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Desiring Nation: Prostitution, Citizenship, And Modernity In Cuba, 1840-1920, Tiffany A. Thomas-Woodward

History ETDs

This dissertation uses prostitution as a lens through which to study the intersection of gender, sexuality, and nation-building in late colonial and early republic Cuba. Between 1840 and 1920, Cuba underwent a series of profound transformations spurred by the abolition of slavery, national wars of independence, mass migration, and foreign occupation. My investigation of Spanish, Cuban, and U.S. sources reveal that as Cubans struggled to define a sense of national identity in the face of changing political alliances and shifting populations, prostitution became a focus for the expression of contemporary social and sexual anxieties. State policies, designed to control prostitutes' …