Cuba’s Cosmopolitan Enclaves: Imperialism and Internationalism in Eastern Sugar Towns

Work Type

Book

Publication Date

5-27-2025

Department

Liberal Arts and Sciences

Keywords

Latin American, Caribbean; Cuba

Abstract

This book explores how a region in Cuba that was widely known as a site of labor subjugation became a hub of international solidarity in the 1920s and 1930s. In the early twentieth century, United States agricultural companies like the United Fruit Company established sugar export operations in Cuba’s Oriente Province, creating a zone of economic imperialism. These early multinational corporations recruited Afro-Caribbean laborers from surrounding islands, aiming to create closed, self-sufficient plantation complexes.

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