Black Baseball Players in Early Twentieth-Century Cuban Press and Visual Culture

This article examines the widespread circulation of photographs of Black baseball players in early twentieth-century Cuba, arguing that they marked the emergence of a new kind of imagery of Afro-descendants in popular media—one that, to some extent, conveyed a form of “visual equality” between Black and white individuals. Moreover, these images reveal the persistence of young Black players who continued to seek spaces and opportunities in baseball despite racial prejudice among club administrators and calls by some white critics to exclude Black athletes from integrated teams. As material objects with a “social biography” (Elizabeth Edwards), these photographs were embedded in everyday life and commercial culture. Images and news of Black players appeared not only in prominent magazines like El Fígaro, Carteles, and Bohemia, but also in advertisements, photo albums, and cigarette packs, further amplifying their circulation and cultural impact.