Linda Waldron (College of The Bahamas)
Panel: Paradise or Plantation?: Unpacking the Myth with Keithley Woolward and Régine Isabelle Joseph
From the early period of conquest and colonization the Caribbean has been interpreted as an Edenic space, replete with precious natural resources available simply for the taking. The success of the 16th century conquistadores in acquiring gold and silver from the region with which the economies of Spain and her continental neighbours were fueled, led to a journey en masse by European citizens yearning to enter and possess a piece of “paradise.” The European conquistador/colonizer saw himself as the new Adam. Predicated on the imperialist ideology that, by virtue of the paradisiacal, virgin (and by extension, uncivilized) nature of the Caribbean space, it was his divine duty to establish a socio-economic and political structure by which to dominate, exploit and consume this “paradise” on earth.
However, it was not long before these readily available commodities which fueled Europe’s economic and political rise were depleted and the native population was decimated, as a result of the brutal conditions inflicted upon them by the newcomer. In order to sustain the paradise on earth myth, the colonizer would resort to the institution of the plantation as the chief cornerstone of a renewed mythical paradise machinery of wealth and power. Plantation as paradise (mythologizing the painful reality of plantation slavery) became the dominant reality throughout the region for over five centuries.
This paper will examine the myth of paradise within the context of the Latin American nation of Cuba. Selected poems by renown negrista poet Nicolás Guillén will reveal the nature of the partnership that existed between the European colonizers and the African slaves in the plantation paradise of Cuba. This presentation will also examine the Cuban experience of neo-imperialism from the late 19th to mid 20th century at the hands of The United States of America.
