ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book examines themes of Caribbean ethnicity with a great deal of empirical rigor. In examining differences between Cuba and Puerto Rico, it argues that sugar unified Cuba while the hacienda system of coffee plantations retarded the growth of a central market and a sense of national identity in Puerto Rico. The book provides a synthesis in the tradition of Fernando Ortiz. It also provides credence to an assimilationist rather than a pluralist model of social relations. The book compares occupational mobility among mestizos and Creoles in Belize, and presents a common history with a number of Caribbean islands, and is generally considered to be a part of the region. The degree of personal choice in Caribbean societies is largely a function of one’s station, and upwardly mobile individuals give up some of their freedoms in order to attain their goals.
