Dear awesome students and readers:

This is the last chapter about sugar in the Caribbean. It has been a huge undertaking to finish a historical industry analysis of the sugar plantations of the Atlantic during the 18th and 19th centuries. We have covered the moves of agricultural decision-making regarding sugar production within 5 empires (the Netherlands, Portugal, Britain, France, and Spain-Cuba). We have enfolded the main centers of sugar production of Brazil, Suriname, Barbados, Jamaica, Saint-Domingue, and Cuba. We have analyzed the geopolitical particularities of these two centuries in the Atlantic, and we have linked the main events of Europe and the USA with the circumstances related to each island plantation, with distinct ownership structures, land tenure, and access to capital. Sincerely, we have surpassed our expectations to cover a material that is usually taught in 6 months, and we have squeezed it into 10 weeks. I wish to congratulate you with all my heart. These industrial historical topics are not easy, and we have all accomplished an impossible goal in record time.

Today, our agenda is enveloped in understanding the factories (centrales azucareras) with extreme detail.
We have re-created a data analysis that will provide a reliable hint of what was happening in Cuba right before the entry of Fidel Castro into power. My intention is to show you the historical roots of how sugar was gradually transformed into the core business of Cuba, and how quickly it was consolidated after the intervention of the USA. This industry will help us to understand why the digital economy will create worse levels of inequality than those experienced in Cuba during the first 50 years of the past century. If we do not stop our digital-begging giga AI economy, be sure that the uneven imbalance will be so high in every economy of the world that the whole world will end up worse than Cuba after Fidel Castro. Cuba has the best talent in the world (highly educated professionals in Cuban universities) who work as drivers or in the tourism industry’s low-wage jobs. These roles often include service-sector jobs, such as retail, logistics, hospitality, food preparation, maintenance, cleaning, and caregiving. By 2030, with the advent of generative AI and the rest of its attached technologies, all high-paid professional jobs are at risk of being replaced or partially substituted. In anguish and desperation, when people are hungry, and without income possibilities, or without the fulfillment of a middle-class status, then civil rebellions, wars, and internal conflicts will emerge. And that is what awaits us, sooner or later.

Let´s study the centrales azucareras de Cuba (from 1898 to 1945). Feel free to share the following presentation with your loved ones. Print the document, read it, pursue the bibliography that we have shared at the end of the slides.

We kindly ask that you return next Monday, the 16th of March, 2026, to review our extra strategic reflections on this chapter.
We encourage our readers to familiarize themselves with our Friday master class by reviewing the slides over the weekend. We expect you to create ideas that are or are not strategic reflections. Every Monday, we upload our strategic inferences below. These will be discussed in the next paragraph. Only then will you be able to compare your own reflections with our introspection. We always give our students a couple of days to prepare well before our final reflection.

Additional strategic reflections on this episode. These will be in the section below on Monday, the 16th of March, 2026.

Strategic Reflections on “Central America: A quest for the progression of economic value. Bonus Season V. Episode 10. Sugar-Sugar America Part 10. Cuban Sugar Tycoons.

To be included next Monday…

Closing words.
To be added next Monday.

Announcement. Next week, we will continue with Central America again. It is the turn to analyze the cattle, livestock, and basic foodstuffs for subsistence between 1700 and 1900.

Musical Section.
During our closing bonus season V, we will return to the symphonic, philharmonic, or chamber orchestra compositions. However, I would like you to observe the following interpretation of a famous song released in the year 2011. The version is played without Enrique Iglesias. I hope you can understand the gracious economic hidden message of the choreographer in the context of the Cuban thrift society of today. Try to see the heritage of sugar in the context of the setting. Enjoy!
The production of the video was in the hands of Alejandro Perez. The singers: Descemer Bueno, Gente de Zona. The dancing by: Ballet Lizt Alfonso Dance Cuba, and the Escuela Nacional de Danza of Cuba. Choreographers: Diana Fernández, Indira Álvarez y Roclan.

Thank you for reading http://www.eleonoraescalantestrategy.com. It is a privilege to learn. Blessings.

Sources of reference and Bibliography utilized today. All are listed in the slide document. Additional material will be added when we upload the strategic reflections.
Disclaimer: Eleonora Escalante paints Illustrations in Watercolor. Other types of illustrations or videos (which are not mine) are used for educational purposes ONLY. All are used as Illustrative and non-commercial images. Utilized only informatively for the public good. Nevertheless, most of this blog’s pictures, images, and videos are not mine. Unless otherwise stated, I do not own any lovely photos or images.