ABSTRACT
When Columbus instituted travel writing about the Caribbean in 1493, one of his founding gestures was to distinguish the indigenous population by colour: 'they are the color of the Canarians, neither black nor white'. Over the last century or so, as both anthropology and travel writing about the Caribbean have seen such huge growth, the perception of indigenous difference has become a significant theme. This chapter approaches that subject through analyses of texts drawn from three key moments, at roughly fifty-year intervals: 1898 and its aftermath, the 1940s, and the present day, with a focus on the two islands of Cuba and Dominica. Growing US hegemony in the Caribbean, allied to the flourishing steamship industry an offshoot of that steel-based military marine technology quickly led to the development of tourism in the area after 1898, with the inevitable associated growth in guidebooks and travel writing.
