Devyn Spence Benson

Ph.D. Student (ABD)
dspence@email.unc.edu

Major Field: Latin American History

Other Fields: Cuban History; Global History

Advisor: Louis A. Pérez, Jr.

Research Interests:

My research interests include Latin American/Caribbean history, with a focus on Cuba and African Diaspora studies. I am in the process of completing my dissertation, titled “Not Blacks, but Citizens: Racial Politics in Revolutionary Cuba, 1959-1961.”  

“‘Not Blacks, But Citizens,’” shows how the post-1959 Cuban revolutionary government highlighted racial conflicts in order to undermine counterrevolutionary movements and solicit the support of Afro-Cubans.  Using a variety of sources, including Cuban newspapers, government speeches, and photographs, this dissertation reveals how the new leadership publicly discussed the problems facing people of color, an issue frequently silenced by Cuba’s accepted ideology of racial democracy.  As with any government sponsored project, however, many Afro-Cubans interpreted the new racialized discourse in ways that went beyond official pronouncements.  Thus, “‘Not Blacks, But Citizens!’” also investigates how black Cubans experienced and participated in the racial debates during the first years of the revolution.  This project analyzes testimonios and oral histories by everyday Afro-Cubans to uncover the ways people of color contributed to and challenged the new leadership’s claims over racial politics.   

My master’s thesis also touched on ideas of race and nation in Cuba. Titled, “A Place of Their Own: Black Slaves in the Transition to Freedom, Yaguajay, Cuba, 1845-1902,” this project explored how African descended slaves established a neighborhood in rural Cuba at the end of the wars of independence.