Antonio Parra’s Curious Cabinet: Crafting Imperial Desire in Colonial Havana

Naturalist Antonio Parra, active in eighteenth-century Havana, developed an innovative method for fish taxidermy. He showcased these specimens in a wondrous natural history cabinet and publicized these efforts in the first intaglio-printed book in Cuban history. This article interrogates the sociopolitical dimensions embedded in such epistemic visual artifacts, revealing how Parra’s interlinked efforts redefined colonial participation in Crown-sponsored knowledge-gathering projects and fostered an imperial acquisitiveness from peripheral positions within the Spanish domains. As doing so depended upon leveraging local materials and subaltern labor, this article ultimately assesses the dynamics of visibility and concealment as representational strategies underpinning colonial science.