There used to be a very popular saying in Cuba: "without sugar there is no country". This was a very apt maxim as, for many years,...
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Customs and Traditions The Dance of Millions or The Fat Cow Era
By: Inés María Martiatu | Photos: Francisco Pedro Blanco Hernández
There used to be a very popular saying in Cuba: "without sugar there is no country". This was a very apt maxim as, for many years, the history of Cuba was marked by the development and ups and downs of this industry that was based on the slave trade even before the huge sugar mills were built.
The very importance of slaves to the sugar economy fostered a "fear of the black slave", especially as the black and mixed race population exceeded the white one, increasing the fear that the repeated uprisings could destroy the Cuban sacarocracia or sugar aristocracy. The word sacarocracia was coined by historian Manuel Moreno Fraginals.
When the echoes of the French Revolution and rebellion of the slaves of Santo Domingo achieved the defeat of