"Senoras en sus clases no ordinarias": Enemy Collaborators or Courageous Defenders of the Family?

Abstract

This article examines female behavior in the late eighteenth century in light of the myth of disloyalty that arose in the following century. Set within a recent historiographical trend that examines the significance of female honor in Spanish society, this study argues that Cuban women, regardless of status and/or ethnicity, faced challenges unique to the island. It begins by establishing the reality of the pervasive inßuence of militarization, a consequence of the defensive function of the island. Even from the earliest years of settlement, questions of honor and loyalty in Cuba were, quite literally, matters of life and death. During and after the most traumatic event in the island's history, the fall of Havana to the British in 1762, Cuban women not only behaved in an honorable manner, they also supported their men and maintained the family in the face of foreign occupation and constant danger. This was due in no small measure to their ability to acquire and maintain family property during their husbands' absences. Significantly, the Cuban women's honorable behavior was not limited to free, white women. Equally loyal and competent, Cuba's free women of color and female slaves faced danger and deprivation in much the same way as their white counterparts. Slave women were doubly affected by militarization, as uniquely Cuban circumstances provided a vehicle through which they and their families could gain their freedom. Their legacy provided a tangible example for their female descendants, the mambisas of the nineteenth century.