Guerra de Razas (Negros Contra Blancos en Cuba)

Havana, 1912. Good plus.. 196pp. Original printed front wrapper bound into 20th-century faux leather, paper boards, spine and front board gilt lettered. Contemporary ownership inscription and bookseller's ink stamp on title page. Lower corners of initial and final leaves repaired with tissue. Even tanning, occasional foxing, heavier to initial leaves. A scarce, contemporary account of what the authors term the "Guerra de Razas," also known as the 1912 Cuban War, an uprising by parts of the island's Afro-Cuban population demanding equal rights, which was brutally extinguished by government forces. The conflict had its roots in racial tensions between Cuba's Hispanic and Black populations after the reestablishment of self-government in 1909. Race-based political parties such as the Partido Independiente de Color had been established in the 1900s to fight for the civil rights of Black Cubans, but these groups were outlawed by the predominantly Hispanic government in 1910. The PIC continued to operate, however, and its leaders, Evaristo Esteñoz and Pedro Ivonet agitated for a rebellion that would force the government to reverse the law. When the uprising finally occurred in the eastern provinces of Cuba on May 20, 1912, it was met with extreme force, with contemporary accounts and eyewitnesses numbering the executed and massacred at anywhere between 2,000 and 6,000 people, including Esteñoz and Ivonet. The authors of the present work present their account from a pro-government perspective, but nevertheless make some attempt toward social history and analysis of the causes of conflict. The whole is photographically illustrated with numerous portraits of significant military figures. OCLC locates a small handful of copies in U.S. institutions.