In this episode, part 1 of our new series on Cuba, Manolo De Los Santos joins us to explore Cuba before the Cuban revolution. Manolo De Los Santos is a founder of the People's Forum and a researcher at Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research. He is the co-editor Viviremos: Venezuela vs. Hybrid War, Comrade of the Revolution: Selected Speeches of Fidel Castro, and Our Own Path to Socialism: Selected Speeches of Hugo Chávez.

The conversation opens with an exploration of Cuba's Indigenous peoples and their culture and practice of resistance to European colonialism which continues to this day. We then talk about the early history of the Caribbean and Cuba's position in the Atlantic slave trade and early industrial plantation capitalism as well as some of the many rebellions led by enslaved Africans on the island of Cuba. Manolo also tells us about Cuba's "independence" in 1902, or what he refers to as a false independence and the imposition of US imperialism on the island.

We then introduce Fulgencio Batista and the period of dictatorship beginning in the 1930s which inaugurated an era of "paradise" in Cuba—paradise for US corporations and for the political and military elites surrounding Batista. We talk about the social inequality and repression in Cuba during this period as well as the development of the tourism industry which was a model that was later exported across the world. We conclude with the lead up to the Cuban Revolution and the material conditions which led to it. Stay tuned for Part 2 of this series, ¡Viva la Revolución, where we'll take a deep dive into Cuba's revolution.

Further resources:

Related episodes:

Intermission music: "Que Salga el Sol" by El Guajiro

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Cuba Pt. 1: Before the Revolution w/ Manolo De Los Santos