Sugar Baron: Manuel Rionda and the Fortunes of Pre-Castro Cuba

Sugar Baron: Manuel Rionda and the Fortunes of Pre-Castro Cuba by McAvoy, Muriel. hardcover edition. ISBN: 9780813026138.

Choice Outstanding Academic Title The story of a tycoon in the sugar industry and an in-depth view of Cubas economy before the Revolution Sugar Baron is the story of Manuel Rionda (1854-1943), who immigrated from Spain to Cuba as a boy of 16 to become a dominant operator in the international sugar trade and to stand at the crossroads of U.S.-Cuban economic relations. Through an examination of Riondas career as founder of the Cuba Cane Sugar Corporation and of New Yorks major sugar brokerage firm, Muriel McAvoy gives us an in-depth history of Cubas sugar industry and its economy during the first half of the 20th century. McAvoy examines the dilemmas of development and the constraints of financial dependency, probing the inside story of how both Wall Streets and Cubas political elite viewed the crucial economic problems facing the island and how they attempted to solve them. In great detail, she elucidates conflicts among the various economic sectors in both Cuba and the United States, providing unique and often corrective insights. Stressing the significance of the Cuban elite in furthering and profiting from the development of Cuba as a sugar enclave, Sugar Baron shows that Rionda and the other hacendados did much to ensure that a single export would dominate their islands economy, enriching themselves in the process. Challenging the view that U.S. capitalism reduced Cubas businessmen to helpless pawns, McAvoy provides a clearer view of the responsibility for events between the Spanish-American War and the triumph of Castros revolution.