Sharing Strategies for Racial Uplift: Afro-Cubans, Afro-Puerto Ricans, and African Amer-
This paper has explored the transmission of ideas and strategies
across the diaspora. Ultimately, these leaders were responding to simi-
larly drastic changes affecting former slaves. As abolition freed the
slaves, former slaves became wage laborers and tenant farmers. In
addition, other forces were changing the economic terrain. Of these,
US imperialism was particularly important, as the Cuban sugar market
was reoriented to the US market, and American capital funded and
monopolized the Cuban sugar industry. The connections between
Afro-Cuban and African American leaders are important because they
reflect changes in the national and imperial situation that drew
Cubans and Americans closer together, for better or worse. Black
leaders took advantage of this situation, demonstrating and awareness
of the way US imperialism affected not only Cuban goals of indepen-
dence, but also the options of Afro-Cubans, and capitalizing on the
opportunities it afforded.