The Cuban Research Institute (CRI) at Florida International University (FIU) is dedicated to creating and disseminating knowledge about Cuba and Cuban Americans. The institute encourages original research and interdisciplinary teaching, organizes extracurricular activities, collaborates with other academic units working in Cuban and Cuban-American studies, and promotes the development of library holdings and collections on Cuba and its diaspora.
This collection of promotional material for events hosted by the Cuban Research Institute includes flyers, brochures and other ephemera.
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Cuba: Decadence and Rehabilitation
Jorge A. Sanguinetty
Cuba: Decadencia y rehabilitaci6n is a wise work, written from an optimistic perspective, full of Cubanness and realism. The essence of Jorge Sanguinetty's economic and sociological thinking about Cuba is masterfully captured in this excellent selection of reflections throughout a long period. This work demonstrates the depth of his capacity for analysis, as well as his appeal to a broad public, both Cuban and from other countries. Part of the author's success is that, unlike other authors who regularly assess the last pirouettes of Cuban economic policy, Sanguinetty dwells primarily on the misery of the political economy and the institutions that operate such changes on the island.
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A Taste of Cuba: A Journey through Cuba and Its Savory Cuisine
Cynthia Carris Alonso, Valerie Feigen, and Jose Luis Alonso
From the leading photographer of Cuba, A Taste of Cuba is a stunning culinary and visual journey through Cuba that presents 75 authentic, never-before-shared recipes from the world's most inventive chefs. In a country shrouded in secrecy, a mouthwatering, but little-known food scene is emerging. A Taste of Cuba offers unprecedented access into the kitchens of Cuba's top chefs, where the country's most delectable dishes are created and where the chefs will share for the very first time, their brilliant techniques, inspiration, and best recipes.
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Tracing the Cinquillo Cubano: From the Trova to the Danzon
David Virelles Gonzalez
Cuban musical traditions have been the result of a long social process involving many different cultures. African lineages have long been recognized as an integral part of Cuban identity. Rhythms from the African continent are the foundation of some of the island's most representative genres. This lecture will examine the Cuban cinquillo and its presence in seminal genres such as danzon and trova. The cinquillo is a rhythmic cell that can be found throughout sub-Saharan Africa and in several Cuban styles that emerged during Spanish colonial times.
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Heroes, Martyrs, and Political Messiahs in Revolutionary Cuba, 1946-1958
Lillian Guerra
In this important and timely volume, one of today's foremost experts on Cuban history and politics fills a significant gap in the literature, illuminating how Cuba's sovereign electoral democracy underwent a tumultuous transformation into a military dictatorship. Lillian Guerra draws on her years of research in newly opened archives and on personal interviews to shed light on the men and women of Cuba who participated in mass mobilization and civic activism to establish social movements in their quest for social and racial justice and for more accountable leadership. Beautifully illustrated with archival photographs, this volume is a stunning addition to Latin American history and politics. Dr.
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The Social and Political Origins of the Cuban Revolution
Lillian Guerra
Lillian Guerra draws on her years of research in newly opened archives and on personal interviews to shed light on the men and women of Cuba who participated in mass mobilization and civic activism to establish social movements in their quest for social and racial justice and for more accountable leadership. Driven by a sense of duty toward la patria (the fatherland) and their dedication to heroism and martyrdom, these citizens built a powerful underground revolutionary culture that shaped and witnessed Fulgencio Batista's overthrow in the late 1950s.
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The Lyrical Theater in Expressions of Cuban Identity: Study and Reconstruction of El Sombrero de Yarey, an Opera by Ernesto Lecuona
Yurima Blanco
Ernesto Lecuona (Guanabacoa, 1895-Tenerife. 1963) is the most widely known Cuban musician, distinguished by his versatility as a composer, pianist. orchestra director, music entrepreneur, and editor. Previous studies underline his contribution to lyrical t heater as an expression of Cuban identity, yet they usually pay scant attention to his only opera: El Sombrero de Yarey (1946). This lecture proposes a first approximation to Lecuona's score and eventually the analysis, reconstruction, and performance of his unpublished work.
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Reading Cuba: Literary Discourse and Transcultural Geography
Alberto Sosa Cabanas and Jorge Duany
This new bilingual volume compiles critical essays by 21 scholars specializing in Cuban culture, who invite readers to rethink and update their notions of the Cuban nation. Reading Cuba brings together diverse approaches to Cuba's literary and cultural production inside and outside the island, including theater, documentary film, and the Internet.The contributors examine processes and phenomena that are traditionally studied separately, isolated in the margins of various humanistic disciplines. The volume is based on a selection of papers presented at a 2016 interdisciplinary conference cosponsored by FlU Cuban Research Institute and Department of Modern Languages. Reading Cuba features prominent literary and cultural critics such as Ekana Rivero, Rafael Rojas, Laura Alonso Gallo, Belen Rodriguez Moureilo Santiago Juan-Navarro, Maida Watson, Raul Rubio, and Vitalina Alfonso, as well as younger scholars.
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The Metal Islands: Culture, History, and Politics in Caribbean Heavy Metal Music
Nelson Varas-Diaz
For the past forty years, the Caribbean has spawned a massive array of metal music, which for the most part has remained under the radar from the rest of the world. It is nearly impossible to capture the entire history of metal in the region given its prolific output. Nevertheless, this documentary sheds some light on three metal scenes in the Spanish-speaking Caribbean: Cuba, the Dominican Republic, and Puerto Rico. The documentary examines how each island's metal scene has been influenced by history, culture, and political context. It explores issues related to the origins of these scenes, social stigmatization, media persecution, the integration of local culture into the metal scene, and the relationship between the state and metal, among other topics.
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Electra, Medea, and Antigone in Caribbean Theater: Virgilio Pinera, Jose Triana, and Luis Rafael Sanchez
Alfredo Rodriguez Lopez- Vazquez
This lecture will examine the feminine myths of classical Greek theater as they were appropriated in Caribbean theater of the mid-20"' century and their relationship with other works of contemporary theater: Electra Garrig6 (1948) and the relationship between Virgilio Pinera's work and that of Eugene O'Neill; Medea en espejo (1960), by Jose Triana, and its double reference to Grillparzer's Medea and Unamuno's Medea; and finally La pasion segun Antigono Perez (1 968), by the Puerto Rican playwright Luis Rafael Sanchez, and the European revisions of the myth of Antigone, such as those of Anouilh and Brecht.
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Currency Conversions: Foreshadowing the End of Cuba's Dual Economy
Mrinalini Tankha
Cuba's dual currency system has been a central facilitator of its ongoing economic restructuring and diversification since the 1990s. For the past few years, however, a much-awaited process has been initiated to eventually eliminate the Cuban Convertible Peso (CUC). Recent attempts at currency unification include listing prices in both currencies and accepting peso payments in divisa stores, printing higher denomination peso bills, and converging exchange rates in certain sectors. Based on ethnographic research, this talk will address the socio-cultural and political implications of the currency reform process to show how it partly dissolves economic bifurcation, but also throws into sharp relief over two decades of psychological separations and conflicting expectations of state and market spheres in Cuba.
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Forbidden Fruit
Cuban Research Institute
Armed with little more than their immense talent - and an overriding sense of humor - Cuban independent filmmakers have been carving out a significant niche for themselves. CGAC is delighted to pay tribute to these largely unsung movie heroes with a 9-program, 25-film salute, featuring in-person attendance, Q&As and a panel discussion with the filmmakers.
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Cuba: A Cultural History
Alan West-Duran
This book is neither simply a timeline narrative of Cuban history nor a traditional history of Cuban culture. Instead, it invites the reader to enter Cuban history from the perspective of the island's uniquely creative cultural forms. As it does so, it traces that restless island as it ebbs and flows with the power, beauty, and longings of its culture and history. The book examines canonical figures like Marti, Ortiz, and Lezama as well as others not so canonical (rappers, performance artists, painters). The text freely roams through literature, film, music. Afro-Cuban religions, painting, and performance, providing insights into Cuban identity, nationalism, political discourse, choteo, and utopian longings in a new era of globalization.
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"Don't Mess with the Saints": Popular Music and Afro-Cuban Religion
Alan West-Duran
Using the title of Ignacio Pireiro's'No Juegues con los santos" (Don't Mess with the Saints), this talk will examine the influence of Ocha, Palo, and Abaku3 in Cuba's music and their intimate relationship with Cuban daily life. Whether it is love, health, friendships, food, ethical dilemmas, hanging out in the streets, or expressing faith, these religions are deeply embedded in everyday activities. Using examples like "Yerbero moderno" (Nestor Mili), "Mambo Abacuh" (Arsenio Rodriguez), NiAo santo' (Omar Sosa), Soy todo" (Los Van Van), Canto para ElewA y ChangW (Orishas), "Ponle fe" (Eley6), "Misa cubana' (Jose Maria Vitier), and Loke Aye" (Sintesis), these everyday expressions are deeply linked to Cuban notions of justice and joy, along with the Yoruba concept of coolness. And equally, both the music and the religions embody a wisdom, a cultural memory, and a spirit of resistance.
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EI Mar y El: Film Screening and Discussion with Director Tony Mendez
Tony Mendez
E/MaryEl is a tragicomedy based on the true story of Ricardo, a decent man who made several ludicrous attempts to escape Cuba during the Mariel boatlift. In 1980, President Jimmy Carter opened U.S. borders to Cuban exiles. Soon, hundreds of Cubans living in South Florida navigated back to Cuba to claim their families. In response, Castro opened his prison cells and insane asylums, granting them priority to exit the country. Upon learning that his wife Marla is pregnant, Ricardo realizes that Cuba is not the place to raise his unborn child. Ricardo and Maria suit up as "delinquents"in an attempt to convince authorities that they deserve to leave the island.
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Call for Applications 2018 Diaz-Ayala Library Travel Grants
Cuban Research Institute
The Cuban Research Institute (CRI), the Kimberly Green Latin American and Caribbean Center (LACC), and the Florida International University Libraries are pleased to request applications from scholars and graduate students for the Diaz-Ayala Library Travel Grants for spring and early summer 2018.These awards are offered in honor of Crist6bal Diaz-Ayala, the prominent music collector and independent scholar who donated his Cuban and Latin American Popular Music Collection to FlU in 2001.
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El Petroleo como Sector Clave en el Desarrollo de la Economia Venezolana
Jorge Salazar-Carrillo and Jose Manuel Pina Gutierrez
Book presentation.
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Memories of Underdevelopment
Cuban Research Institute
The Sunday 1:00pm screening of the 50th anniversary 4K restoration of the film will be introduced by Alejandro Rios, host of the weekly television program La Mirada Indiscreta (The Indiscreet Gaze), now in its tenth year. Mr. Rios will lean a discussion of the film with the audience.
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Alternative Cinema by Young Cubans
Sisy Gomez Pena
In this lecture, Sisy G6mez Pena will reflect on her work as a director and scriptwriter of short fiction and documentary films, within the context of a new generation of filmmakers born in Cuba after the 1990s. She will share a sample of her works, among them: • Sombra de luz, depicting ordinary Cuban life • Reflejos, awarded the UNETE Prize of the United Nations and selected by UNICEF, as part of the campaign against symbolic violence • Cuando truena, addressing the issue of internal migration and awarded the Support Prize of the Norwegian Embassy in Cuba, and the GO-Cuba Award of the World Cinema Amsterdam Festival • Sisy's Salvage, a short film that symbolically explores the power relationship between couples via sex, violence, and passion • The teaser of Habitacidn 7, her first feature film, a suspense thriller
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Jovenes Frente al Espejo
Cuban Research Institute
Muestra audiovisual de cine independiente y alternativo cubano de jovenes realizadores.
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Intruder between Rivers/Intruso entre rios
Ricardo Pau-Llosa and Enrico Mario Santi
Ricardo Pau-Llosa and Enrico Mario Santf have recently published a bilingual volume of poetry, Intruder between Rivers/Intruso entre rios, with Pau-Llosa's English originals and Santi's translations of "Cuban" poems-poems with Cuban or Cuban exile themes. The reading wil be bilingual, in English and Spanish-or rather, Cuban-Spanish. This reading, as indeed the translation, is truly experimental-it casts Pau-Llosa's elegant English prosody into the, hypothetical, original Cuban Spanish of both memory and daily experience.
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The Nordic Green Economy
Cuban Research Institute
An international consensus about the need of a new sustainable economic model, where a good economy and a healthy environment are mutually beneficial, has been reached by now. A series of intergovernmental working groups and state-led initiatives already advance sustainable economies. The Nordic countries are a vanguard in this respect, and have led the international community in adopting Green Economy policies. Join the Steven J. Green School of International and Public Affairs for a panel made up of governmental representatives from the five Nordic countries (Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Iceland). This panel will present some of the ideas behind the Green Economy model and how these ideas can be implemented elsewhere, including in the United States. This event is presented on the occasion of the release of the volume Nordic Ways (Johns Hopkins University/Brookings Institution, 2016), which explores what it means to be Nordic in entrepreneurship, the arts, culture, innovation, education and a commitment to democratic values and environmental sustainability.
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Equality with Democracy: The Batilist Project in Uruguay as an Alternative to the Cuban Model
Leonardo Martin
During the first three decades of the 2 0th century, Batllismo (a majority political movement sponsored by the Partido Colorado, headed by Jose Batlle y Ord6fiez) carried out an innovative project that laid the groundwork for a full Welfare State in Uruguay. A pioneer in the hemisphere and even in the world, Batllismo created the conditions for a society with a profound sense of equality and solidarity, combining an omnipresent State with an unlimited respect for institutions and political and individual liberty. The analysis of this process is relevant for contemporary Latin America and particularly for Cuba, where the search for equality and justice has been subordinated to authoritarian processes that put aside the respect for liberty and democracy. The old spirit of Batllismo may be useful to think about a future transition in the Cuban case.
