Viajeros en Cuba (1800-1850)

Otto Olivera, professor emeritus of Spanish at Tulane University, introduces the reader to 30 travelers’ accounts written about Cuba from 1800 through 1850. Although published by a popular press, this is a serious work by a scholar whose academic career dates to the early 1950s. (Olivera published several articles of a historical nature in the prestigious Revista de la Biblioteca Nacional José Marti when it was under the editorial guidance of Fernando Ortiz, the acknowledged father of Cuban studies.) This book functions in a historical context as a prosopography of nineteenth-century visitors to the island through the author’s critical analysis of their writings. His introduction prepares the reader for the myriad of opinions he or she will encounter, and the individual chapters place the travelers and their writings in historical perspective. Given the diverse origins of the material Olivera has chosen for inclusion, the reader will not be surprised to...