Aline Helgs Our Rightful Share: The Afro-Cuban Struggle for Equality, 1886-1912 :: Aline Helg History Cuba Essays

Aline Helgs Our Rightful Share The Afro-Cuban Struggle for Equality, 1886-1912Introductioninside Aline Helgs book titled, Our Rightful Share The Afro-Cuban Struggle for Equality, 1886-1912, she includes many an(prenominal) historical events that serve as a foundation for her arguments in raise to emphasize the black struggle for equality starting in the new-fangled 19th century and according to her, still transpiring today. These events are, the formation of the beginning(a) black independent political party called the, Partido Independiente de Color (146), the unite States fictitious character during intervention and the black struggle to overcome the system of racial hierarchies that had certain in Cuba. Blacks had to fight for equality while simultaneously being, accused of racial discrimination and antinationalism. (145) consort to Helg, this placed an undue burden on the black groups that were organizing to motive their rightful share because it made divided the goals of their plight into many varied facets, thus yielding a lack of unity necessary for their success. During the unify States intervention, Cuban nationalism as a whole was threatened which as well as served to downplay the importance of demands being made by the Partidos leader, Estenoz. The United States displayed a greater concern on the affirmation of its power as an international police, rather than allying its resources to help the indignant and discriminated Afro-Cubans. All of these circumstances embellish the extremities of the political and social institutions that the Afro-Cubans attempted to defeat but could not. They also map the perpetuation of the black struggle, and how it affected and continues to affect the lives of Afro-Cubans in present-day Cuba. racial Hierarchies and Ideologies in CubaThe entire struggle that Helg is alluding to in her book is founded within the racial hierarchies and racial ideologies that were formed early on in Cubas history. some(prenomi nal) aspects of Cuban society (as discussed by Helg) served to foster the racism and the antagonistic attitudes that whites had towards the Afro-Cubans. An great example of the inequality that the blacks were made to suffer was the denial of citizenship after 1886. According to Helg, Afro-Cubans were denied the titles of Don and Doa on their identity cards. This was a strident form of discrimination against because it prevented blacks from being considered as first class citizens, despite the fact that they were full taxpayers. (25) What Helg means by this is that even though the Afro-Cubans were active in the economic spectrum of Cuba, they were still denied access into the political and social arenas.