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“We Cubans Are Obligated Like Cats to Have a Clean Face”: Malaria, Quarantine, and Race in Neocolonial Cuba, 1898-1940

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 February 2015

Marc McLeod*
Affiliation:
Seattle University, Seattle, Washington

Extract

In a paper presented to the Academy of Medical, Physical and Natural Sciences of Havana on December 14, 1923, Dr. Jorge LeRoy y Cassá identified the “unsanitary immigration” to Cuba of Haitians and British West Indians as his country's most pressing health problem. “Those undesirable elements,” he contended, had introduced malaria, smallpox, typhoid fever, and intestinal parasites into eastern Cuba, maladies which then spread to the rest of the island. Through their “vices,” “violent crimes,” and “nefarious practices of brujerí;a [witchcraft],” in fact, Afro-Caribbean immigrants constituted a “double threat”—moral as well as physical—to the health of the Cuban nation. Somewhat surprisingly, the man who was later hailed as the “Father of Cuban Sanitary Statistics” mustered no direct evidence to support his condemnation of West Indian immigration on medical grounds. But such proof was hardly necessary for his esteemed audience. Although the medical doctors and public health officials assembled before LeRoy y Cassa at the Academy of Sciences may have differed on the issue of prohibiting.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Academy of American Franciscan History 2010

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References

The author would like to thank the many colleagues who helped facilitate research for this project, particularly the staff of the Musco Histórico de las Ciencias Carlos J. Fİnlay in Havana, as well as the many colleagues who provided advice and suggestions along the way, including Aline Helg, Jorge Ibarra, Steven Palmer, the anonymous reviewers for The Americas, and fellow panelists and participants at the 2005 meeting of the Pacific Coast Branch of the American Historical Association, the 2006 congress of the Canadian Association of Latin American and Caribbean Studies, and the 2007–08 Justice Faculty Fellows Seminar on Latin America at Seattle University.

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2. The son of native-born Cubans of French descent, Jorge LeRoy (or Lc-Roy) y Cassá (1867–1934) served as secretary of the Yellow Fever Commission from 1901 to 1902 during the first U.S. intervention, headed the statistics and demography section of the national health department from its founding in 1903 to 1934, acted as secretary of the Academy of Medical, Physical, and Natural Sciences of Havana from 1907 to 1934, and edited the Academy’s journal, Anales, from 1902 to 1934 (“Dr. Jorge Le-Roy y Cassá,” [1967], Archivo del Museo Histórico de Ciencias “Carlos Finlay” (hereafter AMHCCF), Havana, Cuba, Fondo Académicos 18, Le-Roy y Cassá 6; de Castro y Bachiller, Raimundo Centenario del nacimiento del Dr. Jorge Le-Roy y Cassá (Havana: Ministerio de Salud Pública, 1968), pp. 927;Google Scholar Le Roy y Gálvez, Luis Felipe Bio-bibliografìa del doctor Jorge LeRoy y Cassá (Havana: Instituto Cubano del Libro, 1976).Google Scholar Ibarra, Jorge Cuba: 1898–1921. Partidos políticos y clases sociales (Havana: Editorial de Ciencias Sociales, 1992), p. 161,Google Scholar points out that LcRoy y Cassá’s study attacking Antillean immigration departed from his normally critical use of statistical data.

3. “Acta de la sesión pública ordinaria del 14 de diciembre de 1923,” Anales de la Academia de Ciencias de la Habana 60 (1923–24), p. 418; José A. Presno, Presidente de la Academia de Ciencias, to Presidente de la República, Havana, 17 Dec. 1923, in Cassá, LeRoy y Inmigración anti-sanitaria, pp. 3334.Google Scholar

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5. Hcraldo de Cuba (Havana), 2 Aug. 1923, p. 1.

6. Gainer to Curzon, Havana, 6 Aug. 1923, PRO, FO 371/8450, A5157/2333/14.

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11. On the interconnected debates over immigration, race, and national identity in early-republican Cuba, sec Alvarez-Estevez, Azúcar e inmigración; Orovio, Consuelo Naranjo and González, Armando García Medicina y racismo en Cuba. La ciencia ante la inmigración canaria en el siglo XX (La Laguna, Tenerife: Centro de la Cultura Popular Canaria, 1996);Google Scholar Chomsky, Aviva “‘Barbados or Canada?’: Race, Immigration, and Nation in Early-Twentieth-Ccntury Cuba,” Hispanic American Historical Review 80:3 (August 2000), pp. 415462;Google Scholar McLeod, Marc C. “Undesirable Aliens: Haitian and British West Indian Immigrant Workers in Cuba, 1898 to 1940” (Ph.D. diss., University of Texas at Austin, 2000),Google Scholar csp. Ch. 1; and Giovannetti, Jorge L. “Black British Subjects in Cuba: Race, Ethnicity, Nation, and Identity in the Migratory Experience, 1898–1938” (Ph.D. diss., University of North London, 2001), esp. Ch. 2.Google Scholar

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33. “Acta de la sesión pública ordinaria del 14 de diciembre de 1923,” Anales de la Academia de Ciencias de la Habana 60 (1923–24), pp. 411–418.

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37. The fifth clause of the amendment stated: “That the Government of Cuba will execute and as far as necessary extend, the plans already devised or other plans to be mutually agreed upon, for the sanitation of the cities of the Island, to the end that a recurrence of epidemic and infectious diseases may be prevented, thereby assuring protection to the people and commerce of Cuba, as well as to the commerce of the southern ports of the United States and of the people residing therein” ( de Lcuchsenring, Emilio Roig Historia de la enmienda platt: una interpretación de la realidad cubana [Havana: Instituto Cubano del Libro/Editorial de Ciencias Sociales, 1973 (1935)J, p. 23.Google Scholar English translation available in Chomsky, Aviva Carr, Barry and Smorkaloff, Pamela Maria eds., The Cuba Reader: History, Culture, Politics [Durham: Duke University Press, 2003], pp. 147149).Google Scholar

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52. For the travel time between Spain and Cuba, see Gonzalez, Alejandro Vazquez “De la vela al vapor. La modernización de los buques en la emigración a América, 1835–1939,” Estudios Migratorios Latinoamericanos 28 (Dec. 1994), pp. 590591.Google Scholar

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57. Gaceta Oficial de la República de Cuba, 18 Oct. 1918, enclosed in William E. Gonzales to Secretary of State, Havana, 24 Oct. 1918, USDS-Cuba, 1910–1929, 837.111/17.

58. Quevedo, Pedro M. de Camagüey, Supervisor de Sanidad to Villuendas, Comisionado Especial, Camagücy, 28 Feb. 1919, in Boletín Oficial de Sanidad 22:1–3 (July-Sept. 1919), pp. 128131.Google Scholar

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60. Alcalde Municipal to Gobernador Provincial, Banes, 30 Dec. 1918, AHPSC, GP, leg. 553, cxp. 4.

61. Cónsul de Haití to Gobernador Provincial de Oriente, Santiago de Cuba, 30 Oct. 1918, AHPSC, GP, leg. 553, exp. 5.

62. Gonzales to Secretary of State, telegram, Havana, 15 Nov. 1918, Records of the Department of State Relating to Internal Affairs of Haiti, 1910-1929 (Washington, D.C., 1982), microcopy M-610, Record Group 59 (hereafter USDS-Haiti, 1910-1929), 838.5637/0; Consul de Haiti to Gobernador Provincial de Oriente, Santiago de Cuba, 25 Nov. 1918, AHPSC, GP, leg. 553, exp. 4; and Blanchard to Secretary of State, telegram, Port-au-Prince, 6 Jan. 1919, USDS-Haiti, 1910–1929, 838.5637/5.

63. Cassá, LeRoy y “Informe anual sanitario y demográfico de la República de Cuba correspondiente al año 1917,” Boletín Oficial de Sanidad 31:1–6 (Jan.-June 1926), pp. 126130, table 8.Google Scholar

64. See, for example, “Resumen mensual de las enfermedades contagiosas y de declaración obligatoria ocurridas en las seis Provincias durante el mes de Julio de 1921,” Boletín Oficial de Sanidad 26:2 (Aug. 1921), table located between pp. 84–85; “Resumen mensual … Julio 1922,” Boletín Oficial de Sanidad 27:7–8 (July-Aug. 1922), table between pp. 402–403; and Cassá, LeRoy y “Informe anual sanitario y demográfico de la República de Cuba correspondiente al año 1929,” Boletín Oficial de Sanidad 38:1–4 (Jan.-Apr. 1935), pp. 385.Google Scholar

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66. Ibid., pp. 57–58.

67. Villuendas, to Guantánamo, Guiteras 12 Apr. 1916, in Boletín Oficial de Sanidad 15:4–6 (Apr.-June 1916), pp. 696697.Google Scholar

68. John L. Griffith, U.S. Vice Consul, to Francis White, U.S. Chargé, Santiago de Cuba, 20 July 1920, USDS-Cuba, 1910–1929, 837.124/36. See also: Wolcott, U.S. Consul, to Secretary of State, Caimanera, 7 June 1917, USDS-Cuba, 1910–1929, 837.124; Wolcott to Secretary of State, Santiago de Cuba, 4 March 1918, USDS-Cuba, 1910–1929, 837.124/1; and U.S. Consul to White, Nuevitas, 28 July 1920, USDS-Cuba, 1910–1929, 837.124/36.

69. For analysis of opposition to the quarantine program, including by the large sugar companies that imported Antillean laborers into Cuba, as well as the methods of resistance employed by the immigrants themselves at the quarantine station in Cayo Duan, see McLeod, “Undesirable Aliens,” pp. 226233.Google Scholar

70. See Helg, Aline Our Rightful Share: The Afro-Cuban Struggle for Equality, 1886–1912 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1995).Google Scholar

71. Merrill Griffith to Secretary of State, Santiago de Cuba, 1 June 1916, USDS-Cuba, 1910–1929, 837.55/34.

72. Helg, Aline “Race in Argentina and Cuba, 1880–1930: Theory, Policies, and Popular Reaction,” in Tlic Idea of Race in Latin America, 1870–1940, ed. Graham, Richard (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1990), p. 54.Google Scholar

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74. Actas de la primera conferencia panamericana de eugenesia y homicultura de las repúblicas americanas (Havana: República de Cuba, 1928).

75. El Pa«s (Havana), 1 June 1927, p. 5.

76. “Mensaje Presidencial: Sanidad y Beneficencia,” Boletín Oficial de Sanidad 33:7–9 (July-Scpt. 1928), pp. 333–355.

77. On Cuban eugenics, see Srepan, Nancy Leys “The Hour of Eugenics”: Race, Gender, and Nation in Latin America (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1991), esp. pp. 7679, 174–177;Google Scholar González, Armando García and Peláez, Raquel Alvarez En busca de la raza perfecta: Eugenesia e higiene en Cuba (1898–1958) (Madrid: Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, 1991);Google Scholar and Bronfman, Alejandra Measures of Equality: Social Science, Citizenship, and Race in Cuba, 1902–1940 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2004), pp. 117124.Google Scholar

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80. Republic of Cuba, Bureau of Information, Department of Agriculture, Commerce and Labor, Cuba: Its Claim to Recognition in the World of Today (Havana: Bureau of Information, 1920), enclosed in Harris, H.W. Consul General, U.S. to Foshay, P. Maxwell Inspector of Risks, The Mutual Life Insurance Company of New York, Havana, 21 June 1920, USDS-Cuba, 1910–1929,837.12/5.Google Scholar

81. Diario de Cuba, 25 Nov. 1921, p. 2. See also Diario de Cuba, 11 March 1918, p. 2; 19 Jan. 1921, p. 2; 9 Feb. 1921, p. 2; 17 Feb. 1921, p. 3; and 9 Aug. 1921, p. 2.

82. On the prevalence and impact of corruption on the political system of early republican Cuba, see Chapman, Charles E. A History of the Cuban Republic: A Study in Hispanic American Politics (New York: The Macmillan Company, 1927);Google Scholar Pérez, Louis A. Jr Cuba Under the Piatt Amendment, 1902–1934 (Pittsburgh: Pittsburgh University Press, 1986), esp. pp. 125128, 139–145, 198–211, and 225–229.Google Scholar On corruption in the public health system in particular, sec Danielson, Cuban Medicine, pp. 9296.Google Scholar

83. Danielson, Cuban Medicine, p. 95.Google Scholar

84. Gustave Scholle, Chargé, to Secretary of State, Havana, 23 Apr. 1918, USDS-Cuba, 1910–1929, 837.124/5. See also John L. Griffith, U.S. Vice Consul, to Francis White, U.S. Chargé, Santiago de Cuba, 20 July 1920, USDS-Cuba, 1910–1929, 837.124/36; Enoch H. Crowder to Secretary of State, Havana, 14 Sept. 1921, USDS-Cuba, 1910–1929, 837.124/50.

85. Col. Bailey Κ. Ashford to American Minister, Havana, 25 Dec. 1919, USDS-Cuba, 1910–1929, 837.124/24.

86. Boaz Long to Secretary of State, Havana, 29 Nov. 1920, USDS-Cuba, 1910–1929, 837.124/39, and 8 Dec. 1920, USDS-Cuba, 1910–1929, 837.124/40.

87. Gainer to Foreign Office, Havana, 4 July 1924, PRO, FO 371/9535, A4555/13/14.

88. For a perceptive, comparative analysis of the religious dimensions of this process, see Román, Reinaldo Luis Governing Spirits: Religion, Miracles, and Spectacles in Cuba and Puerto Rico, 1898–1956 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press).CrossRefGoogle Scholar On popular medical practices in Cuba, see Cabrera, Lydia La medicina popular de Cuba: médicos de antaño, curanderos, santeros y paleros de hogaño (Miami: Ultra Graphics Corporation, 1984),Google Scholar and Gallo, José Seoane El folclor médico de Cuba: provincia de Camagüey (Havana: Editorial de Ciencias Sociales, 1984).Google Scholar Palmer, From Popular Medicine to Medical Populism, offers a nuanced analysis that moves beyond the binary opposition between popular medicine and biomedical practices to show the emergence of “medical populism” in a less conflictivc light.

89. Recent works on the brujería scares in early-twentieth-century Cuba include Alvarez, Ernesto Chavez El crimen de la niña Cecilia: La brujería en Cuba como fenómeno social (1902–1925) (Havana: Editorial de Ciencias Sociales, 1991);Google Scholar Helg, Our Rightful Share, esp. pp. 1718, 107–116;Google Scholar Román, Governing Spirits, pp. 82106;Google Scholar Bronfman, Measures of Equality, pp. 3765;Google Scholar and Palmic, Stephan Wizards and Scientists: Explorations in Afro-Cuban Modernity and Tradition (Durham: Duke University Press, 2002).CrossRefGoogle Scholar On Haitian immigrants as particular targets of brujería accusations during the 1920s, see McLeod, “Undesirable Aliens,” pp. 166199.Google Scholar

90. Capote, Méndez “Discurso de apertura del IV Congreso Medico Nacional,” Boletín Oficial de Sanidad 19:34 (March-Apr. 1918), p. 258.Google Scholar See also Director de Sanidad, Emilio Martínez “Sanidad y analfabetos,” (edit.) Boletín Oficial de Sanidad 26:4 (Oct. 1921), pp. 223224.Google Scholar

91. de Pazos, José F. “Por que se ha trasmitido la malaria en los suburbios de la ciudad de la Habana,” Anales de la Academia de Ciencias de la Habana 57 (1920–1921), p. 584,Google Scholar and Revista de Medicina y Cirugía de la Habana 26:7 (April 10, 1921), p. 202.

92. “Informe del Dr. Tamayo sobre medidas que pudieran establecerse en una campaña de Profilaxis Venérea,” Boletín Oficial de Sanidad 31:1-6 (Jan.-June 1926), pp. 3–14.

93. DrRensali, F. Director de Sanidad, to Jefe Local de Sanidad, Circular No. 438, Havana, 19 July 1926, in Boletín Oficial de Sanidad 32:7–12 (July-Dec. 1927), pp. 627628.Google Scholar See also, for example, “Sobre el ejercicio ilegal de la medicina negro-cubana y la libre venta de sus plantas medicamentosas,” (edit.) La Prensa Médica 23:12 (Dec. 1932), pp. 1–3; Echezarreta, Santiago “Ejercicio ilegal de la medicina,” Medicina de Hoy 1:7 (July 1936), pp. 334337;Google Scholar and Cowley, Rafael “Charlatanismo y honradez médica,” Medicina de Hoy 2:8 (Aug. 1937), pp. 523525.Google Scholar

94. La Prensa (Havana), 22 Dec 1922, translated in “Memorandum Upon Sanitary Conditions in Cuba,” Havana, 27 July 1923, USDS-Cuba, 1910–1929, 837.124/60. Román, Governing Spirits, pp. 82106,Google Scholar highlights the role of the press İn the witchcraft scares of the early republican period.

95. Galarreta, Luis Adam to de Sanidad, Secretario Havana, 18 Dec. 1920, in Crónica Médico-Qtñrúrgica de la Habana 47 (March 1921), pp. 9497.Google Scholar

96. On the competing visions of national identity in early republican Cuba, see Guerra, Lillian The Myth of José Martí: Conflicting Nationalisms in Early Twentieth-Century Cuba (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2005).Google Scholar

97. Appelbaum, Nancy P. Macpherson, Anne S. and Rosemblatt, Karin Alejandra eds., Race and Nation in Modern Latin America (Chapel Hilt: University of North Carolina Press, 2003).Google Scholar On the contested role of race in the making of the Cuban nation, see in particular: Helg, Our Rightful Share; Moore, Robin D. Nationalizing Blackness: Afrocubanismo and Artistic Revolution in Havana, 1920–1940 (Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1997);Google Scholar Ferrer, Ada Insurgent Cuba: Race, Nation, and Revolution, 1868–1898 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1999);Google Scholar de la Fuente, Alejandro A Nation for All: Race, Inequality, and Politics in Twentieth-Century Cuba (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2001);Google Scholar and Bronfman, Measures of Equality.

98. Markel, Howard Quarantine! East European Jewish Immigrants and the New York City Epidemics of 1892 (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1997), quote on p. 4;Google Scholar Kraut, Alan M. Silent Travelers: Germs, Genes, and the “Immigrant Menace” (New York: Basic Books, 1995);Google Scholar Higham, John Strangers in the Land: Patterns of American Nativism, 1860–1925 (New York: Atheneum, 1963), esp. pp. 99102.Google Scholar

99. “Instituto Homicultura de Oriente,” [Santiago de Cuba, n.d.], AHPSC, GP, leg. 2361, exp. 1.