Twentieth-Century Cuban Historiography
The historians of Cuba have produced a body of literature which is indeed worthy of respect, and which merits considerably more serious attention than it has generally received. Scholars in the United States have been especially remiss in this respect, and the effects are now being felt in the very practical area of human relations. Since the historiography of a nation is one key to the mind and soul of the people of that nation, this survey of Cuban historical writing will reflect the author's attempt to cast a little light upon this area of the life of Cuba. The Cuban historians of the modern period did not begin their efforts with a tabula rasa. A rich body of historical literature was produced during the colonial period, and some of these works are still classics in the true sense of the word. The colonial historiography of Cuba reached a climax during the period 1842 to 1898, with the works of such men as Jacobo de la Pezuela, Jose Antonio Saco, Pedro Jose Guiteras, and Antonio Bachiller y Morales.1 The works of these and other men reflected a growing cultural maturity, a deepening tradition of scholarship based upon documentary research, as well as a widening split between the Spanish-oriented Cubans and those who were begin-