Focusing on a period of history rocked by four armed movements, Lillian
Guerra traces the origins of Cubans' struggles to determine the meaning
of their identity and the character of the state, from Cuba's last war
of independence in 1895 to the consolidation of U.S. neocolonial
hegemony in 1921. Guerra argues that political violence and competing
interpretations of the "social unity" proposed by Cuba's revolutionary
patriot, Jose Marti, reveal conflicting visions of the nation--visions
that differ in their ideological radicalism and in how they cast Cuba's
relationship with the United States.
As Guerra explains, some nationalists supported incorporating foreign
investment and values, while others sought social change through the
application of an authoritarian model of electoral politics; still
others sought a democratic government with social and economic justice.
But for all factions, the image of Marti became the principal means by
which Cubans attacked, policed, and discredited one another to preserve
their own vision over others'. Guerra's examination demonstrates how
competing historical memories and battles for control of a weak state
explain why polarity, rather than consensus on the idea of the "nation"
and the character of the Cuban state, came to define Cuban politics
throughout the twentieth century.