Casinos españoles ¿de color?

Abstract

Before the 70s in the XIX century, the free black and mulatto population of Cuba gathered in the African cabildos “de nación” and in religious comradeships. Later on, supported by the Law of Associations, other forms of social gathering appeared, in general of charitable, cultural or guild type. In this new context the “colored” Spanish Casinos appeared, which were inscribed in the church registers instead of the civilian ones. These societies have not been studied by Cuban historiography, inside or outside of Cuba. They show the actions of a sector which strived for social progress regardless of the country´s independence process and of the spaces where it was being developed.