For much of the nineteenth century and all of the twentieth, the
per capita rate of suicide in Cuba was the highest in Latin America
and among the highest in the world--a condition made all the more
extraordinary in light of Cuba's historic ties to the Catholic
church. In this richly illustrated social and cultural history of
suicide in Cuba, Louis A. Perez Jr. explores the way suicide passed
from the unthinkable to the unremarkable in Cuban society.
In a study that spans the experiences of enslaved Africans and
indentured Chinese in the colony, nationalists of the
twentieth-century republic, and emigrants from Cuba to Florida
following the 1959 revolution, Perez finds that the act of suicide
was loaded with meanings that changed over time. Analyzing the
social context of suicide, he argues that in addition to confirming
despair, suicide sometimes served as a way to consecrate
patriotism, affirm personal agency, or protest injustice. The act
was often seen by suicidal persons and their contemporaries as an
entirely reasonable response to circumstances of affliction,
whether economic, political, or social.
Bringing an important historical perspective to the study of
suicide, Perez offers a valuable new understanding of the
strategies with which vast numbers of people made their way through
life--if only to choose to end it.
To Die in Cuba ultimately
tells as much about Cubans' lives, culture, and society as it does
about their self-inflicted deaths.