[NYTr] The failed adventure of the US colonies in Cuba

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

CubaNow - Sep 6, 2007
http://www.cubanow.net/global/loader.php?&secc=5&item=3269&c=2


The failed adventure of the US colonies in Cuba

By Mildrey Ponce
English translation by Vidal Viera

Cubanow.- The US immigration was the fifth one among the flood of
foreigners that arrived in Cuba during the first three decades of the
20th century. By 1905, approximately 13 000 Americans had bought land
in the Island. Fifteen years later, around 80 foreign colonies, mostly
from US immigrants, had settled down in Cuba.

The emergence of these colonies resulted mainly from the poor condition
of the Cuban economy after the end of the independence war in 1898.
Large areas, located in the most productive regions of the Island, had
been devastated and the landowners were ruined. These lands, bought at
very low prices by speculators and companies dedicated to the
development of land, were sold to several US families, which led to the
emergence of important farming communities in different regions of the
archipelago.

Most of the new colonizers had come with their whole families: many of
them were peasants, farmers, fruit harvesters and gardeners. Their main
activities were the harvesting of commercial crops and self-consumption.

The establishment of US communities in Cuba was primarily protected by
the dependent mechanisms that were created during the US Occupation
Government between 1899 and 1902. During this period, an even greater
amount of capital and investments from the US was allowed. This
particular situation of economic, political and cultural penetration
favoured the increase of US immigrants to Cuba.

Two new political trends appeared as a result of this immigration. The
first one, formulated by some powerful sectors in the US, supported a
possible annexation of Cuba when the time was right. The other one,
coming from the capitalist farming sector, encouraged the production of
citruses and vegetables for the US market.

But it wasn’t just the low prices of the land and the hopes of easy
profits what made the US colonists come to Cuba. The US land companies
made a strong promotion of the Cuban lands in the different states of
the union: ¨Cuba is a country without winter¨, ¨a virgin land¨,
¨practically undeveloped¨, and ¨destined to become a place of great
richness and prosperity in the future¨.

Such promises of fortune, work and ways to make a living, which were
appealing under any circumstances whatsoever, were particularly needed
by Americans. During the 1890´s, the United States underwent one of the
hardest economic crisis of its entire history. In general, all the
adventurous, unemployed, landless and unlucky people in the US invaded
Cuba in pursuit of their dreams.

The first and probably largest settlement of these US colonies was La
Gloria City, organized by The Cuban Land and Steamship Company during
the first days of 1900, and located on the North coast of Nuevitas,
Camagüey. By 1904, more than 3 000 Americans and citizens of other
nationalities had settled down in that area.

Another significant number of US colonists settled down along the 12
colonies of the Isle of Pines, currently known as the Isle of Youth.
The US land companies managed to attract colonists and investors to
that area, under the assumption that the Isle of Pines was a territory
of the United Sates. The confusion increased by the fact that an
official map of the United States from 1899 showed the Isle of Pines as
part of the US territory.

It is estimated that in 1910 there were around 2 000 Americans living
there, constituting more than 50% of the total population of the Isle
of Pines. This figure increased to 3 000 by 1917. The colonists came
from Minnesota, North and South Dakota and Canada. Serious disputes
arose between the local population and these colonists, when the latter
promoted and requested the annexation to the US.

In Herradura, located on the western province of Pinar del Río, another
community was founded with a few hundreds of inhabitants. By 1920,
there were 25 families left in the area, and in 1950 they had already
disappeared. We also know that some of these immigrants tried to
develop the harvesting of pineapple in Havana for exportation purposes.

Half a dozen US villages existed in the North Eastern region of the
Island, usually located along the Central Railroad. Its constructor,
Sir William Van Horne, considered that he needed to encourage
colonization in this underpopulated area in order to make the railroad
a profitable business. The most important of these villages was Bartle,
located near Las Tunas, and also Omaha, whose inhabitants included
Swedish and Finnish immigrants.

It was possible to find colonists from different European countries in
some communities, but US immigrants always outnumbered them.

In 1912, there were 12 newspapers printed in English in Cuba. There
were also 2 national farming societies, and four important farming
fairs were held that year in Havana, the Isle of Pines, La Gloria and
Camagüey.

However, 1917 brought changes to the US colonies in Cuba. Several
factors contributed to their decline. A frost in Florida raised the
prices of citruses considerably; a hurricane devastated the provinces
of Pinar del Río and the Isle of Pines and destroyed the citrus
plantations; the United States entered the First World War and put the
Cuban fruits in quarantine.

The armed uprising known as ¨La Chambelona¨ (the candy), by the
followers of the Liberal Party in 1917, was the event that exerted a
greater influence on the colonies of the West and Camagüey. The
liberals believed the 1916 elections had been rigged. Armed liberal
soldiers plundered the properties of the US colonists and jeopardized
the stability of property in Cuba. Those who lost their houses, their
livestock, their crops and their sugarcane plantations, fled back to
the United States.

The military service came along with the entry of the US into the First
World War. Since the majority of the US colonists in Cuba had kept
their original citizenship, young Americans from all across the Island
were drafted. At least 219 Americans, Canadians and British colonists
joined the army. When the young men went to war, their families in Cuba
were left without any monetary support, and that was an additional
reason for them to pick up their personal belongings and sell their
land, especially in the eastern part of the Island.

Due to the war in Europe and the drastic fall of the sugar beet
production, the price of sugar started to rise sharply at the
international markets. Prices rose significantly all across the Island,
especially in the areas with the bigger possibilities to increase
sugarcane production. Many of the US colonists who had decided to leave
Cuba, took advantage of this situation in order to make small fortunes
with the selling of their land.

The Isle of Pines, however, kept a great number of colonies. In 1917,
when a hurricane struck the area, there was an important exodus of
Americans. But after World War I, there was a second wave of immigrants
from the US, who had been once again encouraged by the land companies.

With the ratification of the Hay-Quesada Treaty in 1925, which
confirmed the Cuban sovereignty on the Isle of Pines, many of the US
residents went back to their homeland, and the 1926 hurricane
devastated the investments of those who had decided to stay. According
to the Cuban census of 1931, only 276 Americans were living in the Isle
of Pines at the time.

The changes that took place in the customs duties and in the public
health regulations of the US did not help the US residents in Cuba
either. The Fordney-McCumber Duties Act, imposed by the US on Cuba in
1922, raised the payment of duties of all farming products from 9 to
14%. Then, the Smoot-Hawley Duties Act of 1930 raised them even higher.

The presence of the Mediterranean fly was spotted once again in Cuba in
1924, this time in Havana. All the fruits produced in the country were
put in quarantine up to 1926. Despite all these adversities, during the
1930´s there were still 157 US fruit and vegetable exporters in Cuba, a
figure that exceeded the total number of Cuban exporters. The majority
of these US exporters were living in the Isle of Pines, and 22 of them
were in Herradura, Pinar del Río. In the eastern part, there were only
10 fruit exporters left, and there were two living in the colony of
Omaha.

Devastation and ruin were the final destination in the adventure of US
colonists in Cuba. The ending of such adventure was sealed by the same
status of semi-colony that Cuba had. They failed because of the lack of
protection from the US government to these communities, as opposed to
the support given to the great US investments (the sugar and mining
industries, dominated by the consortiums), and the internal policies of
the US in relation to the payment of customs duties.

[The author is a journalist of Cubanow, specialized in historical
topics.]