Los negros en la Cuba colonial: un grupo forzado a la marginalidad social que sufren desprecio, prejuicio y discriminación

Resumen

This article deals with aspects of daily life related to social marginalization, prejudices and discrimination suffered by black slaves and their descendants in colonial Cuba. The starting point is the intensity reached by the word NEGRO and the marginalization black people suffered since the beginning. This marginalization began when the slave system mixed different races and cultures that had travelled. There is a special emphasis on the increase of the "fear of the negro", developed by the Spanish and creole social and political elites; and mention of the racism shown by the ideologists of this class before 1868, a date that marks the beginning of the Ten Year War. The article also pays attention to the role played by the Catholic church and the marginalization of blacks during the independence wars (1868-1898). This set of questions proves that marginalization, social discrimination and racism survived inside the colonial Cuban society and have become one of the most outstanding inheritances of slavery, embedded in the culture of the Island well into the following generations.