Publisher description: Spanning the history of the island from pre-Columbian times to the present, this new study examines Cuba's political and economic development within the context of its international relations and continuing struggle for self-determination. The dualism that emerged in Cuban ideology--between liberal constructs of patria on the one hand and radical formulations of nationality on the other--is fully investigated as a source not only of national tension but of competing notions of liberty, equality, and justice which would eventually determine the form and function of Cuban mobilization. P'erez integrates local and provincial developments with issues of class, race, and gender to give a full, and fascinating, account of the Cuban history of struggle for nationality.