Sharing Strategies for Racial Uplift: Afro-Cubans, Afro-Puerto Ricans, and African Amer-
Rafael Serra: Education, Economic Uplift, and the United
StatesRafael Serra was a Cuban intellectual and independence activist who
began his working life as a cigar worker and early on turned to educa-
tion and journalism. He was exiled in 1880 for his pro-independence
activity, and continued his independence and educational work with
the community of exiles in New York. Serra’s efforts were in no way
apolitical—he held strong beliefs about Cuban nationalism and inde-
pendence, protested against annexation to the United States, and he
worked to promote these causes. After his return to Cuba, he served
asrepresentative to the national legislatures, switching from the Mod-
erate to the Conservative Party in 1908. And yet his writings also dem-
onstrate a concern for the socioeconomic status of la clase de color. In
particular, he decried and advocated for a solution to their educational
paucity and poverty. These concerns are highlighted when he dis-
cusses the position of American blacks and Booker T. Washington’s
strategies for racial uplift.
Apart from his political work, Serra was always involved in educa-
tional projects. In the United States he founded an educational society
with José Martí’s help. Its stated purpose was to “procure intellectual
advancement and an elevation of character for men of color born in
Cuba and Puerto Rico.” Intellectual and moral advancement was tied
to improved work opportunities: this educational access would allow
young people in particular to go on to “a career or trade that are still
uncommon for the class of color.” A salon was also established for
members, to facilitate mutual education for adults and to improve cul-
ture. “The only and primary object of this organization,” wrote Serra,
was “to prepare men and women who would be useful for the success
of Cuba and Puerto Rico.”^3 Thurs for Serra, education and morality as
methods of racial uplift had material benefits: they led to improved
work options that were usually inaccessible for black people, and a- Rafael Serra, “La Liga,” Ensayo Político, Tercera Serie, Schomburg Center for the Rese-
arch of Black Culture (hereafter SCRBC). [All translations mine]