Cuban

“ 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. ”

“ To its merciless pressure, and frequently cruel action, we may perhaps ascribe the instinctive hatred of the "powers that be"—so characteristic of the modern Cuban—even as hereditary memories of the doings of Mary Tudor and her Spaniard husband have implanted a sullen distrust of the Spanish nation in the breast of the average Englishman. ”

“ NATURE designed Cuba for greatness. That salient fact is written large and clear upon every page of the island’s history. He must lack vision who can not discern it even in the annals of political, military and social development of the Cuban nation. Although one of the earliest lands in the Western Hemisphere to be discovered and colonized, it was actually the last of all to be erected into political independence and thus to enter into an opportunity for improving fully the incomparable opulence of its natural endowment. ”

“ Under the circumstances is it to be wondered at that the Cuban is deficient in backbone; that he is vacillating and morally wobbly; that his somewhat effeminate, often handsome, and never coarse features bear a stamp of weakness which the most fiery pair of eyes will not suffice to counteract? ”

“ The early settlers of the island, and therefore the progenitors of the present Cuban people, were beyond question the flower of the Spanish race at the very time when that race was at the height of its marvellous puissance and efficience. The Sixteenth Century was the Golden Age of Spain, and they were conspicuous representatives of those who made it so who implanted the genius of their time upon the hospitable soil of the great West Indian island. That rule has been, indeed, common to the colonial enterprises of all lands. The best men become the pioneers. ”

“ The Cuban People have existed for four centuries, the Cuban Nation in its consummate sense for less than a single generation. Yet in the latter brief span more progress has been made toward realization of Cuba's possibilities and destinies than in all those former ages. It is a circumstance of peculiar significance that almost the oldest of all civilized communities in the Western Hemisphere should be the youngest of all the nations. ”

“ The educated Cuban is by birth, by nature and by training, a polished gentleman and a diplomat; a man who will be at ease in any position, no matter how difficult, and whose superior, socially or intellectually, is seldom found in any court, committee or congregation of men. ”

“ In the United States, under similar circumstances, some more stimulating beverage than coffee would [Pg 262] have been in “good form”; but, after such fatigue and exposure, it would not have been accepted in Cuba. While it is the custom of a Cuban to offer you his house and all that therein is when you call, or his volante-horses if you chance to admire them, or his watch if you cast a glance at it when he tells you the hour, there lies beneath all this effusion, which to matter-of-fact people seems so unmeaning and absurd, a genuine kindness of heart. ”

“ The Spanish settlers of Cuba had come chiefly from Andalusia and Estremadura, and were the very flower of the Iberian race, and from them had descended those who after three centuries were entitled to be regarded as the Cuban people. They retained unimpaired the finest qualities of the great race that in the sixteenth century had made Spain all but the mistress of the world, and they still cherished a chivalric loyalty to the spirit and the traditions of that wondrous age. In other colonies the settlement was more varied. ”

“ Next to the pioneers of Andalusia and southern Spain, it is probable that the introduction of French blood has influenced the Cuban type and life more than any other race foreign to the Island. Back in the seventeenth century French traders and privateers made frequent visits to Cuba, and some of them found Cuban wives, whose descendants afterward became citizens of the country. ”

“ But even before the realization came, the Cuban people, not yet cognizant of the tremendous force which was working within them, began to rise to meet the new occasion, the new opportunity which was opening before them, with a triumphant spiritual puissance which has not often been rivalled in the annals of the nations. ”

“ There is something strangely cosmopolitan in many of the Cuban families—as in this, where are found French origin, Spanish and American intermarriage, education in Europe or the United States, home and property in Cuba, friendships and sympathies and half a residence in Boston or New York or Charleston, and three languages at command. ”

“ The whites comprise native Cubans, Spaniards, and foreigners; a certain proportion in the interior being Canary Islanders, who are fitted by constitution, habits, and tastes for farm work.
The native Cuban is usually bright, and is gifted particularly with a remarkable memory. Children are very precocious, and, when given educational advantages, they develop into men of no mean ability. ”

“ The real leaders of the Cuban nation have comprehended the responsibilities, unspeakably profound and weighty, that rest upon the founders of a nation, and no less upon those who direct the affairs of a nation after its foundation, to the last chapter in its age-long annals. ”

“ So many of the Spanish boys go to Cuba, and often they forget Spain, take a Cuban girl for a wife, and never go home again. And then their children are Cubans with Cuban mothers. Cuba is so near to the United States, these Cuban children often come here, where they learn something about our system of government, and the education and freedom enjoyed by our people. ”

“ It would be pleasant, and not lacking in profit, to dwell at greater length upon these and other intellectual leaders of the Cuban people. What we have said is, however, sufficient to show how greatly and how masterfully the intellectual side of Cuban life was developed during the century of political stress and fitful military strife which served as the stormy prelude to Cuba's achievement of her independent rank among the nations of the world. ”

“ As long as Cuba was under Spanish domination, there was no use in parties. So long as there was doubt concerning the intentions of the United States in Cuba, there was little encouragement to their formation. But the moment the Stars and Stripes actually went down from the Palace and from the Morro, the great fact dawned upon the Cuban mind that what many had scarcely dared to expect or to hope for was actually achieved. Cuba was independent. ”

“ To see the real Cuba, one must get into the country. Havana is the principal city, and for many it is the most interesting place on the island, but it is no more Cuba than Paris is France or than New York is the United States. The real Cuba is rural; the real Cuban is a countryman, a man of the soil. ”

“ The era of Cuban history which embraced part of the seventeenth, the eighteenth, and part of the nineteenth centuries, and which we have endeavored to review in this volume, presents a striking and almost unique contrast to the customary course of human affairs. The normal order of civic development begins with the rise and confirmation of nationality, and thence proceeds to international relationships and cosmopolitan interests and activities. ”

“ In the province of Havana, social life and the Cuban race itself, to a certain extent, were influenced by the various officials and army officers sent there from the mother country, many of whom found wives and made homes in Havana, bringing with them the predominating traits and customs of Madrid and other cities of Central Spain, which had given them birth. ”

“ The Cuban business, like all other great political and social questions, is a very complex one, and, in order to gain even a general idea of its intricacies, some knowledge of its origin must be obtained. ”

“ American readers, with less vision and comprehension of Cuban affairs, should equally understand the matter when they are reminded that the Cuban Autonomists were merely following the example of some of the men whom Americans most delight to honor. ”

“ With the exception of a handful of boatmen and a few fruit venders, not a person came to the piers to gaze at the new arrivals, and in the town the people scarcely gave themselves the trouble to look out of their open dwellings and shops at the colonists. This may have been inherent courtesy—for the Cuban is nothing if not courteous—but to us it seemed more like indifference. The Cubans are certainly an indifferent people, and at this port they appeared to have no object or interest in life. ”

“ Native writers also dwell upon the good manners of the Havanese, calling them the most polite and social people of Spanish America, much given to imitating the French customs and manners, which were then in vogue at the Spanish court of Madrid, both in their dress and their conversation, as also in the furnishings of their houses and the good table they set their guests. These descriptions of Cuba and Cuban life tally well with those of the foreigners quoted by the author, and indicate the progress made by the island, and especially by Havana, in the sixth and seventh decades of the century. ”

“ Following this army, as a result perhaps of favorable reports that came from the lips of returning soldiers, quite an influx of Americans, actuated by curiosity or motives of trade, came to Cuba and remained here permanently, many marrying into Cuban families, purchasing farms, or establishing branch houses and independent industries in the Island Republic. Most of these have succeeded socially and financially. ”

“ It will be a task of no mean magnitude, but of unsurpassed profit and pleasure, to trace the deliberate development of that early colony into this late nation, and to observe the causes and forces which so long repressed and thwarted the sovereign aspirations of the Cuban People,{viii} and also, more gratefully, the causes and forces which inevitably, in the slow fullness of time, achieved their ultimate fulfilment in the secure establishment of the Cuban Nation. ”

“ Some of these early settlers made wives of comely Indian women, whose beauty had captured their fancy, and while the influence of the kindly, pleasure-loving “Cubenos” has not made any deep or striking impression on the race, it may account for the quite common fondness of display and love of gaiety found in the Cuban of today. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Moreover, the negroes make excellent soldiers, with finer physique than the Cubans themselves, and equal powers of endurance.
The Cuban is small in stature compared to the American soldier, but he is well set up, wiry, and apparently has unlimited staying powers. He frequently lives on one meal a day, and that a poor one, but he shows no signs whatever of being ill-fed ”

“ It is this service, following the others which I have named, which differentiates the Cuban Republic from most of the other states which have been formed from the Spanish Empire in America. Of the two states which at one time planned to wrest Cuba from Spain by force and make her a part of their community of nations, Colombia was for half a century in a chronic condition of revolution, and Mexico through the same evil processes has given the word Mexicanize to the political vocabulary. It was the intention of the United States that Cuba should not fall into that category ”

“ The United States had always taken a lively interest in Cuban affairs, and when the Cubans revolted in 1895 for the sixth time against the cruel domination of the Spaniards there was deep sympathy for them in this country, that continued to grow as the months went by. ”

“ For several days the Cubans were almost invisible, appearing only for a daily drive, a twilight saunter on the beach, or a brief visit to the ballroom, there to enjoy the excitement of the pastime in which they both excelled. ”

“ Not too long ago, two friends of mine were talking to a Cuban refugee, a businessman who had escaped from Castro, and in the midst of his story one of my friends turned to the other and said, "We don't know how lucky we are." And the Cuban stopped and said, "How lucky you are? I had someplace to escape to." And in that sentence he told us the entire story. If we lose freedom here, there's no place to escape to. This is the last stand on earth. ”

“ For having dared to give utterances to principles and opinions, which, to other nations, constitute the foundation of their moral progress and glory, the Cubans most distinguished for their virtues and talents have found themselves wanderers and exiles. ”

“ Judging from our experience with the inhabitants of the province of Puerto Principe, there are no better people on the face of the earth to "get along with" than the Cubans. We found them, almost without exception, courteous, social, kind, hospitable, and honest. ”

“ During the brief intervals in which a liberal spirit was manifested towards the colony by the home government, the Cubans gave proof of talent and energy, which, had they been permitted to attain their full development, would have given them a highly honorable name and distinguished character. ”

“ The Cubans were thoroughly aroused against Spain, and more and more there began to grow within them the desire not for annexation to the United States but for complete independence, and a government of their own making. At last the people were finding themselves, and higher aspirations and new longings were stirring in their souls. ”