The International Journal of Cuban Studies最新文献

{"title":"La Salud Pública En Cuba: Años 2005–2014","authors":"E. B. Chaple","doi":"10.13169/INTEJCUBASTUD.8.2.0217","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.13169/INTEJCUBASTUD.8.2.0217","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":254309,"journal":{"name":"The International Journal of Cuban Studies","volume":"4 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2016-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"116883815","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"(Post)-Soviet Diaspora in Cuba","authors":"J. C. Cabrera, María Regina Cano Orúe, D. Samsónov","doi":"10.13169/INTEJCUBASTUD.8.2.0263","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.13169/INTEJCUBASTUD.8.2.0263","url":null,"abstract":"IntroductionThe transdisciplinary field of post-Soviet studies emerged in 1992 as a sort of 'adaptive gesture' intended to assimilate the former USSR and the areas previously exposed to its geopolitical influence to a post-colonial status.1 Geopolitically speaking, before 1990 such areas obviously included Cuba.2While political and economic relations between Cuba and the USSR (as well as between Cuba and Russia: before 1917 and after 1991) have inspired numerous publications (although not normally branded - at least in the Cuban Archipelago - as part of the post-Soviet studies field), the number of media projects3 and research papers -especially in Cuba4 - about the Soviet and postSoviet5 cultural impact on the Cuban society is much smaller. For most Cubans who stayed in the country after the 1990s debacle, the geographically distant Soviet influence on Cuba had been lived as something nigh and visible in many spheres of professional activities, academia and everyday life, including literature, cinema, drama, sciences, visual arts, TV and the domestic market. Also, the post-Soviet condition in Cuba is emphatically linked to the (later re-interpreted as commonplace) experiences of Cubans who travelled or temporarily lived in the USSR (and other countries under its geopolitical influence) during the 30-year period of political closeness. Cuban geography itself - both at macro (polity/ country/nation/Archipelago) and micro (neighbourhoods, workplaces, landscapes) levels - provided settings in which Cubans shared social-space proximities with some 'Soviet' or 'Russian' ('Ukrainian', etc.) person(s) - or their children - who years ago came to live here. Nonetheless, the persistence in Cuba of a large diaspora of Soviet origin is still one of the less publicised aspects of the Cuban post-Soviet condition. This appears rather surprising, as the (post)-Soviet diaspora has stable family, kinship, friendship and professional links with Cubans, particularly those (ca. half a million) who studied in the USSR in 196191, many of whom keep key roles in the country's technical, military, entrepreneurial, intellectual, administrative and professional milieus.Our current aim is systematizing the basic facts about the (post)-Soviet diaspora in Cuba, as part of a broader area of post-Soviet studies, nowadays emerging in Cuba. Firstly, we want to make public the very existence of the diaspora as a relevant element of the Cuban reality: despite its numeric strength, the (post)-Soviet diaspora is barely mentioned in Cuban and foreign research, reference and media materials devoted to the ethnic composition of the present-day Cuban people. Although analysing the very causes of this 'invisibility issue' per se merits a separate paper, we start with some considerations on this topic. Next, we establish terminological conventions, provide some basic - statistical and socio-historical - information gathered in our research, and discuss some relevant fieldwork findings, cent","PeriodicalId":254309,"journal":{"name":"The International Journal of Cuban Studies","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2016-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"129780314","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Fidel Castro, Hero of the Disinherited","authors":"Salim Lamrani, L. Oberg","doi":"10.13169/INTEJCUBASTUD.8.2.0151","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.13169/INTEJCUBASTUD.8.2.0151","url":null,"abstract":"IntroductionA controversial figure in the West where he is strongly criticised, Fidel Castro is however revered by the peoples of Latin America and the Third World. They consider him a symbol of resistance to oppression and a defender of the aspirations of the countries of the south that struggle for independence, sovereignty and self-determination. A legendary rebel during his own lifetime, he has entered the pantheon of the great liberators of the Americas. The prestige of the former guerrilla of the Sierra Maestra has overflown the continental borders of Cuba to become the archetype of twentieth century anti-imperialism and a vector of a universal message of empowerment.What is it that explains this discrepancy between the negative Western media image of Fidel and the enthusiasm he generates in Latin America and the Third World? Is it not to be expected that his commitment to the poor and his fight for the preservation of Cuban and Latin American identity might be perceived by the peoples of the south as a universal struggle? Did his commitment to Latin American integration through the creation of ALBA in 2004 not reflect the efforts of Simon Bolivar and Jose Marti to unite a continent in solidarity in order to build the 'Patria Grande'?Three aspects characterise the figure of Fidel Castro. First of all, he is the architect of national sovereignty, the person who restored dignity to the people of the island by realising the dream of the Apostle and National Hero Jose Marti for an independent Cuba. Secondly, he is a social reformer who has taken up the cause of the humble and the humiliated. Finally, he is an internationalist who extends a generous hand to needy people everywhere and places solidarity and integration at the centre of Cuba's foreign policy.The Architect of National SovereigntyThe triumph of the Cuban Revolution on January 1, 1959, led to the most important social transformation in the history of Latin America. By overturning the existing order and the established structures, Fidel Castro challenged the power of the Batista oligarchy and the power of money. By dedicating national resources to the people, he placed human beings at the centre of the new social project.The principal conquest of the Cuban Revolution remains independence and sovereignty, something desired by the Cuban people since the nineteenth century and for which Marti had sacrificed his life in 1895. By ending more than six decades of US domination of the island, Fidel Castro has given back to Cubans the dignity they had lost during Washington's intervention in the Cuban war of independence in 1898 and the military occupation that had transformed the island into nothing more than a mere protectorate. President John F. Kennedy was not wrong when he said, 'Fidel Castro is part of Bolivar's legacy. We should offer a warm welcome to the fiery young rebel in his triumph.'1To grasp the symbolic importance of Fidel Castro in Cuba's history, it is necessary to go back to","PeriodicalId":254309,"journal":{"name":"The International Journal of Cuban Studies","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2016-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"130432402","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Is there Church History in Revolutionary Cuba?: Accessing and Analysing Cuban Catholic Sources","authors":"Petra Kuivala","doi":"10.13169/intejcubastud.8.2.0309","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.13169/intejcubastud.8.2.0309","url":null,"abstract":"Introduction: Cuban Catholic History as We Know ItWhen talking about church history in Cuba, one usually refers to the history of the Catholic Church. When Pope Francis visited Cuba in September 2015, he proclaimed Cuba to be an intrinsically Catholic country - Catholic by history and by heart. In the twenty-first century, the Catholic Church remains the most organised and widespread Christian denomination in Cuba. The most recent statistics by the Central Office of Church Statistics of the Catholic Church from December 2013 estimate that 60.5 per cent of the Cuban population are Catholic.1 While the non-Catholic Christian denominations, namely the protestants churches and the pentecostal movement, remain rather scattered and small in size, the most significant religious tradition confronting Catholicism is santeria, even when merging with popular practices of Catholicism. However, even if Cuba is Catholic by history, the contemporary Catholic history seems to be hard to reach when narrating history in Cuba and even harder to research with access to sources of history. Although Catholicism of the colonial period is both documented and researched, the contemporary history of Cuban Catholicism, dating to the revolution of 1959 and everything since is still a largely unstudied landscape - both on the island and in the international field of Cuban studies.For the Cuban public, only a few, although well-known and extensive works examine the history of Catholicism in Cuba. Regarding the colonial period, on the street markets and in book stores of Havana one may purchase publications for example by Cuban historians such as Eduardo Torres-Cuevas2 and Rigoberto Segreo Ricardo,3 introducing centuries of church history in Cuba. Within the Catholic Church in Cuba, a publication entitled Historia de la Iglesia Catolica en Cuba by Ramon Suarez Polcari (2003), the current chancellor of the Archdiocese of Havana, seems to be considered one of the contemporary key pieces for the history of the modern Catholic Church in Cuba. Polcari's work, extensive although scarcely available in Cuba, introduces in great detail the key instances, people and events of institutional Catholicism in Cuba from Columbus to Castro, but not any further than the eve of the revolution. Two of the few pieces on the Catholic Church in the revolution sold in Cuba are the well-known and well-read conversations of Fidel Castro and Frei Betto (1985), Fidel y la Religion. Conversaciones con Frei Betto, and a research by Aurelio Alonso Tejada (1999), Iglesia y politica en Cuba revolucionaria. The most recent publication concerning the contemporary Catholic Church in Cuba is the interviewbased biography of Mons. Carlos Manuel de Cespedes (Baez and De la Hoz 2015). In the book Monsenor Carlos Manuel se confiesa, the prominent Cuban Catholic figure discusses both his personal history and the history of the church in the revolution with Cuban journalists Luis Baez and Pedro De la Hoz.In internationa","PeriodicalId":254309,"journal":{"name":"The International Journal of Cuban Studies","volume":"174 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2016-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"122456724","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Vicinity Matters: Cuba's Reforms in Comparative Perspective","authors":"R. Pérez","doi":"10.13169/INTEJCUBASTUD.8.2.0169","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.13169/INTEJCUBASTUD.8.2.0169","url":null,"abstract":"IntroductionIt is well known that from the second half of the 19th century, the United States, then an emerging industrial power, became the economic metropolis of Cuba. This relationship grew much stronger after the US intervention in 1898, which was followed by the formation of a broad legal basis since the founding of the Republic that strengthened the economic ties and spread them to the political, military and cultural fields.1 The sharp break after 1959 eliminated in a few years what had been a long-standing close relationship. However, this relationship had been very asymmetric and in many cases limited the real possibilities of an indigenous Cuban economic development, due to the privileges large US corporations enjoyed in the Cuban domestic market. Now a moment of cautious rapprochement has arrived between two states that once shared a deep relationship which was interrupted abruptly and who have remained distant for over half a century. In addition, this is taking place in the midst of the most extensive transformation of the Cuban economic model in half a century. This crucial moment is giving rise to a vast literature that explores the synergies that could result from the Cuban reform, the peculiarities of the Cuban case and the expected lifting of economic sanctions from the United States.In that vein, this work contains three interrelated objectives. Firstly, it analyses the formation of the Cuban economic model as the result of the interaction between the US blockade and the common characteristics of the Soviet-style central planning model.2 It then tries to establish parallels and differences between Cuba and Vietnam and China, two countries that have also opted for gradual adjustments in their models, taking into account a peculiar domestic context and geopolitics. Finally, it examines the potential effects on Cuba's recent rapprochement with the United States, mainly in relation to Cuba's economic reform. The article is divided into five sections. After the introduction, the effect of the US embargo of the island and its interaction with the weaknesses of the Cuban economic model is analysed. In the third section, the current process of economic reform is examined through the comparative study of the experiences of China and Vietnam. Next, details of the current Cuban reform and the expected impact of the normalisation of ties with the United States are discussed. Finally, some thoughts are proposed that draw together the central logic of the argument.The Formation of the Cuban Economic Model in Light of US SanctionsThe US embargo has been the subject of much controversy both inside and outside Cuba. Within the Northern power, there were always voices that opposed these measures from various positions, and these currents have strengthened significantly since the mid-1990s. Hardly any sovereign state defends these sanctions, and even fewer do anything to adhere to them (Leogrande 2015). In the case of Latin America, they have bec","PeriodicalId":254309,"journal":{"name":"The International Journal of Cuban Studies","volume":"469 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2016-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"116399489","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Cuban Internationalism and Contemporary Humanitarianism: History, Comparison and Perspectives","authors":"M. Grenon","doi":"10.13169/INTEJCUBASTUD.8.2.0200","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.13169/INTEJCUBASTUD.8.2.0200","url":null,"abstract":"The Cold War period was marked by a constant competition between two superpowers, Soviet Union and United States, to elevate their global influence. This rivalry manifested at different levels: ideological, military, development, etc. The turn of the 1990s marked significant changes at the international level introduced by the collapse of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) and the establishment of a new world order under the aegis of the United States. Russia and the majority of Eastern European countries adopted capitalist economy and multiparty system, but some other, as Cuba, remained socialist. However, the Caribbean island experienced difficult times as the disintegration of the Eastern market and the tightening of the American embargo have led Cuba to lose two-thirds of its gross national product (GNP). To overcome the crises, the Cuban government introduced a phase of reorganization known as the 'Special Period in time of peace' (El periodo especial en tiempo de paz) that has necessitated important sacrifices from the population. Nevertheless, the social pillars established after the 1959 Revolution, the health cares and the education system were preserved. Also, in the end of the decade, Cuba initiates a new era of its internationalist policy that aims to share those social achievements with other countries. Indeed, the Henry Reeve Brigade was created to provide medical cooperation in post-disaster context. Few social scientists have studied this internationalist practice, but the general tendencies that emerged in the humanitarianism field since the end of the Cold War are well documented. The objective of this article is to analyse the Cuban humanitarian practices, values and framework in comparison with the tendency that appears in the 1990s. Since, for obvious reasons, it was not possible to directly integrate an emergency brigade in a disaster situation, the characterisation of the Cuban action is based on testimonies of internationalist volunteers and a review of scientific literature. In order to characterise the Cuban practice, I carried out 20 interviews in Havana (Cuba), Montreal (Canada) and Escuintla (Guatemala) between July 2011 and August 2013 with Cuban doctors that took part in missions dating back to 1998. The physicians I interviewed have served in the Henry Reeve Brigade but some of them also participated in other medical missions. The selection of participants was opportunistic which means that I constituted my network with the people I met and that accepted to share their experiences. This research strategy, like any other, has advantages and disadvantages, but it has allowed me to outline the general tendency of Cuban humanitarianism to be deepening with further research.The Historical Construction of Cuban internationalismDuring my interviews with Cuban doctors, most of them explained the actual internationalist policy of their country by the fact that Cuba 'was born' because of the internationalist enga","PeriodicalId":254309,"journal":{"name":"The International Journal of Cuban Studies","volume":"5 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2016-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"129308056","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Anglo-Cuban Diplomacy: The Economic and Political Links with Brit Ain (1945-60)","authors":"Servando Valdés Sánchez","doi":"10.13169/intejcubastud.8.1.0056","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.13169/intejcubastud.8.1.0056","url":null,"abstract":"IntroductionThe relationship between the UK and Cuba is rarely seen through Cuban eyes. True, Jorge Ibarra Guitart has studied the failed negotiations for an Anglo-Cuban treaty in 1905 using documents from both the Cuban and British archives, but nothing of substance has been done on later periods that comprehensively includes a Cuban point of view.1 Robert Morley and Andrew Holt consider the relationship between Britain and Cuba principally in the context of Anglo-US relations as the North Americans attempt to impose their trade embargo on their European allies after the triumph of the Cuban Revolution.2 More detailed analysis of particular events has been done by Chris Hull (arms sales 1958-59 and buses 1963-64) as well as by Mark Phythian and Jonathan Jardine (fighter aircraft 1959) but again in the context of Anglo-US relations.3 Meanwhile, Stephen Wilkinson's 'Just How Special Is \"Special\": Britain, Cuba, and US Relations 1958-2008 an Overview' does what it says on the tin.4 Chris Hull's excellent book British Diplomacy and US Hegemony in Cuba, 1898-1964 is somewhat broader in its approach than the title implies but relies almost entirely on British diplomatic sources.5There would seem a place, therefore, for a study of diplomatic relations between Britain and Cuba that privileges the Cuban viewpoint. This article will base itself on an examination of Cuban and British diplomatic archives, both being readily available in the Archivo Nacional in Havana and the British National Archive in Kew. For the UK had its own relationship with Cuba, separate from any relationship with the US. They may have been political allies in the Cold War, but they were commercial rivals when it came to trade relations. The British firm Leyland beat the US-owned General Motors to supply buses to Havana on three separate occasions, mainly due to the credit arrangements offered by the British government.The British government had been a strong supporter of the Batista regime, supplying fighter aircraft to the dictatorship even after the US government had instituted an arms embargo. The speed with which the British acclimatised themselves to the new revolutionary situation in 1959, despite their distaste for Fidel Castro, highlights the contradictions between commerce and politics inherent in diplomatic activity. By comparing the ambassadorial correspondence of both Cuba and the UK, a more rounded picture of the diplomatic process emerges.Historical BackgroundAt the beginning of the twentieth century, the economic and political subordination which the US established over Cuba caused a readjustment of the traditional commercial links with Europe. Thereafter, the previous European commercial partners were placed in a subordinate position by the preferences which the 'Treaties of Commercial Reciprocity' accorded to US products entering the Cuban market between 1902 and 1945.6However, from the 1920s, the economic crisis and US protectionism for their sugar market led the ","PeriodicalId":254309,"journal":{"name":"The International Journal of Cuban Studies","volume":"57 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2016-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"121438374","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Party membership, social ties and upward mobility in Cuba","authors":"S. Romanó","doi":"10.13169/INTEJCUBASTUD.8.1.0028","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.13169/INTEJCUBASTUD.8.1.0028","url":null,"abstract":"In the 1990s, the collapse of the USSR and the consequent dissolution of the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (COMECON) trading bloc contributed to the sudden shrinkage of Cuba's international trade (both in volume and in value terms), and thus Cuban economy itself. The crisis, exacerbated by the US government's blockade and the internal inefficiency of centralised Cuban economic system, hit rock bottom in 1993 and ended up damaging the social conditions of the population. The figures of the crisis are eloquent. During the first 4 years following 1989, there was a contraction of the GDP of about 35 per cent (Mesa-Lago 2007: 1), a 70 per cent decrease of imported foodstuffs, a 79.6 per cent contraction of exports (Gonzalez-Corzo 2007: 316), a 39 per cent decrease in private spending and the extinction of the state-run parallel market in which Cuban workers could buy non-rationed goods at subsidised prices (mainly, food and industrial products; Togores and Garcia 2004: 247). The Cuban government maintained the workers' nominal salaries, but nevertheless the purchasing power of wages decreased significantly. The rapid deterioration of social conditions prompted the government to implement a set of market-oriented reforms. From 1993 to the early 2000s, the Cuban government welcomed foreign direct investment, prioritised the reconstruction of the international tourism sector and the development of telecommunications services and mining, for example, nickel (Dominguez 2004: 31; Perez-Villanueva 2004). To this end, it enforced policies aimed at attracting foreign direct investment. At the same time, the Cuban government legalised new forms of selfemployment in order to boost production and incorporate a part of the growing informal economy into the formal economy (Ritter and Henken 2014: 80).Thus, as a result of the crisis and reforms, Cuban socio-economic structures have changed. Services and primary sectors have grown, while the secondary sectors have decayed (Espina-Prieto and Togores-Gonzalez 2012), but above all new, so-called 'emerging sectors' have appeared. In the literature on Cuba, the term 'emerging sectors' is used to refer to that part of the Cuban economy that distinguishes it from the so-called traditional sectors for being 'composed of jobs linked to foreign currency gains and remunerative benefits'1 (Barberia 2008: 21). Emerging sectors are mainly composed of mixed and Cuban companies which developed in relation to the tourism industry and/or the domestic markets for goods in hard currency; some firms also emerged in the export of high valueadded products (e.g., the pharmaceutical industry). The common aspect of enterprises belonging to this emerging sector is that they sell their output in hard currency (either to other firms, to the population, or abroad) and they purchase their material inputs (imported or domestically produced) or borrow funds from banks also in hard currency; only the wages are paid in Cuban pesos (with some ","PeriodicalId":254309,"journal":{"name":"The International Journal of Cuban Studies","volume":"49 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2016-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"121464530","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Remembering Cuba's Past / Discovering Its Future: Giving Voice to Memory in Uva De Aragón's the Memory of Silence","authors":"J. Barnett","doi":"10.13169/intejcubastud.8.1.0097","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.13169/intejcubastud.8.1.0097","url":null,"abstract":"The theme of memory tied to family - or memory through family - has a strong presence in the Latin American literature. Cien anos de soledad, in which the memory of five generations of the Buendia family is recorded and chronicled, perhaps serves as the most commonly cited example. Ironically, the very same medium - the familial chronicle - ultimately results in its own un-doing. As Jose Arcadio reads about his own act of reading the family's memoirs, or rather as he becomes aware of his own act of remembering, the novel reaches an insurmountable obstacle of infinity. He remembers remembering. He discovers discovery. In general, there are also a number of authors among the American exile diaspora who focus on an imagined community and the memory of, and through, family. For example, works by Julia Alvarez, Cristina Garcia and Edwidge Danticat often entail a dynamic relationship among memory, family and political circumstance. More specifically, the political authoritarianism of Trujillo (in Alvarez), Fidel Castro (in Garcia) and Duvalier (in Danticat) has altered the dynamic. The dominating political voice has attempted to create a vacuum, a silenced subaltern. More than merely recovering memory, then, literature in these particular instances serves to uncover silence and to re-endow the character(s) with a voice. As Gloria Andalzua (1987) writes, 'I will have my voice: Indian, Spanish, white. I will have my serpent's tongue - my woman's voice, my sexual voice, my poet's voice. I will overcome the tradition of silence' (81). Andalzua does not posit that her voice has been forgotten; it has never been heard. In a similar vein, Uva de Aragon's The Memory of Silence (2014; Memoria del silencio 2002) reflects upon recent Cuban history, in particular the separation of family brought about by the Cuban Revolution. By giving voice to her characters, she attempts to recover Cuba's past and contemplate what may become of future familial relationships.The Memory of Silence explores the divergences and commonalities in the lives of two sisters separated at the outset of the Cuban Revolution. In 1959, at the age of 18, the twin sisters Lauri and Menchu share a common past, but their lives abruptly take on seemingly irreconcilable differences as Menchu remains in Havana and Lauri leaves with her groom for Miami. The physical separation and resultant emotional split between the two lead to a mutual sense of betrayal and rejection. They both feel abandoned and cut off from communicating with the other. For the next 40 years, both lead distinct lives in terms of their daily concrete realities yet, often unknowingly, they share common milestones, attitudes, values and intimate secrets. Throughout the text, the reader is a witness to and comes to understand the various circumstances that give rise to a range of emotions: nostalgia, regret, disillusionment, bitterness, confusion and - above all - a longing for the other. In short, each sister wants to come to know ","PeriodicalId":254309,"journal":{"name":"The International Journal of Cuban Studies","volume":"5 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2016-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"115537317","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Cuban Medical Internationalism: The Ebola Campaign of 2014-15","authors":"J. Kirk, C. Walker","doi":"10.13169/INTEJCUBASTUD.8.1.0009","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.13169/INTEJCUBASTUD.8.1.0009","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":254309,"journal":{"name":"The International Journal of Cuban Studies","volume":"11 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2016-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"121285995","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}