The Emergence of the Chaple family as Liberal Elites: lawyers and social mobility in mid-nineteenth century Cuba

Abstract

As migrant families relocated to Cuba during the second half of the eighteenth century, new generations of creoles were born during the economic and demographic expansion of the island. Some of these Cubans, inspired on early liberal ideas, found the ways to amass a fortune, and started climbing the social ladder by procuring positions in the local bureaucracy. A legal degree, however, was essential to obtain a high ranked public office, and many new students of law enrolled at the University of Havana. As a result, the number of lawyers on the island multiplied and started occupying posts in the local judiciary and the administration, as well as the academia, to legitimize themselves in the Cuban society. This study thus uses the Chaple family to examine a case of social mobility in early nineteenth century Cuba tied to the increase of the number of legal professionals, and their multiple mechanisms to gain participation and control of the public sphere. As the family Chaple illustrates, legal professionals, with their growing connections, created a complex social, political, and familiar network that included many individuals who held key judicial and administrative positions on the island. These lawyers, who came from humble origins, transformed the colonial society by breaking traditional barriers to the legal education and practice. Consequently, creoles with law degrees, who increasingly participated in local public affairs, emerged as a first generation of Cuban liberal elites during the nineteenth century.