Antiracism in Cuba

“Offers readers an unflinching analysis of the equally significant achievements and failures of the revolutionary government’s three-year antiracism campaign.”—Latin American Research Review

“Unearths the substrate of historical successes, hypocrisies, and strategic elisions underlying contemporary debates about Cuban race relations. . . . Powerfully complicates the oft-repeated idea that racism 'returned' to the island during the trying post-Soviet economic crisis of the 1990s.”—Michael J. Bustamante, NACLA Report on the Americas

“Beautifully weaves together the commonalities of nineteenth-century anticolonial struggles, twentieth-century revolutionary ideologies, and state practices.”—Journal of American History

“Antiracism in Cuba is well-rounded in its coverage of intellectual, political, and social terrain, and it marshals a wide range of sources in its convincing analysis”—American Historical Review

“Succeeds admirably in providing a textured, multifaceted account of the early revolutionary period, and specifically Cuba’s contradictory campaign to end racial discrimination.”—H-Net

“This is an impressive piece of research as it digs deep in order to explain the ways the new government [in Cuba] addressed the thorny issues of race and racial discrimination.”—Canadian Journal of History

“Benson’s thoughtful book challenges many ideas about race in Cuba and in general. . . . Provides a perspective not otherwise found in studies of the Cuban Revolution, and stresses Afro-descendants’ ownership of their place in Cuba’s history. Highly recommended.”—CHOICE

“A rare, impressively researched study of Cuban racial politics in the post 1959 era.”—New Orleans Tribune

“Devyn Spence Benson places cultural artifacts, individuals, and policies in carefully reconstructed contexts full of promise, opportunities, and contradictions — and sensitively locates the continuing limitations of the Cuban revolution’s approach to racial equality, nation building, and racial integration. Also one of the first studies to include Afro-Cuban exiles in the history of race in postrevolutionary Cuba.”—Alejandro de la Fuente, Harvard University

“Insightful and impressively researched, this is a rare, archivally based study of Cuban racial politics in the post-1959 era. It has contemporary resonance because it provides a badly needed historical context for the ongoing struggle for racial equality in revolutionary Cuba. Devyn Spence Benson pushes beyond the 'raceless' rhetoric of the Castro government to find glimpses of the ways Afro-Cubans subtly challenge attempts to silence their aspirations for racial equality.”—Frank Andre Guridy, The University of Texas at Austin