Labyrinths of love: Sexual propriety, family, and social reform in the Second Cuban Republic, 1933--1958.

Abstract

This dissertation examines Cubans' struggles over the terms and meanings of sexual propriety, family, and social reform during a period of democratic renovation and collapse in Cuba from 1933 to 1959. I argue that legislators', professionals', and ordinary people's ideas about sexual propriety and family were integral to their efforts to create and live in a new democratic republic, a Cuba made for Cubans, throughout this period. To explore the relationship between elite and popular conceptions of sexual propriety and family and the parallel process of building what citizens hoped would be a democratic nation, I examine the words and actions of legislators and professionals and contrast them with the words and actions of ordinary Cubans. I take into consideration the viewpoints of multiple social actors by using sources such as the published debates of legislators; eugenists' radio show transcripts and serial publications; testimonies of petitioners, defendants, and witnesses from judicial cases; and professional and popular mass media publications. I found that Cuban legislators, bent upon creating a modern democratic nation, tried to excise what they deemed outdated and backward ideals of honor and sexual propriety built into their legal structures by centuries of Spanish rule and the strong influence of the Catholic Church. Nevertheless, legislators' own particular ideas about honor and sexual propriety remained an important aspect of social reform and nation building. Cuban professionals such as jurists, social workers, journalists, psychologists, and physicians widely publicized their views on the perceived consequences and effects of democratic ideologies and legal reforms---effects which many believed signaled the demise of the traditional family and even the nation as a whole. Ordinary Cuban citizens in search of personal retribution and financial restitution made use of the new or reformed laws by bringing cases of consensual unions, sexual crimes, and divorce to the courts. These citizens utilized a language of honor and sexual propriety based upon gender stereotypes to plead their cases.