Purifying the environment for the coming new dawn: Anarchism and counter-cultural politics in Cuba, 1898-1925

Anarchists organized themselves into a constant counter-cultural force for social change in Cuba during the three decades following independence from Spain in 1898. This dissertation explores how anarchists developed an internationalist critique of Cuban nationalism during this time while creating their own initiatives in health care and education to counter those found in the dominant culture. Such counter-cultural stances and initiatives illustrate how anarchists challenged Cuban elites and US occupiers. In addition, they strongly suggest that anarchists played a significant role in developing issues of internationalism, health and education in Cuba's leftist revolutionary heritage--a heritage tapped into by the Cuban Communist Party and Fidel Castro after the Cuban Revolution of 1959.;After initially rejecting participation in a war for political independence, anarchists joined the independence struggle in the 1890s, pushing for a social revolution that would liberate the island from centralized state tyranny but also create a decentralized, egalitarian, democratic society. When such hopes were dashed after independence, anarchists adopted symbolism of the independence war to continue to challenge US intervention and Cuban nationalists. Anarchists addressed issues of immigration and race in their press and their popular culture as a way of localizing anarchism to meet the specific demands and realities of the island. In fact, the anarchist movement incorporated white Cubans, Afro-Cubans, and immigrants into their ranks as an illustration of the internationalist dimensions of anarchism.;Besides specific internationalist stances against what anarchists saw as nationalist hypocrisy, anarchists established health and educational initiatives to prepare their followers for living the revolution while making it. Anarchists challenged the state of health conditions on the island, created health institutes utilizing alternative medicine, and urged people to grow their own food and eat vegetarian diets. Anarchists developed their own coeducational schools where the child's freedom was held in highest regard. Outside of the schools, anarchists used their newspapers, short stories and novels to address social concerns.;In Cuba, issues of internationalism, health and education dominated anarchist discourse. Besides these issues being modified to fit Cuban reality, they also contributed to Cuba's leftist revolutionary heritage. Though the anarchist movement's strength ended in 1925 due to brutal governmental repression, the importance of internationalism, health and education had been welded on to Cuba's leftist political culture and would be adopted later by the post-1959 Communist government. (Abstract shortened by UMI.).