# XVI explained — To Cuba and Back > Chapter companion for To Cuba and Back by Richard Henry Dana Jr.. ## What happens The narrator departs Matanzas by railroad for Havana, observing the Cuban interior and reflecting on the island's economic, political, and social conditions. He notes the sugar industry's profitability despite heavy taxes, the absence of self-government for Cubans, and the dominance of Spanish colonial rule. The journey ends with his return to Havana, where he reunites with friends. ## Themes in this chapter ### Colonial Oppression and Despotism The narrator details the complete lack of self-government for Cubans, with laws made abroad and administered by Spanish officials. ### Economic Exploitation and Sugar Monoculture The chapter highlights the sugar monoculture's dominance and the heavy taxation that enriches Spain while limiting Cuban economic diversity. ### Travel as a Lens for Social Critique The railroad journey provides a vantage point for observing and critiquing Cuba's political and economic conditions. ## Character check-ins ### Unknown Narrator Travels from Matanzas to Havana by train, observes the landscape and reflects on Cuban society. ### Cubans Described as holding land and capital but lacking political rights and self-government. ### Coolies Mentioned as part of the labor force on a sugar plantation, alongside slaves. ### Spaniards Govern Cuba through a foreign Captain-General and civil/military officers. ### Le Grand His establishment in Havana is noted upon the narrator's return. ## Key lines > I cannot weary of gazing upon these new and strange scenes; the stations, with the groups of peasants and Negroes and fruit sellers that gather about them, and the stores of sugar and molasses collected there; the ingenios, glimmering in the heat of the sun, with their tall, furnace chimneys; the cane fields, acres upon acres; the slow oxcarts carrying the cane to the mill; then the intervals of unused country, the jungles, adorned with little wild flowers, the groves of the weeping, drooping, sad, homesick cocoa; the royal palm, which is to trees what the camel or dromedary is among animals—seeming to have strayed from Nubia or Mesopotamia; the stiff, close orange tree, with its golden balls of fruit; and then the remains of a cafetal, the coffee plan growing untrimmed and wild under the reprieved groves of plantain and banana. The narrator is captivated by the diverse sights along the railroad: bustling stations with peasants and fruit sellers, sugar mills and cane fields, oxcarts, jungles with wildflowers, cocoa and royal palm trees, orange trees, and abandoned coffee plantations. _Illustrates the narrator's keen observation and appreciation of Cuba's landscape and agricultural economy._ > No Cuban votes, or attends a lawful political meeting, or sits on a jury, or sees a lawmaking assembly, except as a curiosity abroad, even in a municipality; nor has he ever helped to make, or interpret, or administer laws, or borne arms, except by special license of government granted to such as are friends of government. Cubans are entirely excluded from political participation, including voting, jury duty, lawmaking, and bearing arms, unless specially licensed by the Spanish government. _Highlights the complete political disenfranchisement of Cubans under Spanish colonial rule._ ## Links - HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/to_cuba_and_back_se/chapters/xvi - Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/to_cuba_and_back_se - All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/to_cuba_and_back_se/chapters