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The Political Contexts of Cuban Population Censuses, 1899–1981

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 October 2022

Lisandro Pérez
Lisandro Pérez*
Affiliation:
Louisiana State University
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Although they represent a principal source of data for demographers, population censuses have not usually been undertaken for the benefit of population analysts. In ancient times, population enumerations were usually linked to the collection of taxes or to military conscription. Although in modern censuses such motivations are not entirely absent, other important considerations have emerged, such as equitable apportionment of representation in legislative bodies, the compilation of voting lists, and the necessity of having an accurate basis for the distribution of governmental funds, programs, and social intervention efforts. Nevertheless, one basic fact has never changed: population censuses are undertaken by political entities with politico-administrative goals.

Type
Research Reports and Notes
Information
Latin American Research Review , Volume 19 , Issue 2 , 1984 , pp. 143 - 161
Copyright
Copyright © 1984 by Latin American Research Review

Footnotes

*

This paper presents the results of part of a larger research project supported by the Joint Committee on Latin American Studies of the Social Science Research Council and the American Council of Learned Societies. The author is grateful for the valuable assistance he received from the staff at the Library of Congress, especially in the Hispanic Division and the Office of Research Facilities. The useful suggestions of the editors of LARR and of three anonymous reviewers are also gratefully acknowledged.

References

Notes

1. Recently an increased awareness has developed in the United States of the political antecedents and consequences of population censuses. This situation has resulted largely from the use of the 1980 census as the basis for the federal revenue-sharing program. For detailed discussions of the politics of the 1980 census, see the various articles on this topic that appeared in the special issue of Society 18 (Jan.–Feb. 1981): 15–25.

2. David F. Healy, The United States in Cuba, 1898–1902: Generals, Politicians, and the Search for Policy (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1963).

3. William McKinley, quoted in “Letter of Transmittal,” by J. P. Sanger in U.S. War Department, Cuban Census Office, Report on the Census of Cuba, 1899 (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1900), pp. 10–11.

4. Elihu Root, “War Department Orders Organizing the Census,” in U.S. War Department, Report on the Census of Cuba, 1899, p. 621.

5. U.S. War Department, Report on the Census of Cuba, 1899.

6. Sanger, “Letter of Transmittal,” p. 9.

7. U.S. War Department, Report on the Census of Cuba, 1899.

8. Sanger, “Letter of Transmittal,” p. 9.

9. Ibid., p. 14.

10. U.S. War Department, Report on the Census of Cuba, 1899, p. 63.

11. Ibid., pp. 649, 667.

12. Jorge I. Domínguez, Cuba: Order and Revolution (Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1978), p. 12.

13. “Enmienda Platt,” in Documentos para la historia de Cuba, vol. 2, edited by Hortensia Pichardo (La Habana: Editorial de Ciencias Sociales, 1976), p. 119.

14. For background on the second U.S. occupation, see Allan Reed Millett, The Politics of Intervention: The Military Occupation of Cuba, 1906-1909 (Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 1968); and David A. Lockmiller, Magoon in Cuba: A History of the Second Intervention, 1906-1909 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1938).

15. Hugh Thomas, Cuba: The Pursuit of Freedom (New York: Harper and Row, 1971), pp. 487–88.

16. Victor H. Olmstead, “Informe particular del Director del Censo,” in Oficina del Censo de los Estados Unidos, Censo de la República de Cuba bajo la administración provisional de los Estados Unidos, 1907 (Montpelier, Vt.: Capital City Press, 1908), p. 11.

17. Charles E. Magoon, “Decreto del Gobernador Provisional,” in Censo de la República de Cuba, 1907, p. 597.

18. Thomas, Cuba, p. 527; Julio LeRiverend, La república: dependencia y revolución (3rd ed., La Habana: Instituto Cubano del Libro, 1971), p. 118; Charles E. Chapman, A History of the Cuban Republic (New York: Macmillan, 1927), p. 355; and Russell H. Fitzgibbon, Cuba and the United States (Menesha, Wis.: George Banta, 1935), p. 156.

19. Joel James Figarola, Cuba 1900–1928: la república dividida contra sí misma (La Habana: Instituto Cubano del Libro, 1976), p. 249.

20. Louis A. Pérez, Jr., Intervention, Revolution, and Politics in Cuba, 1913-1921 (Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1978), pp. 88–103. Pérez's work is undoubtedly the best single work on the García Menocal administration.

21. Harold E. Stephenson, “Informe del Consultor Técnico,” in Dirección General del Censo, Censo de la República de Cuba, año de 1919 (La Habana: Maza, Arroyo, y Caso, 1922), pp. 19–20.

22. Angel C. Betancourt, “Informe del Director General,” in Dirección General del Censo, Censo, año de 1919, p. 5.

23. Stephenson, “Informe del Consultor Técnico,” p. 22.

24. Departamento de Demografía de la Dirección de Estadísticas de Población y Censos, Las estadísticas demográficas cubanas (La Habana: Editorial de Ciencias Sociales, 1975), pp. 42–43.

25. Pérez, Intervention, Revolution, and Politics, p. 139.

26. Thomas, Cuba, p. 587.

27. “Organización y requisitos para el censo,” Diario de la Marina, 17 September 1931, pp. 1, 8.

28. “Delitos de falsedad y de perjurio sobre el censo serán castigados por los tribunales,” Diario de la Marina, 26 September 1931, p. 10; and “El servicio secreto ha descubierto la trama urdida por significadas personas para falsear las labores de enumeración del censo nacional,” Diario de la Marina, 4 October 1931, pp. 1, 22.

29. “Editorial: el censo, tóxico o medicina,” Bohemia, 27 September 1931, p. 23; and “Editorial: el censo electoral,” Bohemia, 22 November 1931, p. 23.

30. “Un enumerador del censo es acusado por irregularidades,” Diario de la Marina, 3 October 1931, p. 10; “Se trabaja día y noche en la solución de los problemas de la confección del censo,” Diario de la Marina, 29 September 1931, pp. 1, 10; “Información telegráfica de la isla,” Diario de la Marina, 22 September 1931, p. 9; and “Un enumerador cometió graves delitos siendo sorprendido y preso por los jefes del censo,” Diario de la Marina, 9 October 1931, pp. 1, 9.

31. “Dos districtos han sido anulados por la Junta del Censo,” Diario de la Marina, 10 October 1931, pp. 1, 10; “Será anulada toda la enumeración en donde se descubra un fraude,” Diario de la Marina, 7 October 1931, pp. 1, 10; and “Cesaron los inspectores en el censo,” Diario de la Marina, 28 October 1931, pp. 1, 14.

32. “Una vasta combinación para falsear el censo ha sido descubierta en los cuarenta y tres barrios de La Habana,” Diario de la Marina, 2 October 1931, pp. 1, 14.

33. “Los bomberos no pueden ser equiparados a los militares en la enumeración del censo,” Diario de la Marina, 27 September 1931, p. 22.

34. Dirección General del Censo, Censo de 1931: estados de habitantes y electores (La Habana: Carasa, 1932).

35. Dirección General del Censo, Censo de población: estadísticas industrial y agrícola de Cuba, 1931 (La Habana: Editorial Luz-Hilo, 1939).

36. Departamento de Demografía, Comité Estatal de Estadísticas, Memorias inéditas del censo de 1931 (La Habana: Editorial de Ciencias Sociales, 1978), p. 5.

37. Ibid.

38. Daniel Chirot, Social Change in the Twentieth Century (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanich, 1977), p. 74.

39. Immanuel Wallerstein, The Capitalist World-Economy (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1979), p. 100.

40. Lowry Nelson, Cuba: The Measure of a Revolution (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1972), p. 46.

41. Sergio Díaz-Briquets and Lisandro Pérez, “Fertility Decline in Cuba: A Socioeconomic Interpretation,” Population and Development Review (Sept. 1982): 515–16.

42. Constitución de la República de Cuba (rpt.; Miami: Judicatura Cubana Democrática, 1963), p. 30 (Article 94). Article 94 also required the publication of a statistical yearbook.

43. Junta Nacional del Censo, Censo de 1943 (La Habana: P. Fernández, 1945).

44. Perhaps another indication that the dominant class wanted to project a modern and cosmopolitan image in the 1943 census report is the fact that this is the only Cuban census in this century in which no data on consensual unions were gathered. A high incidence of such unions may have been regarded as typical of rural or “backward” societies. Ostensibly, however, the census officials argued that they excluded that category from the schedule because of their interpretation of a provision of the 1940 constitution (ibid., pp. 767–69).

45. Oficina Nacional de los Censos Demográfico y Electoral, Censos de población, viviendas y electoral, 28 de enero de 1953, informe general (La Habana: P. Fernández, 1955).

46. Departamento de Demografía, Las estadísticas demográficas cubanas, p. 45.

47. Regarding the labor force, it is interesting to note that taking the census on 28 January 1953, supposedly to coincide with the centenary of the birth of José Martí, resulted in a lower employment rate than if the census had been taken around mid-year because January is one of the peak months of the sugar-harvesting season.

48. The 1970 census may have embodied less lofty purposes than the creation of a data base for economic decision making. Males seventeen to forty-five years of age were required to show the enumerators their certificate of registration in the compulsory military service (Servicio Militar Obligatorio). The enumerators were to enter the registration number in the designated space in the questionnaire (“Seis de septiembre, censo de población y viviendas,” Bohemia, 4 September 1970, p. 60; and Departmento de Demografía, Las estadísticas demográficas cubanas, p. 115).

49. Carmelo Mesa-Lago, The Economy of Socialist Cuba: A Two-Decade Appraisal (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1981), p. 35.

50. Ibid., p. 12.

51. Ibid., p. 27.

52. Ibid., pp. 27–32.

53. “Concluyó enumeración en las zonas urbanas de todo el país,” Granma, 7 September 1970, p. 1.

54. Departmento de Demografía, Las estadísticas demográficas cubanas, p. 108.

55. Junta Central de Planificación, Censo de población y viviendas, 1970 (La Habana: Editorial Orbe, 1975), p. vii.

56. “Seis de septiembre,” pp. 51–65; and “Editorial: el censo de 1970, un paso firme hacia la planificación y el aprovechamiento óptimo de nuestros recursos,” Granma, 13 August 1970, p. 1.

57. “Seis de septiembre,” p. 57.

58. “Determinante la participación del pueblo en el éxito del desarrollo del censo,” Granma, 7 September 1970, p. 1.

59. Ibid.

60. Junta Central de Planificación, Censo, 1970, p. vi.

61. “Determinante la participación del pueblo,” p. 1.

62. Raúl Lazo, “Censo de población y vivienda: ¿qué se ha hecho? ¿qué falta por hacer?” Bohemia, 21 August 1981, p. 58; and José M. Norniella, “Census Data Collection Completed in Cuba,” Granma Weekly Review, 27 September 1981, p. 7.

63. Raúl Lazo, “Cuántos somos y como vivimos,” Bohemia, 10 April 1981, pp. 83–84; and “El censo: una tarea relacionada con el desarrollo del país y el bienestar de nuestro pueblo,” Granma, 10 September 1981, p. 2.

64. Maximino Gancedo Cabrera, “Censo de población y viviendas en 1981,” Revista Estadística 2 (July 1979), pp. 57–58; Raúl Lazo, “El censo: resultados satisfactorios,” Bohemia, 25 September 1981, p. 63; Raúl Lazo, “Censo y computación,” Bohemia, 15 May 1981, pp. 32–33; and Lazo, “Cuántos somos y como vivimos,” pp. 82–85.

65. Raúl Lazo, “A las puertas del censo,” Bohemia, 11 September 1981, p. 42.

66. Lazo, “El censo: resultados satisfactorios,” p. 61.

67. “Creating a Statistical Base for Development,” Granma Weekly Review, 10 January 1971, pp. 8–9; “Datos preliminares del censo de población y viviendas,” Bohemia, 8 January 1971, p. 36; “Primeros resultados del censo del 70: provincia de Pinar del Río,” Granma, 28 January 1971, p. 5; “Primeros resultados del censo del 70: provincia de La Habana,” Granma, 20 January 1971, p. 5; “Primeros resultados del censo del 70: provincia de Matanzas,” Granma, 18 January 1971, p. 4; “Primeros resultados del censo del 70: provincia de Las Villas,” Granma, 8 January 1971, p. 5; “Primeros resultados del censo del 70: provincia de Camaguey,” Granma, 7 January 1971, p. 5; “Primeros resultados del censo del 70: provincia de Oriente,” Granma, 6 January 1971, p. 4; and “Comunicado del Comité Estatal de Estadísticas acerca de los resultados preliminares del censo nacional de población y viviendas de 1981,” Granma, 30 October 1981, pp. 3–5.

68. It was not until 1980, for example, that the Library of Congress finally acquired its copy through the exchange program with the Cuban National Library.

69. Junta Central de Planificación, Censo, 1970; and Departamento de Demografía, Las estadísticas demográficas cubanas, pp. 113–14.

70. Lazo, “Cuántos somos y como vivimos,” p. 85.