The Fragile Republic 27If, however, a Cuban became wealthy through business, he
usually disassociated himself from partisan politics because,
having achieved riches and security, he no longer needed
political activity as an entree to material well-being. The
withdrawal from partisan politics was a proclamation of eco
nomic success and high social status. Whatever protection he
now wished from the government could be cultivated through
individual contacts and largesse to bureaucrats, a return to
the court politics of the colonial era. The wealthy Cuban did
not demean himself by associating with co-operative organi
zations like political parties.
The exception to this behavior in Cuban society came from
the former officers of the Army of Liberation. As a group they
dominated Cuban politics for thirty years. Some were inde
pendently wealthy, others were not. By and large they saw
themselves as the embodiment of Cuban sovereignty, charac
teristically feeling that a man who risks his life in battle for
la patria should have the first option in deciding its future.^13
Many of these men grew up as guerrillas, and they loved
rank, martial appearances, stirring declarations, and the ado
ration of their men. As a body the Cuban veterans, men
schooled in the overthrow of government, were the most
representative and popular political leaders in their society.
Cuba's democratic form of government after independence
enabled them to keep their battalions intact as voters.
Cuba, as many Americans saw it, was a bounteous land
with an impossible people. First, there had been the Cuba
of the glorious fighters for independence, who upon closer
examination in 1898 turned out to be very human, often
Negroid, and irresponsible and irrational.^14 The gallant heroes
introduced to American readers by the revolutionary junta
and the yellow press looked increasingly like those described
by Edward F. Atkins, the most influential American sugar
planter in Cuba: "The insurgents are... held together...
by hopes of trouble between Spain and the United States, as
well as by fear of being shot or hanged by their people. This
is what is called 'esprit de corps'."^15