Resumen
"Los ingenios" is a rare and historically significant illustrated volume documenting the sugar plantations ("ingenios") of colonial Cuba in the mid-19th century.
Compiled and written by J.
G.
Cantero, with stunning lithographs by artist Eduardo Laplante, the book offers detailed written descriptions and lavish illustrations of the architectural, economic, and operational aspects of over 25 sugar estates.
This work stands as a visual and narrative record of the golden age of sugar production in Cuba—a time when the island was the world’s leading sugar producer—and is an invaluable window into the economy, class structure, technology, and daily life of that era. It also indirectly reflects on the brutal realities of slavery, which underpinned the sugar industry, even though the book often glosses over these conditions with a tone of economic pride typical of its time.