The conditions which we have described did not, however, prevent the
colony, when prosperity came to her, from succumbing to the evils which
invariably follow in the wake of new wealth. The historian Blanchet
reports that there existed in Cuba towards the end of the century a
strange mixture of immorality and piety. Religious enthusiasm rose to an
unusual degree of fervor in Villa Clara in the year 1790. Two Capuchin
missionaries had been there a month, and the church was crowded from
early morning until late at night with men and women spellbound by their
words. After the orisons there was a sermon, and at times, immediately
after the sermon, the women left, the building was closed and darkened
and the men remained inside. Prayers alternated with flagellations,
until some individuals were exhausted with pain and the loss of blood.
In the penitential procession, which took place on some evenings, the
two missionaries and the priests of the town were followed by a
multitude in which both sexes were represented. The members of the
Ayuntamiento took part, bare-legged and bare-foot; some marched with the
head and face concealed by a white cowl, the body uncovered to the
waist, and from the waist down wrapped in sack-cloth. Some staggered
under the weight of a heavy cross; others walked straight and attempted
to inflict wounds upon themselves with the point of a sword. It seems,
however, that this religious exaltation was at times carried too far,
for flagellation assumed such proportions at burials that it had to be
forbidden.
In contrast to this religious revival was the wave of frivolity and
immorality that seemed simultaneously to sweep over the island. The
streets of the towns resounded with ribald speech and lascivious songs.
The Bishop was scandalized to see Cuban women discard their veils when
they went on the street. When they wore décolleté gowns, they did not
even close the blinds, but openly showed themselves at the windows.
There is little doubt that increase of overseas traffic in the ports of
the island contributed to the growing laxity of morals. M. Masse
considered the navy yard a special source of the corruption which wealth
had brought. "For the money needed by that enterprise circulated in the
city at the same time as the vices and the passions of its employees and
sailors." With a remarkable psychological insight he gives a most
plausible explanation how the change in the life of the island affected
the women of Cuba, and especially of Havana.
For these women had so far been brought up in strict conformity to the
conventions of their female ancestors in Spain. They had been sent to a
girls' school, always escorted, and had never until they were married
even talked alone with a man. In the narrow confines of their home,
either before or after marriage, their beauty was taken for granted and
passed uncommented. For the Cuban women were always unusually handsome,
having the same regular features and rich coloring as the Spanish, the
same large black eyes and bluish black hair, perhaps even accentuated by
their placid immobility of expression. A strange type, bound to attract
attention anywhere, they struck the strangers landing in this tropical
city like rare exotic flowers, and they suddenly found themselves the
objects of an admiration which manifested itself in ways that were new
and irresistible. The Cuban husband was known not to be as loyal as his
wife was expected to be; why should they not accept the homage offered
them? To this host of admirers, ever changing, ever ready to shower them
with favors, M. Masse, the keen psychologist, attributes the change in
the attitude of the women and the gradual change in the tone of Cuban,
especially Havanese, society. As more and more of these industrious
foreigners, who might have been as good Spaniards as their own
ancestors, settled on the island, the difference between them and the
native Cubans manifested itself, not always to the latter's advantage.
Women began to prefer them as husbands, and there was one more cause for
antagonism between these scions of a common stock, whom different
environment and conditions of existence had caused to drift apart, and
become irreconcilably estranged.
Of Havana that subtle student of life has this to say:
"The need of forgetting the many privations of a prolonged sea voyage,
with gold always in abundance for those who do not know how to manage
their affairs and to whom each voyage seems a new adventure, the
influence of a climate which makes for voluptuousness, all this combines
to make Havana a new Cythera placed at the port of long journeys even as
the ancient cradle of pleasure was at that end of the long voyage of
that time."
Thus Havana, like other capitals of the world, became gradually not only
the cradle of Cuban culture, but also of that corruption of the simpler
and purer instincts of human nature which seems to be inseparable from a
certain degree of material comfort. The man of Havana had in centuries
of repression and restriction lost the power of initiative; the end of
the century which gave the colonists of North America their independence
made them free to think and act, and work for themselves, and above
everything else, to govern themselves, found him still under a rigorous
paternal supervision by representatives of a king whom he perhaps never
saw. Centuries of such guardianship had robbed him of all incentive and
made him drift along the line of least resistance.
Physically and morally a product of the country which was politically
and economically a victim of that type of government, the Cuban of that
period had no interests save the quest of comfort and such pleasurable
excitement as certain entertainments offered. The women divided their
attention between their church and their home, indulged in deadly
idleness and senseless extravagance, dressed luxuriantly, but with bad
taste, and sought distraction in gossip or gambling. The men, who had
caught faint echoes of Voltaire and ideas of the Revolution and were
estranged from the church, divided their interests between their
business and their friends of both sexes, and also sought distraction in
gambling. There was gambling in the home circle, in the houses of
friends, in the clubs, even in the convents. It was estimated that ten
thousand games of cards were annually imported into Havana.
Of places of amusement there was no lack at that time. M. Villiet
d'Arignon, who visited Havana fifty years before and was bored by the
provincial monotony of Cuban life, could not have complained of lack of
entertainment, had he seen Havana at the threshold of the nineteenth
century, though his fastidious Gallic taste would perhaps not have been
satisfied with the quality of the attractions the Cuban metropolis
offered her guests. The native Cuban, and the Spaniard who had settled
there, did not wish for anything more fascinating and more exciting
than the national fiesta of the bull-fight, the corrida de toros. No
true Cuban could resist the trumpet call summoning the population to
that most sumptuous spectacle.
"These costumes of the age of chivalry, those richly harnessed palfreys,
those banderillos (small darts with a bandorol) or stilets trimmed with
the colors, with which the neck of the poor beast is seen magnificently
larded; this martial music, these cheers of the mousquetaires rendering
homage unto the victors, this most eminent magistrate presiding at the
feast, this vast arena, this wealth of beautiful women, who have the
opportunity of hearing the most drastic, disgusting and obscene
exclamations, into which the vulgarity of spectators and toreadors
lapses in the heat of the combat. And yet I would not advise the Spanish
government to attempt to abolish at least in Havana this sort of
spectacle. A revolt might cause the authorities to repent of their
temerity."
Thus does the French author quoted before paint the picture of the
greatest entertainment the Cuban of that time knew. But there were
others, for instance the caroussel, the circus, the magicians, and there
was always the cock-pit, offering almost as much excitement as the
bull-ring. Here, too, the gambling craze of the people asserted itself.
For not only the prosperous man about town spent his money in betting at
the cock-fight, as he did at the bull-fight. Every little town had its
cock-pit and every montero or guajiro sacrificed his wages to taste the
excitement of that spectacle. Surely Cuba at that century's end had
already learned what the hosts of strangers needed, when after a long
and tedious voyage they landed on the island.
One cannot help being reminded of the impressions M. Villiet d'Arignon
carried with him from his visit to Cuba as recorded in Jean Baptiste
Nougaret's "Voyages interessans," when after a month's sojourn he sailed
for Vera Cruz on the same vessel that took D. Juan Guemez y Horcasitas
from the governorship of Cuba to the vice-regency of Mexico. Then
already was gambling the favorite, and, as the island lacked such places
of amusement as were established later, probably the only pastime. The
Frenchman noticed also the total absence of any interest in literature,
art and music, and the impossibility of finding a circle of people where
he could enjoy an animated conversation on subjects outside of the
commonplace and of current local gossip, made him reflect rather
unfavorably upon West Indian society of that time.
Such reflections must, however, be accepted with some reservation. For
if the West Indian and especially the Cuban of the eighteenth century
lacked interest in those things that make for culture, it must be
remembered that the country in which he was living was still young, and
that the people's paramount interest had of necessity to be for the
things material. There has perhaps never been a colony of settlers in a
foreign and primitive land that has not been so thoroughly absorbed in
the task of founding a home and making a living, that all other things,
for the time being, did not seem to matter. All pioneer settlers are
bound for at least one or two generations to be so engrossed in rude
manual labor or in plans to establish a trade, that they lose touch with
the current intellectual life of their mother country and fall behind.
When those most urgent duties are performed and allow them brief spells
of leisure, in which they look about and try to pick up the threads they
had dropped, they find that the mother country has in the meantime
advanced so far beyond them that they are unable to catch up with it.
Spanish America was no exception to this rule. While the sons of Spain
that had settled in the New World were engaged in cultivating the soil,
making roads in the rough country and laying the foundations of commerce
and trade in the cities founded by their fathers or grandfathers, Spain
had entered upon the heritage of many centuries of European culture,
which on her soil had a rich admixture of Arabian elements. The
literature of Spain had given to the world an immortal epic, the story
of Cervantes, "Don Quixote," the deep significance of which was not
perhaps grasped at that time, but the human essence and the humor of
which were not lost upon his generation. It had given to the world a
drama, which was far in advance of anything the continent had so far
produced, and was comparable only to the works of that unparalleled
British genius, Shakespeare. The plays of Lopé de Vega were performed
all over Europe and found their way even into the seraglio of
Constantinople; and those of Calderon de la Barca have survived the
changes of time and taste and are even today occasionally performed.
Of all this the Spaniard of Cuba was hardly aware. Even if he had not
been so engrossed in his rude task, he could barely have known anything
about it, because the limited communication with the mother country and
the restrictions upon travel kept Spanish America in a state of
isolation, that made for stagnation rather than progress. When the
period of material prosperity came to Cuba with the relaxation of
Spain's commercial restrictions, the Cuban awoke to the realization that
he had lost contact with Spain's intellectual life, and had been left at
least two centuries behind. Out of this knowledge, depressing and
discouraging as it must have been, grew the attempt to centralize and
organize a gradual revival of literary and scientific activity on the
island.
Whether the Sociedad Economica Patriotica which was later called Junta
di Fomento is identical with the Sociedad de Amigos del Real Pais, is
not made clear by the historians. The Spaniards' fondness for long and
sonorous names and titles may have added the second name. However, both
this organization and a society founded about the same time in Santiago
for the purpose of organizing the literary activities of that place, and
similar societies in Sancti Spiritus and Puerto Principe were an
expression of the earnest desire of at least a part of the people to
turn their attention towards other things than those material. To
Governor La Torre, Havana owed the foundation of its first theatre. That
this establishment was encouraged and effectively patronized by Governor
Las Casas and other men closely identified with the cultural work of the
Sociedad, goes without saying.
But it is perfectly natural in view of the long period of indifference
towards anything like the drama that the classical Spanish dramas, the
masterpieces of Lopé de Vega and of the inimitable Calderon, did not
immediately find their way upon the stage of Havana. The audiences had
gradually to grow up to their standard and the directors of the
enterprise wisely refrained from forcing them upon a people that had so
long been ignorant of the strides Spain had made in the interval since
their ancestors settled in the New World. Hence the repertoire of the
theatre of Havana towards the end of the century catered to the
Spaniard's love of music and favored the best comic operas then produced
in the theatres of Europe. The ballet was very popular, as it was
everywhere at that period. But that subtle observer, M. Masse, was not
favorably impressed with it.
"The ballet is of that kind which carries far the art of varying the
most voluptuous attitudes and the expression of the least equivocal
sentiment."
He suspected the fandango, supposed to be typically Havanese, of being
originally a negro dance, saying "The difference is in the embroidery,
which civilization, or if one wishes, corruption, has introduced."
Very popular were at the time little comedies of domestic life, called
Saynetes, and offering pretty truthful pictures of social customs and
habits on the island, and especially glimpses of the society of Havana.
A Cuban writer of the period, D. José Rodriguez, is credited with the
authorship of a comedy, "El Principe Jardinero," The Prince Gardener,
which by its complicated plot held the attention of the audience and was
performed with great success in 1791. A comedian of considerable ability
and fame, then very popular with the Havanese, D. Francisco Covarrubas,
was the author of farces, which were very warmly received and drew large
audiences. The theatre of New Orleans, much older and better equipped
than that of Havana, sometimes sent its company of actors for a short
season of more serious drama. Among other plays which this company
produced was the tragedy "Les Templiers." Although undoubtedly still in
its beginnings, the theatre of Havana was upon the whole doing good
work. Anglo-Americans who visited Havana about the century's end are
said to have admitted that it was superior in building, stage setting,
acting and music to the American theatres of that period.
The regular company which played in Havana at the time of Governor Las
Casas was under the direction of Sr. Luis Saez. The performances were
given twice a week, on Sundays and Thursdays, and mostly offered a
program in which drama and music alternated. If a play of several acts
was given, these musical numbers came between the acts. The program
would usually begin with a dramatic composition; in the first
intermission a short play was acted, in the second a tonadilla (musical
composition) was played or a few Seguidillas (merry Spanish song or
dance tunes). At times the pieces between the acts were suppressed and
the performance ended with a tonadilla or a farce. In the bill of
January twenty-ninth, 1792, it is announced that "this performance will
conclude with a new duly censored piece entitled 'Elijir con discrecion
i amante privilegiado' (The privileged lover chosen with discretion), by
an inhabitant of this city, D. Miguel Gonzales."
[Illustration: A VOLANTE: AN OLD TIME PLEASURE CARRIAGE]
They did not know then, in Havana, the lyric theatre, although the
Havanese were fond of music and the members of Havana society in their
gatherings usually provided some musical entertainment by having an
instrumentalist perform on the piano, guitar or harp. However, there
seems to have existed an Academy of Music, where concerts were given.
There is an article in an issue of the Havana paper of that time, the
_Papel Periodico_, which refers to a concert given by Senora Maria
Josefa Castellanos, whose performance on the harpsichord called forth
not only a tribute in verse, but a glowing description of her "rare
skill and mastery of which she has given proof in the Academy, with the
sweetest harmonies of the best composers." This eulogy is contained in
the Sunday issue of January twenty-second, 1792. Besides Senora
Castellanos and other skilled amateurs, there was a Senora Doña Maria
O'Farrell, who distinguished herself by her musical accomplishments, for
another issue of the _Papel Periodico_ contains a sapphic ode dedicated
to her by an admirer, who signed the pseudonym Filesimolpos.
It appears that balls as an amusement were not approved of, which seems
a contradiction in a society which was by no means puritanical. Although
social evenings in private houses frequently ended in a dance, there
were few indications that large affairs consisting mainly of dancing
took place in the public assembly halls. The _Papel Periodico_ of
December sixteenth, 1792, contains an announcement which for its brevity
gives room to manifold interpretation. "The gentlemen are informed that
there will be a dance today" is so laconic, that one is almost induced
to believe that these dances were given at places known only to the
initiated. In this particular instance it was subsequently learned that
this dance of the sixteenth of December, 1792, took place at the house
of a man who was considered "a dangerous reformer of the customs of
Havana." Did this dangerous reformer perhaps admit to his dance the
ravishingly beautiful and cultured women that had come from Santo
Domingo, where they freely moved in society, but were barred in Havana,
because they had a white father or grandfather and a colored mother or
grandmother? Foreign visitors to Havana at that period were so warm in
their praise of these refined unfortunate victims of miscegenation, that
they may have converted some of the gilded youth of the smart set or the
Bohemia of Havana to their point of view.
The fine arts were not at first considered in the planning and building
of the city of Havana. Though much money was spent upon public
buildings, no artistic effect whatever was aimed at and the impression
of a crude utilitarianism prevailed. The churches, too, did not possess
the noble dignity of the great cathedrals of France, Italy and Spain.
The most ambitious ecclesiastical edifice in Havana, the church of San
Francisco, was architecturally mediocre in style and barbarously
overornamented.
In all the churches the sculpture and the wood-carving on the altars
were over-elaborate and bewildered by their decorative details. Besides
all these buildings were too low and narrow, and by their endless
decoration diminished the sense of space and produced one of oppression.
On special saints' days the decorations were pathetically crude and
primitive. Angels of paper tissue, artificial flowers, birds, lambs,
etc., were displayed with a profusion which was distracting, instead of
adding to the fervor of religious sentiment.
[Illustration: MONTSERRAT GATE IN CITY WALL OF HAVANA, BUILT 1780]
The Church de la Concepcion, built about 1795, was the only church
edifice which by a certain classic simplicity approached the solemn
beauty of a Greek temple. The Carmelite Church was interesting for the
tomb of Bishop Compostele with the epitaph, which expressed his wish to
be laid to rest "between the lilies of Carmel and the choirs of the
virgins." None of these churches had pews or chairs, the seating
capacity being limited to two rows of stalls or benches along the nave.
This made for an admirable democracy in a society which otherwise
rigorously segregated the castes for it happened not infrequently that
men of rank and ladies of position found themselves beside a poor negro.
Occasionally, however, one could see a lady going to mass with her
family of children, accompanied by a negro, carrying a rug and a small
chair; and when such a handsome senora seated herself in the center of
the rug with her offspring grouped about her, the effect was so
picturesque as to call for the brush of a Velasquez. But this privilege
was limited to white ladies of rank only. The music in the churches, on
the other hand, was exclusively furnished by the musically gifted
negroes. Though it sometimes occurred in Cuba, as in other colonies of
America, that owing to the lack of printed church music sacred words
were adopted to secular tunes, and frequently to those of popular comic
opera, the master works of the old church composers were sometimes heard
at special occasions.
Among the streets of Havana the most metropolitan was the Calle de la
Muralla, so called from the muralla or rampart built by Governor Ricla.
This was the Rue de la Paix for the women of Havana. It was lined with
"tiendas de ropas," shops displaying all the latest importations of
dress goods and wearing apparel. At that time, as at the present, the
fashionable ladies of the Cuban capital insisted upon keeping pace with
the styles of dress and adornment which prevailed in the great cities of
Europe, as their pecuniary means, their taste and their natural gifts
abundantly enabled them to do. Every morning the street was crowded with
the carriages of ladies engaged in shopping. For no white woman, unless
she belonged to what in the southern states of North America would have
been called "poor white trash" was allowed to go on foot during the day,
unless she was going to mass. Up to the twenties of the new century and
beyond, this convention was rigidly observed. Those who had to go on
foot were not seen on the Calle de la Muralla until the evening hours.
Then it was crowded with as gay and handsome a multitude of women,
white, black and of all the intervening shades, as ever trod the
pavement of a southern capital.
At such times the relation between the white and the colored women of
the city could be observed in little incidents that were an unending
source of amusement to the student of life. The lithe and willowy form
of the young girl of Spain, which Montaigne has called "un corps bien
espagnole," was frequently to be found among the Cuban women. The almost
regal dignity and grace of carriage, for which the Spanish women were
noted, had also been transmitted to their descendants in the colonies.
Now it was nothing unusual for any one to follow with his eyes the
perfect form and the graceful movements of some woman in the crowd of
such nights, and on coming up and catching a glimpse of the face to find
a negress. For the imitative faculty of the colored race is
extraordinary, and the negro maids of the white ladies of Havana copied
faithfully every detail of the gait and gestures of their mistresses.
The dress worn by the Havanese on the streets was the national basquina,
a black skirt, with a waist according to the prevailing fashion, and
under that basquina was often worn a white petticoat trimmed with lace,
which most unconcernedly was being dragged through the dust. But the
most important article of a Cuban woman's dress was the mantilla, also
often trimmed with the rarest lace, that indispensable covering for head
and shoulders, which made an effective frame for a face in which shone a
pair of luminous black eyes. That mantilla, like the fan, was a medium
of expression and spoke an eloquent language to those that understood.
The cafés, which were sadly missed by M. Villiet d'Arignon in the middle
of the century, had begun to appear in the streets of Havana, but never
became as popular as in European capitals. The Cuban did not
particularly care for coffee as a beverage; he preferred chocolate,
which he took at home. He did not care to go out, unless it was for a
game of cards, a feria di gallo, or cock-fight, or the bull-ring. He was
essentially a domestic creature, though Havana had a smart set the
masculine members of which furnished ample material for gossip of a
more or less scandalous nature. He spent his time at home smoking; in
fact, everybody in Cuba smoked, men, women, children, priests, masters
and slaves. It was not an infrequent sight to see a negro maid about her
work with a cigar in her mouth or behind her ear. Small favors and
services were paid in cigars.
Outside of the cultural endeavors of the Sociedad little was done in
Cuba for the cause of education. As the Countess de Merlin reported in
her book on Havana, there was only one school in that city in the year
1791, that taught grammar and orthography, the instructor being the
mulatto Melendez. The children of the monteros and guajiros in the
country grew up in almost complete illiteracy. As was mentioned in a
previous chapter Governor Las Casas devoted from eleven to twelve
thousand pesos of his private fortune for primary instruction, but it is
not clear whether this was to be extended throughout the island or
limited to Havana. At any rate there were at the beginning of his
administration thirty-nine schools in the city, seven of which were for
males only, the others for children of both sexes. In many of these
schools, which were in charge of mulattos or free negroes, only reading
was taught; in the better schools arithmetic as far as fractions; thus
prepared young men were expected to enter upon a university course. The
smallest fee for primary instruction was four reales a month; for higher
instruction two pesos. To two hundred white and colored children the P.
P. de Belen (Fathers of Bethlehem) gave lessons free of cost; it is
reported that their class surpassed in writing. Towards the end of the
administration of Las Casas there were seventy schools, with about two
thousand pupils. But they seemed to have a hard fight for their
existence and the number is reported to have been later reduced to
seven hundred and thirty-one pupils.
The low intellectual standard of the average Havanese woman of that
period is easily understood by a glance at these data. The education of
girls even in the cities was considered of such minor importance, that
as late as 1793 it was not deemed necessary for them to learn to read.
The daughters of the Havanese patricians were taught accomplishments
regarded as inseparable from an ideal of refined womanhood, such as
embroidery and a little music. But as work of any kind was not on the
program of their lives, serious occupation, even with household duties,
was unheard of. The matronly senoras, who were frequently held up as
models of womanhood and especially of motherhood, were woefully ignorant
of the simplest cooking and other branches of what is today called home
economics. The orphans and poor children admitted to the Casa de
Beneficiencia were better prepared for life. They were all taught the
alphabet, the girls sewing, embroidery and the making of artificial
flowers, and the boys learned the cigar-makers' trade.
From these premises it can be easily inferred that the standard of
literary activity in Cuba could not have been very high. That great
democratic medium for the diffusion of information, the printing press,
was an institution which in Cuba was also limited by royal decrees.
According to Sr. La Torre the first printing press was established in
Havana in 1747; there were printed the decrees and reports and other
official documents of the government, and sometimes matters of general
interest were published on loose sheets. Some authorities claim for
Santiago de Cuba the honor of priority, stating that it had a printing
press before the year 1700. But Sr. Hernandez in his Ensayos literarios
declares that he could find no foundation for this statement. Nor do
Valdes, Arrate or Pezuela contain any definite data on that subject.
It is safe to presume that the work of the press established in 1747
produced some good results in spreading information otherwise withheld
from the public; for in the year 1776 a royal decree forbade the
establishment of any other printing press besides that devoted to
governmental work. It is possible, too, that some speculator had
attempted to found another printing establishment. For Sr. Saco tells us
that in the year 1766 there was in Havana a printing concern under the
name of Computo Ecclesiastico and in 1773 another under the direction of
D. Blas de los Olivos. But there are no data to show that these concerns
existed at the time of the royal decree of 1776.
The establishment of a periodical has usually been deferred to the
administration of Governor Las Casas. But there is reason to believe
that the note contained in the fourth book of the history of Cuba by
Valles rests upon fact; it speaks of a "Gaceta de la Habana" as being in
existence in the year 1782. An issue of that _Gaceta_, dated May 16,
1783, was said to contain a report of the festivals with which the Duke
of Lancaster was honored in Havana. In that issue the publisher said:
"Since in the preceding _Gaceta_ the arrival in this town of the Infante
William Duke of Lancaster, third son of King George of England, could
hardly be indicated, we suppressed for one week the circulation of other
news, in order to offer to our readers the details of his entry into
Havana."
Besides those printing concerns no other is known to have existed in
Havana until the opening of that of Bolona, in the year 1792, which is
referred to in an advertisement in the _Papel Periodico_ of Sunday,
August 26th of that year. This advertisement read:
"Another negress about 20 or 21 years old, good cook and laundress,
healthy and without defects, for three hundred pesos. He who wants her
will apply to the printing office of D. Estaven Joseph Bolona, where her
master will be found."
That this press was not identical with the government printing
establishment is inferred from the fact that in this number of the
_Papel Periodico_ as well as other issues are contained many
advertisements referring to the printing office, where information will
be given.
The _Gaceta de la Habana_ was a weekly, which probably contained the
government announcements and news of the most important events of the
time. The space of the _Gaceta_ was too limited to admit of the
publication of communications from readers on matters concerning the
community, hence such effusions, as also the lyrics coming from the pens
of poetically inclined dilettanti, were published on separate sheets to
be circulated among their admiring friends. But at the time of Governor
Las Casas the desire of improving this publication of the government
made itself felt; the space was enlarged and the old time _Gaceta_ seems
to have been merged in the _Papel Periodico_, which began to circulate
from the twenty-fourth of October, 1790. It appeared once a week and was
edited by D. Diego de la Barrera.
This publication was the only medium through which those desirous of
knowing something of the current life of the island at the end of the
eighteenth and the beginning of the twentieth century could obtain a
fair picture of the customs and occupations of that time, described by
the individual contributors with the warmth and the florid exuberance
then in style and occasionally, when coming from a more critical mind,
with a touch of satire. The following extract from the periodical will
give an idea of its contents and character. In an issue of the year
1792, the writer speaks of the lamentable ignorance reigning in the
country districts of Cuba and hampering the development of agriculture.
He attacks the current opinion that the climate is the source of the
Cuban's indifference and indolence, saying that this assumption would
give ground to deny even the possibility of progress. He says:
"Many opine that the laziness of the inhabitants of this country is the
effect of the climate. They take it for granted that the lassitude of
the muscles and tendons is due to the heat and makes the bodies lose
their tenseness and hence their capacity for exertion. They also give as
cause the excessive evaporation of elements needed for the growth and
the strength of the organism, asserting that this loss owing to weak
constitution of the stomach cannot be repaired by fatty and abundant
food.
"These reasons founded upon the organic mechanism of our bodies seem
quite conclusive. There is no doubt that the intense heat which we
suffer during the greatest part of the year in the countries near the
equator promotes evaporation too much. But I dare to assert that the
excess is being insensibly recovered by the bodies through the particles
produced by perspiration. This does not seem chimerical, when we reflect
that by our constant respiration the air in which we are living enters
and is being constantly renewed in our liquids, and that this air is
impregnated with innumerable corpuscles extracted from the solids. The
same is true of a fountain, the surplus flows off to fertilize the near
forest, while at the same time is restored to its bosom through
different means an equal quantity, which incessant infiltration also
supplies from other water sources."
After comparing the physical and intellectual aptitude of the children
of the tropics with those of Greenland and the progress made by the
French of Hayti in science, agriculture and art, which is in diametrical
contrast to that of the Spanish West Indians, he continues:
"Therefore, as indolence or laziness do not proceed from external
causes, we must admit that they proceed from ourselves. I find no other
source. It is a voluntary habit, or speaking more plainly, a vice
propagated like the pestilence and causing incalculable harm to the
social structure. But as I propose to combat this enemy, I shall show
the most visible injuries it produces in those who yield to its
insidious charm.
"Every living body without movement goes into corruption. This is a well
established principle and in the hot countries which are usually humid,
the effect is quickly seen. We have a sad experience in this city, where
the inhabitants are frequently afflicted with dropsy, internal and
external tumors, hypochondria, nervous diseases and many other ailments,
the origin of which is inaction or want of movement and circulation.
While in this respect indolence conspires against our very existence,
the injury is no less when it manifests itself in the vices to which
professional idlers are subject. Incessant gambling, excessive
sensuality, late hours, unreasonable food and drink and other
correlative features are the means by which health is ruined, life is
shortened; and he who succeeds in prolonging it, does so at the cost of
a variety of aches and pains.
"Prisons and other dismal places are the final abode of idleness. Those
liable to get there for theft, debt and other offences curse their
unhappy lot; but they will not admit that their laziness is the chief
source of their misfortunes. Celibacy, depopulation, the languishing of
commerce, the backwardness of science, art, agriculture, etc., are all
the results of idleness.
"When I see on this island a city of so large a population, the greater
part of which is living in ill-concealed poverty, while her fertile and
beautiful fields around are uncultivated and deserted, painful
reflections suggest themselves to me. If this oldest and most wholesome
occupation, agriculture, is an inexhaustible source of wealth even in
countries less favored for it, how much wealth might not be produced in
this country. It is evident that the difference in its favor would be as
great as the superiority of our fields which in fertility are unrivalled
by those of any other country.
"I therefore conclude by saying that even those living in opulence have
no excuse for giving themselves up to shameful inaction. When their
riches exempt them from ordinary occupations, they should devote
themselves to the cultivation of the mind."
This somewhat predicatory article, published in Nos. 11, 13 and 14 of
the _Papel Periodico_, proves how seriously the men at the head of the
great intellectual revival of the century's end took their task of
rousing the people from their torpor. Nevertheless there is little
documentary proof that much was produced by the pens of that generation.
The question of promoting agriculture seems to have preoccupied the
minds of the readers at that time. In another article the author says:
"I must state that no country can progress unless it produces in
abundance fruits for exportation; if it confines itself to the amount
used for home consumption, it will never come out of her poverty. The
beautiful climate, the fertile soil, and the location of our island
offer much richer resources than any other country; but unfortunately we
are hampered by various conditions, mainly in the attitude of the people
themselves. There are those whose notions do not permit them to take a
great part in the community of laborers; these, again, living in
poverty, are afraid to change their work, thinking that what they are
doing is the best for them. What is needed is to remove some of the
prejudices that prevent people from seeing the advantages that would
result from their devoting themselves to the cultivation of fruits for
exportation.
"There is no doubt that there are in this island physical and moral
causes that hamper the progress of agriculture. The physical are: the
distribution of the grounds in large portions to individual owners, the
condition of the roads, almost impassable during the rainy season; the
lack of bridges, the lack of labor, and lastly the lack of concerted
action among the inhabitants. The moral reasons are: insufficient
instruction and education of the laboring people, the contempt for
farming peculiar to the young, and especially the unmarried landholder;
the great number of idlers and the small population."
The measures adopted by the supreme government in 1784 had checked the
progress of Cuba and even diminished the population. In that epoch the
allowances from Mexico decreased and the authorities of the island found
themselves without means to perform the every day business of the
island. The evils produced by these new decrees were set forth in a
petition to the king and were amply discussed in the paper.
The excitement of the authorities and the population is reflected in
various articles of the _Papel Periodico_ which have not only the merit
of showing the state of the public mind, but also of proving that the
authorities in Cuba itself favored reforms. They certainly would not
have been published had they not been approved of by Governor Las Casas.
There are interesting communications in the paper from foreigners then
visiting in Havana. One of them signing himself "El Europeo imparcial"
gives a very appreciative account of the character and customs of the
Havanese. He praises their religion, their piety, their zeal for divine
worship and devotion to the saints; their courteous and affable conduct,
the refinement of their leaders, the magnificence of their festivities
and assemblies, both sacred and secular, their streets and promenades,
where multitudes of brilliant carriages are to be seen, and other
features of public life which in all countries are the first to strike
the foreign visitor.
A most ambitious and for the time extraordinary work appeared in the
year 1787. It was a book by D. Antonio Parra on the fish and crustacea
of the island, illustrated by the Cuban Baez. It was the first
scientific work written and published in Cuba, and seems for some time
to have remained the only one. For until the end of the century the
literature produced had a distinctly dilettante character. The fable,
epigram and satire occasionally relieved the flood of lyric verse. Most
of this appeared anonymously; or the writers used pseudonyms or signed
their names in anagrams. P. José Rodriguez, the author of "The Prince
Gardener," the comedy popular in Havana at that time, wrote under the
pen-name "Capucho" a number of gay decimas, poems in the Spanish form of
ten lines of eight syllables each. But none of these works were of a
quality to call for serious criticism and had no merits that insured
for them a permanent place in what was ultimately to be known as Cuban
literature; for this literature dates only from the nineteenth century.