Cultivating large tracts of land for mining, rail, tobacco, ranching and especially sugar operations, corporate executives of U.S. companies typically lived in segregated barrios americanos in rural Cuba while managing huge enterprises and collectively employing hundreds of thousands of Cuban and Caribbean workers. Unsurprisingly, the province of Oriente, where most of these large-scale operations were centered, became a hotbed for revolutionary activity in the late-1950s.
Oral Histories
Kay Torpey is the Daughter of United Fruit and Sugar Executive William S. Chambers. While the family mostly lived in Havana, with UFSC’s center of operations in Eastern Cuba, Chambers worked between the cosmopolitan capital and the rural mills and plantations of Oriente.
Document Provided
Courtesy of Kay Torpey
