The panorama of Cuban thought during this period, expressed in its political and aesthetic aspects through the essay, was quite complex, as distinct generations of intellectuals coexisted: those who had already reached maturity in the last bastion of Spanish time, Varona, Sanguily and others, and the generation that was taking over at the dawn of the republic, made up of various names, among whom the illustrious Fernando Ortiz stands out.

From an ideological point of view, the issue involved very similar struggles – although in a different socio-historical context, given the transformation that the end of the Spanish colonial administration meant – to those of yesteryear. The intelligentsia was divided between nationalism with anti-North American overtones – not yet “anti-imperialism” – and taking sides in favor of Yankee penetration in the different orders of life, which was not only associated with intellectual ascendancy but also with the socio-economic hierarchy.

The elitist vision of the intelligentsia prevailed for most of the period, where criticism of the system was based primarily on its exclusion from the country’s leadership, rather than that of the broad masses of workers and peasants. A truly political vision of the circumstances would not emerge in literature until the emergence of the Minorista Group.

Before the emergence of the Minorista Group, already in 1916, José Antonio Ramos had published “Manual del perfecto fulanista” (Manual of the Perfect Fulanist), which perhaps reflects the highest literary consciousness of its time, in terms of essays, on the scope of political and social issues and which would also influence other cultivators of the genre at the time.

From an aesthetic perspective, positivism led to a certain extreme academicism in analytical perspectives, because the genre had not fully assimilated the literary flow of ideas. The writer, not surrealist but nevertheless, abandoned the strict logical coherence of scientific language, taking more associationist paths, letting the “discursive waters” flow freely. In this sense, Francisco José Castellanos was a precursor of the genre on the island.