Winds of Change: Hurricanes & the Transformation of Nineteenth-Century Cuba

Ferez, Louis A. Jr. Winds of Change: Hurricanes & the Transformation of Nineteenth-Century Cuba. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2001.

In Winds of Change: Hurricanes & the Transformation of Nineteenth-Century Cuba, Louis Ferez contends that hurricanes have played a decisive role in the economic and social development of Cuba. Professor of History at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and author of numerous books on Cuba, Ferez argues that hurricanes were a key factor in the development of modern Cuba. Perez's study, which pays particular attention to the impact of three devastating hurricanes during the 184Os, helps to explain why Cuba's historical experience was so divergent from that of the rest of Spain's New World colonial empire.

Perez enhances his study with a wide variety of eyewitness accounts and literary passages. he points out that almost everyone in Cuba "remembers one hurricane in particular (p. 5)." This was also true at the community level. Ferez explains that almost every city or town in Cuba can tell of one devastating hurricane that caused such destruction that life in the town was never the same again. The legacy of hurricanes in Cuba, both physically and mentally, runs deep in Cuba. Ferez explains that stories of hurricanes "are passed from one generation to the next, as something lived and later as something learned (p. 7)."

For those who have never experienced a hurricane firsthand, it is difficult to convey the experience with words. Ferez, however, rises to the task. The word hurricane comes from the Taino word huracan, which was common in a variety of derivative forms in other Caribbean-based Indian languages. Hurricane winds, whose frequency vary from year to year, reach the Caribbean mostly between August and October. Historically, once the winds and rains of the hurricanes had passed, the local communities were struck by the twin perils of famine and disease. Cuba's geographic location made her especially prone to hurricane disasters. Colonial settlement patterns also intensified the destructive capabilities of hurricanes, because colonial settlements were often at the confluence of inland rivers and along the coast, making them vulnerable to hurricane flooding.

By supporting his argument with economic data, the author makes a strong case that important facets of the colonial Cuban economy were transformed by hurricanes. Although he emphasizes the impact of the 1842, 1844, and 1846 hurricanes, he also gives importance to the lesser hurricanes that hit the island, as well as the threat of hurricanes that never hit Cuba. Perhaps most interesting from a cultural historian's point of view, is Perez's contention that the impact of repeated hurricanes, as well as the threat of hurricanes yet to come, enabled the Cuban people to form strong bonds of unity-or cubanidad-m their attempts to recover in the aftermath of destruction.

Although previous studies have emphasized the vulnerability of Cuba's agricultural economy to the vagaries of distant market forces, Perez postulates that the calamities of Atlantic hurricanes have been an even greater threat to Cuba's economic livelihood. Hurricanes, although unpredictable, "were fairly common occurrences and time and again resulted in staggering losses to life and property (p. 9)." According to Perez, what made the hurricanes of the 184Os noteworthy was their timing and intensity. "Virtually every facet of Cuban life was affected by the great nineteenth-century hurricanes (p. 1O)."

What made the October hurricanes of 1844 and 1846 so devastating was that they struck just before the coffee harvest. The entire harvests were lost. The possibility of recovery for the Cuban coffee producers was made even bleaker by greatly increased Brazilian coffee production and declining global coffee prices. As a result, former coffee estates unable or unwilling to revive production moved into sugar production. Cuba's monocultural economy, dependent on sugar, began "in earnest" during the 184Os. In addition, the hurricanes of the 184Os devastated domestic production of basic foodstuffs. To fill the void, vast quantities of rice, corn, wheat and other items were imported from the United States. Perez explains that these developments had long-term consequences and added a new dimension to the island's commercial connection with the United States.

Perez's study suggests that there are moments in history when the forces of nature rise above politics and economics to shape a people's destiny. "By shattering the assumptions governing the workings of everyday life, hurricanes thus revealed the social tissue that gave form and function to the Cuban condition (p. 12)." The Winds of Change: Hurricanes & the Transformation of Nineteenth-Century Cuba should be in every university's library collection.

Michael R. Hall Armstrong Atlantic State University

Copyright Association of Third World Studies, Inc. Spring 2004
Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights Reserved