Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of illustrations and maps
- Note on language and translations
- Introduction
- 1 James J. O'Kelly at Jiguaní (1873)
- 2 José Martí at Vega del Jobo (1895)
- 3 Richard Harding Davis in Santiago de Cuba (1897)
- 4 Edward Stratemeyer at Siboney (1898)
- 5 Andrew Summers Rowan in Bayamo (1898)
- 6 Josephine Herbst in Realengo 18 (1935)
- 7 Antonio Núñez Jiménez on Pico Turquino (1945)
- 8 ‘Less than human’: Guantánamo Bay (2002)
- Envoi
- Glossary
- Acknowledgements
- Bibliography
- Index
7 - Antonio Núñez Jiménez on Pico Turquino (1945)
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of illustrations and maps
- Note on language and translations
- Introduction
- 1 James J. O'Kelly at Jiguaní (1873)
- 2 José Martí at Vega del Jobo (1895)
- 3 Richard Harding Davis in Santiago de Cuba (1897)
- 4 Edward Stratemeyer at Siboney (1898)
- 5 Andrew Summers Rowan in Bayamo (1898)
- 6 Josephine Herbst in Realengo 18 (1935)
- 7 Antonio Núñez Jiménez on Pico Turquino (1945)
- 8 ‘Less than human’: Guantánamo Bay (2002)
- Envoi
- Glossary
- Acknowledgements
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
Scarce as the mountains are the men who can look down from them and feel their nation, or their humanity, move inside them.
(José Martí)At the end of December 1956 the young Cuban geographer, Antonio Núñez Jiménez, published in the Havana journal Bohemia an essay entitled ‘Así es la Sierra Maestra’ [This is the Sierra Maestra]. The opening paragraph of the essay is very much of a piece with the descriptions we have seen from James J. O'Kelly, Pablo de la Torriente Brau, Josephine Herbst, and other visitors to the mountainous districts of Oriente:
The Sierra Maestra is the most rugged and least known area in Cuba with respect to its geographical details. Its green mountains, sometimes reaching higher than the clouds, form an intricate labyrinth of valleys and hills, peaks and troughs, which make penetration difficult. (CCMH, p. 119)
To suggest the extent of the area, Núñez Jiménez points out—with an absolutely straight face—that the distance between Guantánamo Bay and Cabo Cruz is greater than that between Havana and Miami. The discourses that govern his description of the inhabitants are those of modernity and diversity. Most of the people living in the mountains are illiterate and know nothing of the ‘advances of the modern era’; and so Núñez Jiménez attaches to them the usual string of negatives associated with the marking of social or cultural difference: ‘no radio, no newspapers, no television, no motorised transport, no electricity’ (CCMH, p. 120).
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- Information
- Cuba's Wild EastA Literary Geography of Oriente, pp. 313 - 371Publisher: Liverpool University PressPrint publication year: 2011