Notes on the Italian consular representation in Santiago de Cuba (1889-1911)

Abstract

This article analyzes the strategies developed by Italian consular agents in Santiago de Cuba between 1889 and 1911. Based on a qualitative historical-documentary approach, the research draws on primary sources preserved in the Provincial Historical Archive of Santiago de Cuba, as well as contemporary press and local chronicles, complemented by specialized secondary literature. The study examines the role played by Italian consular agents—particularly Luis Carlos Bottino Durán and Juan Dotta Amoretti—as diplomatic mediators, social actors, and defenders of the interests of their compatriots in a context of political instability and armed conflict. The work offers a micro historical perspective on consular history in the Caribbean, highlighting the importance of consulates as spaces of interaction between diplomacy, society, and power in peripheral settings.