Debts of gratitude—personal and professional—have accumulated over the many years this book has been in preparation: first and foremost with the staffs of libraries and archives—the librarians, the bibliographers, the archivists, the curators—without whose assistance the completion of this book would have been impossible. The reference staff of Davis Library at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill generously contributed time and expertise to the completion of this book, especially Tommy Nixon and Beth Rowe. Geneva Holliday and the staff in the Interlibrary Loan office have been nothing short of spectacular in their ability to locate and obtain materials published over the last 150 years. Teresa Chapa and her staff—most notably Rebecca Huckaby—have provided sustained support all through the multiple phases of research and writing. I have also received invaluable assistance from the staffs at the Library of Congress, particularly in the Hispanic Division and the Manuscript Division, as well as the staffs of the National Archives in Washington, D.C., the National Archives in London, the Robert W. Woodruff Library at Emory University, the Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Columbia University, Special Collections at the University of Florida Library, the New-York Historical Society, and the New York Public Library.
Nor would the research necessary to complete this book have advanced very far without the support—often under difficult circumstances—of the staffs and directors of archives and libraries in Cuba. A special debt of gratitude is acknowledged here to the Archivo Nacional de Cuba, particularly to Julio López Valdés and director Martha Ferriol Marchena. The hospitality of Nuria Gregori Torada, director of the Instituto de Literatura y Lingüistica, and her staff facilitated consultation of important serial collections. I received the utmost professional courtesy from Eugenio Suárez Pérez and Elsa Montero and access to important research materials in the office of Asuntos Históricos del Consejo de Estado. At the Biblioteca Nacional ‘José Martí,’ I received the unfailing assistance of director Eduardo Torres-Cuevas. I am deeply indebted to Miguel Barnet and Nancy Morejón of the Unión de Escritores y Artistas de Cuba for the generosity of support during the final years in which the research for this book was completed.
This book would not have taken the form it has without the collaboration of friends and colleagues who, in the course of the last ten years, in different settings and on different occasions, offered thoughtful counsel and insightful comments, often in the form of hours of conversations and at other times by way of written communications—exchanges that provided an opportunity to develop many of the arguments advanced in this book. In this regard, I owe much to María del Carmen Barcia, María Cecilia Bermúdez García, Soraya Castro Mariño, Ambrosio Fornet, Orlando García, Rafael Hernández, Jorge Ibarra, Félix Masud-Piloto, José Vega Suñol, José Viera Linares, Oscar Zanetti, and the late Francisco Pérez Guzmán. They shared knowledge and experience, offered insights, and brought relevant research materials to my attention. The manuscript benefited from the comments and suggestions made by Susan Fernández, Cornelia Waterfall, Allen Welles, and James Woodard, for which I am enormously appreciative. A special thanks to Eduardo Roca Salazar (Choco), who graciously provided permission to use his painting Gente y bandera for the dustjacket of the book. The Research and Study Leave program of the College of Arts and Sciences and the Department of History at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill allowed me to complete the writing of the manuscript in a timely fashion. I am, lastly, most appreciative of the attention given to the manuscript by Dorothea Anderson, whose splendid copyediting contributed to improving the book.
Elaine Maisner, senior executive editor at the University of North Carolina Press, provided sustained support for the idea of this project. She engaged the premise of the book and offered encouragement through the years of its writing.
Deborah M. Weissman listened critically and read assiduously the formulations of many of the ideas that sustain the narrative on the pages that follow. The process allowed for the refinement of some arguments and the abandonment of others. This too was vital to the way the ideas ebbed and flowed and the form in which the arguments eventually converged into the final draft of the manuscript.
It is almost impossible to imagine how this book would have been completed without the many years of collaboration provided by Fidel J. Requeijo, who gave of his time, technical knowledge, and street smarts—in so many different ways and on so many different occasions—to enable the research to come to a successful conclusion.
Finally, to Gladys Marel García-Pérez, to whom this book is dedicated, a heartfelt acknowledgment of a debt of gratitude that can never be repaid. She is of the history that this book seeks to engage. This project could not have been brought to a successful conclusion—perhaps not even started—without the more than thirty years of collaboration. She made so much possible.
Chapel Hill, North Carolina