Partido Independiente de Color

The Cuban political party Partido Independiente de Color (PIC) was the first and, for many years, the only race-based party in Latin America and the Caribbean. Its brief and controversial existence ended in violence. Organized initially on August 7, 1908, it was banned in 1910 but resurfaced in an armed uprising in 1912, when government forces responded with swift and definitive repressive measures. Its founding members were mostly veterans of Cuba's Wars of Independence (1868–1898) and former members of the Liberal Party. Upon attaining independence in 1902, Cuba had adopted a new constitution that granted universal manhood suffrage and formal political equality to former slaves and their descendants. However, many men, especially veterans, were frustrated by exclusions from some of the state's most lucrative patronage networks. Whereas some blacks and mulattoes did experience greater political inclusion and access to jobs in the first years of the republic, progress was not fast enough for others, who made a number of demands on the state. Out of this dissatisfaction a number of groups emerged to press for greater racial equality in job distribution. One of the first was the Comité de Acción de Veteranos y Sociedades de la Raza de Color (Committee of Veterans and Associations of the Race of Color) in 1902. Although this committee dissolved shortly after its foundation, its goals would be pursued by the founders of the PIC in 1908.

The leaders of the party, Evaristo Estenoz and Pedro Ivonnet, sought to organize and mobilize Cubans of color with calls for the government to deliver on its promise of racial equality. Both were veterans of the Wars of Independence and relatively experienced politicians. Estenoz worked as a mason and was president of the masons' guild, as well as an active participant in Liberal Party politics between 1904 and 1908. Ivonnet, a descendant of Haitian immigrants who had established themselves as landowners in the eastern province of Oriente, had been active in both the Conservative and Moderate parties before founding the PIC.

Scholars disagree regarding the extent of support and the social composition of followers of the PIC. One school claims that the party appealed to blacks and mulattoes of all social classes, but an opposing school argues for a narrower constituency limited to urban inhabitants or war veterans with aspirations to jobs in the bureaucracy. The latter view holds that rural people were more concerned about wages and working conditions—concerns they shared with working-class whites—than about access to government patronage.

Whether or not it enjoyed widespread support, the party experienced difficulties soon after it was established. Participation in electoral politics proved disappointing. PIC candidates for Congress in Havana and Las Villas in the 1908 election received a very small percentage of the vote. In 1910 liberal senator Martín Morúa Delgado dealt the party a blow by calling its constitutionality into question, based as it was on racial distinctions that had been presumably eliminated by the adoption of egalitarian legislation. Party cohesion suffered a greater setback after an extensive round of arrests sent many members to jail. This provoked a split within the party as members disagreed over tactics and objectives.

On May 20, 1912, Estenoz and Ivonnet, demanding reinstatement as a legitimate party, mobilized an armed uprising in several parts of the island, principally in the provinces of Oriente and Santa Clara. Initially cautious official reaction gave way to overt repression by the middle of June. Yet repression varied from region to region. In Oriente, many died. Whereas historians disagree as to the numbers, most agree that at least three thousand alleged participants, including Estenoz and Ivonnet, were killed by government troops and vigilante groups. In regions surrounding the city of Cienfuegos, however, repression was tempered by participants' roles in patronage networks. There the police, who had achieved a delicate coexistence with some of the local leaders of the uprising, arrested and quickly released many rebels, allowing the leaders to elude capture.

This episode has a paradoxical legacy. It exacerbated divisions among Cubans of color: Whereas some defended the PIC, others defended its goals but criticized its violent strategies. If the party itself did not sustain a great deal of political support, it launched an uprising that seemed dangerous enough to justify massive repression. Appeals for racial equality that emerged soon afterward were cast in very different terms. Rather than calling for the formation of a political party, activists for racial equity in the post-1912 era sought greater inclusion in unions, formed voluntary associations, and participated in public debates about culture, citizenship, and social and economic justice.

See also Politics and Politicians in Latin America

Bibliography

Bronfman, Alejandra. Measures of Equality: Social Science, Citizenship and Race in Cuba, 1902–1940. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2004.

de la Fuente, Alejandro. A Nation for All: Race, Inequality, and Politics in Twentieth-Century Cuba. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2001.

Fermoselle, Rafael. Política y color en Cuba: La Guerrita de 1912. Montevideo, Uruguay: Editorial Geminis, 1974.

Helg, Aline. Our Rightful Share: The Afro-Cuban Struggle for Equality, 1886–1912. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1995.

Linares, Serafín Portuondo. Los independientes de color. Havana, Cuba: Editorial Librería Selecta, 1950. Reprint, with prologue by Fernando Martínez Heredia. Havana, Cuba: Editorial Caminos, 2002.

Robaina, Tomás Fernández. El negro en Cuba, 1902–1958: Apuntes para la historia de la lucha contra la discriminación. Havana, Cuba: Editorial de Ciencias Sociales, 1990.

alejandra bronfman (2005)