Children of Colonial Despotism · Press, Politics, and Culture in Cuba, 1790-1840

In the first half of the nineteenth century two forces combined to thwart intellectual activity in Cuba. The overwhelming restrictions that Spain placed upon the press, as well as gradual creole complicity in those restrictions, channeled Cuban literary voices from politics into literature, and eventually into silence.

Children of Colonial Despotism recounts the efforts of three generations of Cuban literati to balance their desire for political and creative freedom with restrictions imposed by Spain and by their own self-interest in a booming slave economy. It offers the first detailed political narrative of Cuba during three crucial intervals of constitutionalism and a free press—1811-14, 1820-23, and 1836. Jensen is also the first to explain persuasively the remarkable literary boom of 1838-39 and its equally unexpected demise.

Set against the backdrop of colonial social and economic realities, this study reveals much about Cuban culture and politics. Issues implicit in the history of Cuba—the reason why the colony remained faithful to Spain, and the impact of protracted colonialism—are, Jensen demonstrates, reflected in the history of the periodical press.

The book is firmly grounded in archival research, but its greatest originality lies in its exhaustive exploitation of the periodical press—not only the periodicals themselves but also censorship documents that offer a window on that ambiguous territory between what could and could not be printed. Jensen’s emphasis on censorship documentation, and not just the printed page, accounts for a dramatically expanded vision of the intellectual and political life of Cuba in the early nineteenth century.

—from the flaps of the dust jacket

Includes an Appendix, Notes, a Bibliography, and an Index