Prostitution, Modernity, and the Making of the Cuban Republic, 1840-1920 (Envisioning Cuba) - Softcover

Sippial, Tiffany A.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1469608944 ISBN 13: 9781469608945

Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press, 2013

Synopsis

Between 1840 and 1920, Cuba abolished slavery, fought two wars of independence, and was occupied by the United States before finally becoming an independent republic. Tiffany A. Sippial argues that during this tumultuous era, Cuba's struggle to define itself as a modern nation found focus in the social and sexual anxieties surrounding prostitution and its regulation. Sippial shows how prostitution became a prism through which Cuba's hopes and fears were refracted. Widespread debate about prostitution created a forum in which issues of public morality, urbanity, modernity, and national identity were discussed with consequences not only for the capital city of Havana but also for the entire Cuban nation. Republican social reformers ultimately recast Cuban prostitutes--and the island as a whole--as victims of colonial exploitation who could be saved only by a government committed to progressive reforms in line with other modernizing nations of the world. By 1913, Cuba had abolished the official regulation of prostitution, embracing a public health program that targeted the entire population, not just prostitutes. Sippial thus demonstrates the central role the debate about prostitution played in defining republican ideals in independent Cuba.

About this title

Book Description

"Sippial's courageous and even audacious book is a major addition to the fields of Cuban and gender studies, as well as Latin American state formation and postcolonial studies. In it, she traces the history of prostitution and its regulation from the mid nineteenth century to 1920, addressing issues including slavery, labor, race, colonialism, and gender."--Aline Helg, author of Our Rightful Share: The Afro-Cuban Struggle for Equality, 1886-1912

About the Author

Tiffany A. Sippial is associate professor of history at Auburn University.

Edition details

• Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press
• Publication date: 2013
• ISBN 10: 1469608944
• ISBN 13: 9781469608945
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 256