In Key to the New World: A History of Early Colonial Cuba, Luis Martínez-Fernández presents an overview of Cuban history from pre-contact to the end of the seventeenth century. Within this narrative, he highlights how the island contributed to and was influenced by larger patterns of conquest, colonisation, economic development and imperial politics in the early Atlantic world. In examining Cuba's early history with a wider lens, Martínez-Fernández also looks beyond Havana, to Santiago and to even less-populated, rural areas that have often been ignored by historians. Here the author also endeavours to show that Cuba (and its history) is divided between urban, militarised and global Havana and the rest of the largely rural and sparsely populated island.
Key to the New World succeeds admirably in creating a history that is both easy to read and reasonably thorough, carrying the reader through several centuries. As one of the first English works to delve into early Cuban history (i.e. pre-nineteenth century) it does fill a large gap. It also successfully shows the strategic importance of Cuba from Columbus's first voyage forward. The island was indeed a hub for conflict, commerce and cultural mixing. Martínez-Fernández, then, fulfils his larger goal of adding to the sparse literature on early Cuba, and does so in a way that is accessible to both academic and popular audiences.
Beginning with a geological and geographic description of the island that would become Cuba, Martínez-Fernández both injects environmental history into a more traditional historical text and moves away from a euro-centric portrayal of the island's history. This first chapter also sets the stage for one of Martínez-Fernández's significant arguments: the strategic importance of Cuba for reasons ranging from ocean currents to shipping and imperial politics. However, after this innovative introduction, the author moves into a more typical and well-known (at least in the scholarly community) narrative, first discussing Taíno culture, then moving to Columbus and finally to the island's conquest. While the author does succeed in presenting a general history of the island here (in Chapters 2–4), his approach and narrative are not innovative and, in fact, he is over-reliant on some questionable and oft-used sources (for example the writings of Columbus and Bartolomé de las Casas).
After the general overview of sixteenth-century Cuba, Martínez-Fernández turns to a multi-chapter discussion of the cultural and ethnic mixing that occurred over centuries of colonisation. Here are some of the best chapters of the book, as the author challenges several traditional interpretations of Cuban history, while also delving deeper into the histories of many lesser-known actors. For example, in Chapter 5, ‘The Emergence of Creole Society’, the author illustrates the diversity of interior colonial Cuba, where communities included indigenous rebels, African maroons, military deserters and pirates. Martínez-Fernández then contrasts this assortment of peoples with urban Havana, where Iberian social and racial norms were often, though not always, followed. At this point the author includes several examples of inter-racial relationships, many of which provided avenues for freedom for Black or mulata slaves. These cases provide the reader with a unique perspective on the colonial Caribbean: female, Black horras (freed slaves). The author continues the theme of diversity and mixing in his next chapter, in my opinion the best, called ‘The Cuban Ajiaco’. In this chapter Martínez-Fernández uses anthropologist Fernando Ortiz's metaphor of the ajiaco dish to present the complexity of Cuban society and culture. Peoples from across the Americas and the Atlantic world converged in colonial Cuba, creating something new, but in many ways remaining separate. To show this the author uses both documental and archaeological evidence, in particular the site of El Chorro, where graves reveal a combination of Christian, Taíno, African and south American cultures.
But the text does not only look at Cuba in isolation. In both ‘The Cockpit of Europe’ and ‘Deceivingly Sweet’ Martínez-Fernández places Cuba at the heart of the Atlantic world. In these chapters he explores the role that Cuba played in various colonial empires and contests, including in the Wars of Religion. He then shows how Cuba's sugar industry experienced a later sugar revolution than those of its Caribbean neighbours. In fact, he argues that Cuba's sugar revolution did not occur until the nineteenth century, though its ‘sugar revolt’ of the seventeenth century did precipitate a great expansion in the slave trade, forever transforming the fledgling colony.
Overall this work is a good overview and concise history of early Cuba. It is a needed text and will be especially useful for beginning scholars of the colonial Caribbean or Latin America. Still, it does have its limitations. Key to the New World will not change the historiography of Cuba or the Caribbean. Additionally, the majority of the text is based upon secondary works, a limitation the author acknowledges, due to the variety of topics and lengthy time frame covered. Nonetheless, this is a work that will shine light on the early history of the Cuba and hopefully lead to more in-depth research.
