Notwithstanding the intimacy of our relations with the Cubans for many years past, our people entertain the most hazy and confused ideas about them. It is difficult to make an American understand that there is any essential difference between a Cuban and a Spaniard. He generally imagines that the distinction is nominal, or, if actual, that it rests entirely upon political status. Of the Americans who go to Cuba only a small proportion travel farther from Habana than the caves of Bellamar, and they imagine that they see the typical native in the men and women of the city. In this conclusion they fall very short of the mark. The Habanero is not the best and truest representative of his country. He must be sought in the rural districts and will most readily be found in Camaguey, where the percentage of pure whites is even greater than in the capital. The Cuban is fond of calling himself a Camagueyeno, and this because the purest native blood of the Island has been found in that Province since the old days when it was a famous cattle-raising country.
The Cuban is a Spaniard to the same extent as the American is English, and no more. Although the compositive mixture is greater in one type than in the other, they exhibit equal divergence from the parent stock, both in the matter of physical and mental characteristics. This, without reference to the native who is tinged with negro blood—the mulatto. He may conform closely to the traits and appearance of the creole, but then, again, he may differ from him in the widest degree.
The Spaniard, and especially the peasant of the provinces, from whom the Cuban is most often descended, is usually round-headed, broad-chested, and stocky. The Cuban is lanky, lean and slack limbed. His drooping shoulders, languid air, and listless gait, give the impression of weak physique and lack of energy, an impression which is confirmed by a study of his habits. It might be supposed that, with the advantage of acclimatization, he would be able to hold his own against the foreign settler, but such is very far from being the case.
Immigrants of any race, but particularly those from Spain, appear to have no difficulty in competing successfully with the Cuban upon his native heath. This can not be altogether due to physical weakness and want of energy, and certainly not to deficiency of intelligence. Perhaps the chief reason of the Cuban’s backwardness is to be found in a constitutional absence of ambition. For generations he has had no incentive to effort and the laissez faire state of mind has gradually become ingrained. Whether, with improved opportunity, his character will undergo a change in this respect is beyond the range of safe prediction. The opportunity has not yet been extended to him, despite superficial appearances.
Critics of the Cubans are prone to speak of them contemptuously for the lack of certain qualities which we prize and the possession of certain defects which we despise. The charges are generally true, but the condemnation unjust, nevertheless. No people were ever more handicapped in their formative development. Numerous conditions, over which they had little, if any, control, have affected the Cubans physically, morally, politically, and economically,—and the influences have, in the majority of instances and in the most respects, been maleficent. Only since yesterday have the Cubans been free agents, and even to-day their freedom is qualified, the conduct of their Government subject to a critical supervision, and their independence liable to sudden interruption. They have had no more control of their making than a child has of its. They have always been treated as irresponsible and incapable beings. They have never had fair scope for initiative, nor a free field for endeavor. There has always been a pressure from above, crushing growth, independence, enterprise, and hope.
Under the circumstances is it to be wondered at that the Cuban is deficient in backbone; that he is vacillating and morally wobbly; that his somewhat effeminate, often handsome, and never coarse features bear a stamp of weakness which the most fiery pair of eyes will not suffice to counteract? Would it not be surprising if he displayed any marked capacity for hard work, or facility for business?
Pleasure loving, inclined to frivolity, cheery, and apparently philosophical, the Cuban yields to difficulties and sinks under reverses. It is his habit, fostered by temperament and environment, to follow the lines of least resistance, and the way leads him ultimately into a cul de sac,—a slough of stagnation. He has a quick intelligence and a lively imagination. He can plan shrewdly and with nice calculation, but he has neither the force nor the executive ability to carry out his designs. For a full century he has conspired to throw off the galling yoke of Spain, and he would never have done it but for the intervention of the United States.
As a young man he is apt to be foppish, libidinous and indolent, in striking contrast to the sturdy little Spanish apprentice, of Habana. Cuban children are too often spoilt by fond and over indulgent parents. The effect upon the girls is modified by the restricted home life to which they are subjected. In the boys it shows in selfwilfulness, lack of principle and utter absence of respect for things that the Anglo Saxon is apt to reverence.
The Cuban usually marries early, and he makes a good father, if, often, a questionable husband. Despite the fact that he can depend upon the continence of his wife, or, perhaps because of it, he is frequently guilty of infidelity to her. This, if she discovers it, she is likely to treat with a complacency that an American woman could not understand. It is a common boast of Cubans that no Cuban woman ever became a public prostitute. Whether or not this is true, there is a marked difference in the standard of marital virtue maintained by the sexes among them. In this, and other respects, the less said about the Cuban of Habana, the better.
It is not on short acquaintance that a true gauge of the Cuban’s character may be made. His surface air is one of self-respect and geniality, that hides the underlying egotistic selfishness and flaccidity. If educated, he has a courteous manner and polished address, while the poorest peasant displays a certain refinement and decided intelligence. I never remember to have seen a dull or stupid looking Cuban, but, perhaps, that is due less to mental quality than to the universal endowment of remarkably fine eyes.