Cuban Studies Institute

A publication of the Cuban Studies Institute

“Prominent Cubans” is a new series of weekly publications highlighting the principal political, economic, social and cultural leaders during Cuba’s late colonial and national period.   We hope you enjoy this new publication.    Following is the 16th in this new series.     PROMINENT CUBANS    Miguel Aldama (1821-1888)   Brother-in-law of Domingo del Monte and the most famous member of a prominent sugar planter family (Domingo de Aldama was his father).  By the 1860s the Aldamas were firmly entrenched in the hierarchy of the sugar industry.  They tried unsuccessfully to run some of their mills with only white labor, since legal slavery was in its final stages in Cuba.  Miguel led the Club de la Habana in the 1840s, but when the American Civil War ended any prospect of an annexation by the United States, he joined the Partido Reformista, hoping to obtain political reforms from Spain.  He eventually embraced the independence movement, traveling to New York to raise money for the Ten Years’ War.  The war ruined him, and he died in poverty in Havana.   Read on Web

This is a publication of the Cuban Studies Institute.  Our mailing address is: 1500 South Dixie Highway, Bank of America Bldg., 2nd Floor Coral Gables, FL  33146 Tel: 786-803-8007 Fax: 786-803-8068 Email: cubanstudies@cubanstudiesinstitute.com