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Racial Migrations: New York City and the Revolutionary Politics of the Spanish Caribbean, 1850–1902

2020; Duke University Press; Volume: 100; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1215/00182168-8647175

1527-1900

Lisandro Pérez,

Spanish Literature and Culture Studies

At one point in this extraordinary book, the author, presenting what he calls the “radial lines of the ‘vast sphere of resurgent nationalism’” that converged in New York City, tells us that “only by connecting these dots” can we see what must have been obvious to the historical figures whose lives he is vividly portraying (p. 106). Connecting the dots is what Racial Migrations is all about. Jesse Hoffnung-Garskof crafts a dramatic story of how a group of Afro-Caribbean intellectuals and activists became connected, among themselves and with their white conationals, to create “one of the great freedom struggles of the nineteenth century” (p. 3).That this study is presented as a dramatic work is evident in the opening pages, where we find a “cast of characters roughly in order of appearance.” Heading the long list are “the principals”: Rafael Serra, José Martí, Sotero Figueroa, Gertrudis Heredia de Serra, Manuela Aguayo de Figueroa, Juan Gualberto Gómez, Juan and Gerónimo Bonilla, and Francisco Gonzalo “Pachín” Marín, Puerto Ricans and Cubans all and, except for Martí, men and women of African descent who, although from diverse socioeconomic backgrounds, nevertheless suffered from the racism prevalent in the colonial societies into which they were born. Their convergence and revolutionary activism in New York during the 1890s form the core of the book.The focus is on the characters. Hoffnung-Garskof tells us up front that this is microhistory: “Sustained attention to the personal experiences and thoughts of just a few individuals can reveal the contours of a time and place that are otherwise difficult for historians to capture or relate” (p. 6). This is especially true, he argues, for understanding how racial minorities negotiated their actions in societies characterized by racial domination.The action in Racial Migrations unfolds much like in a play, with each chapter akin to a theme-driven act or scene that introduces new secondary characters. The first two chapters, “Beginnings” and “The Public Square,” present the parallel lives of the principal characters in their pre–New York societies of origins, detailing their family backgrounds, what it meant to be black in colonial Cuba and Puerto Rico, and their early public manifestations of racial and revolutionary thought and action. Chapter 3, “Community,” describes New York from the players' point of view: racial segregation, the close physical contact with African Americans, ethnic ties across racial lines in the cigar factories, the gender divide, and participation in revolutionary and labor politics. Chapters 4 (“Convergence”) and 5 (“Crossing”) are the central chapters of the book, focusing on the circumstances and places that led to the convergence of what had been the parallel lives of the principal characters and the far-reaching accommodations and consequences of that convergence for the revolutionary movement.The remaining chapter and epilogue (“Victory?” and “Endings,” respectively) relate the unhappy denouement of the revolutionary movement from the actors' perspective: the loss of Martí and its dire consequences for the Partido Revolucionario Cubano, the ominous takeover of Cuba by a country with Jim Crow in full swing, and the sequels of that takeover for the early Republic and especially for the main characters, characters who by this point in the book we have come to know intimately. Hoffnung-Garskof imbues the concluding pages with a sense of pathos as he argues that even in the face of the Republic's evident failure to live up to Martí's principles of inclusion, we should not fail to recognize the accomplishments of those black revolutionary leaders. To poignantly punctuate the tragedy of the outcome, a new character, Evaristo Estenoz, is introduced in the epilogue, and a direct line is drawn from the movement that started in New York to the fate of Estenoz and the Partido Independiente de Color.Central to the microhistorical approach is the extensive use of census and other location-based data to support the intriguing premise that propinquity, in terms of both residence and place of employment, played a critical role in the movement's development and convergence. The actors' place on the New York stage is analyzed in detail, with countless references to addresses and the inclusion of six maps showing all the relevant Manhattan locations: homes, workplaces, restaurants, and meeting places. It is easy for us to imagine the day-to-day lives of these characters and the significance of place in their sociopolitical evolution.This is a gem of a book. Hoffnung-Garskof takes the massive amount of information that he has painstakingly gathered and weaves it into an engaging story that is elegantly written and represents a critical contribution to the growing body of literature that aims to give New York its due as the setting for the nation-building activities of Cuban and Puerto Rican émigrés.