This week’s reading start by mentioning the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen, and how the caste and race were critical categories in the citizenship debates of the early republican period. It was a bit puzzling to read how the most enlightened group of people couldn’t see lower castes people as equal, and capable of handling any public job; “Whites are smarter, more rational, fitter to govern and to be citizens of any society” and still they were the ones who wrote the constitutions claiming universal citizenship rights.

One particular thing that amazed me was Cuban history. When I read that Cuban blooming economy enriched a growing number of free blacks, and they started becoming professionals and merchants with higher aspirations, I thought of how much potential Cubans have had (nowadays, they are excellent in medicine, arts, and sports) and how much they have been through. I was a bit sad and frustrating to read that all the improvements of the black slaves in Cuba were constantly undermined by the upper classes with the excuse of “fear of fomenting rebellion”. Emancipation was certainly a complex story of pressures from the outside world, from slaves themselves and internal elite conflicts.

I personally felt the first document a bit challenging to understand, and I had trouble deciding the position of the author. However, I got the idea of the author being a pedagogic figure, trying to understand the causes to the problem of understanding the practices of the African-American. The next document was the political program of the Partido Independiente de Color in Cuba, and that one I felt like education proposes were amazing, stating that education should be free and compulsory. I really liked the idea of education as a solution to almost every single problem and the fact that they were willing to bring education to the penitentiaries. I also really enjoyed the text of Santa Rita de Casia and San Lorenzo, I thought the first part was really thoughtful, and nice, where it stated that the human nature was the thing that makes us all equals. Then, It started with economy facts in Christianism, and I thought how religion is so influential in every aspect, yet we see so little about the human moral aspect.

The last two documents were relating the role of women. I really enjoyed “Brushtrokes” and I felt totally related at the beginning when the author felt so overwhelmed and was not able to pick a specific point to serve for the article. It clearly showed the frustration that women felt, and I could understand it, especially when the answer to this is the emancipation of women  seen in the last document. It is hard to believe that a woman like Josefina Pelliza was the one who wrote this specific reply, and not a man.

I really look forward to the discussion of this week’s lecture in class.