In 2016, I entered my doctoral program at Fordham and decided to intentionally intersect my times as a tourist to connect with Eastern Cuba. Habaneros informed me that the East was the Blackest and most Caribbean part of the island. My interaction with Rastafarian community members in Havana, Cuba, also deepened my interest in the East. Additionally, my family and friends have fluid cross-cultural upbringings as Cubans of Jamaican descent and Jamaicans of Cuban descent in the United States.

I took a 16-hour bus ride across the island to Santiago de Cuba and then two motorcycles, a local bus, and a “dollar-van” Ford military-style truck to Guantánamo City. This was my first visit to the British West Indian Welfare Centre. It was 2017.

My heart skipped a beat when I saw “British West Indian Welfare Centre” in front of a bright yellow building and decided to ask neighbors about the center. Within the next 5 minutes, the organizational leaders, such as BWIWC President Jorge Derrick, greeted me excitedly as if he were expecting my arrival. The quaint space was filled with countless rocking chairs, flags from across the Caribbean, and posters of Jamaican national heroes: Paul Bogle, Marcus Garvey, and Nanny of the Maroons. Sipping on fresh pineapple juice, I was shown archival materials, including photographs and meeting notes, from the organization’s inception.

The British West Indian Welfare Centre is a community fixture in Guantánamo City. Locally called “the Centre,” the organization holds social, cultural, and political importance for Anglo-Caribbean descended communities and Cubans of a wide array of backgrounds. The Centre is located at the intersection of Narciso López and Serafín Sánchez Streets. A neighborhood with wide roads and slender walkways, and a somewhat random railroad track, interlaced with white and colorful colonial-era buildings housing schools, private homes, municipal edifices, and small businesses. With the organization physically situated on the same street as Casa del Changüí and Tumba Francesa, BWIWC is placed within the major cultural corridor of Guantánamo City, representing a microcosm of art, music, and societal contributions of the Black presence in Eastern Cuba and within Cuba itself.

The majority of English-speaking Caribbean communities arrived in Cuba after the Spanish American War and the US’s self-imposed installation as the neocolonial ruler of the island. As stated in Part I, the US Platt Amendment of 1903 became a part of the 1902 Cuban Constitution, instituting the right of the US to intervene militarily, control much of the country’s economy, and establish a naval base in Guantánamo Bay. The US used its hegemonic and military powers during this era to brutally occupy Cuba six times until Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s Good Neighbor policy of 1936. From this new foreign policy strategy, the US supported “friendly regimes”—led by heads of state and dictators such as Fulgencio Batista, a controversial figure because of his overt support of the US government and US-based mob ties—until the 1959 Triumph of the Cuban Revolution.

During the first 30 years of the Cuban Republic, over one million immigrants arrived to work in the sugar industry. More than 300,000 of these immigrants were from Haiti and the English-speaking Caribbean. According to the 1899 census, they migrated to Eastern Cuba adding to the population of about 600,000 Black and Afro-descended Cubans living across the island, with the majority in the East…

… The people in Eastern Cuba are looking for our support, voice, connection, and advocacy. I know I owe a lot, so I am going to give all that I have.

#SupportCuba #SupportEasternCuba

In addition to supporting the organizations listed below that provide political and material support to Cuba, please support the author’s fundraiser for the British West Indian Welfare Centre in Guantánamo, Cuba. BWIWC is in need of more solar panels and funds for food and general community needs. All donations go straight to BWIWC. See the following link for updates and information on how to support - bit.ly/bwiwc.

The National Network on Cuba - @nationalnetworkoncuba

Black Alliance for Peace - @blackallianceforpeace

Cuba Sí NY/NJ Coalition - @cubasinynj

Cuban Americans for Cuba - @cubans4cuba

Interreligious Foundation for Community Organization (IFCO) - Pastors for Peace - @ifco_pastors4peace

Code Pink - @codepinkalert

The People’s Forum - @peoplesforumnyc

For News Follow - Belly of the Beast

Read here: Cuba on My Mind. Part One