interpretations of the social effects of these ideologies. Typically, critics stress the elitist nature of these ideologies, their demobilizing effects among racially subordinate groups, and the role they play in legitimizing the subordination of such groups. Using the establishment of the Cuban republic as a test case, this article contends that the critical approach tends to minimize or ignore altogether the opportunities that these ideologies have created for those below, the capacity of subordinate groups to use the nation-state's cultural project to their own advantage, and the fact that these social myths also restrain the political options of their own creators.

Type
Research Article
Information
Latin American Research Review , Volume 34 , Issue 3 , 1999 , pp. 39 - 73
Copyright
Copyright © 1999 by the University of Texas Press

Footnotes

*

I wish to thank Jaime Arocha, Ada Ferrer, Rebecca Scott, Ward Stavig, Kevin Yelvington, and four anonymous LARR reviewers for their suggestions and criticism. Special thanks to Susan Fernández, who read and corrected several versions. One was presented at the Conference of the Caribbean Studies Association in Barranquilla, Colombia, 26-30 May 1997. Another version was presented to the conference Africa in the Americas, Harvard University, 2-3 October 1998. Support for this research was provided by the United States Institute of Peace, the Institute for the Study of World Politics, and the Harry F. Guggenheim Foundation. The article was written with support from a Grant for Research and Writing from the John D. and Katherine T. MacArthur Foundation.

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