Education in Empire and Diaspora: Afro-Cubans at the Turn of the Twentieth Century

Raquel Otheguy

This dissertation considers the role that the education of Afro-Cubans played in the construction of an independent Cuban nation from 1898 to 1933. I use archival research in Cuba and the United States to explore the development of educational institutions and discourses in Cuba. I examine the public education system set up by the U.S. military government, and how Afro-Cubans responded to it, framing education as an example of black activism. Elite debates about education reveal concerns about the connection between race and national belonging. Afro-Cubans intervened in these debates with their own ideas about education, mobility, and national integration, and sustained a Diasporic connection with African American leaders thinking about education. By examining national, imperial, and transnational educational systems and debates, this dissertation seeks to expose the multiple understandings of race and nation that affected Afro-Cuban life in the early twentieth century.

About Raquel Otheguy

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