Offers a new understanding of the history of Cuba from the mid-nineteenth century to the Cuban revolution by showing the national and transnational implications of local developments in two sugar mill communities.

Preface and Acknowledgments xi
Chronology of Major Political Events xiii
Introduction 1
1. The Colonial Compact, 1500–1895 13
2. Revolutionary Destruction of the Colonial Compact, 1895–98 37
3. U.S. Power and Cuban Middlemen, 1898–1917 63
4. The Patrons' Compact: "Peace," "Progresss," and General Menocal, 1899–1919 86
5. Patrons, Matrons, and Resistance, 1899–1959 118
6. From Patronage to Populism and Back Again, 1919–26 145
7. Revolutionary Rejection of the Patrons' Compact, 1926–33 188
8. The Populist Compact, 1934–59 226
Conclusion 272
Appendix. Selections from the 1946 Chaparra and Delicias Collective Contract 279
Notes 287
Glossary 345
Bibliography 349
Index 367