El Caribe insular, el azúcar y las luchas campesinas

Abstract

This article presents a historical overview of the struggles of the sugarcane workers in the Caribbean islands from the early nineteenth century until the 1930s. The text links the various slave rebellions and insurrections and the Haiti independence. The sugarcane farmers, small landowners, settlers and, in some cases, planters themselves were involved in emancipatory struggles as the Grito de Yara in Cuba and the Grito de Lares in Puerto Rico, both in 1868. Another process that is discussed is the involvement of the sugarcane workers in the various anti-imperialist struggles in both Haiti and the Dominican Republic in the early twentieth century. The relationship between sugar production, the peasants and the struggle for independence is the central theme of this paper.