• 1 On the benefits of studying the early modern and modern periods for architectural and urban histor (...)

1In Beyond the Walled City Guadalupe García offers an original and nuanced analysis of social inclusion/exclusion within the urban space of Havana from its settlement in the sixteenth century to the early twentieth century. García rightly brings to the fore a significant gap in scholarship regarding the African presence in the city and its impact on the historic urban morphology of Havana. Drawing on extensive research from a variety of repositories in Cuba, Spain and the United States, García examines the relationship between space and colonial power in arguably the most important Spanish port city in the Caribbean. Havana, as Cuba’s main port, is also crucial to our understanding of the Atlantic, as the Isle of Cuba was one of Spain’s most enduring colonies in the Americas. Importantly, García considers Havana from a longue durée perspective, which is one of the book’s key strengths, as it allows the author to underscore the significant continuities in social exclusion/inclusion practices in Havana.1

• 2 On urban development and Havana see for example, Alejandro de la Fuente, Havana and the Atlantic i (...)
• 3 See the Oficina del Historiador’s Plan Maestro of Havana in Plan Maestro para la Revitalización In (...)

2In the book’s introduction García successfully condenses the urban, spatial and social relationships between Havana’s colonial past and its present.2 The contours of intramuros (inside the walls) currently roughly correspond to the limits of the unesco-listed area, which the Oficina del Historiador de la Habana has made tremendous efforts to restore and conserve.3 Readers of Beyond the Walled City can take virtual walks through the spaces that once comprised the intramuros and extramuros (beyond or outside the walls), which form the core of García’s analysis. The book is organised in two parts and six chapters.

• 4 See Mario Garbayo Otano, “Patrimonio Cultural, Arquitectónico y Urbano de Guanabacoa. Propuesta de (...)

3In the first part of the book García examines the spatial segregation of black and brown people vis-à-vis the interest of local elites, imperial design, and urban development from the sixteenth to the nineteenth centuries. The frequent attacks on Havana fostered the proliferation of fortifications, a defensive system that grew in size and sophistication over time. The remains of the Cabaña Fortress, El Morro, and the earlier structures are indeed a vivid reminder of the bellicose history of the city. Havana also had a wall that was built in the seventeenth century and that was demolished with the significant urban expansion the city experienced in the nineteenth century. The city walls also allowed social elites to differentiate their spaces from those of the free population of African descent and the gradually disappearing indigenous population, who chiefly inhabited the less prestigious spaces beyond the city wall. In addition, the indigenous population was also concentrated in Guanabacoa, Havana’s own “city of the Indians,” founded in 1554 under the umbrella of Spanish imperial legislation, that aimed to segregate the indigenous population to “protect” them from abuse from the encomenderos.4