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The practice of reading aloud to tobacco workers while they work has long been recognised as a distinctive part of Cuban culture. In this fascinating study of the practice, the author not only tells us of its relationship with Cuban social, cultural and political developments, but also gives a detailed account of the nature of the literary and journalistic material that was used. This choice of material, as well as the decision-making process involved, reflects the deeper relationship between employer and employed in the Cuban tobacco industry.
The practice started in Cuban tobacco factories in the early 1860s, at a time when there was still widespread illiteracy and popular newspapers had to aim, in part, at an audience who could not read themselves, but could persuade friends or family to read to them. Indeed, in 1865 Saturnio Martínez founded a newspaper, La Aurora, with an eye to public reading. The extension of reading aloud into the tobacco industry is based upon the quiet nature of the job, meaning that the cigar rollers could talk amongst themselves without impeding their work, and it was a significant factor in their growing collective identity.
There was, of course, a central contradiction to the practice of reading aloud: the workers paid for the readings, while they took place on the employers' premises during paid time, all of...