# XI explained — To Cuba and Back

> Chapter companion for To Cuba and Back by Richard Henry Dana Jr..

## What happens

The narrator takes a train from Matanzas into the Cuban interior, observing the landscape, vegetation, and sugar plantations. He describes the palm, cocoa, banana, and plantain trees, the cane fields, and the slaves laboring. He arrives at Limonar and walks to the plantation of Señor C⸺, where he is warmly welcomed.

## Themes in this chapter

### Economic Exploitation and Sugar Monoculture

The chapter describes the vast cane fields, the sugar mill, and the labor of slaves and coolies, highlighting the plantation economy.

### Slavery and Racial Hierarchy

Observations of enslaved Negroes and Coolies laboring, and the strict social order on the plantation, illustrate racial hierarchy.

### Travel as a Lens for Social Critique

The narrator's journey into the interior provides a firsthand view of Cuban rural life and the sugar industry, serving as a critique of the system.

## Character check-ins

### Unknown Narrator

The narrator travels by train, observes the Cuban interior, and arrives at the plantation.

### Coolies

Coolies work as brakemen on the train and are seen chewing sugarcane at a station.

### Mr. C⸺

Owner of the plantation La Ariadne; the narrator delivers a letter to him and is warmly received.

### The Master

The older gentleman at dinner, presumably the master of the plantation.

### The Young Captain

The younger gentleman at dinner who comes out to greet the narrator and call off the dogs.

## Key lines

> The car I entered had 'Davenport & Co. , makers, Cambridgeport, Mass.,' familiarly on its front, and the next had 'Eaton, Gilbert & Co. , Troy, N. York.'

The train cars were American-made, with manufacturer names from Massachusetts and New York.

_Highlights the American influence on Cuban infrastructure._

> The palm tree seems a kind of lusus naturae to the northern eye—an exotic wherever you meet it.

To a Northerner, the palm tree appears as a freak of nature, always seeming foreign.

_Emphasizes the narrator's sense of cultural and botanical contrast._

> The country life tells the story of any people that have a country life.

A nation's rural life reveals its true character.

_The narrator uses the plantation as a lens to understand Cuba._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/to_cuba_and_back_se/chapters/xi
- Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/to_cuba_and_back_se
- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/to_cuba_and_back_se/chapters