Source: https://www.delcampe.net/nl/verzamelingen/postzegels/verenigde-staten/cuba/cuba-1936-118-19-spec-ungebraucht-1837305261.html.

In the Spring of 1936, Cuban nurse Angela Lastra is awarded a Rockefeller Foundation fellowship to study public health nursing in the United States for one year, starting in August of 1936. Her departure is planned a bit earlier, in May, so that she can learn English before starting her studies.

She is the fifth Cuban to receive an individual mobility grant by the Rockefeller Foundation since it resumed activities in Cuba in May 1935, with the flagship project of setting up a model public health unit in one of Havana’s municipalities (for more on this, see Kelly Urban, Radical Prescription).

Ms Lastra’s fellowship recorder card is not very detailed (figure 1): nothing about her previous training, nothing about where she is to study “public health nursing in America”. The plan might have been to have her attend a program in the United States, possibly with a combination of coursework at Columbia and field work at the East Harlem Nursing and Health Service. Such a combo was quite common for fellows in public health nursing in the 1930s. But it might as well have involved a study period at the School of Nursing of the University of Toronto in Canada, which was the major hub for Rockefeller Foundation individual mobility awards in nursing. Both would have been combined with short observation trips to a number of public health agencies, dispensaries and laboratories, according to a circuit that Rockefeller Foundation nursing officers regularly organised for the recipients of nursing mobility awards.

Figure 1: Ms. Lastra’s fellowship recorder card.

Source: fellowship recorder card for Ms Lastra, Rockefeller Foundation records, R.G. 10.2.
© Courtesy of Rockefeller Archive Center.

But we do not know: Ms Lastra does not leave Cuba in May in order to study english in Baltimore. She does not board any of the boats that worked the Havana-New York route, which had turned dangerous in recent times, with a series of disasters striking the boats of the Ward Line (figure 2).

Figure 2: The SS Moro Castle on fire, 8 september 1934. The Moro was one of the boats on the Ward line’s Havana-New York route.

 Source: Wikimedia Commons.

Ms Lastra’s fellowship is one of 562 that were awarded by the Rockefeller Foundation which were interrupted for various reasons. This amounted to around 5% of all fellowships awarded by the Foundation between 1917 and 1970. The interruption would happen before the fellowship was due to start, or after it had begun, and sometimes even while the recipients were already at their place of study or research. Fellowship recorder cards record all such unforeseen events with a brief note: “rescinded”, “cancelled”, “declined”, “interrupted”, “voided”, “lapsed” or “resigned”. Ms. Lastra is one of those whose fellowship was “rescinded”, before her departure.

 Behind these mentions, which distinction is not entirely clear to our research team, lies the full thickness of individual existences. Even if the reasons for cancellations are not always known, fellowship recorder cards and other documents occasionally include them. Illness, a new professional situation or an excessively demanding current one, the outbreak of a major military conflict, marriage and birth are the most frequent mentions – the last two almost exclusively for women. There are also situations when the decision is made by recipients in deliberate manner: some declare that they have lost interest in the sector of activity for which the scholarship had been offered, others explain that the scholarship stipend will not enable them to provide for their family. More seldom, individuals are refused visas to enter the USA, but the Foundation generally knows how to navigate red tape and lines of command in order to obtain visas, even in difficult cases.

At first glance, Ms Lastra may seem to be a special case of someone whose behaviour is excessive, considering the information on her card. An officer of the Foundation reports she required a series of guarantees about her position when returning from her fellowship. Including a presidential decree: it sounds like she would have stretched herself too far. Yet, this does not hold when we take into account Ms Lastra’s trajectory and the situation in Cuba.

Not that we have much on the former, but enough to appreciate the professional achievements of this Cuban nurse. In 1936, when her fellowship is granted, Ms Lastra is General Nursing Supervisor at the Health Department of the Secretaria de Sanidad y Beneficiencia (figure 3). A high-ranking position in the nursing field.

Figure 3: The headquarters of the Secretaria de Sanidad y Beneficiencia in the 1920s.

Source: Wilfredo Fernandez, El libro de Cuba, Talleres del sindicato de artes graficas, Havana, 1925, p.357.
© The Cuban Heritage Collection of the University of Miami libraries.

A search of world wide web resources shows that she had previously worked in a surgical clinic in central Havana (Clinica Ledon Uribe), which suggests she was a qualified and recognised hospital nurse, in addition to her public health abilities. Also, she is recognized by her peers: she regularly holds positions on the executive of the Associacion Nacional de Enfermeras de Cuba, founded in 1909 (at least in 1913, and in 1926). She is thus an experienced and recognised nurse, aged 48, single, when she makes this seemingly extravagant request for a presidential decree before accepting an offer to study in America for a year. The special case, then, might not be about Ms Lastra’s character: she is not a beginner with outrageous expectations, she has reached a moment in her career when a sojourn “in America” would be a plus.

What about the context in Cuba? In 1933, President Machado is ousted from the power he had seized in 1929. For the years to come, the main figure on the political scene is former sergeant Fulgencio Batista, head of the army. In a large measure, presidents come and go according to whether they comply with or resist to Batista’s plans for Cuba, which placed a special emphasis on public health policy. As a result, the sector is regularly rattled by presidential and government turnover : there are 4 different ministers of health in 1933, and 4 more between January 1934 and the spring of 1936.

Remember that Ms. Lastra’s fellowship is approved at the end of April 1936? Precisely, a new minister of health is appointed on May 20, 1936, following the election of a new President of the Republic who also took office on that date. The president, former mayor of Havana Miguel Mariano Gómez, sets about developing an ambitious public health program. He is quickly opposed by part of Congress on a series of political issues, and Batista’s hand seems to show in this opposition. The administrative and political landscape is in flux in this month of May 1936, with no signs of stabilization.

Lastra’s request therefore takes on a new dimension. Nothing whimsical, but a rather rational query made by someone who knows how quickly the reins of power change hands in Cuba, in an administrative system that relies heavily on patronage -as documented by Kelly Urban in her study of tuberculosis policies in Cuba. Lastra also knows that the health sector is particularly exposed. With a newly elected president and a new minister, who face the opposition of Parliament, her departure would be a big wager. She may also be particularly anxious to consolidate her position at the Ministry, as she had only been general supervisor of nursing for a few months : in December 1935, when she was spotted by Rockefeller Foundation nursing officer Mary Elizabeth Tennant who tagged her as a possible future fellow, she was general inspector of nursing schools at the Ministry, working under Miss Perez who was the general supervisor at the time. We have no clues about Perez’s departure and her substitution by Lastra, but the latter would know that nursing supervisor could be dismissed and replaced easily.

Therefore, Ms Lastra’s requests do not seem to be a symptom of hubris or over-anxiety. Kelly Urban, said that they “persuasively illustrate how keenly Cubans in public posts experienced job insecurity”. Lastra’s attempts amount to a search for solid guarantees in a context of sheer uncertainty. Similar contexts and preoccupations can be found in many fellows’ files in different countries, when it comes to anticipate politico-administrative situations that govern career development. Angela Lastra’s position is not so idiosyncratic after all.

Her case also serves to underline the fact that fellowships, in general, are not just opportunities. Those who accept them have a lot to lose. Leaving for a few months, or a few years, has many consequences: you leave loved ones and family behind, sometimes a stable, rewarding or promising job, and it always implies a return to changed professional context that in which you will have to work to regain your place. In her determination to minimize this risk, Ms Lastra draws attention to the situations experienced by those who were offered an individual mobility award by a Rockefeller-endowed organization: the changes that the fellowship can bring about before, during and after their fellowship were likely to be life-changing, and the balancing act was not easy.

Only Cuban historians would be able to follow Ms Lastra’s subsequent career at the Ministry. Does she remain general supervisor of nursing? Does the cancellation of her scholarship affect her professional success? It’s a question that can be asked for all those who didn’t complete their fellowship, and all together they represent an interesting “placebo group” for a comparison with individual who completed their fellowship as planned. For Ms. Lastra, the answer would start from a hint. In its June 1, 1941 issue, the Cuban magazine Bohemia runs an article entitled “Funcion social de la enfermera” in its section “Problemas de Medicina Social”.

Figure 4: The executive of the Associaction Nacional de Enfermeras de Cuba, 1941.

Source: Bohemia, 1 June 1941, p.20.
© The Digital Library of the Caribbean.

The article includes photographs of the entire executive of the Associacion Nacional de Enfermeras de Cuba (figure 4). Senorita Angela Lastra appears in the first batch of five portraits as vice-treasurer of the Asociacion. She has therefore remained a nurse, and seems to have kept her peers’ recognition.

---

---